Trials Rising Switch eShop Screenshots Look Way Better Than The Real Thing [Update]

Video games rarely look as beautifully composed as promotional screenshots, but the Switch version of Trials Rising does not look anything like the screenshots on its Nintendo store page. In fact, it seems like those screens are from another version of the game entirely.

Trials Rising came out today on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch. Many of the screenshots used to advertise the games on each of those platforms’ digital stores are identical, even the ones for the Nintendo Switch—despite the fact that its version of Trials Rising is clearly not as visually detailed as from the others.

Here’s the screenshot for the Egypt level that appears in the Switch’s eShop and the Nintendo website:

Here’s that level as it appears in a YouTube video of the game’s recent Xbox One beta:

But here’s that level as it appears in Digital Foundry’s analysis of the Switch version of the game:

The Switch version doesn’t look bad per se, but it’s missing a great deal of environmental features like rocks, stages, trees, shadows, and an entire Jumbotron setup.

Here’s Kotaku’s own video comparison of the starting level, Breaking Bad, as it appears in both the Switch and PS4 versions.

Other levels are more similar. The Grand Canyon stage, for instance, matches up pretty well with the one that appears on the other platforms and in one of the other promotional screenshots for the Switch version.

When asked for comment about the discrepancy on its website, Nintendo referred Kotaku to Ubisoft, the game’s publisher, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It’s looking like Switch isn’t the optimal platform for playing Trials Rising. In addition to running at 30 frames per second on Switch compared to 60 on other platforms, the game seems to be hampered by the Switch’s controllers, which don’t have analog triggers. The triggers on the DualShock 4 and Xbox One controller allow variable input, but Switch’s only register on and off, which isn’t ideal for a game like Trials Rising that requires precise inputs.

When the game was originally revealed at E3 last June, its developers told IGN the game played “perfectly” on Switch. While plenty of people on the game’s subreddit have reported having a grand old time with the Switch version of Trials Rising, it’s clearly a downgrade—one that’s currently masked by the screenshots on the Switch’s eShop page.

[Update – 10:35 a.m. 2/27/19]: A spokesperson for Ubisoft has given Kotaku the following statement:

“The initial screenshots that were used on pages marketing the Nintendo Switch version were posted in error; we have corrected this and updated them with the correct screenshots.”

While the screenshots in the eShop have been replaced, the ones on Nintendo’s website don’t appear to have updated yet.