Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy remains one of the strongest comic book and superhero games available, according to this review of the Switch 2 Encore Edition. Originally released on Xbox and PlayStation platforms, Eidos-Montreal’s adventure gets another opportunity to reach players through Nintendo’s latest hardware.
The game follows Peter Quill, also known as Star-Lord, and his team of Guardians as they pursue bounties across unusual planets and ecosystems. Their mission quickly expands into a larger conflict involving the Universal Church of Truth, the Blood Brothers, giant monsters and Lady Hellbender, the Monster Queen of Seknarf Nine.
Players primarily explore environments, interact with the other Guardians and engage in combat. Conversations are a major part of the experience: teammates regularly ask Peter for his opinion, giving players a choice between two responses or remaining silent. These exchanges highlight the distinct personalities within the group and help build a strong emotional connection with the characters.
The team dynamic is equally important during battles. Peter can use his energy guns and unlock different elemental attacks, while Rocket, Gamora, Groot and Drax gain new special abilities through skill points earned after encounters. Players can select a Guardian and assign an attack to a targeted enemy, creating combinations such as Rocket’s gravity bomb, Groot’s damaging thorns and Drax’s charge attack.
Combat also includes team huddles, during which Peter delivers a motivational speech. A successful talk temporarily improves the group’s performance and reduces attack timers, although the timing-based interaction can fail. Together with the variety of abilities and enemy weaknesses, these mechanics encourage strategic use of the entire team rather than relying solely on Star-Lord.
Exploration features environmental puzzles built around each Guardian’s abilities. Groot can create bridges, Rocket can access tight spaces, Gamora can throw Peter to higher areas and Drax can move heavy objects. The puzzles are generally straightforward, but they reinforce the idea that progress depends on cooperation. Peter’s scanning visor also provides hints and optional information about objects and enemies.
The review particularly praises the story and writing. Each Guardian receives an emotional arc, while the group develops as a team. Familiar characters such as Cosmo the Spacedog, Mantis and Adam Warlock appear with portrayals that differ from their versions in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Their distinctive interpretations, along with the dialogue between the Guardians, are described as among the game’s greatest strengths.
On Switch 2, the game is considered broadly comparable to the Xbox version in Docked mode. Handheld play involves some visual compromises, including lower performance during cinematics, less detailed hair rendering and changes to lighting, especially around characters’ faces. However, these differences do not affect gameplay, and the game’s imaginative environments and creature designs remain impressive.
The Encore Edition adds gyro aiming, mouse controls for looking and aiming, and exclusive character skins styled after 1980s rock stars. The review considers the gyro controls unnecessary and the new costumes less appealing than many of the alternate outfits that can be collected during the adventure.
An occasional technical issue can also occur when changing character skins from the pause menu, causing the game to return to the Switch menu. Frequent autosaves prevent significant progress loss, but the problem makes experimenting with outfits more convenient between missions than during active play.
The Switch 2-exclusive features are not considered substantial enough to make this the preferred version over existing next-generation releases. Nevertheless, the ability to play the full adventure in Handheld mode is presented as a major benefit. For players who want to experience Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy on Nintendo’s hardware, the Encore Edition remains a strong option, even if its additional features are modest.
Sources: Nintendo World Report.