The Nintendo Switch is going out with a bigger bang than expected, with multiple new first party titles announced for this year and beyond.
If this month’s Nintendo Direct had been 20 minutes long and only featured a few indie games and Wii U remasters nobody would’ve blamed Nintendo. Their new console is out in 2025 and for the longest while they had nothing scheduled for release in the second half of the year… but now they do.
Many were hoping for a reveal of Metroid Prime 4 and they got it, but it ended up being the only first party Nintendo game not due out this year, with a new Zelda title (that actually stars Zelda), a new Mario Party, and a new Mario & Luigi.
Unusually for Nintendo, a number of the games had been leaked ahead of time, but the Direct started off with something nobody was expecting: a new entry in the Super Mario RPG adjacent Mario & Luigi series.
Mario & Luigi: Brothership will be out on November 7 but two of the main reasons it’s a surprise is that original developer AlphaDream went bankrupt in 2019 and that was partly because the series had been selling less and less over time.
It was always very good though and while it’s not clear who’s making Brothership the trailer looks a lot of fun, with some distinctive cel-shaded visuals and the games’ usual turn-based combat with real-time gimmicks.
We just hope the game maintains its sense of humour from the previous titles, which was always one of the main appeals in entries like Bowser’s Inside Story.
In terms of other games, the previously announced Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition was confirmed for July 18, with a console version of Fantasian Neo Dimension, from the creator of Final Fantasy, coming sometime this winter.
Nintendo Switch Sports will be getting a new basketball mini-game this summer, as a free update, while Disney Illusion Island is getting a free update this very day.
There wasn’t an awful lot of indie games on show, but we liked the pencil art style of MIO (Memories in Orbit), which was one of a few titles not due out until 2025 – further proof that Nintendo and others intend to support the Switch well into next year.
We imagine Looney Tunes: Wacky Worlds Of Sports is probably multiformat but a fair amount of effort seems to have gone into it, with ‘four arcade style sports’ on offer.
There was also confirmation of a major new update for Among Us, with several new imposter roles. Although it was ironic that it was only a short announcement, as a leak concerning the update is what finally revealed the date of the Nintendo Direct, before it was officially announced.
Despite rumours of Zelda and Metroid remasters, and expectation that there could well be more beyond just that (the continued absence of Xenoblade Chronicles X is baffling), Donkey Kong Country Returns HD proved to be the only one, with a new version of the 2010 Wii game – which also incorporates the new levels created for the subsequent 3DS edition.
The remaster won’t be out until January 16, so it’s not just Metroid Prime 4 that Nintendo is holding back until next year.
Most of the games were due out this year though, with Nintendo lingering a lot on Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, which will be a very big deal in Japan when it’s released on November 14. They also announced that there’d be similar remakes for the first and second games, which makes slightly more sense when you realise that the third game is a prequel that takes place before the others.
Meanwhile, multiformat game Funko Fusion, by many of the makers of the Lego games, will be out on September 13 and actually looks quite good – if only because Shaun of the Dead would never be in a Lego game.
Since it’s out next week, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD only got a brief mention but there was also a continuation of weirdo 3DS franchise The New Denpa Men, as well as smartphone remaster Metal Slug Attack Reloaded – which is a Tower Defense game and not to be confused with the upcoming Metal Slug Tactics.
Roguelike sequel Darkest Dungeon 2 got a July 15 release date for its console versions and then it was announced that a number of notable new games are coming to the Nintendo Switch Online virtual console, including Game Boy Advance games Zelda: A Link To The Past And Four Swords and Metroid: Zero Mission. That’s in addition to a ‘mature collection’ for N64 games, including Turok: Dinosaur Hunter and Perfect Dark.
Nippon Ichi’s Phantom Brave is getting a new sequel subtitled The Lost Hero, that looked quite promising, with the ability to possess object with pet phantoms, in order to give them special abilities – it’s out sometime next year.
Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics was an interesting revelation too, as it wasn’t thought that Capcom had the Marvel rights anymore, but it’s out this year and will reignite rumours of a possible new game in the future.
Next up was Super Mario Party Jamboree, which had been leaked before, at least in theory, and will be out on October 17. We’ve long been Mario Party apologists and this one looks particularly promising, with five new game boards, plus two retro ones, as well as 110 mini-games and a host of new game modes, including a 20-player online option. It looked very substantial and the games are always big sellers, especially around Christmas.
After that it was Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom, and a brief plug for Lego Horizon Adventures, which is not coming to Xbox, and the Switch version of Stray – although the latter two didn’t have release dates any more specific than ‘winter’.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was the mic drop at the end of the Direct but before that you still had Tales Of The Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game, which looked like a Tolkien-esque Animal Crossing, and Ace Attorney Investigations Collection, which we’re really looking forward to as one of the game has never had an official English translation before.
Then there was The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy from the makers of Danganronpa, which looked interestingly weird, and is out in ‘early’ 2025, and a remake of Romancing SaGa 2 that will be out on October 24.
It was a highly impressive Nintendo Direct and while it wasn’t quite enough to challenge the Xbox Games Showcase as the ‘winner’ of this not-E3 season it was far more interesting than anyone could’ve expected and means the rest of the year is going to be a lot busier for Nintendo than previously expected.
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