Every time a Nintendo Direct rolls around, fans have their expectations and wild hopes. Often, sadly, they come away disappointed, because Nintendo can’t please everyone. The brand has a wide repertoire of beloved franchises behind it, and it simply can’t work on all of them at once. At the same time, Donkey Kong fans were surely delighted by the surprise reveal of Donkey Kong Bananza, which helped demonstrate that you truly never know what Nintendo is working on next.
8 Best Mario Games To Play On Switch 2, Ranked
The Switch 2 is home to a ton of fun and memorable Mario games, including a few that have received significant upgrades.
Any one of its beloved franchises would be an excellent addition to Switch 2’s growing library, and there are some, such as Fire Emblem, which we already know are in the works (Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is confirmed to be coming to the system in 2026). There are still many more, however, that haven’t been confirmed. Here are just some of Nintendo’s hit IPs that would be excellent fits for Switch 2.
8 Super Mario
The Legend Himself
It’s always a bit of a shame when a Nintendo console launches without a Super Mario game. Yes, the GameCube had Luigi’s Mansion and Switch 2 has the rather excellent Mario Kart World, but these are not bona fide Super Mario games. Super Mario Odyssey was a landmark release for the previous Switch (though it arrived several months after the system itself), and was surely the title that caused millions to finally get on board with the system.
A new Mario game would surely do the same for those still undecided about committing to the new system. We don’t yet know, of course, how 3D Mario would fare on the system. Perhaps his first new Switch 2 game would try something new with the 2D formula instead, as Super Mario Bros. Wonder did. In whichever form it may take, though, a new Mario adventure is a given for the system, and it’s sure to be as fun and creative as ever.
7 Pikmin
A New Generation Of Pikmin Popping Out Of Their Onions
The Pikmin series began on the GameCube in 2001. At first glance, it looked like a bit of a novelty, but there was considerable depth to this strategy adventure, and an unrivalled amount of charm and heart. It revolved around the idea of a stranded space adventurer who crashes on an unknown planet and must befriend the local Pikmin, who help him fight foes and gather the scattered parts of his spacecraft so he can escape. Over two decades later, there have been four mainline Pikmin titles, a mobile game, and Captain Olimar himself is a Super Smash Bros. Contender.
The series, it seems, is here to stay, and it has expanded in scope and seen new quality of life improvements with each new entry. A potential new game for Switch 2, utilizing the new graphical grunt of the system, could implement new, larger areas, perhaps even venturing into open-world territory. More Pikmin types, a greater variety of enemies and terrain types and more things to do? Don’t mind if we do.
6 Wario Land
Nintendo’s Anti-Hero Hasn’t Had A Platformer For Decades
A new Wario game, really, could mean one of two things. A WarioWare microgame fest, or another platformer in the Wario Land series. Either would be an excellent addition to the roster. WarioWare typically doubles as a single-player highscore-chasing affair and a blast of a multiplayer party game, and there isn’t anything quite like it in the Switch 2’s library yet. Prior to WarioWare’s introduction, though, Wario was a platformer star first and foremost. The Wario Land series brought us platforming experiences with an entirely different tone to that of Super Mario. The greedy Wario is driven solely by the lure of treasure, and the games are all about sniffing it out and collecting riches by any means necessary.
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Wario has become famous for transforming his body in all kinds of ways, with each form helping him overcome different obstacles. There hasn’t been a new Wario platformer since 2008’s Wario Land: Shake It!, which made excellent use of the Wii remote’s talents to allow the player to literally shake coins out of enemies. Just like Donkey Kong, the time could also be right for Wario to star in another platformer.
5 Mario & Luigi
An Adventure Of Even Greater Proportions
Nintendo’s games are very well known for their family-friendly nature, but we sometimes don’t appreciate their excellent sense of humor. This is seen most plainly in some of Nintendo’s RPGs, the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi series. They're both Nintendo-published properties, and have risen to become real jewels in their crown. The Mario & Luigi games in particular take RPG conventions and blend them with the creative fun of the Mushroom Kingdom gang.
With more reactive combat and some of the most hilarious and well-written dialogue in the genre, the Mario & Luigi games have become a phenomenon. On Switch 2, the brothers could have their most expansive and visually-impressive adventure yet.
4 Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate … Ultimate?
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate arrived in 2018, and it was well-established that Masahiro Sakurai and his talented team threw just about everything possible into it. Though there’s debate as to which Smash Bros. Entry is the best to play (with Brawl’s tripping mechanic remaining highly controversial), there’s no question that Ultimate was the biggest and most content-packed entry yet. That character roster, including everyone from Persona 5’s Joker to Tekken’s Kazuya Mishima, is outright absurd.
Potentially, of course, this could have been the director’s last involvement with his beloved series, and it’s difficult to imagine somebody else taking the reins. If a new entry does come to fruition, though, it will need to be even bigger and more ambitious. A player roster of more than 100, with a range of different modes including more for a single-player to do, would be incredible.
3 The Legend of Zelda
How To Top Tears Of The Kingdom?
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was an enormous release for Nintendo. It was, really, the game that saw the brand take its first steps into open-world territory, and it surely brought millions of new Zelda fans into the fold. A lot of them are probably still looking for Korok seeds. Six years later, Tears of the Kingdom arrived, rewriting the formula with its floating islands and the intriguing depths. It was another entry that players could easily spend 100 hours (or much more) exploring, and just as with Smash Ultimate, the exciting prospect is: Where can the series go from here?
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A new mainline Zelda entry is all but an inevitability at some point in the Switch 2’s lifespan, it’s just a matter of when. The span between Breath of the Wild and its follow-up indicates that it probably won’t be any time soon, but it’s sure to be an absolute landmark release. The hardware could allow for a far grander world than even that seen in the remarkable duo of games that came before it. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment was a good start, but the announcement of a new mainline entry would be thrilling.
2 Animal Crossing
A Whole New Set Of Neighbors
Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the most recent installment in the mainline series, had a remarkable global impact. It arrived in 2020, at a time when such a charming little virtual world was most needed, and millions were delighted to engage in its at-your-own-pace take on island life. The addition of the Happy Home Paradise DLC allowed fans to dive further than ever before into the interior design side of things (which is so dear to many players), and with terraforming, path-making, and outdoor decor, there were more options to make your island your own than ever.
A potential Animal Crossing entry for Switch 2 may take the chance to be more ambitious, perhaps offering larger space for our towns and higher maximum villager counts to populate them with. It would also be fantastic to see more options for activities for players to engage in together, as the multiplayer aspect of the series has always been somewhat limited in that regard.
1 Golden Sun
Hopefully, This Sun Will Rise Again
Golden Sun is another Nintendo-published series, this time developed by Camelot Software Planning. Nintendo fans who enjoy RPGs hold this one fondly in their hearts, and have held out hope for another entry since 2010, when Golden Sun: Dark Dawn launched for Nintendo DS. The original game pushed the Game Boy Advance about as far as it could go in the RPG arena, and introduced the Djinn-collecting system that added so much to character customization and battle tactics.
The hope for Isaac as a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate newcomer proves that the hype around the series has never wavered, and on a modern-day system, there’s the chance to bring it back in style. It could be a much longer, grander, more visually-stunning RPG, and the likes of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 have amply proven that there’s still a hunger for turn-based genre entries.
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