Released over four years ago, Guilty Gear Strive was the first taste of what to expect from the then-burgeoning new generation of fighting games. We were witnessing, at the point, the dawn of the new standard of fighting titles in terms of visuals, performance, and netcode. Even if I didn’t particularly agree with my colleague Wayne’s view on it being the best Guilty Gear game ever made (I still think Xrd is a tad bit better), I wouldn’t be able to deny I loved it. Still do. I still play it every now and then on my PC. But ArcSys wasn’t satisfied with just releasing it on computers and beefy consoles. Despite being a flagship title during the PS5’s reveal, they have just released a port for the ultra-dated, ultra-gimped Switch.

He’s my favorite character, and I swear it’s not because of his name.

The thought of witnessing the Switch running Guilty Gear Strive at a decent condition was quite daunting, to be honest. As a reminder, Arc System Works had never even bothered porting Xrd to the system. Sure, Dragon Ball FighterZ is available on it, and the port is quite good, but Strive is a much more complex title in terms of visuals. How much would the developer have to downscale the visuals in order to ensure a decent framerate on the system? What about the netcode? Was this a perfect case of “too little too late”? Nope. Believe it or not. This port is actually excellent. It’s not better than any other version of Strive, mind you… but it’s Strive. In all of its glory, available on a portable with phone tech.

The backgrounds are as busy as they can be, and that doesn’t result in framerate issues.

The most important elements this port needed to keep were great visuals and a steady framerate. Check and check! The Switch port of Strive runs at a silky smooth 60fps, even when a character is performing a screen-filling special move. The visuals, for the most part, are also quite intact. Sure, the resolution is noticeably less impressive than the 4K masterpiece seen on PS5, but for a freaking portable? Absolutely amazing. The environments, amount of detail, passersby, I honestly couldn’t notice a lot of differences. And to be fair, once again, if you’re playing this on portable mode, you’ll notice even less issues.

I was able to notice a few smaller setbacks in some areas. Prerecorded videoclips are running on a much lower resolution. For instance, you know that one clip of the bird flying off the window after the character select screen? That thing was being played at a resolution akin to Youtube videos from 2006. Of course, such a minute thing made little impact on the review as a whole. What really matters is that it works and looks as inteded. It also includes all previously released DLC, thus giving players a humongous playable roster right from the getgo.

Guilty Gear Strive’s roster is so ridiculous, to the point that a guitar-wielding witch is one of the most “normal” characters you can play as.

Of course, Guilty Gear is not exactly the most newcomer-friendly fighting franchise, but I honestly think that Guilty Gear Strive, in particular, did its best to lure in a wider playerbase than, say, Xrd did. Between the wide assortment of modes, a neat combo creator, and a ton of single player offerings, you don’t particularly NEED to jump into online play right away, or at all, if that’s your thing. Of course, a good chunk of what Guilty Gear Strive has to offer lies in its online lobbies, and I do think you should give it a try, regardless. If anything, just to witness the impressive netcode doing wonders, despite the Switch’s atrocious online infrastructure.

Now, I’d be lying if I said this port is perfect. It is ALMOST perfect. There is a big issue with it: its loading times. They are obnoxiously long. It doesn’t matter if you’re merely booting the game up (which takes an immense amount of time, especially if you’re now used to SSDs) or just loading your next battle, those loading times are egregious. As always, I can only imagine this is due to the nature of most games released on the Switch, compressed and zipped to oblivion in order to occupy as little space in one’s SD card as possible. Unpacking and decompressing does take a lot of time, after all.

Of course, the soundtrack is downright amazing… but I prefer Xrd’s…

If you can put up with the minor issue regarding the long loading times, you’re in for an absolute treat. Is Guilty Gear Strive the best traditional fighting game available on the Nintendo Switch? I think it’s one of the biggest contenders. Featuring fantastic visuals, great performance, and all previously released content, it might be out at the end of the system’s lifecycle, but I’m glad Arc System Works took its time to ensure this port would look, run and feel as amazing as its beefier console counterparts. Punches, powerchords, portability, what’s not to love?

Guilty Gear Strive is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Guilty Gear Strive was provided by the publisher.