2011 saw an unexpected gem-of-game shine through that year, that game was Saints Row The Third. This sweet game brought with it political incorrectness, slap stick humor and over-the-top gameplay.

Fast forward to 2019 and Saints Row The Third has re-emerged on the Nintendo Switch as the Full Package. Straight up you have a DLC overload as Saints 3 The Full Package is just that, the full package. It is complete with all the DLC from the original.

I personally loved the Saints series, well, 1, 2 and 3 anyway. They were a great break from everything normal, and on the Nintendo Switch I am happy to say, the game is as fun as I remember. Unfortunately, that’s where the good stops with Saints 3 on Switch.

The first thing I noticed that was wrong, oh so wrong with this port were the controls or lack thereof as you would have it. The input lag as I guess you could call it is woeful. I tried playing on the pro controller and on the joy-cons. Nope, still sucked. Trying to move or aim is damn near impossible to do with any accuracy whatsoever. I pushed the controller axis sensitivity up to 100% on both the X & Y and it was only just playable. Just.

It was still unenjoyable though. At the time of writing this review, because I was slack in getting this done, an update patch was released. So hold tight while I go download it and test it to see if that fixed the controls issues….. Be right back…..

So I’m back. In my time, that was about 1 hour.

After installing the update that was available, the controls still have massive amounts of input lag unless you keep the sensitivity set to 100% on X & Y axis.
Graphically the game is at best, OK. In handheld mode the game does run smoothly in 720p. It doesn’t look the best, but it runs without problems. I would probably compare it to how it looked on a PS3, but a little worse.

If you dock the switch and play in 1080p, prepare for dropped frames, slow framerates and all-round gameplay ruining graphics.

I do not develop games, and nor do I know anything about porting games from one platform to another. I can’t imagine what was involved to bring this game to the Switch, but if you are going to attempt such a task, please, please do it right. I loved this game!

Saints Row The Third was/is a really great, fun game that you can leave all reality behind and go nuts with. This port to the Nintendo Switch in its current form is broken from the controls perspective. I can live with sub-par graphics, it is a 2011 previous-gen game anyway, but the input lag for movement is just something I can’t get past.

The upside is that in today’s gaming world, patches can be sent out. This game can be fixed. Until then however, don’t spend you hard earned $$$ on it unless you are a hardcore Saints fan! Even then, maybe still wait until the controls are fixed.

Written by: Kurt Frohloff

A Founder of MKAU, a gamer, a family man. I have a love of all things gaming and a wish of mine is to have more time to actually play the games we review here!