Ratings Board PEGI Lists Hi-Fi Rush For Nintendo Switch

I'm cool with that. Game looks awesome.

Oh this is exciting. When it wasn't announced for the Switch along with Pentiment and Grounded I just assumed it wasn't coming.

This could mean anything at this point.

Personally, I'm still not expecting a release until the next console given the obvious performance concerns but I expect this may push Microsoft or Nintendo to clarify things sooner rather than later.

I think it's for "Switch 2", because not even Xbox One were able to run it at 60 FPS, so that version were cancelled.

HI-FI Rush needs locked 60 FPS 100% of the time, or the gameplay gets broken.

I'm surprised this hasn't already come to Switch, it feels like a Nintendo console would be the best fit for it.

@gcunit Speak of the devil...@Toastmaster 🤣

This game was my 2023 GOTY, would love a physical release on switch

I'm playing through this on Steam Deck OLED right now and it's awesome, gorgeous and super charming.

In a game all about timing, I think it needs a stable framerate.

I bought it on the PS5 and it’s fun, but on occasion the controls can be a bit finicky.

@gcunit

Better being in the 60fps group than the "take it any way it comes because I'm a sycophant" group.

@gcunit

I don't think there's any reason to be this hostile. I'd also LOVE HiFI on Switch, but in this case I'm convinced it would be better to wait for Switch 2, because rhythm and timing simply require a high, constant framerate. I say that as someone who enjoys Hogwarts Legacy, Arkham and Grounded on Switch.

this will have major performance issues on switch 1...

The current timeline is: Rumoured for Switch -> Rumoured to be Switch 2 instead since it wasn't in the initial multiplatform announcement for the current Switch -> Rated for Switch

Which gives the impression of 2 outcomes. Either Switch 2 is delayed long enough that it doesn't make sense to wait for that console or Switch 2 isn't actually a Switch 2 but rather a Switch Pro.

I thought they wanted to save this game for the successor?

And I was just thinking about getting out on ps5! yay! i hope the performance isn’t terrible.

Does it need 60 FPS? Probably not. Does it need a stable framerate? Absolutely in this case. The whole game is built around rhythm, and if you miss a beat because of a few dropped frames that can really ruin the flow the game has got going. I played through it on steam and had a blast, and I’d probably double dip on a physical version, but it does need to have a rock-solid framerate, though I think 30 fps is probably just fine too, 60 is of course ideal.

@64andGCwerePrime Apologies for any perceived hostility, that was not my intention. Was it the smiley?

@gcunit Just the thing about the cry more, that always seems quite aggressive.^^ No biggie. I'm with you that for us Nintendo guys high frames shouldn't be the main concern as we know what we're getting with a Nintendo console. It's just sometimes it matters for certain games.

until I see an official announcement I'll just choose to believe this is an error and nothing more, would love to see that happen though

i trought Hi-Fi Rush would release on Switch sucessor? Switch will severely struggle with the game.

YESSSS I WANTED THIS SO MUCH

I hope it's true...

@Takoda It's a character action game. The genre has a requirement to maintain 60fps, since the genre shares a lot of DNA with fighting games at their most complex.

What they might try doing is giving a performance mode that works best on the next hardware.

Good news if it's true-I'm all for more games coming to Switch. Having said that, while this game has a pretty awesome vibe, I thought it was kinda boring.

Big if true, that game looks a damn fun pastime. And of course, cue the naysay going as far as to suggest that the successor system will really be called "Switch 2" (if even that) as far as rating boards themselves are concerned. Safe to assume no one with an ounce of accountability is publicly posting anything related to Gen 10 until Nintendo so much as hints at the console's launch window. And hey, Switch runs even ports of RAM eater visual novels by now (yes, Song of Memories did get released in the end).😎😄

@64andGCwerePrime "cry more" is considered aggressive towards fanheads these days? You must rarely come across my comments here.😅

@Samalik
… Yeah, and Hi-Fi Rush isn’t amongst the most complex action games ever, nor does it have to have 60 fps. It’s not a requirement at all, it never is. As far as I know, with fighting games it’s a very different discussion because there you have a select few frames where there might be a special effect you can use, which against another player could make or break a victory.

