Two classic games are being brought over to the Nintendo Switch, it was revealed in last night’s Nintendo Direct Stream. Bethesda have announced that they’re bringing Doom 64 to a platform other than the N64 for the first time, and Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast has also been revived for modern platforms.
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast follows the story of Kyle Katarn as he returns to the ways of the Jedi to stop another Sith threat that has emerged. It’s easily one of the best Star Wars games of the pre-Disney era and it’s now being brought over to Switch and PlayStation 4 on 24th September. It will be followed in 2020 with a similar remaster of Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, including the game’s online multiplayer.
The ports are being handled by Aspyr, who were long known primarily for porting and publishing games on Mac – funnily enough, I first played Jedi Knight II with their port to Mac in the early 2000’s! On Switch, both games will feature support for Gyro Aiming with the system’s Joy-Con.
Bethesda are also bringing back a classic. Doom 64 isn’t the 64th game in the shooter series, but rather an N64 exclusive shooter set some time after Doom II with improved tweaked and improved graphics for the console. That’s now being brought to Switch and something other than the N64 for the first time. It will be out on 22nd November, on the same day as Doom Eternal’s release.
Bethesda are on a bit of a retro trip in the run up to Doom Eternal’s release. At QuakeCon 2019, they announced and released Doom, Doom II and Doom 3 for PS4, Xbox One and Switch. At the time, they drew a lot of criticism for slapping an enforced Bethesda net login on the games, which could not be skipped. Shortly after this came to light with a fair bit of public pushback, Bethesda updated the games to remove the requirement.
ron_mcphatty
Wow, that’s a huge surprise!! I keep dropping Jedi Knight 2 into conversation, occasionally inappropriately, and have recently had strong urges to play it again. Perfect!