What to Expect from Nintendo in 2023
so than any of the other major platform holders, Nintendo loves to keep its cards very, very close to its chest. At any given time, it’s impossible to say for certain what the publisher might be cooking up more than a few months down the road.
Its 2023 plans are no different. While a handful of relative certainties are already on the schedule – The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Fire Emblem: Engage, and Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe – there are plenty more giant question marks filling out their schedule. When, oh when, are we getting Metroid Prime 4? Is Pikmin 4 really a 2023 game? Will there be a Switch Pro? What’s the big holiday game? Did Advance Wars get canceled?
As much of a crapshoot as it is to guess Nintendo’s next move, with a little bit of data and clever guesswork, we can somewhat map out the year ahead. Here’s what we know, and what we expect and hope for, from Nintendo’s 2023.
Nintendo in 2023: What We Know
We actually know quite a few things we’re going to see in 2023. So let’s get started with a quick rundown of everything that Nintendo has explicitly said is coming next year.
Probably the most certain thing on this list is the release of Fire Emblem: Engage due to its imminent release date: January 20, 2023. It’s pretty unlikely this new Fire Emblem installment gets delayed at this stage. Folks who loved the gameplay of Three Houses but are equally hyped for the return of franchise mascots like Marth should already be prepared to kick off the year strong.
Immediately following Fire Emblem: Engage, we’ve got Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe – a remake of the Wii four-player platformer of the same name – the following month on February 24. And then we have a few empty months before the big one arrives: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which releases on May 12, 2023.
2023’s Most Wanted Console Exclusives
Here are the biggest games the console makers are planning to release in 2023, sorted by user wishlist ranks.
While it seems unlikely that either Fire Emblem nor Kirby will suffer a delay, Tears of the Kingdom has already been pushed back a few times. Its May date seems fairly set in stone, but there’s always the chance we have to wait longer than we think to finally play the long-awaited sequel to 2017’s Breath of the Wild. Hopefully, this is just the anxiety talking.
Other than these three, Nintendo’s 2023 is looking pretty quiet, but there are two other games that are likely to appear in its line-up somewhere. The first is Advance Wars 12: Reboot Camp, which was previously set to release in April 2022 but was delayed due to the war in Ukraine. Back in September, Nintendo reassured fans it was still just a delay, not a cancellation, and we actually know the game is finished already too: one fan accidentally got ahold of it digitally just after the delay and everything seemed in order. So Reboot Camp seems like an easy release to slot in somewhere next year when Nintendo needs to get something new out the door to fill a release gap.
Finally, there’s actually one more game on Nintendo’s slate for 2023: Pikmin 4. After ten years of speculating and halfway announcements, Nintendo officially revealed that Pikmin 4 was on the way earlier this year. We didn’t see anything of its gameplay or story, just a logo. But Nintendo did promise a release window of 2023. While delays can always happen, rumor has it Pikmin 4 has been nearly done for quite a while now, so hopefully that means we’re on the cusp of getting our hands on those cute little plant guys really soon.
Nobody’s 1-2-Switch
Remember 1-2-Switch? That bizarre launch game from the Switch’s release that was fun for, like, 45 minutes and really should have been a packed-in tech demo instead of a full-priced game? Well, earlier this year, a report from Fanbyte suggested that Nintendo was, inexplicably, nearly done with a sequel. Tentatively titled Everybody’s 1-2-Switch, the report claimed this weird follow-up would include wonders like a game show theme, games big enough to hold 100 players via online, smartphone-based lobbies, more movement based games like musical chairs, and a very weird mascot known only as “Horse.”
Unsurprisingly, Everybody’s 1-2-Switch apparently went over badly with playtesters. As of the June report, while the game itself was largely complete, Nintendo couldn’t decide whether or not to release it as a full-priced game or a Nintendo Switch Online tier release, and empty boxes were reportedly sitting around in a Nintendo warehouse somewhere, waiting for a game with no release date.
While it’s not clear what all may have happened to this strange successor since then, I find it unlikely that Nintendo would just drop an effectively finished product into a bin somewhere. I think it’s likely we see the strange beast that this has become sometime in 2023 – hopefully as a humorous Nintendo Switch Online perk and not a doomed 60 retail flop.
It’s-a-Mario Time!
