Topic: The Super Nintendo Switch Launch Games Speculation Thread

Literally never heard of that before. Don't suppose it comes with English subs does it?

I don't think so. Maybe it will be one of those random ones which gets localized to the West for the first time like 20 years from now. 😆

tbh, I only know of it because there were multiple NintendoLife articles about it and I think a YouTube video also. It won some award in Japan if I recall.

Nintendo just likes experimenting with a steady stream of new IPs so new ones on the next console are inevitable, even if not quite all of them get localized.

@ZeldaFan83 I don't think the new pokemon will be a "launch title" in the sense that it'll actually be made for the new console in mind, but it'll probably be a Switch release that can be played on the Switch 2 via backwards compatibility.

@TheBigBlue I think the argument for a Zelda "DLSS Remaster" is as follows:-
1. It's Zelda, it's a very hot franchise right now, it's worth the effort
2. A Remaster, even with completely redone graphics is a straightforward development compared to a completely new game
3. Nintendo will want to show off the capabilites of the new platform, a highly polished "DLSS Remaster" would achieve this and also allow easy comparisons to previous hardware
4. Redoing the graphics now gives you a "90% Complete" port of a classic game for future platforms (Switch 3, 4, 5 etc).
5. The number of fans who haven't played these games is growing...what % of Switch owners have played WindWaker or Twilight Princess?
6. Attraction for fans of Sony/XBox who are used to high fidelity games who may give the Switch 2 a go
7. Easier to justify a higher price than a "Pikmin style" port
8. Potential to sell better, although a basic port will sell well too
9. The Switch had Zelda and Mario in year 1, this is an easy way of doing the same - assuming 3D Mario is a launch title

I'm not saying it's going to happen, but a launch/year 1 release of Windwaker or Twilight Princess, with the other following in year 2 or 3 makes a lot of sense.

@TheBigBlue
Yeah, not sure I agree with any of your takes there. Just going to go down the list

Wind Waker Remaster/Remake
Your rationale here is super sketchy and I'm not sure even you know what you're saying. When it released on Wii U and Gamecube is completely irrelevant but even if it was your argument here is a bit funky. You're saying it won't be a launch game and then cite the fact that it was an early release on both GC and Wii U to back up your argument. Ahh, ok? And also why wouldn't it be a full remaster? The game has ALREADY had its assets redone for the Wii U

Really, the reason why I don't think it's a suitable showcase for new hardware is simply that Wind Waker's art style scales very well. You can almost just take the original Gamecube ISO and set a higher render resolution and call it a day. Horrible pick as a showcase piece

Metroid Prime 4 not for launch
You can go on about how Metroid Prime can't be a launch game all you want, whether that's window or day 1. You can cite how Metroid is less of a heavy hitter than Mario or Zelda or whatever. You can even throw out words like development hell and blah, blah, blah

All we really know is that development was restarted in early 2019. Usually games of this scale take 3-5 years, right now we're coming up to year 4 and by the time this new hardware releases we'll be at 5. I see no reason why we should assume it's in "development hell" given that Prime released earlier this year presumably using the engine they've developed for 4

So the best guess would be that this game releases sometime next year. And if that's the case it would only make sense for them to use it to sell the new hardware. Whether or not Metroid is as big as Mario and Zelda is irrelevant because it's not a question of Mario or Zelda or Metroid. It's a question of new hardware with Metroid Prime 4 or new hardware without Metroid Prime 4. And you can't reasonably argue that adding Metroid Prime 4 makes hardware less appealing....

F-Zero
People are only saying this now because F-Zero 99. I wouldn't bet on it either. But your rationale is total nonsense. You don't decide whether or not to greenlight a game based on whether or not you'll think that particular game in and of itself will move hardware. People buy consoles for a library of games not one single game. F-Zero is very much the sort of mid-tier, relatively low development effort title that you would drop early in a console's life to pad out the library

I think there will definitely be a few of those sort of titles early on. Again, not necessarily F-Zero in particular. But maybe something like an Arms 2 or something. With that said, F-Zero is a game that people associate with "fast" and almost by definition it's a relatively easy to render game (fixed camera, controlled environment). They could go crazy and target 120fps and then use that as a marketing stick

Gamecube on NSO
Storage is less of a concern than you think it is. Gamecube discs were 1.5GB and most of them didn't use all that space. And for Wii games I have ripped my collection, compressed we're talking as little as 95MB and as much as 6GB with the average being around 2GB. Given the price of NAND these days we're probably talking about a console that has at least 256GB of storage

I would agree that I don't think a standalone app really works here. I think it probably makes more sense to have these games available to download individually. And I'd also agree that you probably wouldn't want to include titles that could chew into your ability to sell remasters of Wii/GC era games. But I do think that GC/Wii being part of NSO makes a whole lot of sense

Maybe they go full PS+ style. Drop a GC/Wii release every now and then as a free download to add to your library for NSO+ subs for that particular month. Then once that window has passed sell it for $15AU or something. These aren't new consoles, the Wii today is older than the SNES was when the Wii launched. Those libraries are goldmines, they should find a way to take advantage of them

edit: as a side note re storage limitations for GC "NSO" on Switch 2. I'd note that on the Wii the N64 VC games were around 50MB for a console that had 512MB of storage. The equivalent proportion of storage on Switch 2, assuming 256GB of storage, would be 20GB...... I don't think GC is out of reach

@skywake i agree with you regarding Zelda and Metroid Prime, but disagree about NSO...already we've had ports of:-
1. Mario Sunshine
2. Metroid Prime
3. Paper Mario TTYD (announced)
4. Pikmin 1
5. Pikmin 2
6. Resident Evil
7. Resident Evil 0
8. Resident Evil 4
9. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
10. Tales of Symphonia
11. Pac-Man Vs.
12. Harvest Moon
13. Ty the Tasmanian Tiger
14. Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 2
15. Star Wars Jedi Knight 2
16. Spinx and the Cursed Mummy
17. Cel Damage
18. XIII
19. Ikaruga
20. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings
21. Baten Kaitos Origins
22. Alien Hominid (announced)

I think this trend will continue, Nintendo and 3rd parties will carry on porting these games, which means there won't be much left for NSO.

