Nintendo Reconfirms Release Windows For Major Upcoming Switch 2 Games

I'm surprised we haven't seen anymore of Splatoon Raiders, it's like they revealed it too early.

I can't wait for Splatoon Raiders and Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection to get a release date!

@Twilite9 Those would be cool

Really solid lineup. Games in this list I'll absolutely be getting:

• Yoshi and the Mysterious Book (❤️)
• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
• Kirby Air Riders
• Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
• Splatoon Raiders
• Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream
• Rhythm Heaven Groove

Not sure in which capacity yet, but will definitely get:

• Super Mario Bros. Wonder Switch 2 Edition

Will wait to see how much content it will have among other things, but still eventually buy:

• Mario Tennis Fever

Yeah, I'm a decently happy Switch 2 owner right now. Mario Kart World still burned me, DK Bananza couldn't keep my attention for too long, but the forecast is looking pretty bright right now!

Ok, 2025 ends on a good note but 2026 must come with big releases.

Mario Tennis and Fire Emblem are definites, Yoshi I'll wait for reviews since it's an incredibly inconsistent series, Mario Wonder I need to see how much single player content there is since I don't really care at all about multiplayer but Rosalina alone might tip it enough for me to get.

Not super interested in the rest. Maybe Rhythm Heaven but I've tried to get into the series before and I'm just really bad at it.

@Twilite9 I can't see Smash happening in 2026 or before 2028 honestly. Animal Crossing is at least 2027.

But we'll have to way and see in the January Nintendo Direct.

Personally I think next year we'll see a new 3D Mario game and maybe a 3D Zelda game. Either a remake or a port.

Looking forward to picking up Kirby Air Riders, Super Mario Bros. Wonder NS2 Edition (played the normal version recently and forgot how brilliant it was) and learning more about Tomodachi Life and Splatoon Raiders as they both have so much potential!

@CutMan003 Quite common for Nintendo though. Release a trailer early to build hype.

I don't get that people are complaining that Switch 2 "has no games". I think 2025 has a pretty solid line-up. Much better than Switch had anyways.

Games that I'm getting:

• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment
• Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition (already pre-ordered with ALL the extras and ALL Amiibos)
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition -
• Mario Tennis Fever
• Yoshi and the Mysterious Book
• Pokémon Pokopia
• Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave (hoping for a collector's edition and new Amiibos!)
• Splatoon Raiders (this will be my first Splatoon, since it has a 1 player focus, it seems)
• Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream

So, pretty much the entire line-up, hahaha.

@Twilite9 Well, Sakurai-san just finished working on Kirby Air Riders, so perhaps he can start working on a new Smash Bros now. Although I would hate to see him get burnt out again from working on such a massive project.

And @Olliemar28 is right, it'll be the 40th anniversary for Zelda, so I can't imagine they'll just let that go by without any sort of celebration. A new game would be awesome, but I expect a port of Twilight Princess, or at least the addition of that game to the NSO GameCube line-up.

What if Splatoon Raiders is a epic single player adventure and it secretly Splatoon 4 as well. Which means more maps,weapons and multilayer. Now that would explain why it's not tbc 2026!. And don't forgot Zelda 40th is right near that February Direct timeslot and Mario Movie in April after Feb direct. 2026 will be huge don't worry.

@Olliemar28 Oh btw, you've put 2026 instead of 2025 for Kirby Air Riders!

@UltimateOtaku91 look at what they did with Metroid Prime 4 and Bayonetta 3 I do think we'll see this much sooner rather than later though

One of my choice is Pokopia because it's the closest to Dragon Quest Builders games.
And also the new Tomodachi Life game.

There's a handful of games I want from that lineup, which is more than I'd usually expect from Nintendo in any given year. As long as Nintendo bring 3 or 4 games that I know I'll enjoy each year, I'm happy.

Air Raiders, MP4, Tennis Fever, Splatoon Raiders and SMB Wonder (I never got round to buying it for Switch. Great decision, with hindsight). Perhaps Yoshi too but Im not a fan of the art style they've gone for. Perhaps it'll grow on me. There's Animal Crossing too, another I skipped on Switch

Add on MKW and Bananza, and that's a very solid opening year for my tastes.

Ughhh, I want to see more of Splatoon Raiders so very badly. Not being in the September Direct still smarts. As much as I loved it, I recently questioned whether its shock announcement was really the right move. But since Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Switch 2 announcement pretty much did the same thing, and it was an amazing surprise as well, I think I should be OK!

Can we get a new Wave Race, F Zero & PilotWings please Nintendo?

Splatoon Raiders being TBC rather than 2026 is a bit odd, but hopefully it is 2026 and not 2027.

@RumandCohibas 🙏🙏🙏

@UltimateOtaku91 It's kinda weird it was revealed randomly as a shadow-drop and not in a Direct. But Nintendo not having their traditional June/summer direct really messed up the reveal/hype cycle.

I’d like to get a game for Christmas, but I’m sitting on the fence between Pokémon (Is it same of the same?), Hyrule Warriors (More same of the same), or MP4 (Will it cause motion nausea?). I’ll wait until they all release to make up my mind.

Next year there is lots, but only FE and Splatoon interest me at the moment.

