Nintendo keeps filling in the gaps

When you buy a new Nintendo device, there are a few things you can expect: namely, some excellent Super Mario, Pokémon, and Legend of Zelda games, and maybe a great Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, or Smash Bros. The question mark has always been the other stuff. But with the Switch 2, it doesn’t seem like that will be a problem; its upcoming lineup already seems surprisingly strong.

There are a few reasons for this optimistic outlook. One is a more reliable output from the company’s seemingly smaller releases, like this week’s launch of Mario Tennis Fever. As with the rest of the series, Fever is to real tennis what Mario Kart is to real racing. Which is to say, it’s ridiculous, adding in all kinds of wacky power-ups and characters that turn it into a chaotic mess that is perfect for playing with friends.

Fever is a robust package. In addition to the basic multiplayer tournaments, there’s a mode where you ascend a tower by taking on challenges, a motion control option that harkens back to the days of Wii Sports, and a single-player mode where Mario has to relearn all of his tennis skills after being turned into a baby.

As Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said during the company’s most recent earnings results, these kinds of updates are particularly important now during the transitional period between the original Switch and its successor. “It is necessary to regularly release new titles to increase the installed base of new hardware,” he explained. “In addition, we believe it is very important to maintain touchpoints with consumers who are active on our gaming systems as the transition from Nintendo Switch to Nintendo Switch 2 unfolds over the next few years.”

The other key part to the company’s strategy is third-party support, which has always been an inconsistent part of the Nintendo experience. Despite some games that launched much later compared to other platforms, the original Switch did fairly well on that front, likely due to its overwhelming popularity, and the Switch 2 is headed in a similarly positive direction. Last week’s Nintendo Direct was filled with some of the biggest franchises in video games: Fallout, Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, and Resident Evil, to name a few. Some of those are older games, of course — I originally reviewed Fallout 4 more than a decade ago — but Resident Evil Requiem will be launching on the Switch 2 at the same time as the PS5, Xbox, and PC, which is a good sign.

We know that there will be big Nintendo games coming eventually. The Switch 2’s first year already included the likes of Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. With the annual Pokémon Day happening later this month, it seems possible that the next mainline Pokémon game will be revealed soon as well. Obviously Mario and Zelda will come at some point; it’s been almost 10 years since Super Mario Odyssey, the last all-new 3D entry in the series, while Tears of the Kingdom launched three years ago.

In the past, that lack of clarity around the big franchises would be a cause for concern. But in the Switch 2 era, there’s enough other stuff to play, and that stuff is good enough, that Nintendo isn’t as beholden to the success of those blockbusters. You may buy a Nintendo console for Mario and Zelda, but games like Mario Tennis Fever are what make them platforms worth investing in.