Bethesda has been on a roll with its Nintendo Switch 2 ports despite Skyrim's troubled (but now fixed) version in late 2025. Fallout 4 was a stunner with several performance options, and MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – a current-gen beauty with unique challenges – also made the jump successfully. Now, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered has managed to surprise me as well, despite enduring hiccups tarnishing the overall experience.
Below its shiny Unreal Engine 5 surface, Oblivion Remastered remains the same 2006 RPG despite some upgrades and tweaks to certain systems. This means its charming Gamebryo jank was left untouched, but also that base-level performance problems were never removed. With UE5 adding a handful of quirks of its own, which few developers have been able to treat successfully, technical issues have stained a big refresh that's otherwise lovely. It seems we're cursed to never have a stable version of this unique open-world RPG. Regardless, this Switch 2 port impresses and has given me hope for further optimization patches.
Still good-looking (mostly)
Oblivion Remastered's first Switch 2 trailer didn't fill me – or anyone, I think – with confidence. Like in the first look at the Fallout 4 port, visuals were jagged and visibly dialed down. The end result, however, fares quite well. We're dealing with a less detailed and sharp version of the RPG's visual overhaul here, but it retains all the key visual features of the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC versions. Yes, even fancy UE5 features like Lumen lighting and Nanite's virtualized geometry system.
Switch 2's unique hardware features – with its proper DLSS upscaler saving the day once again – elevate yet another ambitious port. When compared to how much the game's visual presentation is compromised on Steam Deck and other handheld PCs, Nintendo's hybrid console emerges victorious by a wide margin. Visuals are sharper across the board; settings to achieve 30 FPS are higher; and the big UE5 lighting and geometry features make Cyrodiil's sun-bathed vistas pop in a way that I wasn't expecting.
There are two points on the graphical front that deserve special attention though. First, there's a clear gap between the handheld and docked modes, with portable play getting additional cuts – mostly to draw distances – and unavoidably grainier image output at 900p versus TV mode's 1080p. Mind you, DLSS does a lot of heavy lifting here, but expect a less detailed presentation in handheld mode even if the smaller screen helps hide many of the cutbacks.
As you can tell in the above screenshots – handheld left and docked right – trees are way less detailed in portable play, and lighting and grass also take additional hits. In addition to the resolution cut, it's enough to keep the game mostly locked at 30 FPS. Most of these changes are more obvious when walking around the open areas around the cities and towns, with interiors faring much better.
Second, the Switch 2 port surprisingly retains a Screen Space Reflections toggle as it's the one and only video setting beyond brightness and FOV modifiers. As expected, these advanced – but outdated – reflections enhance water surfaces, but also cause odd visual artifacts with moving objects, including the weapons you hold. This isn't a Oblivion Remastered-specific issue, but it's worth noting. Outside of that small annoyance, it seemingly has no effect on performance, so I'd recommend keeping it on for better reflections. Look at the screens above for a quick comparison.
Hello stuttering, my old friend
Performance is a trickier matter. By and large, Oblivion Remastered on Switch 2 isn't a disaster, and actually feels perfectly playable in most scenarios considering it's a slow-paced action RPG. Its 30 FPS target is hit most of the time. Even the mouse mode and motion gyro controls feel useful despite the lack of higher framerate modes. But it can become a stuttery mess at times, and that's harder to overlook.
This is more of an inherited problem than something wrong with the port. In fact, Bethesda has teased some of the under-the-hood improvements that made the Switch 2 release possible could come to other platforms. I just think there's something fundamentally wrong with how the original remaster was put together. The hitching while traversing the open areas is even worse than in the original Oblivion, likely the result of Gamebryo and UE5's worse aspects being combined without enough deep tinkering to offset their limitations. In the busier cities, turning the camera around too fast can also result in distracting stutters. Frame times also feel off, though the console's own screen seems to mask them better than a TV. Some of these issues could be fixed, but I'm not holding my breath when it comes to recurring – and even decades-old – ones.
In the end – and unless substantial updates clean things up – we have a port that's equal parts impressive and frustrating. All the work that has gone into making it work on far lesser hardware while retaining its beauty shouldn't be overlooked, yet the technical issues that ruined it for many players continue to cast a shadow over the effort. Platform-specific optimizations could still arrive, and some of the weirder behavior that might be tied to CPU limitations could be rooted out with decent patches, yet I'm fairly sure we'll never be able to go for a smooth horseback ride around Cyrodiil.
Those who were never dazzled by Bethesda's post-Morrowind Elder Scrolls won't be charmed by Oblivion Remastered in portable form, and it's harder to deal with rough edges when you aren't used to the game's eternal jankiness. But longtime fans that have closed the Gates of Oblivion time and again over the years will no doubt pour hundreds of hours into the first portable Oblivion experience that just works out of the box. Plus, Bethesda listened to code-in-a-box criticisms and delivered a true physical release. All things considered, I'm giving this one a thumbs-up. By Azura!
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