It really is! We’re due for a new Mario, folks! Looking back at the timeline of Mario games, there are basically two major Mario “schools”, if you will. There’s traditional 2D Mario games – which have moved into 3D like Super Mario 3D World, but still follow a traditional, level-based, linear platformer format – and there are open-ended Mario games in the 3D tradition like Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Mario Odyssey. And I think we’re just about due for the next iteration of the latter.
While we did recently get Super Mario 3D World Bowser’s Fury right on the tail end of 2021, the last major 3D Mario game was Super Mario Odyssey in 2017. It’s been five years since then, which is about the right amount of time to start hearing about another Mario – especially since the last few Mario releases of any kind have been some variety of remake/remaster.
Even if it’s not a Mario in the Mario 64 tradition, I don’t think there’s any way we get through 2023 with literally no games featuring our red-clad plumber friend. After all, there’s a Mario movie coming out and Super Nintendo World is opening its Mario-centric theme park too. What better way to celebrate and promote both than with a tie-in game?
Camelot Sportsware Planning
While they rarely make it into our most starry-eyed speculations, Camelot Software Planning actually makes predicting Nintendo games pretty easy by virtue of being extremely consistent. About once every 2-3 years, they release another Mario sports game. It’s been that way since 1999, when they quit making Shining Force and took their Everybody’s Golf chops from Playstation to start working on Mario Golf games. Since then they’ve taken on Mario Tennis as well, and briefly showed off their RPG chops again by making the Golden Sun trilogy for the GBA and Nintendo DS.
But in recent years, it’s all been sports, and Camelot has a pretty consistent cycle of flipping between tennis and golf, tennis and golf. Its last game, Mario Golf: Super Rush, came out in June of 2021, meaning 2023 is about the right time for the studio to emerge again with another sports gambit. That said, I don’t think Nintendo is likely to drop two entire Mario tennis games on the Switch. likely, Camelot has something in the works more akin to Mario Sports Superstars, its final 3DS entry from back in 2017. Heck, I wouldn’t be shocked if we got something effectively like a straight port.
Or maybe I’m totally off-base and they’re actually working on a new Golden Sun. Yeah, okay, I know, keep dreaming.
A Little. as a Treat
Another solid bet for Nintendo next year is that we see not one but two major pieces of paid DLC content at minimum announced within the year, and likely released too: one for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, and another for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Pokemon DLC in the tradition of Sword and Shield feels inevitable. Given the extremely rocky release of Scarlet and Violet as well as how well-received both Crown Tundra and Isle of Armor were, I anticipate we see a big DLC drop in lieu of a full Pokemon release next year. Hopefully by then, Nintendo will have gotten the games running halfway well so we’re not tearing our hair out trying to do limited time Tera raids a year after launch.
It’s also a pretty safe swing to expect DLC for Tears of the Kingdom, again following in the tradition of its predecessor: Breath of the Wild. While I’m less confident we’ll see a major content addition by the end of the year as we did with Breath of the Wild’s Champion’s Ballad, I do think at minimum Nintendo will announce an Expansion Pass for Tears of the Kingdom ahead of the game’s launch in May. And it’s likely that even if a big story update doesn’t hit by December 2023, we’ll at least see some minor DLC ala Master Trials sometime that year.
Here at Last for the Holidays
Every year, Nintendo podcasts, fans, and analysts speculate on the biggest Nintendo question of them all: what will Nintendo’s big holiday game be this time?
Look, it’s prediction time, so I’m going to go nuts: I think it’s finally Metroid Prime 4 time. We have been waiting so long. It was announced all the way back in 2017, and in January of 2019 we learned it had been restarted entirely now in the hands of original Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios. It’s now been four years, and while games can certainly take much longer than that to make, the timing and work that has gone into Metroid Prime 4 thus far seems about right that we very well might be preparing our power suits for this to be Nintendo’s big holiday release.
Of course, this begs the question – if we get a Metroid Prime 4, does that mean we’ll also get the exhaustively rumored Metroid Prime Trilogy for Switch to go with it? That I can’t say. Whispers about this mysterious port/HD remake/whatever-it-is have been circulating for years now, and it’s hard to tell if there’s really fire behind all the smoke or if it was just a lot of folks stirring themselves up over nothing. Personally, I think it’s likely we see at least some level of classic Metroid Prime love on the Switch to get folks excited ahead of Metroid Prime 4 – I’m just not fully confident exactly which of the many-rumored forms that will take.
