OPINION: If there’s one thing that the collective gaming world cannot wait for in 2025, it’s the rumoured arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2.
As we’ve all lapped up any Switch 2 leaks over the last 12 months, particularly as some folks held on to the idea that the console might still launch in 2024, it’d be easy enough to assume that this year hasn’t been a great one for Switch owners as Nintendo gears up for a new console generation.
But let me tell you, if this is the collective swansong for the hybrid console then it’s been a great one.
Sure, Nintendo didn’t throw out a juggernaut like it did last year with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but it had one of the most consistent years for the Switch yet with regular first-party drops which, against the backdrop of PlayStation and Xbox players wondering when their next exclusive might appear, meant a great deal.
In fact, you can break Nintendo’s 2024 down into how it approached four key areas: mainstream titles, niche audiences, remasters and third party games.
The heavy hitters
Starting at that surface level, Nintendo released four mainstream titles: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Princess Peach: Showtime!, Super Mario Party Jamboree and Mario & Luigi Brothership. All four of these games, on average, scored well with critics and speaking from experience I greatly enjoyed my time with them.
I’d go so far as to say that Echoes of Wisdom is probably in my top three games of 2024 with a gameplay style that reinvigorates the series and offers up hope for a new future in the same way that Breath of the Wild did back in 2017.
Given that I previously had very little love for top-down Zelda games, I cannot emphasise enough just how much this game was able to convert me to the cause.
Mario & Luigi Brothership, whilst unable to hit quite the same highs as Echoes of Wisdom, still shows how Nintendo is the industry leader when it comes to games aimed at a general audience.
Even though its gameplay can be challenging if you dive into all of its mechanics, it is still accessible to younger players, and it’s complemented by the game’s humour and cutesy aesthetic. Except for Astro Bot on PS5, I can’t really point to any other non-Nintendo games this year that kept this younger player base in mind.
The ‘too cool for school’ crowd
Although Nintendo was able to put out four mainstream titles in 2024, it still found the time to publish a handful of games that can only really be described as having a very niche audience at best: Mario vs Donkey Kong, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition and Another Code: Recollection.
Of those three titles, it’s the latter that I would have never thought to put down on my Switch bingo list. For those who grew up playing the Nintendo DS, you may remember Another Code: Two Memories as being one of many narrative-driven point and click games that graced the system during its near-decade long run.
While not a true sequel, Recollection does at least give a nod to the folks who enjoyed the game back in 2005 with a full-on remake of both that title and its 2009 follow-up on Wii.
A game like that is never going to sell a massive number of copies, but it does speak to an understanding of just how many sub-groups there are within the Nintendo fandom. Even Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition, which features several mainstay Nintendo characters and became something of a personal obsession over the summer, is still a game that’s meant for speedrunners – not the casual gamer.
Games with a fresh coat of paint
Remasters, whether you like them or not, are part of a plea to nostalgia that simply isn’t going away. Things are a bit different when it comes to Nintendo games however as the company is still lagging behind where backwards compatibility and availability of retro titles are concerned, which is why any updated versions of classic titles are appreciated.
The Switch’s biggest remaster of the year is undoubtedly Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door which felt like Nintendo reaching across the aisle and recognising a deep fandom that’s been around for quite a while now. It could have remastered the original Paper Mario game, but anyone on the street knows that it’s Thousand-Year Door that’s remembered mostly fondly by fans of the series, and it now plays better than ever on Switch.
While there wasn’t quite as much outcry for a remaster of Luigi’s Mansion 2, I did find myself drawn into its HD update throughout my review, coming to realise yet again there really isn’t another series out there that blends exploration, combat and scares quite in the same way as Luigi’s Mansion. Another gem for the system.
Third-party titles didn’t miss
Rounding out the quartet is the steady amount of third-party games that continue to grace the Nintendo Switch seven years after its release. Easily the biggest surprise of Nintendo’s Partner Showcase event in August was the announcement that the Yakuza series would be coming to a Nintendo console for the first time, courtesy of Yakuza Kiwami.
For those not in the know, the Yakuza series has become an absolute juggernaut for Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio and Sega over the last couple of years and that success has continued on Nintendo’s platform, with the head of Ryu Ga Gotoku, Masayoshi Yokoyama detailing that the port is “selling like hot-cakes”.
Yakuza was just one of a handful of key third-party titles for the Switch however with game of the year contenders Balatro and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown making an appearance, not to mention the once PS5-exclusive Stray and the all new Lego Horizon Adventures.
A year for the ages
With all of these games in mind, hopefully it gives you pause to consider just how overlooked this year was amidst the hype for the Switch 2.
I will freely admit that while none of these games broke into the mainstream conversation in a way that previous titles like Animal Crossing and Pokemon did, it was still a solid output for a console that is nearing the end of its lifecycle.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Switch still has one big exclusive up its sleeve in the form of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, set to release in 2025. When Nintendo finally does decide to retire the Switch in favour of a successor, I think we can all agree that it’s had one heck of a run.
