- Hey y'all, this is Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica, and today, I wanna talk about older video games being born anew, specifically on the Nintendo Switch. 

Now, remasters and re-releases of classic video games are nothing new, but the Switch offers something a little special, a way to take relatively recent games, even beautiful 3D ones, and make them work like a charm in the palm of your hand. This week sees the release of one of the best examples of this yet. Diablo III originally came out on PCs in 2012, but now it's on the Switch. And while the game plays pretty much the same as its older versions, the Switch difference is pretty wicked. It's not the only older game cashing in on Switch fever, but you could miss that fact thanks to Nintendo's ugly and hard to navigate eShop store. 

So, I thought I'd help pick through all the games. This is my list of the best Switch games that originally came out on another system before the Switch launched in March 2017, then turned out to be really awesome on Nintendo's home portable hybrid. So, let's do this. Let's start with the game that inspired this list, Diablo III Eternal Edition. This Blizzard sequel upholds the series' reputation for classic dungeon crawling, loot battling, and wild adventures. And it benefits from years of patches, improved online modes, and solid game pad support. For the Switch version, the game's age helps because like most Blizzard games, this 2012 game was designed to look good and play smoothly on older computers. That time span is worth bringing up because the Nintendo Switch is a double-edge sword in terms of the performance. I'm some metrics, it has a lot more power than six-year old computers, but its small form factor and portability mean that a key metric, sheer speed, can sometimes suffer. They've gotta keep the heat throttling down on this thing. So, you need a 3D game that scales well the really get the most out of the Nintendo Switch's sort of uneven specs. 

So, Diablo III happens to be a perfect Switch fit in terms of handling performance. It uses a fixed top down camera which guarantees a limit to how much 3D content has to be rendered at any given moment. And when the action gets heated, with dozens of detailed monsters spewing out fiery attacks and particle filled effects, Diablo III on Switch does two important things. First, it automatically shrinks the pixel count which keeps the game running at a smooth 60-frames per second refresh. And the game automatically highlights the borders of important elements in the action like your hero, your allies, and those incoming bad guys. So at times, you'll end up with images that look a little smeary and this effect looks worse when you have a Switch docked and streaming to an HDTV. If you're holding your Switch in your hands, however, Diablo III's colorful battles always manage to look clear enough. 

There's just enough of that 720p resolution that is held to make Diablo III on Switch look really good in your hands. If your friends own their own Nintendo Switch systems and copies of Diablo III, you can have a wireless LAN party so everyone gets their own screen and controllers via the Switch's local wireless mode, and they can bring their own customized hero to the battle. But don't worry if you only have one Switch system handy. You can hook up four controllers to a single system, or you can play online with other Switch owners via the Nintendo Switch online service. And if you wanna set up Diablo on a countertop with a friend, you can split a pair of Joy-Cons in a pinch. In this mode you'll have to physically wave your controller to do the all important dodge roll, because there's only one joystick on single Joy-Con. It's a little clunky, but it's better than nothing if you just have one pair of Joy-Cons and wanna make it work. Also, one more thing, Diablo III's handheld version brings out something that I somehow never noticed since the PC version came out, how awesome its mix of music and sounds are. It's easier for me to wear headphones while dungeon crawling on Switch than playing on a console or PC. And I'm just noticing how awesome the whole sound mix is between the music and the monster effects. 

[metal clanging] [screaming and growling]

- [Male] Right here.

- [Female] Didn't see that coming that coming, did you?

- The adventure game makers at Bethesda have a few games on Switch already, including the umpteenth version of Skyrim and a serviceable port of last year's Wolfenstein game. But in terms of older ports born anew, the 2016 version of Doom is our pick for the best older Bethesda game on Switch. First, the game runs beautifully, proving that the id Tech 6 engine is one of the best in the industry. There's just a lot going on on Doom on Switch, and it's really almost unfathomable how much performance this little system pulls off with that much action. Now, to be fair, you're not gonna mistake this version for something from a high-end PC, particularly because the frame rate is cut down to only 30 frames a second. Plus, I won't lie, Doom on Switch doesn't look very good when it's on an HDTV. It looks particularly smeary that way, like someone rubbed a grease on the screen, yet somehow the game's 3D insanity absolutely shines in handheld mode, where it gets close enough to that panel's 720p resolution to look crisp during frantic combat. 

