Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Nintendo Switch Hands-On - Little Monster

This past weekend at PAX East, Bethesda held a special community event right across the way from the convention center, where fans could stop by and see the latest add-ons for the company's current games. No, it didn't reveal anything amazingly new (that will no doubt happen during its E3 showcase), but it did have one upcoming game that fans couldn't get enough of – the Nintendo Switch port of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, which will be arriving this summer.

We recently went hands-on with a build of the game, in both handheld form and on television. Fortunately, fans have very little to worry about, as the developers at Panic Button (the same ones that ported the incredible Doom to the Switch) have this task easily in hand.

First off, the game looks very good running on Nintendo's hardware. While it may not be at the trailblazing speed of the PC and PlayStation 4 Pro versions (it's limited to around 20-30 frames per second with our preview build), and lacks in a little bit of detail, it still looks amazing. The game is crammed very well into portable mode, complete with its large level design and its merciless amount of bloodshed. It looks equally impressive on the big-screen as well, so you can easily get a lock on enemies and let the bullets fly.

There also doesn't appear to be any shortage on the audio side either with the game's conversion to Switch. It sounds just as impressive, with cool sound effects and shouting aplenty from enemies, as well as the in-game dialogue that helps the story of B.J. Blazkowicz keep moving forward.

Now, let's talk about gameplay. There were a couple of things we noticed during our hands-on run with the game. First off, you seem to run a little toofast when it comes to your running capability. Like, we got from one end of the room to the other within a couple of seconds. Bethesda did make note of this, however, and indicated this would be balanced in the final version. Whew. The last thing we need to be doing is sprinting past a firefight, rather than into the heart of one.

Secondly, the game handles pretty well, aside from that little glitch. Aiming and shooting at enemies feels second nature, although you can turn on auto aim in lighter difficulty settings if you need some help. Movement also feels like it's well dictated, but it seems preferable when it comes to playing it on a big-screen. Not that there's anything really wrong with playing on the go with your JoyCon controllers, but a game like The New Colossus was built with a controller in mind. It just works better. (Fortunately, you an always do the portable thing and plug in a Pro Controller, if you want to go that way.)

Now, we've only seen a portion of the game in action thus far, but Bethesda assured us that the full experience – possibly including the DLC – will be intact with the final release. Considering the small morsel that we've seen thus far, that's quite a promise. But this could easily shape up to be one of the best action games for the Switch, just as Doom was before it. All it needs is some technical tweaking and clean-up, and all that room to fit the content into one convenient spot.

While Wolfenstein II may not be at its most definitive on Nintendo's system, it'll certainly be an enjoyable experience for a lot of players. We'll see how it shapes up when it arrives this summer. If you can't wait that long, you can also play The New Colossus on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.