Hi-Fi Rush is a single player action game that benefits from 60 fps, but does not require it. None of the shared DNA between these two genres justifies what you’re talking about in Hi-Fi Rush’s case, since it doesn’t have the 1-vs-1 component to worry about.
It’s just like Penny’s Big Breakaway. It plays fine at 30, but since it’s rather fast-paced and action-focused, of course it’ll feel better to play at 60 fps. Same thing goes here. At least, as far as I understand it.

Either way, regardless of how possible it is, dunno in what state it would release with all the concessions they’d have to make for 30 fps rock-solid, let alone 60. Better for switch 2.

If we learned something from Grounded, is that the Switch is nowhere near ready for a game like HFR, even if said game desperately needs the Nintendo audience to sell well.

@Takoda Those "select few frames" also come into character action games too. They heavily affect the meta-relationship between the player and the game. It heavily affects game feel and can be a detriment to play such a combo focused game, as well as the sense of sluggishness.

Being single player isn't really good reasoning in this case. Devil May Cry is single player but is extremely heavy on how many inputs you can chug into the system within a single second, just like a fighting game. Now imagine a game like that, but as 30, with enemies constantly trying to kill you with fast moving attacks that you can barely react to or feint around in time due to the frame rate. That's not a good feeling. And while the rhythmic aspect of Hi-Fi might not be as easily affected, it's still an action game at heart with the same technical pitfalls if the minimum requirements aren't met. Merely "being playable" isn't good enough for this genre.

@Toastmaster I really hope they don't force it to release on Switch if that means caveats like 30fps.

Sigh...I wish Nintendo would just release Switch 2 this year instead of forcing devs to release games that struggle on Switch

@Samalik
I’d hardly put action games on such a pedestal, plus, Hi-Fi Rush is unique in the sense that it is precisely a thing you should avoid to ‘chug a bunch of inputs’ at once, since everything moves to a very select beat.
Merely being playable is sufficient for any genre when you get a stable framerate to work with, no matter what weird standard you may hold action games to.
It’s just very suboptimal. I think we can at least agree that the game would benefit greatly from 60 fps if it’s doable on switch, and should be the goal.
It’s just very definitely playable. Playable and optimal are ways apart though, and I think where I talked about mere playability, you talk about what is optimal for an action game.As the switch has shown, it has some very suboptimal ports that are still perfectly playable.

This game needs to be locked at 60fps.
The delay, that 30fps adds, will mess with the timing.

@Takoda We can agree to that, but I think you're misunderstanding what I'm saying.

I'm aware of the Switch's bare minimum ports, but the games I forgive them on are typically slow paced and methodical like the Atelier series if not the absolute opposite of being the pinnacle of action like Witcher 3 or the Mana games. So a lower framerate is more forgiven since they don't have tight timing windows that advanced players make the most of. (and I do try going out of my way to be on the more advanced side)

In contrast, I still haven't played Doom Eternal or Nier Automata on the thing because the framerate in those games are dismal for the kinds of games they are (especially when one of them is from Platinum, and the other has framerate tied to it's mechanics). Action games are sensitive to timing regardless, and considering Hi-Fi Rush is also a rank-based game with simultaneous inputs, it does feel very much needed to have that snappiness, or else action game fans are gonna blow a lid at failed inputs killing their otherwise clean run. In other words, framerate is vital to the game design of an action game

So yeah, in my case, it's 60fps/graphics options or bust. If Bomb Rush Cyberfunk can make that optional on switch, so should more games.

@Samalik
Fair enough. I played Nier:Automata just fine with no issues, but if you worry about the ‘cleanness’ of a run, you probably shouldn’t be playing these on switch, yeah.

@Bizzyb It can't be ran at 30 FPS as it's designed for locked 60 FPS.
As far as i know Switch were able to run the fast paced Knockout City at 60 FPS which were a online only game...(Shut down in 2023 on consoles), but alive on PC forever.

Imagine Mario Kart 8 and Knockout City at 30 FPS, and then imagine HI-FI Rush at 30 FPS.

The Tegra chip inside Switch were designed for 4K/60 video streaming and it's 10 years old in 2024.
It were never a gaming beast even in 2014, 3 years before Switch launched.

Time for Switch 2 which most likely have NVIDIA DLSS etc. and using hardware not designed to stream video.

BTW: Someone managed to enable 4K on Switch recently for games as the chip always supported it.