There's also the matter of why Doom actually works on Switch. It's not just the solid campaign, or even the ho-hum online multi-player modes. I would point to the arcade mode. Now, this lets you pick a single level from the campaign, jack up various difficulty sliders, and rip and tear in a quick-burst one-level session at a time. This is an awesome way to play and replay Doom's crazy levels, and it's a clever way to make the game's action fit in the span of a bus or train ride. And in a fun twist, Doom on Switch includes a gyroscopic control option, so you can move your controllers or even the whole system around to fine tune your aim. It's a Switch exclusive, and though you may not love how that control works, you really should try it at least once. 

Nintendo is putting out a ton of older games on Switch, particularly from the Wii U, and I could spend this entire video talking about those gems, but I'll just focus on my vote for the best of Nintendo's oldies here, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It's arguably the best-looking Nintendo game on Switch in terms of designs and worlds that fit perfectly into the SWitch's power levels, both at home and on the go, meaning it gets 60 frames a second, maximum resolution in both modes, and just looks really crisp. Uh, but there's something else I really love here: how beautifully the game scales to Switch's tabletop mode. I like telling people that you can take the Switch to a bar or a restaurant, prop the screen up with the little tab on the back of the Switch, and split a pair of Joy-Cons, turning them sideways, using them like an old Super Nintendo controller. Boom, instant multi-player action. 

But for a lot of games, that doesn't actually work the way you might think. You'll probably find yourself squinting at Switch's six-inch screen, especially if the game doesn't quite resolve at the detail in a way that works on that smaller screen, and you'll be craning your neck and jostling for position. Where Mario Kart 8 Deluxe really shines is how good it looks this way. All of its bold primary colors pop, all of the designs render very clearly on each half of the screen. It's very easy to look at your racetrack, to look at the action, and to really get a sense of what you're doing, and a single Joy-Con scales well to Mario Kart. You only need that many buttons and that much joystick power to power slide through bananas and really do well, even at the 200cc difficulty level, which is not an easy thing to do. 

Now, before the Switch had everyone in a tizzy about 3D gaming on the go, there was Sony's PSP, and it was arguably the first handheld device to really deliver that promise of full console like gaming on the go. The PSP, as a result, had a big library full of hardcore time sync games, the kinds that are perfect for a long road trip or a marathon bed session, and we're seeing some PSP classics finding their way to the Switch. The most obvious of these is Valkyria Chronicles. That's a series that did really well on PSP, and it's first game, which was never on PSP, to be frank, it's now on Switch. This revolves around military tactics, turn-based combat, with a colorful cell-shaded anime style. A lot of good missions that pound out for six to eight missions, get in, get a quick burst, and move on. It's a great portable-style game, and it really scales well to the Switch, plus that cell-shaded look means that even though it's older and was designed for older systems, it still has sort of a timeless look, continues to be really appealing. 

The PSP also popularized a series called Monster Hunter, though that was largely in Japan. This series combines giant worlds, massive monsters, and slow powerful swords for some really satisfying combat that kinda takes the Pokemon idea of catching them all and instead killing them all. Sure enough, Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, kind of a mouthful there, brings that 2016 version of the game to Switch, with all the deep combat and RPG systems intact. The series has also appeared on the weaker Nintendo 3DS and more powerful home consoles. I think this Switch version splits the difference between power and portability and is all the more addictive for it. Monster Hunter popularized the kind of combat that eventually made Dark Souls an international sensation, and this year, we saw the very first Dark Souls game land on Nintendo Switch, and in an impressive fashion. 

Dark Souls 1 looks and plays just like the 2011 original, only now it actually runs at a smooth 60 frames per second, which we didn't get in the original PS3 version. This really matters when you're trying to get the timing just right in blink and you'll die battles. Anyone who ever agonized over the original version's frame rate hitches will likely stare bug-eyed at the tiny Switch turning in better performance. 

