Dave the Diver is a beachside delight held back by Switch performance issues

When sushi-restaurant sim sensation Dave the Diver first hit the scene, I could tell it was a game full of charm. It was also an unfinished game, though, as it received its first wave of acclaim with its initial launch into Early Access. I told myself I’d wait for the full release before I gave the game a shot – making sure my first experience with it was as content rich as possible. In the end Iwaited a bit longer than that, and now the game has even been ported to consoles with a newly minted Nintendo Switch release.

I figured the addictive management loop of the game would feel right at home in my hands on the Switch, inspiring me to check the game out on the plucky handheld instead of PC. The vibrant world and endlessly rewarding systems of Dave the Diver are definitely a fit for comfy handheld play, but thanks to choppy inputs and long load times, it’s far from the perfect experience on Nintendo Switch.

Dave the Diver sees our titular diving enthusiast Dave enlisted to help gather fresh ingredients for a newly opened oceanside sushi spot. Dave is equally enthusiastic about sushi, and head chef Bancho is even more enthusiastic about cooking it, so the two help slimy investor Cobra bring delicious sushi to the mouths of the masses.

There are two main tasks for Dave to contend with, and they both feed into each other through a satisfying, seamless loop. In the mornings and afternoons, you can dive into the ocean and catch fish. The layout below the blue sea changes every time you dive, but you’ve got a limited amount of oxygen and an equally limited amount of tools to use when you first start out – you can harpoon some smaller fish close to the surface, but the bigger targets lurking deeper in the sea will have to wait.

Once you resurface with your catches of the day, it’s time to open shop. Customers will come in at a steady rate of knots, and you’ll have to check in on each of them as you pour tea, serve sushi, and ensure everyone walks away happy and leaves plenty of cash behind on their way out. With just these two systems in place, Dave the Diver is immediately pretty addictive, but the magic of the game is that it is consistently throwing new systems and mechanics at you every few hours, keeping the day-to-day routine from feeling stale as your options and opportunities constantly expand. Each individual system is fairly humble, but layered together, they create a wonderful management experience that, in theory, would feel impossible to put down.

Unfortunately, the Nintendo Switch version of Dave the Diver has some nasty technical hiccups that make it all too easy to want to put the game down. Right from the opening hour of the game, you’re hit with a double-whammy of the game being capped at 30 FPS with pixel-art animations that don’t seem to match up with that slower frame rate, and every interaction has the slightest and most annoying input delay to it. Dives feel sluggish, my harpoon is a frustration to aim, and I feel like I’m trudging through sand to reach customers at the shop.

These issues hurt, but they’re coupled with incessant loading screens and waiting times – transitioning from your boat into a dive incurs a half-minute load time, exiting the dive does the same, and even going from your boat to the sushi bar triggers a lengthy load time. I should be able to reach my next task in-game as soon as I think about it, but the hefty waiting time that bookends every activity in Dave the Diver on Switch make it impossible for me to fall into the trance-like flow I know the game is capable of putting me into.

Dave the Diver is a phenomenally fun management sim – even when one aspect of the game hits a dead-end or feels like a slog, there are a dozen other activities to do instead that keep things fresh and free-flowing. It’s just a shame that, with so many technical issues, the Nintendo Switch version of the game is a hampered version of an otherwise incredible experience.