One of the shames of the Switch hardware is that, despite it having been capable of delivering far better overall performance than you’d expect in some cases, in the case of some ports it simply just comes up short. There’s no question that talented studios with considerable resources have been able to eke out surprisingly strong performance through a variety of means, but for folks who don’t have those kinds of resources, it can be a crapshoot. While there would still be aspects of Orphans that may not have necessarily been impressive regardless, there’s no question that in its launch state the Switch port is not in any way ideal.

In this adventure you’ll get to demonstrate your skills for platforming, puzzle-solving, and stealth in relatively balanced amounts. While you’ll initially work solo, before long you’ll encounter some fellow children who’ve been locked up, with your ability to explore further tied to you liberating them and enlisting your help. Overall this dynamic ends up being a bit disappointingly simple though, with their uses being pretty narrow and limited to only specific circumstances. But I suppose it aids in the story and establishes a little more of a sense of peril as you try to stay ahead of various bizarre humanoid creatures you’ll encounter.

The clear problem is that it doesn’t take long before you begin noticing some hitches in your character’s movement. Whether it’s a minor delay in responsiveness as you try to run and jump, a visual hiccup here or there, or just a generally sluggish feel in the controls overall, there’s no mistaking the game’s performance problems. In general, I’ve typically learned to ignore minor issues, especially when they’re more cosmetic and don’t interfere with how successful I am in the game, but when I start to die or have issues because of them, there’s no brushing these issues aside.

Given these technical problems I’m afraid that there’s no way to put much of a positive spin on the Switch version of the game. I would imagine that on other more capable platforms the issues would be diminished or removed, but here without a patch I’m afraid I can’t recommend the game. That being said, even if the performance issues were taken care of, my feelings on the experience were lukewarm at best, at least when there are some other titles out there that have a similar formula but are executed and perform better.