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Digital Foundry: Mortal Kombat 1: 'Too Big' For Switch... But Stunning on PS5/Xbox Series X/S

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?




Every console version of Mortal Kombat 1 tested, including the much-maligned Nintendo Switch port. Top-end machines like PS5, Xbox Series X and S hand in a solid 60fps here with some of the best visuals seen in a fighting game. However Nintendo's handheld struggles to hand in a palatable experience, with huge visual cutbacks and a wavering frame-rate too.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
- UE4, not UE5. Not cross-gen, only for PC/PS5/Series and surprisingly Switch.

- Switch:
- Switch: $70 price, 35GB (versus 114GB on bigger consoles)
- All game play features are identical.
- Lengthy load times, 15 seconds from menu to character screen (seamless on PS5/Series)
- Frame rate drops to as low as 4 FPS when picking characters
- A further 40 seconds to load the stage (6 seconds on Series X for comparison)

- Docked: 576p to 756p DRS. Typically hangs at higher DRS in 30 FPS segments (fatalities etc)
- Portable: Dynamic 720p with lows of 396p.
- Every facet of visuals is dropped or stripped out during stages, including SSR on some stages
- Lighting is altered and shadows are stripped and in some stages completely removed from characters
- Background characters which animate on other console versions are static on Switch, however some cloth etc physics remain.
- Facial animations for characters do not animate and remain static in pre-fight scenes
- Hitching and flickering on story cut-scenes as well.

PS5 - Series S|X:
- PS5 / Series X: Dynamic 2160p to 1800p. Visual settings are a match
- Series S: Dynamic 1440p to 1080p in GPU heavy moments
- Series S also has lower texture and shadow quality compared to X (but not really noticed outside of 300% zoom)

Performance:
- PS5, Series S|X 'watertight 60 FPS'
- They all cap to 30 FPS during intro and outros. The DRS is always the max in these segments as well with highest visual settings.

- Switch Performance:
- Intro cut-scenes jump between 10 and 30 FPS with 200ms frame time spikes
- Also momentary pauses after character intros before the next one is loaded
- Gameplay unlocks to 60 but often drops to 30s and 20s. Baseline is 55 to 60 with huge dips. When cameo fighters are called, it takes a nose dive.
- Stands in contrast to MK11's Switch port in terms of play-ability. (i-e it's much worse)

Conclusion:
- Avoid the Switch version for now, the other versions are all highly recommended.
 
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Knightime_X

Member
I think they should have made the backgrounds multilayered 2d pictures.
Would probably help making characters look and run better.
 
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Dat 30% GPU perf advantage on Series X.

Sorry, it's just funny after the Phil Spencer fiasco.

Superb job on next gen machines. Even the Series S.
It seems that this is a developer issue, if a developer doesn't want to take advantage of the series x extra power they don't have too. You could say who can blame them if the series x install base is so low. As long as the game looks as good as the PS5 version though does it actually matter.
It looks like we will have to wait and see what a decent xbox developer can do with the series x to get a true taste of power since Microsoft are so hands off with Bethesda.
Personally I would have a tech team who goes round all Microsoft studios to make sure they are using all the series consoles unique tricks. For some reason we havn't had any of that this gen, even forza horizon was a cross gen title, and gears 5 again a patched last gen game.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Dat 30% GPU perf advantage on Series X.

Sorry, it's just funny after the Phil Spencer fiasco.

Superb job on next gen machines. Even the Series S.

SX has a higher average DRS going by some other comparisons, but the game's maxing out both platforms anyway with DRS 2160p. The only other thing they could have done is add a 1440p 120hz mode. Not much else left as it's hitting the theoretical ceiling on these consoles what looks like pretty comfortably.
 
HUgQQHQ.png
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
I have MK9 on Vita and it looks like absolute ass (closer to a PSP fighter than Vita ones like MVC3, and maybe worse than stuff like T5DR) but plays very well. That's what I thought they did when I first saw this one, but no, they screwed up everything.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Any talk about loading? From what I’ve seen there is zero loading on Xbox and ps5

PS5/SX are seamless from menu to character selection, Switch has a load time. Starting a fight takes 6 seconds on Xbox (they did not mention PS5) and 40~ seconds on Switch.
 
I think what is really disappointing in reality is reading shit like this all the time.

