After weathering debates over its small launch line up, the Nintendo Switch 2’s long game is coming into focus.
As successful as the Nintendo Switch 2’s launch has been (and it has been very successful), it came with plenty of impatience. Its compact day one game lineup, led by Mario Kart World and Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, left some potential buyers a bit underwhelmed. It was a notable step down from the PlayStation 5’s packed 2020 launch lineup, which brought us Astro’s Playroom, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls, and Sackboy: A Big Adventure all at once. For the Switch 2, was one tentpole first-party game really enough to make a pricey system worth buying?
Not even two months later, the narrative is already shifting. Donkey Kong Bananza followed Mario Kart World’s opening jab with a strong right hook on July 17. The Game of the Year contender has reignited buzz around Nintendo, quickly wrenching the spotlight back from Death Stranding 2: On The Beach just as it felt like the Switch 2’s new console shine had faded. Did Nintendo narrowly avoid a strategic misfire? Should it have released both games on June 5? No, we’re just seeing a long-building strategy that was sharpened in the Switch era pay off. Nintendo is running its own monthly book club, and it’s working — for now.
Look at the Nintendo Switch’s release calendar from 2021 onward and you’ll start to notice a trend. Over the past few years, Nintendo has gotten closer and closer to releasing one first-party game each month. Sure, 2024 may have looked like a slow year for the publisher, but in reality, it dropped exactly 12 games, each carefully spaced a month apart (the only month not covered was April, as Endless Ocean: Luminous just missed the mark on May 2). Like clockwork, there was a new Nintendo game to play every few weeks, a feat made possible thanks to a few remakes and remasters filling in the gaps:
January 19: Another Code: Recollection
February 16: Mario vs. Donkey Kong
March 22: Princess Peach Showtime!
May 2: Endless Ocean: Luminous
May 23: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
June 27: Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD
July 18: Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition
August 29: Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club
September 26: The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
October 17: Super Mario Party Jamboree
November 7: Mario & Luigi: Brothership
December 5: Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer
I made a point to play nearly all of those games last year, even December’s Fitness Boxing 3: Your Personal Trainer.
