There is nothing wrong about re-releasing an older game on a newer platform, especially when said game is not legally available anymore in any platform. The thing is that you usually expect for this re-release to feature something new, or enough improvements to make your investment feel worth it. You want your purchase to be more than a means to preserve a game, more than just tackling a novelty. With the closure of the Nintendo 3DS’s eShop, Dementium: The Ward is now only available on the Switch, in a barely improved port which does very little to warrant its pricetag. But hey, at least it’s preserved for the time being. Yay?

I have a lot of respect for the original release of Dementium: The Ward. It was a game trying to push the original DS’s hardware to its absolute limits, be it in terms of visuals and what to expect from a fully polygonal, first-person survival horror available on a portable from 2004. It punched above its weight in this regard, but there were issues in its performance and gameplay (no dual sticks for camera control, for instance). The game saw a “remastered” re-release for the 3DS years later, which solved some issues, but not all of them, namely the camera controls. But that’s all that Dementium ended up being for many years, a technical showcase first, fun game second. Nothing wrong about it, but that makes porting it to an even more powerful system, with not a lot of enhancements, worthy of additional criticism.

On the original DS, if you wanted to play a horror game, there was just Dementium and Resident Evil. On the 3DS, there were also just a handful of Resident Evil offerings. On the Switch, there’s basically everything, from Outlast to Alien: Isolation, so the novelty aspect of having such a game on the system doesn’t hold its ground. Dementium has to be judged for its technical aspects, and sadly, it hasn’t aged very well.

In essence, this is a very straightforward horror title set entirely inside a derelict hospital infested with monsters. At first, you have nothing to help fend yourself against enemies, with your first items being a nightstick for some crappy melee combat, as well as a flashlight, which is more of a coding skill showcase (for DS standards) than the actual source of light it was supposed to be. The more you traverse this relatively short game, you can get new weapons, such as actual guns, as well as some other items used to either solve puzzles or open doors. It’s your standard gameplay loop for the genre, as Dementium was originally developed with the intention of becoming a Silent Hill spinoff for the DS.

Sadly, you cannot use a flashlight and a weapon at the same time. If you want to be able to look at what’s in front of you, you won’t be able to defend yourself against nearby threats. The combat isn’t deep, nor is the game hard, so that’s not the biggest issue, but you’ll need to take that into account.

There is nothing inherently bad about the way the game plays. It’s not broken. The addition of a second analog stick allows for some improved camera control (this version’s only actual improvement over other ports). Controls are responsive enough. The framerate is stable. No particular glitches or crashes, with the exception of an item (the notebook) which simply has no in-game use, most certainly due to an oversight. But that’s thing. It’s not bad… for a 2007 gimmicky game for the Nintendo DS. Or its 3DS remaster. When you barely improve upon the original, which wasn’t a masterpiece 17 years ago, and just drop it on a console with a vast array of horror options, as well as the possibility of playing it on a larger screen (be it on portable or docked modes), issues become a lot more noticeable.

The combat is really basic, the puzzles are simplistic, the story is very generic, especially if you have played any other psychological horror game over the past two decades. There are no innovative elements or defining factors that make this version stand out on the Switch. Once again, the presentation wasn’t bad… for the DS. The game was originally released without a resolution bump, being locked to 240p. Whilst it did get an update a month or so ago, bumping it up to 1080p, it’s still ugly and cheap. It feels like a remaster and more like a mere upscaling. It went from looking like a DS game to looking like a cheap Vita game. Bear in mind that this enhancement is not set as the game’s default visual mode.

Add in the fact the sound design had originally been crafted with the Nintendo DS’s limitations in mind. The voice samples are cheap, the soundtrack is heavily compressed, and sound effects are stock. Alarm effects are actually the same ones used in GoldenEye 007, a game which was already 10 years old by the time Dementium: The Ward had originally hit storeshelves. You can mask these shortcomings by playing it on portable mode, without headphones. It does ruin a bit of the tension and immersion, but this was never going to scare you anyway. You are not missing much in this regard.

Even if nothing about Dementium: The Ward felt inherently broken (no crashes, no framerate drops, no game-breaking glitches), I just wasn’t having fun with this port of an old DS game with very unimpressive visual or content enhancements. This game was already mostly a novelty back in 2007, a proof of concept, a showcase of what that portable was capable of rendering. On the Switch, on a larger screen, with more horsepower, and in a library filled with other horror titles, Dementium has nothing that makes it stand out. It’s a novelty, and a means to preserve an old game to posterity in a newer system. That’s pretty much it.

Graphics: 4.5 It was originally developed with the Nintendo DS’s hardware in mind. It is very impressive for that system, but beyond dated and disappointing for a so-called remaster coming out on the Switch, be it for its ugly visuals or draw distance.	Gameplay: 7.5 Dual analog stick support makes controlling the camera less cumbersome than in previous releases of Dementium: The Ward. Controls aren’t terrible, there’s just not a lot that this game does that you haven’t seen countless times before.
Sound: 4.0 Considering it was originally conceived for the Nintendo DS, you know you shouldn’t expect a lot from its sound design. It’s muffled, and limited. Ironically enough, I did notice some sound effects which were also present in GoldenEye 007.	Fun Factor: 3.5 Nothing about Dementium: The Ward felt inherently broken, but I wasn’t feeling any semblance of joy during pretty much most of my playthrough. It’s a novelty, and a means to preserve an old game to posterity in a newer system. That’s it.
Final Verdict: 5.0

Dementium: The Ward is available now on Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.