The Switch 2 is coming! And these games might be there for launch

Many are gearing up for 2025 to be the worst year of their lives, but for a number of wide-eyed nerds out there, the pending announcement of a new Nintendo console has latched onto their future orientation like a benign parasite, taking up any space where pessimism would otherwise reside. Rumors point towards this yet-unrevealed system being called “the Switch 2” – a relatively straightforward continuation of the publisher’s current offering. Given that the Switch is their bestselling home console ever, and their second best-selling handheld of all time, it stands to reason that they’d refrain from messing too much with success. Likewise, my predictions for what games we’ll see alongside the Switch 2’s launch is a relatively safe bunch, but thanks to some insider chatter and a smattering of rumors, I’ve come up with at least a couple of ideas that may surprise you.

A NINTENDO-CROSSOVER KART RACING GAME

The popular guess is that Mario Kart 9 will be a Switch 2 launch title, but given that the console will reportedly be backward compatible, and how similar the Mario Kart titles tend to be to each other, chances are they’ll want to expand things a bit with a full on, Smash-Bros.-style crossover kart racer. They’ve already gone halfway there with Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Splatoon characters in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, so it won’t be all that risky to add Captain Falcon, Fox Mcloud, and Samus Aran to the mix. 

It will still likely have the “Mario Kart” name for brand recognizability purposes, but they may skip the “9” and add another suffix. Like “Mario Kart Smash” if they really want to be on the nose, or “Cross” if they try to get fancy (but please, Nintendo, please don’t call it “X”). Or if they want to be a little more specific, they could go for making it a Mario Kart X F-Zero mash-up, with an actual story where Mario and the gang go into space and meet Captain Falcon, Fox, and Samus (as the latter two are already semi-cannon to the F-Zero universe). That’s less likely, though. While Nintendo has recently done a lot to get people talking about F-Zero again, like developing F-Zero 99 and rereleasing multiple F-Zero games on the Switch Online service, I’m not sure they’re quite ready for the franchise to share top-billing with the titanically successful Mario Kart. 

The Switch 2 is also rumored to come in a color scheme that matches one of its launch titles. If that’s the case, the space theme might be a fit. Or maybe something with the classic red, blue, yellow and green Super Famicom buttons, as a callback to the console where both Mario Kart and F-Zero got their start? Sadly, logic would dictate that they’re more likely to go with the standard Nintendo/Mario red and white color scheme, but in these brief moments of pre-release hype, it’s fun to dream big.

A SUPER MARIO EQUIVALENT TO THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD

Super Mario Odyssey blew the lid off of all known limits for what a 3D platformer could do, but for all its expansive antics, it was still a series of boxed-in playgrounds, each separated by a world map. Given how Breath of the Wild, Nintendo’s ambitious open-world-ification of one of their most beloved franchises, chances are high that the next 3D Mario title will follow suit. Allowing Mario and friends to trot from town to town, platform up giant mountains, across lava lake-laden volcanos, delve deep into unexplored caves, and to storm Bowser’s final castle at any time in their adventure, is the most logical step for the series.

And 2025 is also the 40^th birthday of the Super Mario Bros. series as a whole, so if Mario Kart isn’t the franchise that’s getting its own iteration on the Switch 2, then a new 3D Super Mario game is the most likely second pick. 3D Mario doesn’t always sell as well as 2D, but it’s also the kind of single-player headliner that signals to traditionalists that Nintendo hasn’t lost sight of them. And that audience is definitely starved at the moment. The last 3D Mario title for Switch was a sub-game called Bowser’s Fury that came packed in with the Switch rerelease of Super Mario 3D World in 2021. It was a bite-sized open-world adventure that showed us that the 3D Mario dev team has at least been toying with an open borders policy for the series. And we also know that Nintendo is keenly aware that the classic platformer structure has been usurped by Minecraft and its ilk.

NEW ONLINE COMMUNITY AND CONTENT CREATION GAME

The Wii U’s Miiverse was far from a big hit, but many who actually got the console ended up loving this quaint, wholesome, often bizarre take on social media engagement. Ever since it closed up shop, diehard fans have clamored for its return. While it’s unlikely that the straight-up message board style of the Miiverse will ever make a comeback, its spirit, and maybe even some version of its name, may see a resurgence on the Switch 2. 

Nintendo started beta testing a new Switch online program in late 2024 that, according to insider reports, sounds a lot like Roblox or Minecraft. Players can jump online with friends and strangers around the globe and build together, organically creating game environments and going on adventures. Given how the “global server sandbox” genre has become the biggest and most profitable media platform in the world, inspiring an entire YouTube financial ecosystem and maintaining evergreen profitability for certain publishers, it only makes sense that Nintendo would finally go whole hog with that side of gaming, using the Switch 2 as a launching pad.

