Analysis of Mortal Kombat 1 on the Switch: Examining Technical Aspects such as Frame Rate and Resolution

Mortal Kombat 1: A Closer Look at Frame Rate and Resolution

by [Your Name], Gaming News Writer and Expert

Digital Foundry, a renowned technical analysis group, has recently delved into the technical aspects of Mortal Kombat 1 for the Nintendo Switch. The analysis sheds light on the game’s frame rate, resolution, and other important details. This comprehensive breakdown reveals the reasons behind the game’s recent criticisms, including performance issues, visual cutbacks, and bugs.

Notable Tidbits

• The Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 is 35.3GB, significantly smaller than the PS5 version’s 114.5GB.
• The bit rate and resolution of the story mode’s cutscenes have been reduced on the Switch.
• The game is feature complete in terms of modes.
• Load times on the Switch are lengthy, and menus can be unresponsive.
• It takes 15 seconds to reach the character selection screen in local versus mode, and an additional 40 seconds to load the match.
• The resolution of Mortal Kombat 1 on the Switch is dynamic, ranging from 756p when docked to 576p during more intensive stages. Intros and fatalities maintain a resolution of 756p. In portable mode, the resolution is dynamic 720p, with a lower bound of 704 x 396.
• The Switch version showcases significant visual changes, including low-grade textures, compromised texture filtering, and visibly reduced polygon count on models and background geometry.
• Foliage has been stripped out or replaced with simplified plant/tree models, and certain effects have been removed or culled in resolution. Screen space reflections can also be removed across the floors.
• Changes have been made to lighting, shadows, cloth physics, and water physics. Select plants and trees now animate properly, but physics are less extensively applied.
• Visual bugs, tearing, and hitching can occur during intros and fatalities, as well as pre-rendered cutscenes.
• The target frame rate for fights in Mortal Kombat 1 is 60 FPS, but the game struggles to consistently achieve this. Intro cutscenes fluctuate between 10 and 30 FPS, and fights can drop to 30 FPS and even lower.
• The baseline performance hovers around 55 to 60 FPS, but significant frame rate dips occur frequently, particularly during Cameo Assists.
• Both portable and docked modes offer similar performance.

You can watch the full video from Digital Foundry below, where they cover Mortal Kombat 1’s frame rate, resolution, and more:

Conclusion

The technical analysis conducted by Digital Foundry provides valuable insights into the performance and visual aspects of Mortal Kombat 1 on the Nintendo Switch. While the game faces criticism for its compromised frame rate, reduced resolution, and various visual downgrades, it still manages to offer a feature-complete experience across different modes. Players should be aware of the lengthy load times, unresponsive menus, and occasional visual bugs, but overall, the game delivers a satisfactory experience on both portable and docked modes.

For more detailed information and a visual breakdown of Mortal Kombat 1’s frame rate and resolution analysis, be sure to check out the full video by Digital Foundry.