After months of anticipation, Mortal Kombat 1 is finally out in the wild. Fans of the gory fighting franchise are diving into NetherRealm Studios' newest installment across the globe, and so far, it's living up to expectations. Not only does Mortal Kombat 1 deliver the franchise's trademark action with some fresh twists, but it weaves a compelling narrative that soft-reboots the canon while hearkening back to classic MK lore. It remains to be seen if this new entry will cement itself as one of the best MK games in franchise history, but Mortal Kombat 1 has thus far made a strong first impression overall.

While Mortal Kombat 1 is succeeding in most respects, there is one aspect of the game that has proven to be a glaring issue. The team behind MK1 decided to make the game a truly next-gen experience, releasing it on PS5, Xbox Series, X/S, and PC. At the same time, however, the decision was made to also bring MK1 to the Nintendo Switch, a console infamous for its performance difficulties in regard to third-party games. Other highly technical titles have managed to find their footing on the console despite some shortcomings, but the Switch version of MK1 has turned into a train wreck of epic proportions.

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Mortal Kombat 1's Switch Version Explained

The first and most obvious issue with MK1 on the Switch is its graphical quality. On PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, MK1 is one of the most visually captivating games of the last few years. Environments are vibrant, facial animations are lifelike, and the game as a whole appears polished. The exact opposite is true on Switch, as MK1's graphics on the console are in a frankly unacceptable state. Character models look deplorable, with each face appearing smooth and doll-like, and any nuance in facial animation is completely absent.

In addition to its visual woes, MK1 on the Switch has a host of technical problems. While frame rate issues are to be expected with this sort of game on this sort of hardware, it goes much deeper than that. Many cinematic animations are glitchy, heads often float or strangely distort after fatalities and brutalities, and some CPU fighters have been known to break the fighting plane and veer off into the background. In many ways, these glitches can be humorous, but they ultimately serve to harm MK1's overall reputation.

How MK1's Switch Version Affects Its Reputation

Mortal Kombat 1 retails for $70 in most marketplaces, which has become the new standard along with the current generation of PlayStation and Xbox consoles. Given this higher price point, fans should be able to expect a high-quality product no matter what version of MK1 they buy, but that clearly isn't the case here. For many gamers, this may be the only version of MK1 they get to play, tainting their perception of the game while others get to enjoy a much more polished version. If another MK game ever does come to Switch, fans may be more likely to skip that entry to save themselves the pain of yet another buggy, visually poor mess.

Mortal Kombat 1 had a lot of things working for it leading up to its release. From a bold new take on MK storytelling to MK1's exciting new Kameo system, it had a chance to be a revolutionary step forward for the franchise as a whole. While all of that work is not necessarily lost due to the Switch version, it places an unfortunate asterisk on the reputation of the game. Many gamers may only ever know the Switch version of MK1, in which case all they may remember about the game is its shortcomings, and not the refined experienced NetherRealm Studios crafted on other platforms.

Mortal Kombat 1 is available now on PC, PS5, Switch, and Xbox Series X/S.

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