Stellar Blade Switch 2 Hands-On Preview

Stellar Blade Is Impressive On The Switch 2, But It's Far From The Best Way To Play It Published Aug 31, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 2,500 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, got context around some AI drama, and revealed how Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on more than one occasion. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. The Switch 2 is a miracle piece of hardware. I’ll never get my head around how something so small and portable can run games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Resident Evil Requiem, and Elden Ring so fluidly. It opens the door for a world of titles, new and old, to make their way to Nintendo’s latest console, and it’s very exciting. Arguably, one of the biggest hits of the last few years has been Stellar Blade. The game launched as a PlayStation exclusive before making its way to PC, doing gangbusters and even earning the ShiftUp team some stellar gifts from the studio. A Switch 2 port of the game, then, felt almost inevitable. Ahead of its release later this year, we went hands-on with this version of the game, and it's shaping up to be a fun, but not-quite-optimal way to play the modern title. Stellar Blade Is The Latest Major Title To Make The Jump To Switch 2, And We Played It Confession: I’ve never actually played Stellar Blade. I love action games, but the release schedule is relentless, and finding the time to play everything is impossible. It’s a game that’s always been on my radar, maybe because of my job, but one that’s never done quite enough to make me pick it up. As a first experience, I imagine the Switch 2 did it a bit of a disservice. In my 20-ish minutes with the game, I was thrust straight into its opening moments, with Eve’s fleet under attack. The army quickly succumbs, and she plummets to the planet below. I fought my way through handfuls of early enemies, learning the controls as I went, and from a technical perspective, it was great. The controls worked well, everything ran smoothly, and the frame rate never dipped, but I couldn’t help but notice some areas where the team had to make tough decisions, one being the hair. Eve’s usually luscious locks were replaced with wiry strands that never quite moved with the character. Understandably, choices like this need to be made, but they do detract from the experience. Eve’s usually luscious locks were replaced with wiry strands that never quite moved with the character. I then moved into Stellar Blade’s boss rematches, and felt equally contrasting opinions. Performance: fantastic; graphical fidelity: acceptable. This preview made it clear to me that I’d like Stellar Blade, but I don’t think I’d choose the Switch 2 as my main platform to play it for the first time on The whole experience evoked the feeling I had when I was 14, on holiday with my parents, buying and playing what was almost certainly a bootleg copy of Metroid Prime Hunters. Maybe it was the sci-fi setting. Maybe it was playing a game for the first time in a foreign country. Or maybe it was the fact that the game felt like it was pushing hardware to its limits that didn’t do it justice. Whatever it was, I got that same feeling. Note: I haven't played Metroid Prime Hunters since 2006/2007, so maybe it wasn’t as impressive as 14-year-old me thought it was. Stellar Blade’s Switch 2 port feels like a game that’s too advanced for the platform, but doing everything it can to work. It’s fine, impressive in fact, but some of the sacrifices are clear. It’s shaping up to be a solid option for people who have yet to play Stellar Blade or want to pick it up and take it on the go, but based on what I played, I’m far more likely to opt for the PS5 version. During our time at Gamescom, we also spoke to DongKi Lee, CTO and Stellar Blade Technical Director at SHIFT UP. You'll be able to read that interview on Wednesday, with some little snippets dropping tomorrow. Systems Released April 26, 2024 ESRB M for Mature Developer(s) Shift Up Publisher(s) Sony Interactive Entertainment Engine Unreal Engine 4 Genre(s) Action RPG