Nintendo All Year ‘Round
Aside from heavy-hitters like Mario, Pokemon, and Metroid, Nintendo has an array of other mascots that get games every few years or more to fill out the calendar. Kirby, for instance, seems to have at least a release a year, even if some of them are smaller ones like 2022’s Dream Buffet (alongside the much larger Forgotten Land), Kirby Fighters 2, or Kirby Battle Royale. Yoshi and Donkey Kong haven’t been around for a bit, though. Yoshi’s last release was Good-Feel’s Yoshi’s Crafted World in 2019. Meanwhile, Retro Studios has been so busy on Metroid I wouldn’t expect them to follow up the excellent Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze with another DK game anytime soon – but that doesn’t stop other studios from taking up the mantle.
All this is to say, we can definitely expect Nintendo’s calendar next year to fill in gaps between big releases with some smaller, but pleasant, fluff. Do I think we’ll get a Kirby game, a DK game, and a Yoshi game all in one year? I do not. But I’d be surprised if we didn’t see even a minor spin-off or port (Woolly World, anyone?) from one of those three characters.
And that’s not to mention that Nintendo will also fill out the calendar with some sporadic Nintendo Switch Online classic releases too. Though the cadence of these has slowed down somewhat lately, we’re about due to see Donkey Kong 64 finally show up on the service, and Super Mario RPG is still conspicuously missing too. It’d be an easy win to throw a few of those out in 2023; though I’m keeping my hopes low for anything like a move to release Game Boy, GBA, or GameCube games on the service too.
Super Nintendo Switch?
Will they or won’t they? That’s been the question since reports first surfaced in 2019 that Nintendo was working on an upgraded Nintendo Switch console. The upgraded version supposedly (depending on which of the many rumors over the years that you honed in on) would be pricier, have 4K support or just generally better resolution, would still be portable and have a better screen, would be a home console only and not a handheld, or would have more power, more storage, more everything.
We’ve since gotten the Switch OLED Model, which did at least bring the improved screen, a LAN port, more storage, and other small improvements. But a Switch Pro it is not, and rumors continued to churn that Nintendo is cooking up something more. Personally, while I believe the reports themselves that Nintendo is working on upgraded models are true, I’m not sold that means a Super Nintendo Switch is imminent given how well the Switch itself continues to sell.
But this is an area where speculation has gotten so wild, that I opted to ask a few analyst experts for their thoughts. First, I asked NPD Group analyst Mat Piscatella if he thought there would be a new Switch model in 2023. Piscatella responded that while he thought such a release would ultimately be a good thing for Nintendo, he had “no idea” if the company would actually do it.
“If the past 15 or so years in games have taught me anything it is that the path to madness is paved with the bricks of bad Nintendo predictions,” Piscatella said. “I have a forecast with new Nintendo hardware in 2023, and another with new hardware in 2024. Other analysts have been out there for years with Switch Pro this and new gen that. and it hasn’t worked out too well for them.
“We are certainly seeing post-peak Switch. It still has quite a bit of runway left as it has been a massively successful device, but the days ahead will come with declining sales for Switch. It’s just the cyclical nature of the console business.”
I also asked Kantan Games’ Dr. Serkan Toto the same question, to which he cheekily noted he was “almost infamous on the Internet” for his 2020 prediction of an imminent Switch Pro (in his defense, he did call the Switch Lite correctly a year prior!). But even though he’s willing to eat crow about that one, Toto is diving back into the Switch prediction pool again for next year.
“On paper, a new Switch model would really, really make a lot of sense in 2023,” he told me. “The Switch is getting into its sixth year, hardware sales are declining, a lot of new games don’t work well on the system, etc. If it comes next year, I believe Nintendo will sell it alongside Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom, just like they launched the original model and the Lite with a Zelda game.
“But then again it’s Nintendo: they don’t necessarily care if something makes sense or not.”
In that closing remark at least, Toto is certainly correct. Switch Pro or no, Nintendo is sure to do things in 2023 that don’t always seem logical. Which leads me to my final prediction…
A Little Nintendo Magic
Look, we’re overdue for something really, specifically Nintendo-weird, don’t you think? Something out of left field, strange, but potentially very cool. I’m talking things like 2018’s cardboard Nintendo Labo, or 2019’s Ring Fit Adventure (or the Wii Sports games that preceded it). Something in the camp of the Virtual Boy Advance, or the popular micro-consoles NES Classic and SNES Classic. Stuff in the tradition of the Wii Motes, or even the Switch itself (though this isn’t another console prediction).
