Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are getting a second life on Nintendo Switch 2. According to Digital Foundry, the games now feature dramatically improved image quality, smoother performance, and upgraded animations—making the Switch 2 version the best way to play these titles to date, even if some rough edges remain.
Pokémon Looks (Almost) New Again
The in-depth tech breakdown notes that the original Switch version ran at 720p–1080p in docked mode, with little to no anti-aliasing. Portable mode was even lower, dipping to 576p. On Switch 2, however, image quality is vastly improved thanks to temporal upscaling, stable resolution targets, and anti-aliasing that actually works.
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Scarlet and Violet now run with a relatively stable internal resolution of 1080p docked (scaled to 4K) and around 648p handheld (scaled to 1080p). Digital Foundry describes the visual upgrade as “clean, temporally-treated” with shimmering and aliasing mostly eliminated—even when viewed on a 4K TV.
Performance: Mostly Solid at 60fps
While Switch 2 doesn’t completely fix Scarlet and Violet’s engine quirks, performance is still a big step up. Digital Foundry reports that docked mode frequently hits 60fps, with minor stutters (around 33ms) appearing during traversal in large open areas.
Handheld performance mirrors this, according to their testing: off-screen capture showed similar frame pacing with minor spikes but no severe dips. It’s still not a flawless build—but it’s the most playable version Pokémon fans have had yet.
What Digital Foundry Says
“The game looks genuinely quite solid now in image quality terms… shimmering is mostly a thing of the past.”
“Switch 2 is a huge improvement in docked mode, aiming for and usually hitting a 60fps frame-rate target.”
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