The Steam Deck is an incredible handheld game console, even though it's showing its age a bit. Whether it’s playing some modern PC games or emulating high-end retro consoles, Valve’s little machine is still going. It won’t surprise anyone to know that this system can play a good amount of Switch games, so I decided to try emulating Nintendo’s best console.
After getting an emulator to work on Valve’s handheld and dumping some ROMs from my Switch so it's legal, I then went on to play some games. To my surprise, some games run really well on the Deck. However, it’s not a perfect experience, and certain titles just don’t perform as well, even on a more powerful machine.
Let’s talk about my positive experiences with Switch emulation on Steam Deck first. The controversial Pokémon Brilliant Diamond runs really well on this system. Granted, it’s a simple JRPG with even simpler graphics, but anyone who wants to play this game can now do so. If they turn off Vsync, it can even run at 60FPS, which is a sight to behold.
Another good experience came from the Pokémon franchise again, this time being the more controversial Pokémon Scarlet. It won’t surprise anyone to know that the open-world RPG has a more consistent performance on the Deck. While you can’t remove all of the pop-ins that happen, gameplay doesn’t stutter as much, and everything looks a bit better. This might be the definitive way to play this over-hated and over-defended RPG.
Fire Emblem Engage was also a pleasant experience on Switch emulation. There are a couple of frame drops here and there, but Engage is a tactical turn-based RPG so framerate isn’t a huge issue here. It’s also much more visually impressive when compared to the Pokémon titles we just talked about.
Mario vs Donkey Kong was decent. Since this was originally a Game Boy Advance game, the simple gameplay helps it run well on the Switch, which pairs well with the gorgeous visuals. Fans will want to turn off Vsync because there were performance drops, which can be frustrating in a puzzle platformer.
Things get really disappointing with Kirby and the Forgotten Land. While it performs just fine, various parts of the levels glitch out, ruining your immersion in this beautiful game. Fans who push through can probably beat the game, but doing so with these glitches is a disservice to Kirby’s fantastic Switch adventure.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 was the final Switch game I emulated on Steam Deck and the results are mixed. Gameplay is mostly fine, but the opening cutscene has the sound moving faster than the character’s actions. Considering how good the cutscenes are in this game, seeing these odd glitches was really disappointing.
With the Switch 2 coming, fans might be able to play better versions of their current Switch games thanks to backward compatibility. Emulating Switch games on the Steam Deck felt like a preview of how these older games will run on a stronger system. Granted, Nintendo’s new system will run these titles much better, but it also goes to show just how much emulation has improved.