Topic: Which title will be first Switch 2 Nintendo game for adults?

So far Mario Kart and DK Bonanza both looks to be targeting age between 8-12. When new Xenoblade game? Why are we waiting so long for games announcemnts when they had years to prepare? I mean old people dont have that much time in life to wait like young kids, kids have entire life.

Nintendo pretty much has only two active adult-oriented franchises: Xenoblade Chronicles and Fire Emblem. The latest Xenoblade game out 3 years ago and the latest FE game 2 years ago. Given how long it takes to develop them (especially Xenoblade, considering how massive in content those games are), it's not that surprising that neither franchise is among the titles announced at launch. Maybe in 2026 or 2027 we might see a new XC and/or FE game.

Ignoring the fact that most Nintendo games are aimed at all ages and plenty of adults play them, surely Metroid is as much of a game 'for adults' as Xenoblade?

I guess it depends on which Metroid we're talking about, but AFAIK most Metroid games don't address philosophical and social issues or deal with personal relationships with the level of depth and maturity the XC and FE games do.

Personally, as an adult I love Nintendo's all-ages games too, but I think the original poster was talking about games that simply fly over kids' heads, and there aren't too many of those among Nintendo's first-party franchises.

@Polvasti but they are isolationist cosmic "horror" games. They have their beauty but man, can they also be creepy as hell.

Try being an 8 year old and seeing a Metroid latch onto your face. You'd have a panic attack. I know I did.
These games do take after Ridley Scott's "Alien"

I can't really ever see N developing an 'adults only experience' throughout one of their existing/well-known IPs. Maybe they develop something completely new... but I just don't see them taking this risk.

In all honesty, 'adult only' franchises and titles will be well catered for via 3rd party support - Cyberpunk being a prime example of recency. I am certain more titles similar, RDR2 / Baldurs 3 / **insert Soulslike, will come as well.

@Polvasti That's one definition of adult-oriented, and you may be right that that's what the OP meant, but I would say Metroid is one of Nintendo's most 'adult' series in terms of its fairly bleak atmosphere. I think I'm right in saying Other M is the only game in one of Nintendo's main franchises to have a PEGI 16 rating (that's not counting Famicom Detective Club!)

Outside of Famicom Detective Club and Bayonetta, Nintendo hasn't really released any "adult" games. Mildly mature perhaps, but limiting their reach and appealing strictly to adult audiences really isn't their forté.

Besides, most of the launch offerings on Switch 2 are more adult than family-oriented. At least two games are R18+ rated in Australia and another MA15+, the two Zeldas are rated M (equivalent to PEGI 12, ESRB T), leaving Mario Kart World as its only family-oriented title (Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S wasn't issued at retail here, which would have been rated PG).

Eternal Darkness and Geist on GameCube.

Ringfit 2.

Hentai Games Collection Vol. 2

Elden Ring and Cyber Punk. If Nintendo only, since they mostly sit in the E-T range, Metroid Prime 4. I could see a sequel to XCX but not for a few years. They will likely either remaster or upgrade XC2 first.

M rated games in house doesn’t make Nintendo money and now that Bayonetta is dried up they don’t have much to pull from.

It would be cool to see Nintendo develop and publish a survival horror game. With Resident Evil leaning more and more into action, there’s a bit of a void there they could fill. Crow Country was cool but I’d love to see what Nintendo could do with the genre.

@SillyG TotK is rated that high for you? Weird, it's 10+ in NA, same as Donkey Kong and Kirby and Pokemon Z-A.

Pikmin

I second this. I feel like nowadays the exercise games are the Nintendo games truly aiming for adults.

Famicom Detective Club?

@FishyS : I think the open world Zeldas are rated too low in the States. They share the same rating as 1-2 Switch for crying out loud! (And that game is rated G in Australia, highlighting some of the wild disparities between our rating systems)

Age ratings I would argue are a pretty poor way to measure the "adultness" of games. Especially given ratings boards are often very inconsistent or arbitrary. Sometimes they follow some cultural values on what is and isn't appropriate for kids, sometimes they seem to make up their own rules. And even when the ratings do make sense "appropriate for kids" is not the same as "targeted at kids"

Extreme example here but some food for thought, 2001 A Space Odyssey is rated G in Australia, for all ages. At the other end of the spectrum the but undeniable silly and incredibly childish A Million Ways to Die in the West is MA15+. Of course, without question, I'm not going to sit down with a 10 year old and show them the latter. But the fact that it's not appropriate for children certainly doesn't make it "more adult". Because I can tell you now a 10 year old isn't sitting through and appreciating 2001 as much as they would A Million Ways to Die in the West

Personally.... I would say that Mario Kart World and DK are both not really "targeting adults". My gut feel is that Mario Kart is probably a bit more adult skewed than DK, maybe just a tad. The transformations in my mind seem a bit more like something that would appeal to a younger gamer than it does to me while Mario Kart is just a solid kart racer. But certainly I'd repeat what @Dogorilla said, Metroid is most definitely Alien adjacent. Unashamedly so. I don't see any reasonable argument you could make that wouldn't call Metroid a game targeting an older audience

Also, if we're counting it, Zelda is basically just The Lord of the Rings seen through a Japanese cultural lens. I would argue it's also fairly Adult friendly in terms of tone/theme/aesthetic. Maybe not adult through the eyes of a 14 year old boy, which is maybe where some here are coming from. Certainly adult in the sense that it just sits where it sits and can be appreciated for what it is without the need for bells and rattles

Totally agree with this, and that's why I feel that among Nintendo's current major franchises, only Fire Emblem and Xenoblade Chronicles are aimed primarily at an adult audience. Not because of violent or sexual content (which is pretty mild in both franchises) but because the narrative themes and character relations in these games are depicted in a way which is too complex and mature for a kid. If I'd played XC and FE when I was 9 years old, I would've been super bored by them and would not have understood half of the stuff that's happening in the story.

In contrast, a game that has a lot of gore and violence doesn't necessarily have an adult sensibility as described above. Someone above mentioned that Metroid has similar space horror vibe as Alien, but I used to watch Alien and Aliens when I was 9, and I didn't find their plots too difficult or their violence too disturbing, those movies were cool and entertaining to watch as a kid. A lot of kids love horror and bloodshed in their entertainment.

Around the same age I also played the first Metroid on the NES and the second one on the original Game Boy, and I found them to be quite fun as a kid.

I've got my eyes firmly on publisher Funbox Media.

Best known for their selection of pervy gooner games.

There's a well of erotic shooters they could pull from itch.io.

@Magician I think the title specifies Nintendo-published games...

But it is true that they haven't cleaned up the eShop even slightly and there is still pervy garbage games weekly.

Also, English really needs seperate words for 'targeted towards adults' versus 'smut'. This question is clearly asking about the first category.