Having been tasked to review Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch 2, I was surprised to discover we never actually reviewed Fortnite here at Press Start. Of course, referencing a past review would have been pointless; the game is nothing like it once was back when it launched in 2017. Throughout the past eight years, the game — now a cultural phenomenon — has undergone dramatic evolution and continues to receive near-weekly updates.
Still, I now have the near-impossible task of collecting nearly a decade’s worth of thoughts on Fortnite into a digestible assessment of the game on Nintendo’s new console. A head start would have been nice.
Let’s start with performance on the Nintendo Switch 2.
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The graphics have been hugely improved compared to the previous generation console, upgrading textures, shadows, water and clothing physics whilst achieving a rock-solid 60 frames per second. Both docked and handheld, it looks and plays great with a 2176 x 1224 resolution docked and 1600 x 900 undocked. Draw distances, hugely important in a battle royale, have been improved as well, allowing for greater viewing distance.
For the first time on a Nintendo console too, the Switch 2 version s Replay, a newer feature to the game that allows players to review past battle royale matches from multiple angles and prepare clips, much like Call of Duty’s Theatre Mode.
Mouse controls have landed in a game update dropped soon after launch, allowing you to make use of the more precise Nintendo Switch 2 mouse controls to counteract the sweats online.
As for the rest of the game, it’s Fortnite as you know it — or at least what it’s become in 2025.
The game is now a platform, more a collection of games, more akin to Roblox than battle royales like Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds and Call of Duty: Warzone. Many of these experiences are -generated and hugely popular amongst fans, who spend countless hours within the game, seemingly unaware of other games.
The strongest experiences in my mind are those produced by Epic. Of course, there are the Battle Royale modes, which have expanded to include Zero Build options and current season maps, as well as the OG maps. There’s also Reload, a 40-player mode which allows for respawns so long as one teammate survives. It’s a welcome variety, considering I haven’t kept pace with the speedster builders that greatly exceed the ability I once had in that department.
The mobility improvements they’ve introduced over the years, including sprinting and mantling, bring better, faster-paced gameplay. I also welcome the regular updates to weapons and items, introducing new tactics and changes to the game’s meta.
The new LEGO experiences are surprisingly deep. LEGO Brick Life is a newer social role-playing experience that’s been described as GTA-like, albeit age-appropriate. Again, it’s got a lot going for it, with players dropped into a sprawling cityscape in search of a job, with plenty of other activities on offer.
Of course, guitar peripherals have returned.
That’s not to mention some of the racing experiences borrowing from Rocket League, and the obstacle course experiences borrowing from Fall Guys.
Whilst not all of it is worth your time, it’s also not the point. The intent is clearly to offer something for everyone, with Fortnite’s immense community also chipping in. To Epic’s credit, they do a great job curating the content on there, surfacing the best and most popular content.
Unfortunately, whilst Fortnite emulates countless other games, it never rivals them in quality. For example, I can’t ever see myself picking LEGO Fortnite Odyssey over another survival game like Rust, Minecraft or Valheim. You could make the same case for the racing experiences, never replacing the likes of Mario Kart and Forza. Certainly, for younger gamers though, there are countless hours of entertainment to be had whilst sampling and discovering different game genres they may come to love.