What I’m trying to say is, it’s been a few years since Nintendo announced something totally bizarre but brimming with that playful, Nintendo magic. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking to imagine we might get something in that vein in 2023, and this particular brand of Nintendo release is always impossible to predict in any specific way. But with Nintendo, you can always be confident there are cool toy experiments cooking behind the scenes. Perhaps next year will be another pleasant surprise.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze: Everything you need to know!
He’s back again, and performing for you — Donkey Kong and his pals are making their debut on the Nintendo Switch with one of the Wii U’s coolest titles: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Donkey, Diddy, Dixie, and Cranky are joined by a fifth pal, the ever-suave Funky, as they make their way across their island home to stop a frozen menace from taking over. It’s all the same platforming hijinks we loved in the Wii U version, but with a few added features, some extra detail, and a brand new mode to ease in new or younger players.
Already beat the Wii U version? Joining Donkey and pals for the first time? Here’s everything you need to know before embarking on this tropical journey.
A frigid tale
Poor Donkey Kong. He just wanted to celebrate his birthday with his pals when a chill wind blows into DK Isle from across the sea. It’s the Snowmads! These icy, VIKING-like creatures take over DK Isle and turn it into an arctic paradise, kicking Donkey and his buds out in the process. They must make their way back across a chain of islands and stop the Snowmads to regain their home and get a piece of delicious birthday cake.
To do this, Donkey can play solo or with a co-op friend through six different island worlds, each with multiple platforming levels. Alone, Donkey’s abilities are sufficient to reconquer his home, but he’s better off with a friend in tow. Diddy, Dixie, and Cranky can each join him through a friend in the Player 2 seat, lending their unique skills to access hidden collectibles, secret levels, and more bananas than you can stuff into a banana horde.
friendly with two
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is fun on your own, especially now that you can take it outside with you and play it in literal snow or tropical climates if you have them. But it’s even better if you bring a friend along. Your co-op pal can play as Diddy, Dixie, or Cranky. To help them make their choice, here’s a run-down of each Kong‘s unique abilities:
- Diddy Kong sports his iconic jetpack, which helps him float over gaps and stay alive in situations where he otherwise might tumble into a pit and lose a precious balloon life.
- Dixie Kong ‘has a fabulous ponytail that she can spin, gaining a burst of height and a gentle descent. She can lend this help to her friend Donkey, too!
- Cranky Kong isn’t happy about being brought along, but he’ll keep up the pace with his trusty cane, which lets him bounce across spikes and other hazards unharmed.
On the Nintendo Switch, co-op mode can be played anywhere. Take your Switch on the go, bust out your Joy-Cons, and each player can use one as a controller. You’ll never lack the ability to bring a friend on an island adventure!
We’re gonna get Funky!
The biggest difference between Tropical Freeze on the Wii U and the Switch is the addition of a Funky new easy mode. In this mode, Funky takes Donkey’s place, and can surf levels alone or bring along one of the other three Kongs, just as Donkey can. Funky is here to prove he’s not just good at selling balloons. He makes the game far more accessible for anyone who just wants a breezy tropical adventure without the headache of death after death.
Funky brings with him a little extra bulk. He has more hearts, and can take more hits before he has to crash. He also has a speedy surfboard he can cruise through levels on, allowing him to bypass many enemies or obstacles that would otherwise halt Donkey and friends in their tracks. Finally, don’t forget, he owns the game’s store! He still has to keep the books balanced, but with Funky in charge, you can get items at a discount.
I dig it! Is there anything else?
Sure! Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is more than just a handful of worlds and levels. There are numerous secret levels unlocked by collecting Secret Exits, and if you can finish these and collect all the K O N G letters, you’ll unlock a Hard Mode that puts you in the furry feet of any Kong you choose: even sidekicks like Diddy, Dixie, or Cranky! There’s also a Time Attack mode with global leaderboards that will let you test your speedy swingin’ skills against other players. How fast can you beat a level?
Sounds a-peel-ing. How many bananas will it cost?
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze will cost 59.99 when it launches on May 4, 2018.
I had a brain freeze and I need to know more!
If you have any questions about Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, let me know in the Комментарии и мнения владельцев! Funky and I have got your back.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Nintendo Switch Reviews Roundup
Nintendo’s iconic simian Donkey Kong makes his Switch debut this week with Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which launches for the hybrid console on May 4. Originally released for Wii U in 2014, Tropical Freeze is the second DK game from Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios, following 2010’s Donkey Kong Country Returns.
