Resident Evil 5 And 6 Switch Demos Have Fans Worried

Older games, newer console: what could possibly go wrong? The Nintendo Switch is a fairly powerful platform (at least when compared to last-generation consoles) and yet the demos for the upcoming releases of Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 for the Switch are experiencing some serious performance issues. 

The issues were reported by Digital Foundry, which determined that load times are slower than usual and that both games have unstable frame rates, among other things. This analysis is just based on the demos, it should be noted, so maybe the upcoming full releases will prove to have been optimized for the Switch. It's just strange considering that the Switch is equipped to handle far more demanding games than ports of ten-year-old titles. 

There are other Resident Evil games on the Switch that have turned out just fine: the Resident Evil HD remaster, Resident Evil Zero, and Resident Evil 4 are all ready and waiting in the Nintendo eShop if you need a dose of nostalgia, and they lack the issues found in the RE 5 and RE 6 demos. And it's not as though the performance issues are gamebreaking. The action is all there; it can just get a little choppy in places. But fans obviously want the most bang for their buck. And these aren't the first games that have experienced serious issues with their Switch ports. Enter the Gungeon had horrendous frame rate issues and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night just looked... bad, to put it mildly.

The Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 Switch ports are the latest in many, because Capcom seems determined to make the Resident Evil series available on just about every platform. In fact, Digital Foundry noted that the Resident Evil 5 port is based on the PS4/Xbox One release. Ports on ports on ports. Here's to hoping that, by the time the full versions arrive on Oct. 29, Resident Evil 5 and 6 will be running a lot better on the Switch.