Great game running as it should, except for the Switch.
"Even as i type this i know i shouldn't but i can't help myself."

The irony here is as palpable.

See we could live in a world that you desire but instead Mr. Phil prematurely sent out marching orders to his goons in his crusade to spread FUD among the competition.

What makes this even funnier is Mr. Phil getting caught with his pants down sniffing his own farts.

Now you are left with this.
watermelon fail GIF


Deal with it.
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Even as i type this i know i shouldn't but i can't help myself.

The irony here is as palpable.

See we could live in a world that you desire but instead Mr. Phil prematurely sent out marching orders to his goons in his crusade to spread FUD among the competition.

What makes this even funnier is Mr. Phil getting caught with his pants down sniffing his own farts.

Now you are left with this.
watermelon fail GIF


Deal with it.


I agree.

You shouldn't have typed this.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Even as i type this i know i shouldn't but i can't help myself.

The irony here is as palpable.

See we could live in a world that you desire but instead Mr. Phil prematurely sent out marching orders to his goons in his crusade to spread FUD among the competition.

What makes this even funnier is Mr. Phil getting caught with his pants down sniffing his own farts.

Now you are left with this.
watermelon fail GIF


Deal with it.
What does Phil have to do with this game running like ass on Switch?
 

SolarFry

Member
Well, if you don't have anything else to play it on, the switch is an option

Also you can "play" it on the go, etc.

Thankfully, I've other options.
 

Lysandros

Member
It seems that this is a developer issue, if a developer doesn't want to take advantage of the series x extra power they don't have too. You could say who can blame them if the series x install base is so low. As long as the game looks as good as the PS5 version though does it actually matter.
It looks like we will have to wait and see what a decent xbox developer can do with the series x to get a true taste of power since Microsoft are so hands off with Bethesda.
Personally I would have a tech team who goes round all Microsoft studios to make sure they are using all the series consoles unique tricks. For some reason we havn't had any of that this gen, even forza horizon was a cross gen title, and gears 5 again a patched last gen game.
Why are we talking about XSX' 18% "extra power" while leaving out PS5's 22% "extra power" here, may i ask?
 
Why are we talking about XSX' 18% "extra power" while leaving out PS5's 22% "extra power" here, may i ask?
Maybe because the guy I replied to mentioned xbox 30% more power.
I dont think either console has been pushed to is max yet, playstation developers have definitely done a better job showing Ps5 potential compared to xbox developers who have shown nothing so far, and you cant relay on 3rd parties to use a console to it's maximum. Playstation will nearly always be the lead platform due to sales lead, so if anyone is going to show what the series x can do it's going to have to be a mn xbox 1st party team. Not sure if xbox see Bethesda as a true first party or if Bethesdas teams are not really trying to extract all the potential of the series x, or if the series x is just not that good. Only time will give us that answer.
 

Lysandros

Member
Maybe because the guy I replied to mentioned xbox 30% more power.
Well then. Just for the sake of convenience; there is no need to reply to lunacy. There is neither 30% nor 18% of (one sided) "more power" to be found. Those systems perform on par because the base hardware is evenly matched, that is the main reason.
 
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SaintALia

Member
Well that's to be expected. Surprised they even bothered, but considering Switch's large install base and the last game probably sold pretty well, a version of this gonna happen...with the expected results. With a game like this, you'd have to be tweaking it a lot more heavily and making more nips, tucks and cuts to get a 'smooth' experience instead of trying to do a 1-1 port...well, a 1-.025 I guess.


Looking forward to the inevitable MK1 Switch 2 port Digital Foundry coverage though.
 

MarkMe2525

Gold Member
"Even as i type this i know i shouldn't but i can't help myself."

The irony here is as palpable.

See we could live in a world that you desire but instead Mr. Phil prematurely sent out marching orders to his goons in his crusade to spread FUD among the competition.

What makes this even funnier is Mr. Phil getting caught with his pants down sniffing his own farts.

Now you are left with this.
watermelon fail GIF


Deal with it.
Are you ok?
 
