Stray is out today as a Nintendo Switch 2 launch title

Annapurna Interactive and BlueTwelve Studio have released Stray as a day-one launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2. The game is available immediately alongside the new console.

This is not a new game. It originally launched in July 2022 for PlayStation and PC. It then spent the next few years migrating to Xbox, Mac, and the first Nintendo Switch. Now it is padding out the initial software lineup for Nintendo's next generation.

A very well-ported cat

The setup remains identical to the original release. You control an ordinary orange tabby cat separated from its family after a fall. You end up in a sealed underground cybercity populated entirely by humanoid robots. These machines have developed their own society in the absence of humans. They wear clothes, run shops, and huddle in slums to avoid hostile mutant bacteria called Zurks.

The cybercity is heavily inspired by Kowloon Walled City. It is a dense, vertical environment packed with narrow alleys and stacked apartments. The robots living there have CRT monitors for heads. They display simple faces on their screens to communicate emotion. You can rub against their legs to make a heart icon appear on their monitors.

You navigate this world by doing standard cat things. You can scratch carpets, knock paint cans off ledges, and meow on command. The platforming is entirely context-sensitive. You look at a pipe or an air conditioner unit, a button prompt appears, and the cat automatically makes the jump.

About an hour into the game, you find a small drone named B-12. The drone handles all the video game mechanics the cat cannot do. B-12 translates the robot language, hacks electronic locks, and stores inventory items. The drone also provides a small flashlight for navigating the darker sewer sections.

Hardware upgrades

The first Nintendo Switch received its own port of the game in November 2024. That version required heavy visual downgrades to run on a processor from 2015. The textures were blurry and the framerate was locked at 30 frames per second. This Switch 2 release aims to fix those compromises.

The environmental detail in this version looks much closer to the original PlayStation 5 release. The neon signs reflect cleanly in the puddles of the slums. The fur rendering on the main character is intact.

The handheld format is arguably the best way to play this. The game takes about five hours to finish. It ran beautifully on the Steam Deck back in 2022 and the pacing fits perfectly with portable play. The chapters are short and the checkpoints are generous. The game structure is linear but offers a few wide-open hub areas. The Slums and Midtown sections let you wander freely, pick up side quests, and collect sheet music for a robot musician. The rest of the game pushes you forward through set pieces and stealth sections. At one point, you have to hide from security drones in cardboard boxes.

Still no sequel

Annapurna Interactive is publishing this release just as they did for previous platforms. The company has not added any new content for the Switch 2 version. You get the base game and nothing else.

BlueTwelve Studio is a small team based in the south of France. They have not announced their next project yet. Fans are still hoping for a sequel to resolve some lingering plot threads. For now, the studio seems content to keep porting their debut title to every piece of hardware on the market.