First impressions with Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition: Disaster Looms in The Lands Between

It really has been painful for me to see one of your most anticipated titles (and one of the most requested games by gamers on Nintendo Switch 2) not succeed in a big way on what is set to be the most versatile console of all time. You may have heard or read over the last few days that Elden Ring has problems on Nintendo Switch 2. Well, that's absolutely true, but the breadth of that phrase goes beyond that.

I was one of the lucky ones who got to test and analyse Elden Ring, discover its secrets before anyone else and cry in frustration at being mercilessly pummelled by its challenge and bosses. And at the same time, I was brought to my knees by what I believe to be one of the best games of the current generation of consoles, even of the previous one, albeit with certain licences due to the power it requires. Its beauty in terms of art design is matched only by the tremendous technical challenge of getting this game, with very few loading screens, to maintain a balance between combat based on precision controls and character and enemy movement. In short, Elden Ring does not deserve what is happening to its future home on Nintendo's newly released console.

As you may have gathered, I spent two and a half hours in a queue waiting for a chance to try out Hollow Knight: Silksong for about 15 minutes. At that point I had a chance to hold my place in the line of countless fans to sneak away and approach the small booth that Bandai Namco had set up in the area to take a look at the game. "Maybe I can even beat the first boss," I thought. But once I got my hands on the Nintendo Pro Controller 2 and prepared to play Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition in the Dock, the problems began. Even without leaving the crypt or even getting to Limgrave, the button input didn't correspond to what I saw on screen. I would press the roll button and it would take about a second for the character to obey the command. Almost a second. If you've ever played Souls, you can already sense that something is not right here. I was trying in the tutorial area different attacks, dodges, war ash skills and even had time (because everyone wanted to play Silksong and hardly noticed Elden Ring) to try a couple of different characters. None of that. The control mismatch was present in both cases. I started to have a panic attack.

There are games that seem to feel better in Nintendo Switch 1 handheld mode, so I thought Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition would be one of those. But when I was about to face the monster that has to kill you to send you to the tutorial area, I was crushed. The frame drops weren't just glaring, they made the game completely unplayable on Nintendo Switch 2. When the image remains static you can glimpse that the beauty of the Golden Tree is there, but as soon as you press the run button or turn the camera, this Tarnished Edition becomes an incomplete or simply poorly made port that shouldn't even exist.

I asked the staff to allow me, as with all the other games at the Nintendo booth, to record even a glimpse of the gameplay screen so that I could offer video proof of my impressions, but Bandai Namco denied the few journalists present the opportunity to do so.

So I have no video proof to convince you of my words, but hear me out: If you really want to play Elden Ring and/or Shadow of the Erdtree go ahead, you have one of the best gaming experiences you can find today. But please don't even think about trying it on a Nintendo Switch 2. You'll be the biggest disappointment of your life, as I have been.