
Switch 2 SNES games just got a graphics filter that upgrades the entire experience
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Switch 2 SNES games just got a graphics filter that upgrades the entire experience
A new update to the Nintendo’s Classics app lets you play Super NES games with an improved CRT filter. With newer tech, the graphics on retro games get upscaled, which often ends up ruining what games look like. This means that games of the SNES era end up with harsher lines and a more washed-out feel than they were meant to.Normally, you’d have to do the legwork of sourcing a CRT and lugging it back to get the right experience.
With the filter, you regain the characteristics that made graphics on the SNES so memorable to begin with: scanlines, interlacing, finer details. Paradoxically, by trying to improve the visuals, newer displays end up highlighting all the wrong aspects of the pixel art, which were designed with the limitations of CRTs in mind. This means that games of the SNES era end up with harsher lines and a more washed-out feel than they were meant to.
Normally, you’d have to do the legwork of sourcing a CRT, buying it, and lugging it back to get the right experience — inconveniences that make it obvious why the tech was largely phased out. As collectors seek these out, good CRTs have become pricier and harder to find as well.
Granted, some fans rely on other means to ensure that their favorite games render as intended, but for those of you with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, you’ve got a new option. Simply load up the SNES Classics app, head to settings, and select “CRT filter.” There’s an example of how this setting changes things in the top image, but here are a couple of comparison shots for your pleasure.
Image: Nintendo via Polygon
Image: Nintendo via Polygon
Image: Nintendo via Polygon
Image: Nintendo via Polygon
The differences are subtle, and some of you may even prefer what these games look like without the filter. But it never hurts to have options. Now you can play SNES games the way developers intended. Why not turn it on when you’re checking out the newly-released Mario Paint while you’re at it?