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Ever since Sora joined the fight in the most recent Super Smash Bros game, it was only a matter of time before Square Enix’s and Disney’s epic collaboration brought all of their games to the platform.
Kingdom Hearts titles are available on the Nintendo Switch cloud service under the title of "Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece."
The JRPG series has been no stranger to Nintendo’s big competitors (Playstation and Xbox). Yet, due to the graphic constraints of the Switch, the franchise has always been timid to create the port fans have been waiting for. Not to mention the number of titles. It would be an incredibly long process to transfer them over to Switch cartridges.
Finally, due to the Switch's new cloud system, they are able to do this without any restraints at all. So what is the cloud, and how does this solve developers' portable problems?
Nintendo’s Cloud
Nintendo Switch cloud streaming lets graphically demanding games run on the system without the console needing the necessary GPU or CPU upgrades it requires. So how do they achieve this? And what's the catch? Well, the Nintendo will always have to be connected to the internet. This reduces the portability of the console, which is one of its main selling points. However, if you’re using it predominantly as a home console, it’s perfect. It gives Nintendo the opportunity to expand on its already vast catalogue of games.
Weirdly, you do not need a Nintendo Switch Online membership for the streaming services - unless they have multiplayer. Games currently available on the streaming service include (Note: there are more but they are available in Japan only):
- Control Ultimate Edition
- Hitman 3
- A Plague Tale: Innocence
- Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy
- Kingdom Hearts
While it’s incredibly exciting to have all of these games (especially Kingdom Hearts, in my opinion), the caveat of them being a Cloud game that needs the internet to be played slightly takes away the utility of the switch. The price of Kingdom Hearts on the Nintendo Switch is also something to question, especially with the portability not being available and the title being free to Xbox’s Game Pass members.
However, at this present moment in time, with developers still not sure whether to bring native ports to the switch, I’m more than happy to take what we can get!