Two years after the release of Friday the 13th the game, it finally comes out to Nintendo Switch at forty US dollars. Even though it’s called “The Ultimate Slasher Edition” it’s no different from the updated version of the original game that’s on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. It does however come with a pretty epic poster, so for collectors that’s pretty cool, especially since games these days games don’t even come with a manual anymore.
It’s still the same game so for those that don’t know about it, it’s mainly an online game where you play as Jason or a Camp Counselor on locations taken place in the Friday the 13th universe. The online is where I’ll be spending a majority of the game. So how does it hold up on the Nintendo Switch?
Servers ran surprisingly smooth… Especially since this is Nintendo, the same one that can’t seem to get Super Smash Brothers and Mario Maker 2 online to run without it being five frames per second. It took about a minute and a half to join a game each time, which was long enough to annoy my girls, but I was patient enough to wait. When you finally enter a game you then wait for everyone to ready up which could take another minute. It seemed there was no drop outs when we finally got to play, or even lag during gameplay. I was pleasantly surprised how it ran the whole time playing online.
The Friday the 13th games came a long way from Purple Jason Punch Out. This game oozes nostalgia for any fan. From the different locations to the types of Jason. It also has a few familiar characters, that I won’t spoil for you.
Graphics hold up pretty decent (except for Jason’s moms head, what the heck is that low textured garbage) for docked mode, obviously not as good as the other systems but that’s expected. Portable mode is pretty awesome though. With the ability to play on the handheld while the girls watched TV was awesome. While the graphics took a pretty big hit in this mode, it was still decent and easy to tell what was happening. I hardly play my Switch portable, but the appeal is there.
With lack of mics (ran into only one person my whole time playing with one and this game is dependent on working together and communication), I was never able to escape Jason unlike the other versions. That was a huge disappointment, it almost got to the feeling of what’s the point of even playing. If you have a group of friends with switches and the game and you are all playing together, I can see that being the ultimate way to play this. As for me, I don’t know anyone else with a switch, and if I did, I don’t know anyone else who wants to play this game. Maybe I need to find meet ups online, or people who actually use mics. That’s where Xbox group finder gets it right, you can find all that in the system without an alternative way.
After a while after admitting we won’t ever win or work together with other people, that good old feeling returned of running and hiding from Jason. We had to create our own entertainment with it. Playing it with the kids was the upmost fun, we were screaming and on the edge of our seats. Instead of escaping, we just tried to stay alive the longest (one time I almost got all the tools to escape except for the gas). I liked to lure Jason out then hide from him (sometimes being able to give him the slip). Then the times when we played Jason, it was none stop laughs and “get him!” Playing as Jason was the only time when it felt we had a purpose to play.
Single player consists of offline bots (lame), Challenges and Virtual Cabin. The challenges are basically offline bots by just small quick little segments with cool set up kills. My girls were happy though because they finally got to play as Jason with it.
The problems still remain the same form the original release and that’s I don’t see this game being something you will be playing for months or even weeks to come. When the other versions are about twenty bucks, there’s no point to get this one over the others unless you don’t have any other system. If this was your only system and you are looking for a horror game to play then you can’t go wrong, especially if you are a fan of The Friday the 13th series.
With the lawsuit taking place against the F13 series, there won’t be any more updates on the game, so it’s hard to recommend it based off that. Maybe if the game was twenty dollars, but for forty on a game you know won’t grow anymore is too much. It’s too bad, because this game has so much more they can add from new levels to camp counselors and even game modes.
The one good thing I’d say that came out of this is good quality time with my girls screaming and wanting to watch all the Friday the 13th films afterwards. Overall I wouldn’t recommend the game unless you haven’t played it before and you really want to. It has better versions on other systems, and for cheaper.
