An analysis of GTA 5 source code suggests that a Nintendo Switch port of the game was never in development.

Given the sheer number of releases these days, it is impossible for us to reassess individual games in the weeks, months, sometimes years after our initial review. Too much praise over patches that shouldn't have been necessary to begin with, is like condoning their actions. However, there are still problems here and this is still very far from any sort of definitive experience.With the revolutionary freedom to go anywhere and jack anyone, Grand Theft Auto III puts the center of the criminal underworld at your fingertips, if you have enough guts to take it. Whereas before, constantly tapping a face button to run could prove tiring, all three games here allow you to adjust this to a simple hold. That theory would explain why the source code contains more mentions of the console's NX codename than its official Switch moniker.

The genre-defining classics, enjoy Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - now updated with new lighting, environmental upgrades, high-resolution textures, increased draw distances, Grand Theft Auto V-style controls and targeting, and much more; bringing these beloved worlds to life with all-new levels of detail. Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition on Switch delivers three of gaming's true greats in a shockingly rough package that manages to suck pretty much all of the fun out of Rockstar's stellar crime epics. The Switch port of Red Dead Redemption that was released in August 2023 is still the only RAGE engine game that has made its way to Nintendo's hit console to date. Rumors of a GTA 5 Switch port have been circulating the industry for nearly as long, since before Nintendo's hybrid console even hit the market in early 2017.Retro City Rampage and Shakedown Hawaii are probably better choices if you are looking for driving around and shoot things. All three games are available on iOS and Android, and maintain the integrity of their original releases.

They feel much more playable and smooth as a result and it's great to see that the most immediate, egregious, and noticeable problem has, for the most part, been ironed out. All of these niggles and problems were, for us, the major setbacks that made the original release of this trilogy on Switch an experience that we recommended everyone avoid, and now that they're all somewhat sorted, we'd be tempted to very tentatively say this is a package that's now worth picking up.

But given recent precedent, what's clear is that Grand Theft Auto fans shouldn't hold their breath for GTA 6 on the Switch 2, for all the same reasons that made the Switch miss out on the previous game. Join Elite Reward today and earn up to 10% points back with Elite Reward - Our exclusive membership service from GAME. Selected lines only, determined by size, weight or whether delivered direct from one of our suppliers. Again, this is all stuff that should never have been a problem in the first place but, if we're to let bygones be bygones, combining these small wins with the frame rate and pacing improvements you've got an experience that is much improved over the dog's dinner we first sat down to. When I played this on my Xbox I was amazed by how bad the performance was, totally not worth messing around with.