I think the next Nintendo system we could see may be the DS, but the hardware may limit what can come over unless they rework some games?

I would say that I have heard speculation that Splatoon 3 will have Side Order launch around Swicth 2 to boost sales and they will announce more support for the game.

If I had to guess I’d say MarioKart 8 Ultra Deluxe/MarioKart 9 as a launch day title, but for the first few months overall maybe we’d get ARMS 2, TotK DLC, Mario Wonder (graphic upgrade?) aaaaaand IDK, maybe a left field entry like Kid Icarus Uprising HD?

@MarioBrickLayer
Whether it makes business sense or not I feel is a different discussion. I do think there's space for a more extensive library of GC/Wii era being available on the platform in some form. Whether or not that's directly through NSO like the current NSO titles we get, partially through NSO similar to what you see with PS+ or something more like the old VC service I'm not sure. But there's definitely room for it

Because while its relatively easy to get someone to fork out a fair chunk of change for a remaster of Wind Waker, Metroid Prime, Skyward Sword, TTYD. Or even just straight up re-releases running at a higher resolution like the Pikmin titles or the 3D All Stars Collection. There are plenty of other games that are not that. For every Wind Waker and Super Mario Galaxy there's a Kirby's Air Ride or WarioWare Smooth Moves. People aren't going to pay full retail for some of these, but they still have SOME value

But really, my main disagreement is more with the dismissal of the idea from a technical aspect by some. Dismissing the idea of putting a large collection of GC/Wii era games on the eShop outright because of the size of the games. Ignoring the fact that, relative to the probable capacity of this next console, those games are significantly smaller than a lot of VC games were on the Wii. And the fact that when the Wii launched the SNES was newer than the Wii will be when this new hardware releases

@skywake I'm not sure on the difference between Pikmin 1 releasing on the the Switch eShop vs a VC service? The branding is different, but the outcome is the same...isn't it?

You make a good point that different GC/Wii game ports will have different perceived retail values, absolutely some will not sell well at $60. But with the "lesser" games left after all the classics are remastered or ported may mean there isn't enough there to build a decent NSO service, especially if it will require an additional fee to justify any infrastructure changes to support bigger file sizes etc.

btw, with all the love Kirby has been shown over the past few years, I think Kirby's Air Ride could get a port!!

Regarding NSO on Switch 1 vs Switch 2, do you think there could be some "platform locked" content in the future?

@Scollurio
It's always difficult to figure out what Nintendo will do but looking at the possibilities I think a really good day one could be Metroid Prime 4 (will be a cross-gen release), an enhanced version of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and then either a full 3D Super Mario game or Mario Kart 9. Whichever of the latter two isn't a day one release will end up being the big holiday game.

I love fighting games so I’m hoping for a modern Street Fighter Game on the Switch Successor

I’m gonna throw this out here because I think it’s more likely then not: I genuinely think we will see a new animal crossing within the first year, the team will be done with Splatoon 3 sooner or later, and they have a base to work off of with New Horizons. The series has reached a new level of popularity and I think having a new animal crossing within launch year would be a power play for Nintendo.

I think, or at the very least hope, that's going to happen either on the Switch, next console or even both. I mean, they've already remastered the game for the Wii U so really they could port that with a few tweaks to the Switch.
Plus it makes sense since Nintendo are re-releasing Gamecube games recently either as remasters, ports or remakes. Wind Waker on Switch or the next console makes sense.

@TheHeroOfTime98 I feel like Wind Waker and in the same vein Twilight Princess ports are a question of when, not if. Given Tears of the Kingdom not getting DLC, Nintendo will need Zelda games in the future to fill the next few years with the mainline Zelda team likely working on their next title. I’ll also say I think it’s likely these two games are Nintendo Switch releases but are advertised to work on both it and the next gen system.

Not much other than volume. Although that's kinda the extreme end of it. I personally think it makes sense to go the PS+ route from Wii back. If you're subscribed this month you get this GC/Wii game

I don't know about launch titles but I like the name Super Switch.

As someone who often likes to play part of a game and then return and 100% it a year or two later or stretch some games out a little each month, I absolutely hate the idea of only having access to each game for a few months. I personally hope Nintendo doesn't go down this route. I quite like that current NSO has very long term games (minus a couple like Mario 35...). I realize I probably won't have them forever, but 5 or 10 years at least seems acceptable.

I can imagine there being a lot of cross generational games between Switch and its successor. If we assume a fall launch for the console, it would end up being close to the launch of whatever Pokémon has for next year likely, but would they jump to make an exclusive for the next system? Or release a switch version that just looks and runs a bit better on the sequel console? The system will definitely launch with some exclusive content that can’t be played on switch and the first year will see more roll out, but I can’t imagine Nintendo wants to just drop everything their huge Switch install base, and they might have a Sony and Microsoft “problem” where most releases are cross generation instead of truly exclusive to next gen.

I have a feeling Nintendo will put the up and coming Super Mario Wonder on the new switch or what ever comes next as well.

@FishyS
Doesn't PS+ let you keep the games you had access to? That was my impression. If it doesn't then that's not what I meant.

Was thinking something like the Epic games free download thing, but for NSO subs. Limited time this game is free to add to your collection. After that it's available for a price. The most efficient way I can think of to give NSO subs access to GC/Wii games, encouraging more NSO subs without devaluing GC/Wii releases