Borderlands was one of the best new IPs to come out of the last generation of consoles and continues to have great stride with its latest entry Borderlands 3. Throughout this generation, we have seen all previous titles in the franchise get the remaster treatment including 4K HDR updates for Borderlands: The Handsome Collection. The Borderlands Legendary Collection is not only the latest collection of the Borderlands franchise, but is the first time that the series has made it to a Nintendo platform. This is also the reason why I feel like it is only meant for Switch owners.

For those that know nothing about the Borderlands series it is a first-person RPG shooter where you get to choose a specific Vault Hunter that has special traits. Over the course of each game, you then upgrade their stats and learn new abilities as you level up. Taking inspiration from the likes of Diablo, outside of your story missions, your objective is simple; shoot and loot. As you progress through the games, you will find better gear whether it be from a psycho's dead body, mission rewards, or of course, a shiny treasure chest. It has some of the best humor in any game series with a memorable cast of characters that just gets bigger and bigger in each passing entry.

Included in the collection specifically is Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Ultimate Edition, and Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition giving you the base game and DLC’s for each entry. Even for being last generation titles, you definitely get your bang for your buck at $60 whether you’re new to the franchise or not.

With Borderlands being on every other main platform outside of Nintendo platforms for years now, I don’t really see any reason to get this new collection on Switch unless you’re new to the franchise and you want it for the portability or you just have no other consoles in general. Having a unique cell-shaded art style, it isn’t particularly anything to drool over visually, but I personally feel that if you can have access to 4K HDR graphics, then why not take it? The franchise has also been out for years on current generation consoles so if you haven’t gotten any of the games at this point, it’s probably because you don’t have the capability, as I said previously.

The collection runs very well which isn’t too surprising with all games first being last-gen titles. When it comes to the Switch, I’m one of those rare few people that prefers playing their games docked instead of in handheld mode and that is definitely the way to play Borderlands, in my opinion. Playing on the go isn’t particularly a bad experience, though. The games looks great no matter which way you play but the Joy-Cons are just terrible for shooters. Even the Nintendo Pro Controller, while comfy, doesn’t meet the standards of how it should be when it comes to playing shooters, but it’s still much better than the Joy-Cons.

Despite the Switch being the worst place to play through the Borderlands franchise, especially because it doesn’t have the latest entry that is Borderlands 3 and likely won't any time soon, you still get to play Borderlands, one of the best AAA IPs to come out during the last generation. Borderlands 2 alone still has one of my favorite narratives in the past 10 years. With the incredibly fun loot n' shooting, comedically charismatic characters, and fascinating lore, Borderlands is a must-play franchise. If you have a Switch, then it is vital to add Borderlands Legendary Collection to your library.