How do things unfold?
- by Jim Norman
We are so close to the release of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on Switch that we can almost smell it (gross). The highly-anticipated GameCube RPG unfolds on the Nintendo hybrid tomorrow, 23rd May, and we have already heard what the critics make of it — spoiler: we loved it.
Just before release, however, the experts over at Digital Foundry have swept in to provide a technical rundown so we all know what to expect from the remake as far as performance and resolution are concerned.
Starting off with the biggie, TTYD on Switch runs at 30FPS. We knew this already, of course, but Digital Foundry points out that this frame rate is locked and looks just fine in handheld mode. In the above video, DF’s Thomas Morgan does note that the cutback from the GC original’s 60FPS is more obvious on the big screen and he states that fans will have to adapt their combat button timings to accommodate, but this is all to “facilitate the visual upgrades” and it never becomes distracting.
These visual upgrades are the star of the technical analysis. Morgan explains that the Switch remake employs screen-space reflections (SSR) and screen-space ambient occlusion (SSAO) for added detail. On top of this, all textures have been reworked to better express the paper aesthetic — even if the new reflections may be distracting for some.
In terms of resolution, the game sits at 900p when in docked mode and 1138×640 in handheld. This means that there is a slight shimmer on certain white outlines, but, according to the Digital Foundry analysis, it doesn’t detract from the overall visual improvements.
All in all, it seems to be a very strong remake. You can watch the full Digital Foundry analysis in the video at the top of this article, or, for our thoughts on the game, you’ll find our review below.