It seems that this is a developer issue, if a developer doesn't want to take advantage of the series x extra power they don't have too. You could say who can blame them if the series x install base is so low. As long as the game looks as good as the PS5 version though does it actually matter.
It looks like we will have to wait and see what a decent xbox developer can do with the series x to get a true taste of power since Microsoft are so hands off with Bethesda.
Personally I would have a tech team who goes round all Microsoft studios to make sure they are using all the series consoles unique tricks. For some reason we havn't had any of that this gen, even forza horizon was a cross gen title, and gears 5 again a patched last gen game.
Then why don't Xbox first party games look better than PS5 first party games? Halo isn't a great looking game, FH5 looks nice but it's a racing game and it doesn't look better than Forbidden West which also has more things going on. I'm not going to throw in the bethesda games yet because they didn't start out as xbox exclusive games but if I did they would only make my point stronger.

Now onto Mortal Kombat, I know some people try to say that the character models don't look much better in this game than the last, I'd have to disagree in some areas. The hair definitely looks better in this game but where it really stands out from MK11 is the backgrounds. They are all much deeper, no more of those flat 2D paintings in the backgrounds with blur put on top of them to hide the fact that they are flat. MK11 the stuff closest to the player looked good but everything further back was flat for the most part, in this game it's all modeled and looks great.
 
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Then why don't Xbox first party games look better than PS5 first party games? Halo isn't a great looking game, FH5 looks nice but it's a racing game and it doesn't look better than Forbidden West which also has more things going on. I'm not going to throw in the bethesda games yet because they didn't start out as xbox exclusive games but if I did they would only make my point stronger.
I think you missed the point I was making, xbox first party havn't released a next gen exclusive game yet, halo is a cross gen game having to run on the original xbox 1.
I was simply saying we will have to see what a decent 1st party studio can do with the series x to see its true power. Bethesda are bit known for technical prowess and it seems like xbox didint have any experts to send out to say redfall devs to make sure it was using all the power they could. Starfield I'm sure they did offer assistance to Bethesda but who knows when they did that, maybe only after the redfall disaster.
Forza might be the first true showcase, not forza horizon as that again was crossgen.
 
SX has a higher average DRS going by some other comparisons, but the game's maxing out both platforms anyway with DRS 2160p. The only other thing they could have done is add a 1440p 120hz mode. Not much else left as it's hitting the theoretical ceiling on these consoles what looks like pretty comfortably.

I think what's true is that no true real advantage is noticeable in this title. You can't go wrong with either version unless you choose the switch which is the only one with issues.

After so many years people need to accept the two systems are very similar. The only way a big difference will happen is with Pro systems or new consoles.
 
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sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
Can confirm....PS5 version is outstanding and a graphical beast!

Shocked that Ed Boon would allow his baby to be released on Switch in such a completely deplorable state. I can only hope he highly protested and was overridden by the assholes at WB (who also i believe are the reason why we havent got a classic MK game collection on modern systems)
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Can confirm....PS5 version is outstanding and a graphical beast!

Shocked that Ed Boon would allow his baby to be released on Switch in such a completely deplorable state. I can only hope he highly protested and was overridden by the assholes at WB (who also i believe are the reason why we havent got a classic MK game collection on modern systems)

It was very likely a WB studio mandate, possibly farmed off to a cheap porting studio going by the final.

MK11 was better than this .
 

Bojji

Member
It seems that this is a developer issue, if a developer doesn't want to take advantage of the series x extra power they don't have too. You could say who can blame them if the series x install base is so low. As long as the game looks as good as the PS5 version though does it actually matter.
It looks like we will have to wait and see what a decent xbox developer can do with the series x to get a true taste of power since Microsoft are so hands off with Bethesda.
Personally I would have a tech team who goes round all Microsoft studios to make sure they are using all the series consoles unique tricks. For some reason we havn't had any of that this gen, even forza horizon was a cross gen title, and gears 5 again a patched last gen game.

You say it like Xbox having advantage is 100% proven or confirmed. So far most games are very, very close while some are better on Xbox and some are better on PS5.

Xbox may have more power on paper but it's probably harder to extract, faster clock approach on PS5 may be more efficient (for some engines\developers).

There is also everything else:
- shit tools for devs at Xbox launch
- series s being dominant Xbox console this gen...
- PS5 being dominant console this gen

All above may have something to do with games underperforming on series x.

Series X is like mid gen refresh in a sense, developers don't have to really try hard on it just like they didn't (sometimes) with pro and one x. Decision to make 2 different consoles was very stupid.
 
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