Like its predecessor, Tropical Freeze is a side-scrolling platformer in the vein of Rare’s beloved SNES trilogy. This time around, Donkey and Diddy are joined by the returning Dixie Kong. The game also marks the first playable appearance of Cranky Kong, who can use his cane to pogo-bounce on enemies.
New Funky Mode In Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
On top of the same content found in the original Wii U release, the Switch version of Tropical Freeze boasts a new Funky Mode, which gives players control over another playable character: Funky Kong. Funky’s unique abilities help make the game’s challenging levels more accessible, as he can double jump, float through the air, roll infinitely, and resist spikes thanks to his surfboard.
Ahead of its Switch release, other outlets have begun publishing their reviews of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. As always, we’ve rounded up a sample of them below to see how well the game holds up. For a broader look at what critics think about the Switch version of Tropical Freeze, be sure to check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
- Game: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
- Developer: Retro Studios
- Platform: Nintendo Switch
- Release date: May 4
- Price: 60 / £50
GameSpot.- 9/10
“Tropical Freeze isn’t a heavy-hitter from Nintendo in the same way Breath of the Wild or Super Mario Odyssey are, but it’s a fantastic platformer that’s bursting with creativity and expertly designed challenges. It’s tuned just rightalways tough but rarely frustratingto ensure that even the most common moments feel great. If you missed out when the game first debuted back in 2014, give it a shot today. It easily stands the test of time.”.- Peter Brown [Full review]
IGN.- 9/10
“Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze’s addition of Funky Mode makes it more accessible without reducing the formidable platforming difficulty to a walk in the park. There’s still a lot of challenge, even with the extra help Donkey’s Funky uncle affords. But the Switch version manages to take just enough of an edge off a punishing game to let the fun platforming outshine its difficulty.”.- Seth G. Macy [Full review]
Game Informer.- 9.25/10
“The Switch version reaffirms that Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a fantastic platformer. Having a new character to control and a handheld version of the game is great for previous owners, but the real audience is those who missed the original release.”.- Kyle Hilliard [Full review]
GamesRadar.- 4.5/5
“Although this is ultimately a better looking version of the Wii U classic with Funky Mode thrown in for added fun, the Switch version of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is proof that even Wii U games can age like fine wine. This is a beautiful, smooth experience when taken out and about on the Switch, and only gets better when you whack it on the big screen. You’ve got no excuse to miss out this time around on Tropical Freeze.”.- Lucas Sullivan, Sam Loveridge [Full review]
EGM Now.- 9/10
“Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze makes another strong case for the argument that Nintendo needs to port every single one of its Wii U games to the Switch. DK’s latest adventure is one of the most clever, joyful platforming experiences I’ve had in a while, and it adds just enough newness to the series to keep the formula engaging without going overboard. There might not be enough (or anything) to convince Wii U owners to play it again, but long-lost Nintendo fans who came back for the Switch have another must-play game to add to their growing libraries.”.- Michael Goroff [Full review]
Eurogamer.- Recommended
“Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, with its challenge and its craft, its energy and its ingenuity, feels like nothing less than a display of pure mastery over the 2D action genre. That might not be as exciting as when Retro Studios brought Samus Aran into the third dimension with Metroid Prime, but it’s an achievement that in its own way is just as remarkable. remarkable still is how Tropical Freeze sits comfortably alongside the greats of Nintendo, that venerable master of the 2D action genre.”.- Martin Robinson [Full review]
The Nintendo Switch 2 needs backwards compatibility but not in the way you think
Now that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has arrived as the perfect send-off for the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo’s next console is back on everyone’s minds.
While some thought the latest Zelda game might be a cross-generation game that was released on both the Switch and its successor like Breath of the Wild did back in 2017, that didn’t end up happening. Personally, I’m glad this was the case as if it had been, the Nintendo Switch 2 might have ended up being rushed.
Now though, Nintendo has another massive hit on its hands with a bit more time to perfect the Switch 2. There are a number of upgrades we’d like to see in the Switch 2 from upgraded Wi-Fi to drift-free Joy-Cons and a more powerful chipset. However, backwards compatibility with the Switch’s existing library of games would go a long way to making its successor a day-one purchase.
