Ever since I reviewed the Nintendo Switch version of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, two of the games I wanted most on Nintendo’s hybrid handheld have been Fallout: New Vegas and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It’s always been my opinion that Oblivion has been the best entry in the series, taking the depth of quests and storytelling from previous games and building it around a pretty solid game engine for a truly engaging experience.
Finally, my prayers had been answered during the February Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase when The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was announced for the Nintendo Switch 2, and while I would’ve been happy to return to the original Cyrodiil, getting to experience it in what is a pretty impressive remaster was still a welcome alternative. However, this particular port has left me somewhat conflicted. While it’s still the same great game I remember, it doesn’t feel nearly up to the current standard.
In terms of a Nintendo Switch 2 port, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion leaves a lot to be desired. To start, the game is locked at 30fps in both docked and handheld play. In handheld, the game outputs at 720p, while docked kicks things up to an impressive 1080p. While the enhanced visuals of the remake go some of the way to cover for this, little things like missing animation frames, frequent texture pop-in, and visual tearing make the game a lot worse than it could be if a little more polish had gone into the experience.
And honestly, I don’t really have a problem with the capped 30fps since the original maintained a fairly consistent 30fps, and I honestly don’t like to be a frame rate zealot when the core of the experience isn’t fully dependent on smooth frame rates. Considering these are the same performance targets that The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim achieved on previous-generation hardware, it’s pretty upsetting that this version doesn’t even attempt to take advantage of the hardware with Performance or Quality graphics settings.
Furthermore, despite the low frame rate caps, the game still stutters like crazy in almost every moment. While it’s certainly more present when exploring Cyrodiil or in larger areas like the Imperial City, you do notice it in smaller areas like caves and dungeons—although notably less so. Since the game targets such a low frame rate from the outset, it just comes off as pretty amateurish.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered only nominally takes advantage of the Switch 2 hardware, offering some pretty quick load times and little else. There’s an option to use Motion Controls, which allows players to use gestures to perform different actions, but this is restricted to a Dual Joy-Con play-style and omits the most important feature: GYRO AIMING, which was something even the Skyrim port had (although you can use it exclusively for aiming a bow here). Mouse controls are also available, but feel restrictive and awkward since so many of the Joy-Con face buttons still need to be utilized for convenient play.
“In terms of a Nintendo Switch 2 port, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion leaves a lot to be desired.”
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered on Nintendo Switch 2 is just generally glitchy, which seems pretty specific to this port. Right at the start, a character who was meant to die during the tutorial just stood around, threatening to do something about the repeated fireballs I was throwing at her—even after a pop-up window told me to loot her corpse. Magical effects stay permanently locked on characters, leading to a confusing moment where I got hit by an Electrical blast, and my character just radiated blue static effects until I reset the game.
Stealth feels completely broken, with enemies able to see you in an instant and somehow alert the entire area of your presence, even with my high Stealth stat (since I always play Rogues in The Elder Scrolls). Even basic combat feels wildly unbalanced, with certain characters being felled in three swings, but random beggars unable to be killed with charged stealth attacks.
And while it may be somewhat of a nitpick, it’s kind of sad that Oblivion Remaster didn’t feature any Nintendo-specific weapons or armour. I know it’s a different time and companies are less incentivized to care about these things, but it was kind of a nice treat that the Nintendo Switch Skyrim port had the Master Sword and Breath of the Wild armour set to differentiate it from other versions.
But despite all this…at the end of the day, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is still a pretty faithful 1:1 recreation of my favourite The Elder Scrolls game of all time, so it’s hard for me to fully hate it, or not be thrilled I have it on a convenient handheld system like the Nintendo Switch 2. Its flaws are pretty glaring, but they’re almost the same flaws I was able to overlook when returning to the original, because it’s fundamentally an excellent game.
Bethesda’s commitment to ineptitude has been pretty old hat by this point, and maybe some patches down the road can bring this thing up to a respectable level. While I still enjoy playing it, for a system that has a genuinely impressive version—warts and all—of Cyberpunk 2077 running on it, I can’t help but feel like this is a bit unacceptable.
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered modernizes the 2006 Game of the Year with all new stunning visuals and refined gameplay.
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered Physical Deluxe Edition includes: the base game; new quests for unique digital Akatosh and Mehrunes Dagon Armors, Weapons, and Horse Armor Sets; Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine story expansions; and additional downloadable content.
