South Park: The Fractured But Whole review for Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch has been available for a little over a year and has amassed more games than the entire Wii U catalog. This is an extraordinary accomplishment and something many didn?t expect from the company. What makes this even more remarkable is the sheer amount of quality games that have been published for the platform. Between stellar 1st party titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, and 3rd party titles like Bayonetta 1 and 2, it gives us hope of getting even more traditionally console only titles on the go.

Once titles like DOOM and Skyrim made it to the Switch, we got a real idea of how the console is capable of handling AAA titles. South Park: The Fractured But Whole, is another step in the right direction. Never in a million years did I think we would ever get a quality South Park game (prior to Stick of Truth), let alone a solid sequel that I can play anywhere.

Unfortunately, this Switch release comes with some hiccups which I didn?t encounter on the PS4 version. If you?re interested in a full review of the game, you can read fellow editor Paul?s review of it here. I?m here to focus on the Switch port and how it holds up to other releases.

For the most part, this is a straight forward port of the previous release with some minor improvements and frustrations. The main improvement is the addition of touch controls which gives the game a fresh way to play, especially during combat. The control scheme fits in perfectly with the turn-based system.

As great as this additional feature is, it doesn?t make up for the significant load times between areas and sometimes even rooms within a house. Considering you spend an awfully large amount of your travels transitioning between parts of the town and this was a bit of a drag. Being that I played the game prior, it?s not a deal breaker for me, but I may not make it to the end this time around.

Another unusual issue that happened to me, may be a fluke, but it happened on more then one occasion. During an early portion of the game when you first become a superhero with Cartman, my character completely disappeared from the screen, making the game completely unplayable and had to load my save several times.

Again, this may have just been an isolated incident, but combined with the load times it could be a concern for a player new to the game. Lastly, if you are going to pick the game up and choose the digital route, make sure you have at least 17GB of free space available. This is including a recent game update.

Overall, it?s great to see one of my favorite franchises on the Nintendo Switch and able to play anywhere. The load times are frustrating, but if you are playing in burst sessions, it may not be that bad. If you only have a Switch and wanted to play the game, it?s totally worth it, just maybe not as a rebuy for someone that has played already.

Note: Ubisoft provided us with a South Park: The Fractured But Whole Nintendo Switch code for review purposes.