As someone who’s invested heavily in the Switch and its ecosystem, backwards compatibility is extremely important to me. However, alongside all of my digital and physical games, I also want to be able to use my Joy-Cons and all of my other Nintendo Switch controllers.
My next-gen conundrum
I’ve been having so much fun playing the best Nintendo Switch games over the past six years that I’ve put off upgrading to either a PS5 or Xbox Series X. Alongside my gaming PC, the Switch has more than enough games to keep me occupied.
While I’ve yet to buy a next-gen console, I’ve still been following all of the news carefully so that I’m ready when I do decide to upgrade. Although the PS5 will likely have better exclusive games just like the PlayStation 4 did, I like the design of both the Series X and Series S a lot more than Sony’s futuristic reinvention of the Playstation.
Besides being more powerful on paper, the Series X has another thing going for it that the PS5 doesn’t: all of your old Xbox One controllers work with Microsoft’s latest console. This may not be that big of a deal for some people, but for those with a controller collection as big as mine, it adds a lot of value to the Series X or even the Series S.
For instance, I can pick up my Hyperkin Duke controller modeled after the one that shipped with the original Xbox, plug it in and it will just work. While PlayStation 4 controllers can be used to play PlayStation 4 games on the PS5, they don’t work with the best PS5 games. The DualSense does add an extra layer of immersion to PS5 games but I still don’t know if it justifies the cost of no longer being able to use your old controllers.
A third-party controller renaissance
The hybrid nature of the Nintendo Switch led to all sorts of accessories being made for the console. From grips to make playing in handheld mode more comfortable to carrying cases and even 3D printed holders for your dock and Switch cartridges, accessory makers had their hands full with the Switch.
Unlike the Wii U which had very few third-party controller options, PowerA, PDP, Hori and most notably, 8BitDo all released new controllers for the console. This made sense as the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller cost 70 when the console was released and gamers needed cheaper options.
In addition to cheaper Pro Controller options, we also saw third-party Joy-Con alternatives in a number of different shapes and sizes. While Hori’s D-Pad Controller was one of the first, its Split Pad Pro took things to another level with bigger grips and full-size joysticks. In the time since, we’ve seen other great Joy-Con alternatives like the Binbok RGB Joy-Cons along with some cheaper options.
With games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Smash Bros.Ultimate, Switch Sports and the others on our list of the best Nintendo Switch multiplayer games, it’s likely that you also picked up a few controllers for your Switch.
Being able to use them on the Switch 2 would certainly help convince current Switch owners to upgrade. That is as long as the new console is also backwards compatible with their existing game libraries.
Don’t forget about the Amiibos
Even though we haven’t seen Nintendo do that much with its Amiibo toys-to-life series recently, they are one of the more interesting features that helps set the Switch, as well as the Wii U and 3DS before it, apart from what Microsoft and Sony are doing.
With Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Link, Zelda, Tom Nook, Samus and its other iconic characters, Amiibo provides Nintendo fans with a way to hold a piece of their favorite games in their hands. They’re really cute and unlike Funko Pops, they actually serve a purpose as many can be used on the Switch to get exclusive items or new outfits in games.
It’s rare to find a third-party controller that supports Amiibo, but there are a few with the GuliKit KingKong 2 Pro being the most popular. Even then though, the Joy-Cons that shipped with your Switch have Amiibo support thanks to the inclusion of NFC as does the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller.
Although Amiibo aren’t nearly as popular as they once were, it would be a shame to see them go away for good since they are one of the only toys-to-life series that are still around. Given the failure of Starlink: Battle for Atlas, we likely won’t see any other company try their hand at this genre for quite some time.
There’s still hope for backwards compatibility at least with controllers
Even if Nintendo decides to completely redesign the Switch 2 from the ground up to avoid having another Wii U on its hands, there will likely be workarounds to get your old Switch controllers running on the new console.
8BitDo, Brooks, BigBig Won and other companies make a variety of USB adapters you can plug into your Switch dock to be able to use the best PC game controllers or almost any other controller you want on Nintendo’s console. Many of them also work the other way around if you want to use your Nintendo Switch Pro Controller on your Xbox or Playstation.
Still, existing Switch controllers being backwards compatible with the Switch 2 would make things a lot easier, plus, you’ll end up with fewer dongles to keep track of. Whether or not the Switch 2 is backwards compatible with Switch games and controllers is hopefully something we’ll find out directly from Nintendo later this year (fingers crossed).
