With 2024 all but certain to be the final year of the Nintendo Switch, its maker will want its phenomenally successful hybrid console to go out with a bang, and after the June 2024 Nintendo Direct, we know a fair bit more about what that bang will look like.
Ahead of the Direct presentation, Nintendo warned players that the Switch successor would not be making an appearance at the summer Nintendo Direct, with a reveal confirmed by the company to take place at some point before April 2025. And it turns out we’ll have plenty to keep us occupied until the next Nintendo console arrives.
The slate for the rest of 2024 and beyond is, as expected, peppered with more remasters and remakes, but Nintendo did have a few very exciting surprises in store, too. We’ve rounded up all the highlights and trailers below, and you can watch the whole thing here if you like.
1. Mario & Luigi: Brothership
The twilight years of Switch are also turning out to be something of a golden age for Mario RPGs. Not content with sprucing up old classics Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in the last 12 months, Nintendo is also giving us a brand new entry in the Mario & Luigi series – the first all new one in nine years, which opened the Direct in style.
The equally moustachioed brothers are off on another adventure, this one of the seafaring variety, with familiar Mushroom Kingdom faces expected to appear throughout. Gameplay involves controlling both Mario and Luigi as they explore Shipshape Island (part ship, part island, according to Nintendo), and in the turn-based battles, in which you use timed button presses to pull off their patented team-up Bros. Moves. More recent Mario RPGs have become more streamlined, simple affairs, which hasn’t always gone down well with hardcore fans. We’re looking forward to seeing how this one turns out later this year.
Due: 7 November
2. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
For the first time since the series’ introduction in 1986, a Zelda game (we’re not counting spin-offs or Smash Bros. here) will let you play as the titular princess herself. Just as Peach starred in her own entirely Mario-less adventure earlier this year, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is giving Link the day off. That is, if you count being abruptly sucked into a rift as having a day off.
With the famous Master Sword-wielder and other Hyrule residents missing, it falls on the Princess and her new fairy companion, Fi, to save the day. Unlike Link, who tends to get the job done with his aforementioned magic sword and various other weapons and tools, Zelda uses a staff called the Tri Rod to create “echoes” of things she finds in the environment. This can be used for exploration – wave the Tri Rod at a table and you’ll be able to place climbable tables in the environment – and in combat, where you’ll be be able to create echoes of monsters to fight for you.
With a toy-like art style reminiscent of the excellent The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake, Echoes of Wisdom looks set to be a standout game in what we thought would be a year off for the Zelda series. And it’s out pretty soon.
Due: 26 September
3. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
It’s real! And it’s (apparently) out in 2025! After years of no-shows in what has felt like countless Nintendo Direct presentations, Metroid Prime 4 finally made an appearance in the June Direct, and it even has a name. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond will see everyone’s favourite badass and not particularly chatty bounty hunter head off on another dangerous adventure in space. Scanning, shooting, rolling: you know the drill.
The re-reveal wasn’t a comprehensive one, but we did see some gameplay and heard plenty of those oh-so satisfying Metroid-y sounds. There’s a little tease of what appears to be the game’s villain too. Nintendo is officially saying that Metroid Prime: Beyond is coming to Switch in 2025, but we do wonder if it might also be a launch title for the as-yet unannounced Switch successor. Either way, we can’t wait.
Due: 2025
4. Nintendo Switch Online additions
Metroid Prime 4 wasn’t the only treat for fans of the series in the June Nintendo Direct. The beloved Game Boy Advance remake of the very first 2D game, Metroid: Zero Mission is being added to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service today, along with The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Four Swords, complete with online multiplayer.
And after Xbox showed off its long-awaited Perfect Dark reboot during Summer Game Fest, the original N64 game joins the Expansion Pack tier, alongside fellow “Mature” outing from the same era, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Lots to enjoy for retro FPS lovers.
Due: Out now
5. Super Mario Party Jamboree
The Mario Party series has been one of Nintendo’s most prolific in the Switch era, and we’re getting another new entry later this year. Super Mario Party Jamboree sees the party-loving plumber and his pals head off to a new island resort to compete in the largest selection of minigames (110) in the series to date. Some of those will feature motion controls. Sorry Switch Lite owners.
There are five new game boards, with two from previous entries making a return, and while like all Mario Party games, Jamboree will no doubt be at its best with a group of friends in tow, there’s also a 20-player head-to-head online mode called Kooplathon. It all amounts to the biggest Mario Party game to date.
Due: 17 October
6. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
Teased earlier in the year, this remake of Square Enix’s classic RPG is the latest game to receive an HD-2D glow-up, and it looks very pretty indeed. While the core experience will be the same fantasy adventure about a hero and his companions saving the world from the Demon Lord Baramos, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake will feature an expanded narrative and modernised turn-based combat.
As what is chronologically the first game in the series, this remake will be the first of three, with Dragon Quest I and II HD-2D arriving in 2025 to round out the Erdrick Trilogy.
Due: 14 November
7. Everything else
We got another look at already announced upcoming Switch games, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD and Lego Horizon Adventures, basketball is being added to Nintendo Switch Sports later in the summer, and we’re also getting a decidedly unexpected Looney Tunes sports game in the autumn, called Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports. Donkey Kong Country Returns will return once again in January 2025, with an HD remaster for Switch following up the original Wii game and its 3D-toting 3DS port. New DK game soon please, Nintendo?
Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game (coming later this year) is a life sim about living as a Hobbit that isn’t ordered to save the world, while cosy game fans will also be happy to learn that the Apple Arcade game, Hello Kitty Island Adventure, will meow its way onto Switch next year. Cat fans can also look forward to a Switch port of the cat adventure game, Stray, which hits Nintendo’s console later in 2024.
