In the run-up to new consoles at the end of this year, I’ll be regularly highlighting my personal favorite Nintendo Switch ports, to help show how ambition and creativity matter just as much as clock speed. Nintendo’s little machine can bring it in spite of its low-powered hardware. You can choose any of my featured games and know you’re getting the same great content you’d get on a PS4 or Xbox One.
If you just got home with your new Switch or Switch Lite, and you want to see just what it can do without spending a cent on new software, it’s time to download Warframe.
Digital Extremes’ Warframe (official site) made a big entrance on consoles at the launch of the PS4 in 2013. It’s been nothing but explosive growth and success in the years since, and the game now has an eager player base of over 50 million users.
The developers constantly add new missions, challenges, and playable frames (characters) to the game. Thanks to some help from the porting geniuses at Panic Button, you can get the whole game on your Nintendo Switch. All it takes is a free ~14 gigabyte download, and you can play the entire game alone or with up to three online friends.
Of course, being a free game, it’s filled to the brim with premium purchase options. But, in a move that’s not all that common these days, you can earn the content for free as well by putting in some grinding time. You can also play the game as long as you’d like each day, without worrying about depleting an energy bar that you’ll need to pay to refill.
The game is a fast-paced third-person action shooter. You’ll complete different types of missions across a galaxy of smaller maps, and a couple of large open worlds, gathering up loot and money as you go. You’ll customize your own spaceship. You’ll earn cards called mods that let you upgrade your weapons and armor. You’ll block bullets with a sword. You’ll hack into terminals. All while experiencing a story that mixes surrealism, science fiction, and modern pop humor into one entertaining package…
