An excellent, intelligently handled conversion of a genuinely superb game.
How well has this graphically sophisticated title been translated to the Nintendo Switch?
Perhaps the clearest compromise comes down to the presentation of foliage elements.
The foliage visibly protrudes over the Earth’s surface, and is shadow-casting as well.
Plus, density takes a hit as well, even at close range.
Trees are less numerous on Switch, and the grass is patchier.
Interestingly, this doesn’t appear to apply to buildings in quite the same manner.
There are some lighting tweaks on Switch as well, which can be obvious in side-by-side comparisons.
Plus, Ace Combat 7 lacks TAA, so the reflections tend to shimmer excessively frame-to-frame.
Even though this is a downgrade on a feature level, I think the Switch actually looks better here.
Indirect lighting quality doesn’t fare quite as well, unfortunately.
The cockpit view also tends to look somewhat flatter on Switch.
The game’s direct lighting tends to look fairly similar across both platforms, though.
Ace Combat 7’s most striking visual characteristic has to be its clouds.
On Switch, the cloud simulation is surprisingly largely intact.
In typical play this isn’t that noticeable though, unless you’re specifically looking for it.
These can have visibly reduced density on Switch, though the results look convincing enough regardless.
The game’s dramatic fireballs look quite similar across both machines though.
Post-processing has also been downgraded slightly for Nintendo’s hybrid console.
There are a few other post-process tweaks across both versions.
In side-by-sides though they do appear very similar, without much difference in detail resolved or compression artefacts.
As an aside, these CGI scenes probably haven’t held up quite as well as the in-game graphics.
These scenes tend to have very limited animation and often consist of camera pans with largely idle human characters.
Both platforms operate at 720p, and do have a fair number of raw edges in the presentation.
It’s obviously not native res, but I think it looks basically fine for the most part.
Performance-wise, the Switch version targets 30fps.
The One S comparison is interesting too.
It’s a very unstable performance level in typical play.
Some missions and scenarios do run better, namely when the ground detail is less complex.
But despite the potential to hit that 60fps target, we usually don’t get particularly close.
To sum up, Ace Combat 7 comes highly recommended on Switch.
It’s one of the very best ports we’ve ever tested on the soon-to-be-replaced hybrid system.
