Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has finally arrived on Nintendo Switch 2 with its dedicated upgrade released digitally in early December. Switch 2 players had previously been running the original Switch version, but for a ten dollar upgrade fee discounted to five dollars at launch, they can now experience Sega’s crossover kart racer with enhancements tailored for Nintendo’s new hardware. A physical cartridge release is planned for early 2026.
Digital Foundry has put the new version to the test and uncovered some unexpected results when comparing Switch 2 directly with Xbox Series S. Rather than matching the full visual suite of the Series S release, Switch 2 lands somewhere in between. While it offers major improvements over Switch 1 in texture clarity, crowd decals and filtering, it drops certain visual features present on Series S. These include screen space reflections, bloom, various post processing effects and higher quality cube maps. Some road and surface textures also remain lower in resolution.
The surprising twist is that in motion, the Nintendo hardware may actually offer the cleaner presentation. In docked mode, Switch 2 targets resolutions near 1440p, compared to the Series S version which appears to top out at 1080p. Although some visual effects are scaled back, the higher pixel count on Switch 2 produces a sharper image with less blur while both platforms aim for a steady 60 frames per second.
CrossWorlds does not use major Unreal Engine 5 features such as Lumen or Nanite, so these findings cannot be used to predict how other UE5 titles will perform on Switch 2. However, the results suggest that Sega has chosen to prioritize resolution over effects when handling this port.
The one major drawback is that Sega has not fixed the uneven frame pacing issues from the original Switch version. The Switch 1 build still suffers from frame time stutter that disrupts its 30 frames per second mode, affecting smoothness during high speed races.
As Sega continues tuning CrossWorlds across platforms, the Switch 2 upgrade shows that Nintendo’s latest hardware can deliver strong resolution gains even when certain graphical effects are scaled back.
Stay tuned to Sonic City for more Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds News and Updates!
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Can’t wait for the physical release!