The remastered GTA Trilogy on consoles and PC has whipped up some ire since its launch, with players discovering various issues with the games. For both newcomers and veterans of the series, the remasters have been something of a mixed bag, especially since the original games have such a powerful legacy.
On Metacritic, players of the remasters have not held back, and The Definitive Edition trilogy currently has an overall user score of 0.6 out of 10. One review reads, "Absolute rubbish, the rain blocks the view, the characters design is rubbish [sic] and the whole thing is a lazy remaster," which references the extremely heavy rain that falls, making it difficult to see what is happening in the game. The GTA remastered trilogy is also available on the Nintendo Switch and it seems these portable ports have not escaped criticism.
One video posted to Reddit shows assets, in this case stairs, disappearing and reappearing, as the player moves Claude a short distance away, in the remastered GTA3 on the Switch.
Under the video, one user posted "the switch version is just a blurry mess," while another added "blurry and variable sub 30 frame rate too," suggesting the games can have poor performance.
A Funkyyreedus said, "I don't really get it. Like, this looks to perform worse than the ps2 versions. At that point you might as well just port the originals and tweak the controls a little."
These kinds of comments can't be good when the Nintendo Switch is in fact more powerful than a PS3 and should have enough grunt to easily handle these remasters. However, it might not come as a surprise considering even the far more powerful PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles are also having trouble playing the remastered GTA trilogy, as players have found glitches and bugs.
The Nintendo Switch ports have received bad reviews too, with Nintendo Life calling them "a shoddy, stuttery, low resolution mess full of bugs, glitches, audio problems and more besides" and a "shockingly rough package". VGC called the Switch ports a "mess" too.
However, not everyone thinks Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - Definitive Edition on the Nintendo Switch is all bad. Another player was far more complimentary, in another more, neutral subreddit, saying that it was an enjoyable experience: "So far I've only played GTA III but I'm loving it so far as it's definitely more playable and nicer looking compared to trying to play it on PC (the original not the remaster)." However, even this comment goes on to mention glitches and the fact the game can run at a sub-30fps.
It seems Rockstar has its work cut out in salvaging the reputation of these ports.