Nintendo Switch 2 exclusives are reportedly getting backported to Switch 1; Mario Kart World and Pokemon Pokopia are now playable on the previous-gen console.
Modder touhoufagyuri took to Twitter/X to share footage of backports of Nintendo Switch 2 exclusives Mario Kart World and Pokemon Pokopia running on Switch 1. According to them, some aspects in the Mario Kart World port haven’t been implemented correctly in the current build, due to which some graphical elements are missing. That said, the game is said to be running at a stable frame rate in docked mode with forced low quality LOD forced and a lower quality render.
Meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch 1 backport of Pokemon Pokopia appears to fare better, with a slightly modified build running at 720p and 30 fps. This performance is currently only achievable with a GPU overclock, though the memory remains at stock clocks. It’s also worth noting that the game isn’t playable from start to finish in its current state, as certain bugs still need to be ironed out.
Mario Kart World & Pokemon Pokopia Nintendo Switch 1 Backport Footage
Footage of the aforementioned Nintendo Switch backports of Mario Kart World and Pokemon Pokopia can be seen below.
Efforts such as the backports seen above and emulation on other platforms became a reality just a few days after a major webkit exploit was discovered in the console’s system software, allowing its firmware to be dumped. The latter has opened new possibilities for reverse engineering. A better understanding of the system’s software and hardware interfaces is helping developers in reproducing the console’s behavior on other platforms. The firmware dump was made possible by an extraction tool developed by modder Kurumuz. Additionally, another researcher succeeded in extracting decrypted game files for Mario Kart World and other titles. The hack was enabled via vulnerabilities in SmileBASIC 4, a Switch 1 game, alongside an attack against the console’s filesystem system module.
