Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker Wii U vs. Switch | What Are the Differences?

The new version comes with a bunch of improvements and new stages. Here’s what’s different about the Switch version of the game.

The Nintendo Switch is hitting July in style with a double billing of great games for fans to get their hands on.

On top of Octopath Traveller, the Switch exclusive JRPG by Square Enix, we’ve also gotten a port of the preciously cute Wii U title Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker.

While the Wii U and Switch versions of Captain Toad seem identical, the Switch version brings a few new maps and some updates to the overall experience to make it the definitive Captain Toad title— albeit with a few odd decisions.

Four levels in, four levels out

With other ports, Nintendo has looked to add more content onto a preexisting game to offer more to the player. While the a lot of Wii U games were slept on the first time around, more content incentivizes people who hadn’t to pick up the game for a second time.

Captain Toad, however, does something a little different with its additions. It introduces four new levels into the game based on worlds from the recent Switch game Super Mario Odyssey but takes away four levels that were originally designed around the Wii U title Super Mario 3D Land.

The new Odyssey levels are based off of the Sand, Cascade, Metro, and Luncheon Kingdom and come with an abundance of different puzzles for players to attempt to complete.

Loading times and graphics get an upgrade

Captain Toad on the Wii U didn’t have significantly long load times like other games on the system, such as Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, but that hasn’t stopped Nintendo from using the power of the new hardware to upgrade all aspects of the game.

While docked, the Nintendo Switch version of the game’s graphics get an update from the Wii U version, where it is 1080p (up from 720p). Un-docked, Captain Toad retains the Wii U’s graphic settings.

Controls get a massive change depending on how you play

Captain Toad is a game that was made with the Wii U in mind. On the original game, you would move objects with the Wii U’s touchpad, allowing you to progress through the levels with ease.

The problem with the Switch port, however, is that if you want to play the game on the TV, you won’t be able to use the docked touch controls.

Instead, movement of objectives is handled with the gyro controls built into the Switch controller, forcing players to point and click at the game as if they were playing it on a Nintendo Wii.