Earlier this week, Bandai Namco officially announced Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown for the Nintendo Switch. The game was originally released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC over 5 years ago in early 2019. That said, you might be wondering how well the game works on Nintendo’s hybrid console. That’s where Digital Foundry comes in. They’ve released a technical review for the Switch version of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, comparing the Switch port to the Xbox One version. Digital Foundry says that “if you dig a little deeper, there are some key differences that separate the two releases — even if in typical gameplay some of those changes aren’t terribly obvious.”
For example, “the draw distance for foliage elements has been increased dramatically on Switch, creating a much more obvious appearance than we see on Xbox One. In addition, the density also withstands impacts, even at close range. The trees on Switch are smaller, and the grass is bigger.” They note that this problem does not apply entirely to buildings because “structures pop out at about the same distance on both machines, and generally the density and draw distance are similar. However, in more densely populated urban areas, draw distances are significantly increased on Switch for most building models, suggesting that this could be adjusted on a per-object basis to reduce the load”. They also say that the lighting has also seen some small changes on the Switch, with post-processing toned down.
However, Digital Foundry’s experience with the game doesn’t seem to be ruined by these issues. In fact, they say that “Ace Combat 7 is up there among the best Nintendo Switch ports, in my opinion. The core visual experience has been skillfully translated to run on the Switch at a stable level of performance, with various stutters but nothing that fundamentally compromises the experience. Paired with the much more powerful Xbox One hardware, it manages to hold its own in a variety of gaming scenarios. Plus, the pre-rendered videos aren’t overly compressed, and the game even manages to throw in a clean 1080p UI for good measure – a feature missing from the Xbox”.
So how is the Switch port of the game overall? Digital Foundry was very positive about it, saying that the game is “highly recommended on Switch. It’s one of the best ports we’ve ever tested on a soon-to-be-replaced hybrid system”. You can see Digital Foundry’s video technical review below.