RETROREALMS ARCADE: HELLBOY

Now, to get a little more specific. 

It’s been an open secret in the industry for a few years now that the recently released RetroRealms Arcade collection was originally going to feature Hellboy instead of Halloween. For those who haven’t heard of it, RetroRealms is basically a virtual arcade that contains different cabinets, depending on which games-within-the-game you purchase, that work as imaginary 90’s 2D action game adaptations of horror movies and TV shows. Right now, the only two available cabinets are based on Ash Vs. Evil Dead and Halloween. If you buy both, you can take the leads from one cinematic universe and take them on an interdimensional ride to another so Micheal Myers can end up stabbing the demon zombies that Ash normally saws through, and Ash can massacre the possessed hospital staff of the psychiatric ward that Michael Myers once called home?

If that doesn’t sound quite right to you, then you’ll get why Halloween was, according to rumor, not the RetroRealms team’s first pick for an Evil Dead crossover. Michael Myers is a serial killer, and in his most successful movies, there’s not much of a supernatural element. That’s why Hellboy was, again, according to rumors, going to be the original launch game to pair with Ash. Given that they’ve both entered unholy gateways and battled eldritch terrors with one regular hand and one big, weird hand, they’d have an easy time bouncing into each other’s stories. It’s also easy to imagine them developing a natural, wise-cracking rivalry. Hellboy was born from a portal from hell, and when Ash sees that kind of thing, he tends to shoot first and ask questions later.  Wait, did I say “rivalry”? I meant “assault with a deadly weapon.” Tomato tomato, at least with these two.

The recent trilogy of successful Halloween movies might have made that IP a slightly more marketable sell in 2024, so it stands to reason that the RetroRealms‘ publisher decided to lead with the masked menace. My guess is that Hellboy will still make the cut though, likely alongside the Switch 2.

NEW GAME FROM GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE

Last year, I hosted a panel at Momocon 2024 featuring SUDA51 of Grasshopper Manufacture. The bulk of the talk was about Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered and being an Otaku, but at the very end of the event, the team behind the scenes suddenly played a 4-second clip of a new game from the studio. I was flabbergasted. 

It looked almost exactly like the Deathman game-within-a-game from No More Heroes 3 – a crunchy, Avante garde beat’em up that’s like a cross between a lost Commodore 64 title and the classroom doodles of an interesting teenager. It’s the exact kind of game that will both stand out in the midst of a new Nintendo console launch, and benefit from the attention that will come with said launch.

MINA THE HOLLOWER

The next big IP from Yacht Club Games, the creators of Shovel Knight, has been in the works for years now. The top-down action-adventure title isn’t quite as flashy as the blue burrower’s biggest and brightest adventures, but pre-release previews have been nothing short of glowing. The game’s mix of action, puzzle solving, retro charm, and mild horror elements make it like nothing else on the market. That’s quite a statement, given that the game was initially announced years ago, giving imitators ample time to try to copy it. 

While not as delayed as Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, the game has seen its projected launch dates come and go a few times now. Its most recent delay may have been to hold it until the Switch 2s launch. Yacht Club has been pretty open about how launching Specter of Torment, the 3^rd campaign of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, alongside the original Switch, was a hugely successful move for them. Chances are that they will do whatever they can to repeat that success, so launching Mina the Hollower, or any other game they have ready to go, to coincide with the Switch 2’s release just makes good horse sense.

NEW KATAMARI DAMACY

The Katamari Damacy series just celebrated its 20^th anniversary, but there was no new game to solidify the celebration. The last two releases in the franchise have actually been remakes, possibly to reacquaint people with the series. And for some Nintendo loyalists who never had a Sony or Microsoft system, these reroll remakes have been a new opportunity to get in on this clump-rolling sensation. Speculation is that Bandai-Namco has been working on a new Katamari game to capitalize on their growing audience, using the same engine as the last two Reroll remakes as a base. While they missed the window of release for Katamari Damacy’s 20^th birthday, the game could be ready soon, and timing it to the release of the Switch 2 would to a lot to lump up for a massive announcement. 

And the second of the recent remakes, We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie, also came packed with some new ideas, like hidden Bandai Namco arcade sprite stickers to find, new ways to lose, like getting grabbed by ghosts, and ways to win like charging up a fighting game-style special move meter. That would all make for great fodder for a new title. But if we’re being honest, Katamari fans will likely buy up any new game in the series as long as the music stays true to its roots, the graphics remain sweetly blocky, and there’s new junk to roll up. Just as the Switch 2 just needs to be a Switch, all a new Katamari game needs to be is a Katamari game in order to make starving fans satisfied.