The latest instalment of the well loved gore-fest that is Mortal Kombat released yesterday on Nintendo Switch, but opinions and review scores have been as harrowing as some of the series’ famous Fatalities.

The actual game itself, at least on other consoles, has been met with praise and has been heralded as a worthy entry in the series, with an average score of around 85%, but the Nintendo Switch version specifically is where things get murky.

The game skipped a release on the original Xbox One and PS4, last-gen consoles that are still notably more powerful than the Switch, so why did they miss out, when the Switch version still saw the light of day?

The likely answer is that while the Switch is inferior to both the Xbox One and PS4 in power, the user-base isn’t. In fact, right now the Switch has one of the biggest audiences of any console, ever. So it makes sense that most publishers want their games on the system.

Currently the Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 has an average score of around 40% on score aggregator Metacritic, and this is because the port itself has a myriad of issues. While they have aimed to keep the game running at 60fps, the most obvious issue is the graphical difference between versions, and the graphically inferior Nintendo Switch just can’t seem to keep up.

While this may partly be the consoles fault (it is over 6 years old and a handheld after all), a lot of the blame has to be put onto the developer and publisher, either for not doing a good enough job on the port, or for simply refusing to accept that the game is just too much for the Switch to handle, and instead of passing up on the console, releasing an inadequate port which unsuspecting gamers may pick up and be disappointed with.

Above: An in-game screenshot of the much less impressive Nintendo Switch version of the game

The Wii saw similar issues when it was also the most popular but least powerful console, but back then publishers such as EA and SEGA saw fit to create bespoke versions of certain titles, like a specific Wii edition of Sonic Unleashed, or the exclusive My Sims series.

So as of right now, Mortal Kombat 1 is objectively not a good game on the Switch, and you should likely avoid it, but the creators aren’t going down without a fight, and wish to fix the title and appease players anger.

Speaking recently to the BBC, series creator Ed Boon assured gamers that the game will be receiving an update, and it sounds like it will be a substantial one.

[Mortal Kombat will] absolutely be getting an update. And a number of the concerns of the issues that had come up will absolutely be addressed.

It would have been ideal for us to have released the version that we absolutely wanted. But anything that we're finding a problem with is on our list and is going to be fixed.

It will be supported, like we did with Mortal Kombat 11. Anything that we see that is not acceptable will absolutely be addressed.

No date or time for an update has been announced just yet, but we’ll keep you posted on any changes to Mortal Kombat on Nintendo Switch.

Curiously, Nintendo have uploaded a launch trailer of the game on their YouTube account, with footage that is quite clearly not from the Nintendo Switch version of the game. Given the graphic nature of the title, we won't embed the video, but you can view it by clicking here.