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Last week, Nintendo confirmed that Pokemon Scarlet and Violet would get a free update on Switch 2 offering improved frame rates, wider draw distances, and other graphical enhancements. Today, the publisher has finally showed the world what this update looks like in motion, and I've got to admit that it's a lot more impressive than I expected.
Admittedly, my expectations were pretty low. The original announcement only mentioned unspecified frame rate improvements, and part of me suspected that the update would only improve Scarlet and Violet to more closely match their original 30 FPS targets. Given how dismally the games ran on Switch 1, even that would be an improvement, but not exactly one to write home about.
But no, Scarlet and Violet do run at a proper 60 FPS on Switch 2, according to a new gameplay video shown in the Nintendo Today app. If you don't have access to the app, Felipe of Universo Nintendo uploaded a high-quality version of the video online.
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The frame rate boost goes a long way toward making the game more pleasant to look at, and as my far more Pokemon-obsessed colleague Catherine suspects, the improved draw distance could be a big boon for shiny hunting. But in terms of graphical fidelity, Scarlet and Violet were never exactly stunning, and this update isn't changing that.
The "looks like a PS2 game" criticisms of Scarlet and Violet were perhaps a bit ungenerous, but, well... now they kinda look like remastered PS2 games. These upgrades offer what's undeniably a dramatic visual improvement over the original releases, but we'll still have to wait for yet another Pokemon generation in hopes of seeing one that looks genuinely current-gen.
Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.
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