Nintendo Switch 2 Looks To Have A Surprisingly Strong Second Year
by Sage Ashford
It felt like Nintendo’s most recent Direct last week was far too long for its own good. Clocking in at well over an hour, it felt bloated and seemingly endless as it recounted a ton of “upgraded” editions and ports making their way to the Nintendo Switch 2. The impression: Nintendo was just “out” of new games, even though the truth couldn’t have been more different. In fact, the company appears to be well on their way to a strong second year for the console.
To start, there’s Mario Tennis Fever, the first new Mario Tennis game since Mario Tennis Aces back in 2018. Given Aces was the most popular entry in the franchise yet, Mario Tennis Fever seems like an excellent way to kick off the Nintendo mascot’s 40th anniversary when it launches on February 12th.
For those who don’t want to get into sports, though, there’s Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, the latest adventure for Mario’s dinosaur pal. Much like Yoshi’s Crafted World, Mysterious Book also has its own unique gimmick to interact differently with the world. For this game, Yoshi explores the pages of a special encyclopedia. Given its unlikely that we’re going to see a proper new Mario game next year, it’s cool there’s still plenty coming from the Mario universe.
Of course, Nintendo is well aware that not everything needs to be about Mario. So they also introduced Pokemon Pokopia, a new title featuring a Ditto that’s taken a human shape. As Ditto, players build a special island for all their fellow Pokemon. If this looks weird to you, that’s completely understandable. But this seems to be Animal Crossing with Pokemon, and if they market it correctly, it is going to sell millions when it launches in 2026.
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined is one of the few new announcements at the Direct that wasn’t from Nintendo themselves. A few leaks about the game emerged just before the Direct, but they were largely written off since they came from less reliable sources. This looks to be a complete remake of Dragon Quest VII from the ground-up, and even Square-Enix is openly saying they’ve streamlined the story to make it more accessible.
The truly weird thing about this title: it’s releasing February 5th, 2026. That’s on the heels of Dragon Quest III HD-2DRemake being launched in November 2024 and Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake this year. Counting this game, they’ll have remade over a third of the Dragon Quest franchise. Despite this, there’s still zero news on Dragon Quest XII, even though it was announced almost four years ago.
Nintendo closed the show with the next entry in their Fire Emblem series: Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave. Personally my highlight of the show, Fortune’s Weave looks to change the franchise’s gameplay once again, with characters capable of exploring an actual overworld instead of just hopping from mission to mission. Thanks to its art direction, people are assuming this is connected to the 2019’s Fire Emblem: Three Houses. While that’s not confirmed, it does seem like it’s returning to the increased character focus from that game.
Certainly, we’re off to a great start for the Switch 2’s Year 2. Hopefully they’ll be able to pick up their Nintendo Directs as well. Nintendo lives on a weird timeline compared to both PlayStation and Xbox, where their consoles release on their own schedule, and a decent part of their fanbase that doesn’t care about the other two consoles at all. With that in mind, each console generation requires Nintendo to remind fans that they can play third-party AAA and indie games on their console too. With a baseline re-established for the Switch 2, the next Direct shouldn’t be reminding us of things like Stardew Valley or even Final Fantasy VII.
