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kopstudent89 on 12 June 2026
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The Switch was an outlier in terms of releasing a mainline Zelda + Mario game in year 1. People tend to forget that:
- Zelda was practically a Wii U game, was in development for 7 years
- The Switch needed a big statement, coming from the previous gen which was a disaster commercially
- Games like Mario Kart 8 deluxe was a direct port, and Splatoon 2 was essentially a Splatoon 1 upgrade

That said, Nintendo systems tend to have a big Mario game by year 2 and other big franchises flow right after. Not seeing it is disappointing particularly because it will be 10+ years since we've seen Odyssey by the time the new Mario release.

However, this hasn't been a weak launch:
- First Mario Kart since 2014 and is a game that will get bigger over time
- First hyped Starfox game since I can remember
- First 3D donkey kong in over 25 years
- New Xenoblade, Fire Emblem announced
- Strongest 3rd party support since arguably the SNES, including day and date releases
- Ocarina of time is going to be the biggest remake of all time. That's not a spinoff / side game, and I think the way they've teased this was spot on because it's creating a lot of dialogue and all eyes will be on the next direct / info about the game.

Maybe it's not blockbuster like 2017, but 2017 is not necessarily a benchmark. Sales for the Switch 2 back Nintendo's decisions so far (like it or not).

Finally I also think the price increase in September in the West means they will want to show a lot more info then to justify the price. I won't be surprised to see their big pipeline finally show up: a big showcase for OoT, Zelda 40th, Mario 3D (a game I think they've had a lot of time to make it a blockbuster), the biggest Pokemon game to date, and more stuff.

I think there is momentum and that's important. It hasn't been special, and yes maybe a tad disappointing especially the first half of this year, but there's a lot of games flowing and I do get the feel that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.