With the changing of seasons, I have watched many Nintendo Directs come and go. I soak in their aftermath through forums and comments and, for the most part, the discourse feels the same every time: “Where is Mario?”, “Where is Zelda?”, and “It’s about time for Smash Bros, right?” – Well, eventually these comments are answered. And the beauty of Nintendo is, that the result is almost never what we’d expect. I think back to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, the first new top-down Zelda entry since The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds on 3DS or, more recently, Donkey Kong Bananza, the first new 3D Donkey Kong platformer since Donkey Kong 64. Both of these ideas were highly requested and neither arrived at the time we expected they would. There’s much to be said for development timelines, especially in the modern age of high budgets and high expectations, but that’s not where I’m taking this conversation. No, I want to discuss how Nintendo with its Switch 2 lineup is proving how they defy conventions within their own established properties.
What do I mean by that? Well, I’d like to take you back to the GameCube era. Nintendo was riding high off the massive success of the Nintendo 64, waving goodbye to cartridge-based home gaming for awhile and moving forward with a disc-based home console. That console would be the GameCube. And when its launch arrived in 2001, Nintendo famously didn’t roll it out with a new Mario, a new Zelda, or a new Pokémon. Any of these would have practically printed money, but Nintendo chose to have Luigi’s Mansion, a spooky Mario spinoff, as their big first-party launch title. Because of this, the GameCube didn’t necessarily fly off shelves. Even when Mario did arrive on GameCube, it wasn’t with a sequel that adhered to being another Super Mario 64 and was instead featuring a quirky water-pack traversal system on a tropical vacation island that wasn’t the familiar Mushroom Kingdom setting. Going even further, when Star Fox arrived on GameCube, it wasn’t through a conventional rail shooter that fans associated the franchise with up to that point. It was instead the console’s first Zelda-like adventure game, Star Fox Adventures. The GameCube was full of oddities like this: Super Mario 128 became Shigeru Miyamoto’s new sci-fi real time strategy adventure IP Pikmin, Sega was tapped to develop a new F-Zero game for arcades as well as GameCube, and the new Metroid game was played from a first-person perspective. Nintendo took many risks with the GameCube, and while its sales reflected the consumer confusion at first, nowadays the positive reputation reflects the brilliance that was there all along.
Where am I going with this? Well…
I see similar philosophies in what Nintendo is doing with its approach to Switch 2 releases. I also see the same consumer confusion and impatience. Some might say that Nintendo never learns by releasing seemingly obscure titles like Kirby Air Riders, Donkey Kong Bananza, Yoshi And The Mysterious Book, and Star Fox in the Nintendo One/Switch 2’s first year. If you’re a fan of Nintendo’s many properties, you instead see this as a win. I often question why more Nintendo fans don’t enjoy the fact that more franchises than just Mario and Zelda are not only being acknowledged, but are receiving new releases altogether with the same high quality as Nintendo’s golden geese. I’ve found that the answer is that fans follow their favorite video game developers as if they’re sports teams, hoping that they make the right roster moves and “win” with consumers and investors. That type of thinking often means following the company’s decisions more than actually playing their games and boils down to one of two things: waiting for 3D Mario or waiting for 3D Zelda.
Why is this? Let’s go back to 2017.
