Batman: Arkham Knight is one of the worst Switch ports of all time, having no business being ported to that handheld console. Now that the Switch 2 is considerably more powerful, fans are hoping that this port of Batman’s darkest video game adventure gets a free upgrade that fixes everything.
We know that Nintendo will offer $10 upgrades to some games, but Arkham Knight better not be one of them. Fans deserve a free upgrade that makes this adventure playable, because Warner Bros. charging money at all for that port was inexcusable.
Switch fans are used to having the worst running ports on their console, but there was hope for Batman: Arkham Knight. The handheld console hybrid was home to some impressive ports, and fans were hoping this Batman adventure was one of them. After all, if DOOM 2016 and The Witcher 3 can run on Switch, why not Arkham Knight?
Flash forward to when the game came out, and it’s clear that this wasn’t going to be one of those famed miracle ports.
The frame rate of Batman: Arkham Knight was awful, even for Switch port standards. Unlike The Witcher 3 or DOOM, Arkham Knight is vastly affected by these drops, making it difficult to glide and use the Batmobile. Because this is an open-world game, traversal is a major part, and feeling how stuttery things were was inexcusable.
Warner Bros. also did fans dirty and didn’t immediately separate Arkham Asylum and Arkham City from Arkham Knight. For the first few months, fans had to buy all three games, even if they just wanted two of them. It took many months, but fans can finally buy Arkham Asylum and Arkham City without Knight; just a shame that they were shackled to this horrible port for so long.
click to enlargeIt’s kind of funny how Batman: Arkham Knight has always had some sort of porting issue. PC players will remember how they once had the worst version of this game, with numerous stutters and crashes that made the game unplayable. At one point, Rocksteady had to take the port down, even offering refunds to fans who had spent plenty of hours trying to make it play better.
PC players now have the best version of Arkham Knight. The game is so good now that it can be played on the Steam Deck without any issue. Believe it or not, this version of the game is actually easier to play on Steam Deck than Arkham Asylum, which needs a custom Proton of all things to run properly.
Switch fans who bought Batman: Arkham Knight should not have to pay extra for a fixed version of this game on Switch 2. Then again, knowing how Warner Bros. thinks, they’ll probably still charge money for this upgrade anyway.