Ecstatic for Fire Emblem, Metroid Prime 4, and Tomadachi Life. Kind of annoyed they keep showing Tomadachi Life off as a Switch 1 game though.

Besides Splatoon, I’m interested in the S2 editions of Animal Crossing and Mario Wonder, Mario Tennis (though with a little caution given recent Mario sports history), Yoshi, Tomodachi Life and Rhythm Heaven. 2026 should be a stacked year even if there’s a lot of smaller games and remasters, but the big hitters should be in the second half.

Raiders might be a “smaller” game, but I’d love an epic $70 Deep Cut adventure! Just the fact that it’s a standalone game should make it bigger than any previous story mode.

Air riders and metroid prime 4 are the big hitters for me. I'm not gonna get them.at launch though unless I see a sale. Prices are getting ridiculous and honestly, I have such a big backlog, it wouldn't hurt cleaning that one up a bit

The cadence of games for Switch 2 is very similar to Switch 1, from a first-party perspective. It will be interesting to see if Nintendo dips further into the back catalog with old GBA/DS games being reworked for NS2 later in the console's life cycle.

As for what I'm getting. Probably MP4 as I have a voucher and a way to get a gift card that will make the price I pay $55, vice $70, which is good. Kirby Air Riders is happening, but probably not at launch depending on what happens in politics the next few weeks (I work for the USG, look at the news for more information on the state of the U.S. Government right now, so I'm a pawn in a bigger game like I was when I served in the military). Mario Tennis is likely a get for me, as well. I skipped some big games on NS1 though, and I do plan on getting those before vouchers go away so I'm set as far as NS1/2 games go.

The release schedule drops off around March, even for major third party titles. I'm guessing Nintendo has some big presentation planned in the next 3 months or something.

@ballistic90 Well we know Pokemon Day is in Feb more than likely Gen 10 will be announced for 30th Anni then so that will probably be their big holiday title for 2026

Seems like a pretty solid lineup to me that can scratch an itch for almost everyone. I still struggle to understand how the Switch 2 "has no games". Unless folks choose to also ignore backwards compatibility. To me, BC is a blessing since most of my backlog is on Switch.

There are a few reasons why I'm waiting on grabbing a Switch 2, but the game lineup isn't one of them.

I'm hoping for a solid Mario Tennis game but honestly each game since the Gamecube has been gimmick after gimmick.

I wish they'd go back to basics. Maybe even just make the Smash Bros Ultimate of Mario Tennis and do an "everyone's here!" massive roster. That's generally the appeal to me for this spinoffs and sports titles. Having folks play as whoever they love from the Mario series.

@Pillowpants

I think its partially an artifact of too many people having internalized the "announce 5 years ahead, hype constantly" marketing paradigm that a lot of other big publishers do. They look at the announced release schedule and, consciously or not, treat it as a "everything in the next five years" list rather than a "everything in the next handful of months" list. Add a little cherry picking, and bam. Eight games in the next six months, gets treated emotionally as if it were four games in the next five years.

Really hoping Monolithsoft shows their hand in 2026. I'd love a brand new IP; as great as the Xenoblade franchise is, its growth potential is clearly limited. Branching out with a fresh theme like a beautiful medieval/high fantasy setting could really kickstart Monolithsoft's Switch 2 era.

While Nintendo could rerelease most of its Wii U catalogue on Switch 1, I guess we will see many rereleases of that games on Switch 2, with better performance and visuals and additional content.

Kirby is here one example, SMB Wonder another. Nintendo will milk this cow till the end.

Pretty much interested in absolutely everything listed to varying extents. Ha and ARGH!

@Yosher I'm really excited to see more of Yoshi and the Mysterious Book. Whether it's Good-Feel or Arzest I believe both can make an engaging platformer. The format seems unusual and they were already playing with format to good results in Crafted World, so I'm curious to see how that shakes out.

@ParsnipHero that's exactly what I'm hoping for from Fever. It would be the first Tennis game for me in several gens. The RPG mode reminded me of the GBC classic and the roster looked deeper than usual. The production value seemed impressive too.

@Nabbit01 Honestly I really hope it's not Arzest. Yoshi's New Island was atrocious and I never want them near the Yoshi franchise again. Good Feel I'll happily see making another attempt at a Yoshi game though, Crafted World wasn't the greatest either but was still good at least.

@Editors TYPOOOOO YOU FORGOT THE T in "Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - 15h January 2026" Jk I'm just being annoying lol

Aside from Metroid and Raiders nothing is really exciting for me. Sad that this year’s Zelda game is another warriors outing. Normally 3rd party stuff would be on my list, but I don’t do digital or key cards so I’m just backlogging it with Switch 1 games. Not a bad thing.

And still people are complaining there aren’t enough first party games 🙃

Animal Crossing, Mario Wonder, and Yoshi for me!
Possibly Kirby Air Riders. I love Kirby, but not racing games at all. Waiting to play the demos on that one.

@UltimateOtaku91 You say that, meanwhile I can't believe MP4 is just a month away. When was it revealed? 8 years ago? Madness °_°

A lot of heavy hitters, and in completely different genres too! My backlog is not getting any smaller

I totally forgot there was a nex Mario Tennis announced XD

SMB WONDER NS2E - Man, that's a mouthful, even in acronym form.

MP4B NS2E - Same comment.

MTF - Will wait for reviews, primarily from this site.