Nintendo hosted a mini Direct yesterday (Jan. 11) which saw the announcement of several exciting titles that are on their way to the Switch, including the likes of "Super Mario Odyssey" DLC, "Payday 2," and "Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze." However, arguably the biggest news of the conference was the reveal of "Dark Souls Remastered," which is coming to the Switch later this year. Gamers on other consoles will be pleased to learn it's also coming to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

A stellar series

"Dark Souls" originally released back in 2011 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 and was critically acclaimed for its punishing but fair combat, atmospheric world, hands-off approach to storytelling, and great music.

Several sequels have been released over the years and a spin-off title named "Bloodborne" was equally well received after being released exclusively for the PS4 in 2015. The most recent game in the series to be released was "Dark Souls III" in 2016.

Long awaited news

After the second installment received a port to the PS4 and Xbox One after it was originally released on older consoles, many fans of the series have hoped that sooner or later the original game would get the same treatment, but until now such hopes went unanswered. Whilst "Dark Souls" was hugely popular upon its release, certain areas in the game were taxing for the older systems and caused severe framerate issues which marred the experience.

Fans hoped a port running on more powerful hardware would run better and add to the overall quality of the game. The PC release of the game, which followed a year after the console release, was poorly optimized and PC gamers had to rely on modders to stabilize the game.

More than a mere port

"Dark Souls Remastered" is much more than a mere port of the original game.

This new version will indeed take advantage of the extra power of the new consoles and will run at 60fps on the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. No doubt the PC version has also been designed to run much better and the Nintendo Switch version will run at 1080p/30fps when docked in TV mode.

PS4 exclusive boxset

PS4 players who can't wait to get their hands on "Dark Souls Remastered" will want to check out this gorgeous special edition version called the "Dark Souls Trilogy Box." It includes each game in the trilogy, with all the DLC, and also comes with each game's soundtrack on CD, a special art set, and an encyclopedia.

You also get a great looking knight and bonfire bookend to store your sacred Dark Souls texts. So far, this box set has only been announced for Japan so you may need to import yours if you live in the West.

Release date

"Dark Souls Remastered" is set to be released on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC later this year on May 25. Nintendo gamers will finally be able to experience this tough but rewarding game and veteran players have an excuse to revisit it.
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