Your Cart

Fortnite, Nintendo Switch Review

Fortnite has recently come to the Nintendo Switch. But does it square up against PS4, Xbox, and PC? Andrew gives us his thoughts.

After watching Nintendo’s E3 conference, I decided to try Fortnite on my Nintendo Switch. I found the game to be addicting, fun, and at points intense. Despite being terrible at shooters, I found myself enjoying it.

What is Fortnite?

Fortnite is a free-to-play shooter that features many different modes. There’s the “battle royale” mode, which drops 100 players onto an island in a last man standing free for all. You can also go solo, play with a partner, a squad of four, or a group of fifty facing off against fifty other players. After selecting a game mode, players wait on an island that serves as a lobby, then travel in a battle bus that carries them to the main island. Afterwards, players jump out the battle bus and can decide where to land.

 width=

 width=

Do you still want to build a fort all nite? (ba dum tsss)

While the objective, eliminate the other players on the island, is simple in Fortnite, players are given a variety of ways to complete said objective. This gives the player variety to complete the objective for each match.

Do you want to go guns blazing? That totally works; however, that may not be the best strategy based off personal experience. Do you want to simply gear up and work with your teammates? You can totally do that. Do you want to just camp? You can do that as well.

However, that probably would not be wise because of the eye of the storm. This is a safe zone that shrinks over time. Outside of the eye lies a storm, and getting caught in the storm deals damage to and can potentially even kill players. The eye of the storm speeds up the pacing of the game and prevents players from hiding the whole time.

What else does Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch offer?

Voice chat on the Nintendo Switch is a nightmare. Fortnite has very simple voice chat features. Simply put, if you have a microphone attached to your headphones then you can use that microphone for voice chat. I honestly found myself disabling voice chat because I did not want to listen to little kids squealing through the microphone (nothing personal).

 width=

What are my problems with Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch?

The graphics do not look bad but the Switch is very limited in hardware capabilities. If you’re a 60 frames per second person then this is the wrong port for you. Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch is capped off at 30 frames per second.

I personally am not bothered by graphics if the game runs smooth. Fortnite, however, does occasionally suffer from dropped frame and annoying lag. This issue is not consistent, but these dropped frames and lag do happen here and there. Hopefully a simple patch will resolve these performance issues.

One of the biggest advantages of owning a Nintendo Switch is portability. Fortnite for the Nintendo Switch fails to take advantage of this feature: Fortnite on Switch is online only. There is no single player; only online multiplayer.

Due to the lack of single player, there is also a slight learning curve. The only way to get familiar with the controls is to jump into an online match. This can lead to instant deaths in the first few online matches. It can take a while to get used to the controls and what exactly is happening in your surroundings. A tutorial or single player would easily fix this issue.

The controls are not motion controlled either. I personally am not bothered by using the right analog stick to aim and shoot, but I know some people would prefer motion controls or a gyroscope-based control. Considering most games involve motion controls for aiming, I can somewhat understand why people would prefer motion-based controls.

What are my final thoughts?

Fortnite is an addicting, fun, and simple shooter focusing around battle royale. It’s a free-to-play game that has intense moments. The game has a simple objective and several options to reach this objective. Even after losing a match, I have always felt the adrenaline to jump back into another match and try again.

Is Fortnite a masterpiece? No. But it’s a good game. The Nintendo Switch version does suffer from performance issues. Additionally, the fact that Fortnite is online only means that you cannot play Fortnite on the go unless you have access to Wi-Fi. Despite these flaws, I would still recommend Fortnite, a fun and addicting game.

Want to see more of our reviews? Follow us on social media and join our community Discord!

Summary

Fortnite is an addicting, fun, and simple shooter focusing around battle royale. It’s a free-to-play game that has intense moments. The game has a simple objective; however, the player has several options to reach this objective. Even after losing a match, I have always felt the adrenaline to jump back into another match and try again. Fortnite is definitely not a masterpiece; nonetheless, the game is fun and simple. Give this game a shot.

Overall
75%
75%

Pros

  • Free-to-play
  • Addicting and fun
  • Different ways to approach the objective (survival)
  • The active servers helps and makes match making simple

Cons

  • Occasional performance issues
  • Online only
  • Lack of motion controls might upset some people
Leave a Reply

Latest Reviews