Unfortunately, the hype and excitement were betrayed by the performance of the game on the Nintendo Switch. Many players have been reporting a myriad of issues with the game from framerate drop to clipping. Even with those gameplay issues, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet received generally favorable reviews from critics. The early reviews called out the performance issues, but also acknowledged the many new features of the game that were commendable. The game received an overall score of 76 on Metacritic from professional reviewers. It is a different story for fans who had to purchase a copy of the game. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet have been absolutely review bombed by players, with the game receiving an average user score of 2.8 on Metacritic. The review site was flooded with user scores of 0/10, with a majority of players being upset about the performance issues. Fans have been so furious with the game that they have attempted to return it a week after launch. Players have been reporting that they have successfully been refunded. Browsing through the several pages of user reviews, many players acknowledge that the game had some good things going for it such as the new open-world gameplay and the auto-battle feature. Others have commended the co-op feature of the game as one of its great features. However, many gamers have also commented that the game is unfinished, and unplayable, as it often stutters and suffers from low framerates. Many have said that the game does not even get to 30fps consistently. With all the issues that players have encountered, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are now the lowest-rated mainline title from The Pokémon Company. It will be interesting to see how Game Freak and Nintendo will respond to the backlash that the game has received. It is widely expected that the developers will work on an update to increase the game’s performance to an acceptable level. However, with all the issues that were reported, it may take a while before a patch arrives. If there is anything that we have learned in the previous year, working to fix the game would be the best recourse. Battlefield 2042 and Cyberpunk 2077 are two of the biggest titles that have also encountered disastrous launches. These games have bounced back with Battlefield 2042 gaining back much of the lost player base while Cyberpunk 2077 has become one of the most popular games on Steam. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are now available for the Nintendo Switch.
