The folks over at Digital Foundry have done a deep dive on the emulation used for GameCube on Switch 2, looking at how the games – Zelda: Wind Waker, SoulCalibur II, and F-Zero GX – all hold up next to their original releases, and why Nintendo perhaps didn't opt to bring GameCube to the original Switch.
A big chunk of the video is spent looking at the Nvidia Shield TV, which contained four Nintendo games as part of a partnership with Nvidia in exchange for the Tegra X1 in Switch. These were only available in the Chinese market, but their inclusion in the device is an interesting topic as to why GameCube games have not been made available sooner.
Going onto the performance upgrades for the GameCube games on Switch 2, SoulCalibur II and F-Zero GX both support full widescreen mode, while all three titles support a native resolution of 900p, upscaled to the maximum 4K output possible with some limited anti-aliasing applied. Frame rates are locked to their original caps, which means that SoulCalibur II and F-Zero GX run at 60fps, while Wind Waker is locked to 30fps.
GameCube titles will be added to Nintendo Switch Online exclusively on the Switch 2 when the console launches on 5th June 2025. Nintendo is also selling a wireless GameCube pad via its own store (if you qualify for a pre-order, that is) which will allow for the most authentic experience of the games. The company has stressed that the controller will only work with GameCube titles on Switch 2, but we'll be sure to test this out once we get our hands on the launch console and accessories.
