Kena: Bridge Of Spirits was developed for Switch 1 and was canned due to “negative experience” ~ Amazing News 2020

Kena: Bridge Of Spirits was developed for Switch 1 and was canned due to “negative experience”

By Sickr on May 5, 2026

In a new interview Ember Labs has revealed that they originally tried to get the entertaining Kena: Bridge of Spirits up and running on the original Nintendo Switch. This was quite a challenge and ultimately it didn’t work out so the team jumped ship to the more powerful Nintendo Switch 2. Here’s what the company’s COO, Josh Grier, had to say about the challenges they faced.

“We did try to get it out on Switch 1. But trying to get on Switch 1, we would have had to really alter the artistic style of the game. We would have just really had to squeeze stuff. I think if we had developed a game from day one for the platform, we probably could have had a better chance.

“We got it close, but we thought it wasn’t worth it to have a lesser experience from a frame rate and performance perspective.”

“We couldn’t get the resolution there at the frame rate we wanted. And then when we did bump resolution, the frame rate was just… not great. There are some other more intense areas in the game where we’re doing a lot of things on the screen, and it just dips. And the platforming aspects, where we’re trying to make it feel really good and tight, that was a negative experience. It does exist on the server somewhere, though.”