For those of us starving for more Fallout after the second season of Prime’s excellent show, Fallout 4’s Anniversary Edition on the Switch scratches that radiated itch.
When Fallout 4 first launched way back in 2015 I played for about 4 hours before putting it down for good. I had come off of my first full playthrough of Fallout 3 the year prior and had been Jonesing for more Wasteland action, but was now competing for TV time with my family which meant that big, slow RPGs just couldn’t hang. The Switch became a godsend soon after for obvious reasons, but by then Fallout was a distant memory.
Years later Fallout on Prime reactivated that portion of my Wasteland-loving brain, and with Fallout 4 back in a new Anniversary Edition celebrating the original launch now’s the time to finally head out of the Vault. And boy am I glad, because the withering world sure is purty, especially on the Switch 2’s portable screen.
Fallout 4 is still a little divisive, but the visuals aren’t the main culprit any more. It’s a big, BIG world, and it wraps more of a plot than its numbered predecessor did. Being a Family Man the game’s Family Man Story connects a little better with me, and the East Coast setting is one that I’ve been to a thousand times, albeit in real life. Its world is somewhat empty and takes a little effort to start making it to other points of humanity, both accepting of and against our survival intentions, so there is some feeling of padding that permeates throughout the game — but on the couch while Love is Blind or NHL games are on in the background this doesn’t feel as much of an issue like it did a decade ago. Part of F4 feels like it was ahead of its time in how we interact with media, in that respect.
There’s a subset of sickos that want to pick up the game just to see how it runs on Nintendo’s newest platform. Some of the coverage that’s been floating around, and not specifically by Bethesda, has been focused on the performance aspect. This isn’t the first time Fallout 4 has been on a handheld, since it’s already on the Steam Deck, but it feels really optimized here now, like it’s actually designed for the platform rather than just being on it. In fact I’m surprised with how good it runs and looks. It’s a sort of impossible port, so to speak, because it gives so many solid options for performance that each work well in different situations. I played docked for a bit and mostly angled in at the 40fps setting. In handheld mode though is where the experience shines. I ratcheted that up to 60fps and rarely had an issue. It looks really, really, really good. There are genuine moments that I had to bring the Switch 2 closer to my face because I couldn’t believe that this level of fidelity was on a Nintendo platform. A little lite blurring now and again, but with the fluidness of everything that’s not enough to focus on for myself.
But people aren’t buying and playing this game just to see how it runs; they’re Nintendo fans doing so because they want to experience Fallout again, or the first time. The game has gone through A LOT since its first release. This Anniversary version has tons of features, Creation Club additions, updates and more to flush the game out, and there’s so much more to do now, beyond the 30 hours or so it takes to actually run through it. It’s not the most original story, but it’s the most TV-like in Bethesda’s arsenal, and because I’m Fallout on Prime-pilled right now I’ll continue taking in any content.
It took a little while but hopefully Fallout 4 is finally getting its flowers, and those flowers look and smell pretty great on the Switch 2. So now that it’s finally here, let’s start circling back to the Fallout 3 games…
This review is based on a Switch 2 eShop code sent to SideQuesting by the publisher. Images and video courtesy publisher and SideQuesting. This video first appeared on The SideQuest for March 06, 2026.
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