We all know this story well. Holiday 2012, Nintendo launched the Wii U to less than stellar sales and, over the next five years, just couldn’t recover. Be it consumer confusion as to whether the Wii U was another Wii accessory versus a new console, or the lackluster launch lineup, the Wii U was regarded as a commercial failure and just not a good public look for Nintendo following the breakout success of the Wii. So when 2017 arrived, Nintendo wasn’t playing around anymore. They knew they had to succeed. Nintendo Switch launched with inarguably Nintendo’s biggest launch title of all-time, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild. Just a few short months later, Nintendo barreled into the holiday season with Super Mario Odyssey, the first sandbox-style 3D Mario title since GameCube’s Super Mario Sunshine in 2002 and the biggest Mario game of all-time. The following Christmas, Nintendo would go even bigger by dropping Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the biggest entry in the huge all-star fighting franchise. It was no surprise then that the Nintendo Switch went on to be Nintendo’s highest-selling console of all-time. These three moves assured its success early on and this was before the perfect storm that was Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ release in 2020. And thus…
We finally get to Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo is again riding high off the previous success of one of their consoles. What have we learned from that thus far? That a Nintendo that is feeling assured will take risks instead of playing it safe. This hereby means that no big red Mario, Zelda, or Smash Bros. button is being hit, nor does it need to be. The Switch 2 has already sold 24 million units in its first year on the market. Nintendo saw the runaway success of the Switch and used its established install base to create new entries in franchises we haven’t seen in awhile. Frankly, they also revived names I thought I’d never see again. Kirby Air Riders?! That still feels like a fever dream. But a 3D Donkey Kong might actually be more surprising.
First off, notice how the big 3D platformer near launch wasn’t Mario, it was Donkey Kong. Who could have possibly expected that? Interestingly, this once again reminds me of GameCube. Nintendo showed off a Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time tech demo for the GameCube featuring then-realistic fantasy graphics at SpaceWorld 2000 . Fans expected a new Zelda would look something like that and would release close to the GameCube’s launch. Neither of those games expectations came true. Instead, the Zelda game that fans got within the GameCube’s launch year was a Star Fox game that didn’t even start out featuring Star Fox. Now here’s a fun parallel to that. Donkey Kong Bananza’s mechanics were tested using Mario assets. It could have been a Mario game if EPD Tokyo willed it. But Nintendo had another Mario game that actually launched with the Switch 2, one that is still struggling to be understood by the general public at large.
Mario Kart World launched with the Switch 2. It made perfect sense as a launch title and pack-in. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the Nintendo Switch’s highest seller. With that being said, I feel that this title has been grossly misunderstood. You see, from the moment I saw that Mario Kart World was adding a jump button AND an open world I knew its development team’s intentions from day one. This was no ordinary Mario Kart game. This was a stepping stone to something bigger. The internet at large has been focused on Mario Kart World needing a story mode of some sort and claiming that the open world is barren. I see why they feel that way, but here’s the thing: Mario Kart World is a 3D Mario game. Here I was on launch day 2025 with the hugest smile on my face. I got two games in one. One game is the Mario Kart I know and love with chaotic items, drifting and performing tricks but amped up to 11 in every way. The other game was a 3D sandbox Mario game with no loading screens between areas, level select menu or needing to be escorted back to a hub once all collectibles have been found. And the open world was built with the jump button in mind, with platforming in mind. In just about every corner of the map, there are collectibles placed that require wall-riding or jumping up to a tricky spot and pulling off a series of maneuvers in order to make it to that collectible. In fact, I can’t think of another racing game that has this. As much as folks have desperately tried to associate World with Diddy Kong Racing and labeled it as inferior, World is actually its own thing entirely. Diddy Kong has a hub whereas Mario has an open world full of platforming challenges.
The larger point here really is that Nintendo will attach whatever genre traits they see fit onto established IPs that typically occupy another genre. Mario Kart World can be a 3D platformer. Star Fox Adventures can be a Zelda game. Donkey Kong Bananza could be the next 3D Mario game you’ve been waiting for. Hyrule Warriors could just be housing the next Star Fox game. When we let go of expecting one specific game to have these capabilities and come along sooner rather than later, we may find that Nintendo is actually releasing another title that fulfills all of the qualities we’re looking for. Don’t be afraid of a genre of game you like that features a different property than what you’re accustomed to. The Switch 2 is a great, diverse lineup filled with Nintendo IPs that deserve more attention. And that’s a great thing for everyone, especially Nintendo fans. Now, Nintendo untie Punch Out!!
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Written by Matthew Powers
Nintendo has been Matthew’s preference for fun video gaming since 2004. In addition to his love for all things Mario, Metroid and beyond, Matthew also enjoys heavy metal, roller coasters, pinball machines, and being a proud cat dad.
