The Nintendo Switch 2 is slowly inching its way to the top of my list of personal favorite video game consoles, right up there with the PS Vita. Its one drawback? The fact that most Switch 1 games look downright ugly on the thing.
This has been the number one complaint for most users since day one. While it’s certainly a hell of a lot more powerful than its predecessor, most Switch 1 games are capped at 720p in handheld mode, and that doesn’t translate very well to the Switch 2’s 1080p screen. When you try to play a Switch 1 game on your shiny new console, chances are good that it’ll look blurry or muddy. This was the case with Persona 5 Royal, which disappointed me greatly. Other games didn’t look quite as bad, such as Octopath Traveler II, but that’s only because the pixel art aesthetic helped to hide some of the muddiness.
Because of this, I’ve largely avoided playing Switch 1 games on the Switch 2, which is a huge bummer, considering how massive my online library is. Nintendo is very much aware of my pain, though, as they’ve just pushed out firmware update 22.0.0 for the Switch 2, which adds a Handheld Boost Mode to the system settings.
What this setting does is that it forces Switch 1 games to run like they’re in TV mode even when you’re playing in handheld mode on the Switch 2. By doing this, the Switch 1 game will run at 1080p resolution, which should make it look way better on the Switch 2 screen. Do note, however, that this will only work for games that support 1080p resolution.
So far, I’ve tested Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Persona 5 Royal, Dragon Quest XI S, and am in the process of redownloading Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to test that out too. I can confirm that those first three games look beautiful in handheld mode on the Switch 2, which is nice, because I just like having Persona 5 Royal as an option available to me when I want to replay something, even if I don’t like it all that much. The real test will be Xenoblade Chronicles 2, though, as that game looked notoriously horrendous in handheld mode on the Switch 1.
Another thing to be aware of is that turning on Handheld Boost Mode may drain your battery faster, which is a bit of a bummer, considering how poor the battery life is already. Still, I think it’s a small price to pay for such a massive update.
To enable this setting, make your Switch 2 has been updated to the latest firmware. Then, head over to your system settings, choose Nintendo Switch Software Handling, then turn on Handheld Boost Mode, and you’re good to go.