There's really no shortage of weird, quirky quest games that benefit from playing just as well on the go as on your TV. Darkest Dungeon is a personal favorite in this category. It's a surprisingly deep dungeon-crawling simulator from 2016, made by a small indie team, and its got this interesting mix of these text menus, kind of the Final Fantasy-style management of elements and medieval warriors, and beautiful hand-drawn art and crazy bloody effects that just look really nice on the six-inch Switch screen. Your warriors are all destined to die, essentially. It's a really tough game, but managing their fates, and enlisting new heroes via RPG menus, skill trees, and bundles of loot, makes for something really solid to tap away at for hours and hours. 

Another good questing gem for Nintendo Switch is Undertale, a 2015 RPG that feels like a long-lost sequel to the classic Nintendo series EarthBound. It's not necessarily an amazing Switch game, meaning it's not really pushing the Switch to its fullest, it doesn't look like the number one game on the system, but I point it out because if you're a Nintendo fanboy, and you already picked up a Switch, you probably have a lingering EarthBound itch, and as a result, I think you'll be charmed by Undertale's hilarious writing, unique battle system, and strange option to not actually kill your enemies, meaning, if you're already in the Nintendo camp, Undertale's the game that you have been waiting for. The Switch's portable screen is a stunner for retro-inspired games, and unsurprisingly, the system is awash in chunky pixelated odes to yesteryear. 

If you're overwhelmed by looking at the eShop and all these other, newer retro-style games, I would offer starting with the proven, years-old likes of Shovel Knight and Risk of Rain. Shovel Knight is actually three games in one, and each of them remixes a variety of satisfying old-school platform levels with different heroes and maneuvers. One of the heroes has a sort of DuckTales poling around effect. There's another one who has this incredible dash attack. That stuff may not sound like that big of a deal in terms of running around in an old-school game, but Shovel Knight is really smart at taking those old systems and making them feel both instantly familiar and absolutely fresh. 

Risk of Rain, meanwhile, is a contra-style run and gun game with a modern twist: the longer you take you to beat each randomly-generated combat level, the more difficult it gets. So you have a decision to make. You can either rush through each level with whimpy weapons or run around looking for upgrades and deal with the tougher enemy consequences. Risk of Rain also supports multi-player and it's a really good turn your Joy-Con to the side kind of action game. The ability to take your Nintendo Switch anywhere you might wanna go and set it up as a multi-player gaming hub is very tempting and it can be really fun.

 I have three specific votes for older games that make the most sense in this Switch party use-case. The first is the Jackbox Party Pack series, whose first game came out in 2014. This mini-game collection requires that everyone who plays uses their own cell phone as a controller, so you don't have to lug around a whole bunch of Joy-Cons or joysticks to make this one work. So long as you can get wifi at the place you're going, your bar or what have you, put the Switch out, gather around, get everyone's smartphones out, and you can play through Jackbox's trivia and party games pretty easily. Now if you find yourself doing this, I have a tip: bring a portable speaker with a 3.5 millimeter jack, because the Switch's default speakers are a little weak, and you'll want to hear those Jackbox prompts as you go through funny trivia games and really bonkers questions and answers sessions. 

The other two games I'm thinking of really work well as a shared gaming experience no matter how many people you're crowding around that small screen on the go. 2016's Ultimate Chicken Horse and last year's Death Squared. Ultimate Chicken Horse offers a multi-player twist on Super Mario Maker. This is a game where you and your friends get together to build a 2D Mario-style level, putting together the platforms and the things in the level that might kill you, and then you all simultaneously have to try and beat that level to win that game. 

Meanwhile, Death Squared is a slower-paced co-op puzzle game, where everyone has to combine wits to figure out very elaborate puzzle levels. Both of these games rely on Nintendo-style primary colors, so that their challenges look really clear on the Switch's small screen, no matter how many people you have huddling around it. 

Now, that's just a fraction of older games born anew on Nintendo Switch, and there are plenty more. We had to draw the line somewhere, but we're happy to see you continue the conversation with your own recommendations in the comments, along with older games you wish were on Nintendo Switch. That is a whole other conversation, and we may get to it in a future video. Until then, we hope this Diablo-inspired list makes it easier for you to wade through the Switch eShop and find the older gems born anew. Keep it tuned to Ars Technica for more on older and newer games on Switch, along with everything on other consoles, mobile, and PC. Thanks for watching. See you soon. 

[electronic booming noise]