Stray, the hit indie title, first captivated players when it launched on PlayStation 5 in 2022. From TikTok highlight reels flooding timelines to a surge of excitement with its physical edition release a few months later… It felt like it was all any gamer could talk about that winter — any gamer except me.
It would be remiss of me to not introduce you to my own fur baby, Paisley. This little lady had to have some rather risky surgery right around the initial release window of Stray, which meant her mamma didn’t have the heart to play a cute game about a cat. Thus, I missed out on the hype.
Fast forward to 2024 and Paisley is alive and well, her mamma is happy, and Stray has just been released for Nintendo Switch. Finally! This my chance to see what I’ve been missing out on — and BOY-MEOWDY was I missing out on something truly spectacular.
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Developed by BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapurna, Stray is a single player adventure game about a cat in a dystopian world, trapped underground and finding a way to return to the surface. It’s an absolutely stunning game, designed almost flawlessly, and its mysteries had me hooked. However, is playing it on the Nintendo Switch the best way to experience it?
A Furrific Story
This game had its claws in me; from the very first minute I was obsessed. The mysteries of Stray had me feeling a similar way to how I felt when I first played Horizon Zero Dawn — though this game is more bite sized in comparison.
What is this place? Who are these… People? What happened to humanity? What are these horrific parasitic creatures? These questions are drip fed in a way that will leave you wanting to know more, and being a shorter adventure, they don’t leave you hanging for long.
Adventuring through the underground, meeting kooky robots with quirky human personalities, and dodging Zurks; It’s a great time. This feline, cyberpunk adventure will make it difficult for you to put your Switch down.
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Meow-velous Gameplay
Although the gameplay could be easily mistaken for an open world experience at times, in truth it’s a lot more linear than you might first think. Although there’s no obvious ‘yellow paint’, where-to-go is easily identified by environmental cues. Lighting and object placement make it clear where the game wants you to go without it feeling like it’s on rails. If you’re ever stuck, a conspicuously placed sign might point you in the right direction, but for the most part you subconsciously traverse the underground the way the developers intended.
Another stellar gameplay choice is the feature to turn off “cat death”, preventing you from seeing the cat, well, dying. If you’re sensitive to that kind of thing (it’s me, I’m sensitive to that kind of thing) then this feature will save you plenty of heartache. Very considerate, BlueTwelve.
There are a couple minor flaws to what is otherwise an excellent game. For starters, only being able to jump when prompted makes the time-based sections of the game difficult. There were many instances where I died to Zurks because the cat wouldn’t jump. Despite the cat facing the ledge, the game demanded the camera be aligned perfectly with it, leading to unnecessary deaths.
Speaking of camera angles, these were often quite cumbersome. The camera angles and rotation felt noticeably clunky, falling short of the standards you’d expect from modern games. This was most notable when sprinting; it felt like the camera was a hindrance when you really needed it most.
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Those difficulties aside, the game overall ran smoothly. It never felt like a slog to figure out where to go and what to do next. Though I might have needed to redo a few sections due to unfortunate deaths, it was never a grand frustration.
An Almost Purrrfect Switch Port
Don’t be shy, this is the reason you’ve come to this review. We all know what a Switch port of a next-gen game can be like, and you’re rightly afraid that this game will be another Hogwarts Legacy or Mortal Kombat 1. Well, I have the answers you seek: Stray is an excellent port of a next-gen game onto Nintendo Switch hardware… Provided you play it in hand-held mode.
The graphics are obviously not as detailed as its PlayStation 5 counterpart, however they do appear quite blurry when viewed on a large screen such as a TV or monitor. Counter to this, when played hand-held on a Nintendo Switch OLED model, the graphics actually hold up rather well. Ultimately, it depends on how you want to play Stray. I would argue that if you were wanting to play Stray on a TV or monitor, you would be better off acquiring a copy of the game for another piece of gaming hardware. You would buy Stray for the Switch if you were looking for a portable experience.
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Beyond the graphics, this game doesn’t skip a beat. Sure, the game came out over two years ago on a (at the time) next-gen console, but the port to old-gen hardware holds up fairly well.
The Verdict
Stray is a phenomenal game with a great premise, excellent mechanics, and a story that will tug at your heart-strings. However, its port to the Nintendo Switch hardware is a little substandard. If a Switch was the only gaming hardware you owned, or you wanted the handheld experience, I could confidently suggest grabbing a copy. However, if you were planning to play it predominantly on a TV or monitor, I would suggest picking it up for another console instead (and if you haven’t yet, you absolutely should).
As the old saying goes, time spent with cats is never wasted.
Quest Daily scores Stray on Nintendo Switch:
8/10
Stray is available now on Nintendo Switch for $44.99. It’s also available on PlayStation 5 and PC.
A copy of Stray was supplied to Quest Daily for the purpose of this review.
