Guardians of the Galaxy Switch 2 review – a nice reunion despite the odd issue

After playing Marvel’s Wolverine on my PlayStation 5, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth, one that I could only rinse with a good superhero game (Logan, lad, you deserved so much better). Luckily for me, Square Enix decided to bring Guardians of the Galaxy natively to Nintendo Switch 2, giving me the chance to revisit one of the best Marvel games we’ve had in years that isn’t Spider-Man.

In this review, I’ll mostly focus on how well the new Switch game performs, since Guardians of the Galaxy is five years old, meaning most of you are already familiar with what happens and what the game is about. Still, I’ll give a brief rundown; you play as Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, with your fellow Guardians at your side ready to fight alongside you.

The game emphasizes the teamwork between them, but I always felt it fell a little short in the sense that you can’t play as another character like Rocket or Gamora, especially the latter or Drax, as their approach to combat is different from Quill’s. Sometimes I want to run around with a sword, not guns.

Then, of course, there’s the fact that this game feels as though it would work well in co-operative multiplayer. Even now, five years later, it still feels like a missed opportunity not to at least include a local co-op option. Ah well, at least the story is fun, and the combat is entertaining, even if I can’t slice and dice.

However, the thing that makes me smile the most is the music. Anyone who’s familiar with Guardians of the Galaxy knows that the series features some great tunes from the 80s, and this game is no different. I also have to give props to the outfits you can unlock, along with the brand-new costumes that are available as part of the Switch 2 version.

While the game looks good on Nintendo Switch 2 and runs well, it’s not without its issues. As early as the first mission, I noticed a slight drop in frame rate and some stuttering, which continues periodically throughout the rest of the game. While it isn’t anything too grievous, I can’t help but draw a comparison to how well other, more demanding, triple-A games run on the system.

In my experience with numerous Capcom games (check out my Dragon’s Dogma 2 Dark Arisen review and Resident Evil remakes Switch 2 review) and Elden Ring, the Switch 2 can run even the most demanding games, which makes me look at Guardians of the Galaxy more closely.

The performance issues aren’t substantial, and they certainly don’t diminish how much fun I have with the game, but they are there. They are a bit more frequent in handheld than docked, so if you want to play it on the go and have a PC handheld, it may be worth grabbing on Steam. If you don’t, it still offers a good enough experience, and it looks great in docked mode.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy remains a fun experience even half a decade later, and even with some minor performance issues, it’s a good time on Nintendo Switch 2 – it’s certainly miles ahead of the cloud version from the original Switch. Whether you’re a new or existing player, GotG’s NS2 will leave a much better impression than Marvel’s Wolverine.