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The cult classic hit from the 6th generation of consoles, Beyond Good & Evil, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month, and for the occasion, Ubisoft is re-releasing the game for modern systems, with a brand new "20th Anniversary Edition".

This new edition will feature remastered visuals and textures, a new treasure hunt, an anniversary gallery, a reorchestrated soudntrack, up to 4k resolution alongside 60fps, as well as brand new exclusive content for the game. The game is set to release on "all platforms" according to the trailer, with no specific mention to which "platforms" they mean, but according to other outlets, the platforms are PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

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It's important to mention, however, that in preparation for this announcement, Ubisoft has delisted the original Beyond Good & Evil from Steam in its entirety, making the 20th Anniversary Edition the only way to get the game on Steam.

 

[gaga941021]

The game being 1st or 3rd party has no relevance to how this port turned out. The Switch is not using some sort of weird proprietary hardware that only Nintendo and a select few of their tight-knit group knows how to take advantage of. It's using very standardized and easy to program for Nvidia and ARM components. And it is more capable than you're making it seem, at least in regards to the sort of visuals on display in this remaster.

The game is simply poorly optimized, that's the reason it runs at such a shit framerate and resolution. The Switch is more than capable of doing far better, regardless of whether a 1st or 3rd party is handling it. Again, this is the fault of Ubisoft or whoever they handed the port to, not the hardware.

Ok. Playing it now on Series X. This port runs fine.

 

[granville]

Ok. Playing it now on Series X. This port runs fine.

We weren't talking about the other versions. Well, except for the PC port which has Denuvo.

The Switch is capable of running this game fine too. Problem is that it doesn't.

 

[RedColoredStars]

I don't agree at all. This remaster does improve the visuals, but not so much that it makes it look like a proper remake. This isn't nearly the same effort as something like Mario RPG, Paper Mario TTYD, Prime Remastered, Spongebob Rehydrated etc.

I don't really agree with that. Might be true on the Switch, but not other platforms. The screenshot comparisons I posted comparing HD vs Anniversary show a quite noticeable difference and the difference between GC/PS2 is night and day.

 

[RetroNerdGamer]

I don't agree at all. This remaster does improve the visuals, but not so much that it makes it look like a proper remake. This isn't nearly the same effort as something like Mario RPG, Paper Mario TTYD, Prime Remastered, Spongebob Rehydrated etc.

BGE 20th improves the lighting and upgrades the textures (though the textures are heavily reduced in quality on Switch so that they're not remotely at the same level of quality as the other versions). Though at least on Switch, the character geometry looks nearly the same as the original. If there are any differences in polygon counts, they're marginal and barely noticeable. The higher res textures and modern shader effects do all the work to adding detail to characters. These do look nice, but remember that they are still just applied atop geometry largely from three generations ago. And so you would expect much better performance.

Best comparison I can make is that the game essentially looks like it's a halfway step between the original Xbox and Xbox 360. The original on PS2/GC/Xbox also targeted 60fps as an upper lock. And while the PS2 version definitely had a ton of problems getting close to that, the GC port was far more consistent, and the Xbox even moreso (with PC's of that era being able to maintain 60). There was also another HD port of these original versions that ran at 60fps on 360/PS3.

The Switch version's performance is extremely rough. Hard locked at 30fps and frequently drops well below that. We're talking dips to around 15fps or lower with transparency/particle effects and during heavy combat. And like I said, heavily downgraded textures from the other versions and a clearly sub-1080p resolution even when docked. I don't know what the exact resolution is, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's closer to 720p rather than 900p or 1080p. The reflection effects in the water are also extremely low res and have substantial stair stepping and even flickering.

It's supposed to be a remaster, not a remake. People keep confusing the two and it actually pisses me off.

Also people are complaining a game re-release is $20? Bro, that's actually a really good price and way less than I thought it would be. I expected at least $40, but I guess people just won't stop complaining. Nintendo re-releases games usually for $60 they complain, a company rereleases for a 3rd of that price and they still complain. What do you expect, a game to cost $5 at launch?

 

[RedColoredStars]

It's supposed to be a remaster, not a remake. People keep confusing the two and it actually pisses me off.

Also people are complaining a game re-release is $20? Bro, that's actually a really good price and way less than I thought it would be. I expected at least $40, but I guess people just won't stop complaining. Nintendo re-releases games usually for $60 they complain, a company rereleases for a 3rd of that price and they still complain. What do you expect, a game to cost $5 at launch?

I never complained at all. I've praised the Anniversary version and I already bought it instead of waiting for a sale. $20 is a great deal imo.

 

[RetroNerdGamer]

I never complained at all. I've praised the Anniversary version and I already bought it instead of waiting for a sale. $20 is a great deal imo.

Yeah, $20 is a great price. Howw're you likin' it so far? I for one am having a lot of fun. SO many memories.

 

[LexDG]

It's supposed to be a remaster, not a remake. People keep confusing the two and it actually pisses me off.

Also people are complaining a game re-release is $20? Bro, that's actually a really good price and way less than I thought it would be. I expected at least $40, but I guess people just won't stop complaining. Nintendo re-releases games usually for $60 they complain, a company rereleases for a 3rd of that price and they still complain. What do you expect, a game to cost $5 at launch?

20 was a welcome surprise. Then I played it on switch and realized I was sold a ton of lies and a crappy job. The frame drops in some places are because of pure laziness. It’s a shame to see what has become of this game that was so lovingly crafted by the original dev team.

 

[RetroNerdGamer]

20 was a welcome surprise. Then I played it on switch and realized I was sold a ton of lies and a crappy job. The frame drops in some places are because of pure laziness. It’s a shame to see what has become of this game that was so lovingly crafted by the original dev team.

I thought it was pretty fine, though maybe it's because I really don't care about frame drops unless it's like let's say... 30 to like 5 or 10 lol
The game is really good either way though, and I'm glad to be repalying it at least.

 

[RedColoredStars]

Yeah, $20 is a great price. Howw're you likin' it so far? I for one am having a lot of fun. SO many memories.

I think it's amazing and feel my $20 was very well spent.

20 was a welcome surprise. Then I played it on switch and realized I was sold a ton of lies and a crappy job. The frame drops in some places are because of pure laziness. It’s a shame to see what has become of this game that was so lovingly crafted by the original dev team.

You're over-exaggerating by a good amount.

 

[LoggerMan]

I bought it for my OLED Switch. I bet those red lasers will look cool af on the OLED screen. I know I could get it for my modded switch and PC and it'll probably be in Gamepass soon, but I dunno, a treat for myself I suppose.