The Nintendo Switch 2 has come out of the gate with a strong first year, because of both new titles like Donkey Kong Bananza and a wealth of “upgraded” Switch 1 games, from Super Mario Party Jamboree to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and now Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Nintendo’s dual approach has been interesting, alternating between new and old — but the updates for those old games go so much further than just technical upgrades, adding huge swathes of new content to some games. With that in mind, it feels like there’s a chance for the Switch 2 to really capitalize on breathing life into older games — and there’s a handful of Switch classics just begging for an update. Here are five games ripe for a Switch 2 upgrade.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
With Fortune’s Weave heavily implying a connection to Three Houses, now’s the perfect time to give the strategy RPG a new lease on life.
By far the biggest benefit Three Houses would receive from a Switch 2 version is upgraded visuals and performance. Despite being a fantastic game, you can’t argue that Three Houses struggles at times — the Monastery feels flat and ugly, frame rate can tank, and load times leave a lot to be desired. A version fully developed for Switch 2 could genuinely be a night and day difference in terms of performance, and that alone is worth the upgrade.
But even past that, a Switch 2 version presents a prime opportunity to enhance the experience with bits of new content, which could be even more effective if Three Houses and the upcoming Fortune’s Weave truly are connected. A new story expansion is the obvious candidate, but you could also simply add new classes into the game, challenge maps, or even add in a new story route that significantly shakes things up. The sky is the limit.
Super Mario Odyssey
Mario is currently in the midst of its 40th anniversary.
Super Mario Odyssey is a no-brainer for an update, and honestly, it’s a bit shocking that we don’t have one already. For one, the Mario series is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary — a momentous occasion. We also haven’t seen a new 3D Mario game since Odyssey, and with the Super Mario Galaxy Movie coming out this year, it seems almost assured that we’ll get new Mario content in some form.
While a brand-new Mario game would be great, a secondary option would be an expansion for Super Mario Odyssey, along with that shiny technical upgrade. Donkey Kong Bananza shows how fantastic a platformer can run on the Switch 2, and the already visually impressive Mario Odyssey could really benefit from an upgrade.
But we’ve also seen how expansions can be applied to this kind of game, with Bowser’s Fury for Super Mario 3D World and Star-Crossed World with Kirby and the Forgotten Land. There’s so much potential for a new adventure using Odyssey’s dynamic hat mechanics, or even something that leans into the open-world-esque design of Bananza.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Xenoblade 3’s stunning open world is still the most impressive on Switch to date.
The Xenoblade games have long been one of Nintendo’s most ambitious franchises — sweeping role-playing adventures with massive, highly detailed worlds. And Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is one of those games you play, and you’re blown away; how can a little console like the Switch even run it? The world of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 deserves a technical upgrade in every sense, especially seeing what the technical wizards at Monolith Soft have been able to help Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom do.
And even though Xenoblade Chronicles 3 already has the fantastic Future Redeemed expansion, it’s hard not to feel like there could be one last hurrah left in the series. That’s especially true with the rather open-ended finale of the game, leaving a lot of questions about the fate of the main characters still up in the air.
After Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, the Xenoblade series is, for all intents, over — and Monolith can move on to something new. But a shiny new upgraded version of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 would be the sendoff that Nintendo’s most underrated series deserves.
Ring Fit Adventure
Ring Fit Adventure is some of the most fun you can have working out.
Nintendo’s fitness-focused Ring Fit Adventure was one of the biggest surprises of the Nintendo Switch. Not just a surprisingly effective workout routine, Ring Fit Adventure was also just a delightfully fun game — easy to work into a daily or weekly routine. It also turned out to be a huge hit for Nintendo, selling over 14 million copies.
That’s 15 million people who now have a plastic ring sitting in their home, and it’d be a real shame not to give everyone a reason to use that device again. And it also feels like Nintendo could push the concept even further with the improved Joy-Cons of Switch 2, and new features like mouse mode. That also opens up the door to an entirely new campaign to play through, and of course, there’s no shortage of exercises.
Ring Fit Adventure is, by far, the single most successful gimmick of the Switch era, so much so that it’s hard to envision it as a one-and-done kind of thing. I’d put money on Ring Fit coming back, in some capacity, on Switch 2.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Even just a technically upgraded Smash Ultimate would likely sell incredibly well.
There’s not a single Nintendo game that feels more deserving, or fitting, of a Switch 2 version than Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The very structure of Smash Bros. is perfectly tuned to incremental updates and new versions, adding new characters, stages, and whatever else. There’s a good reason the game kept getting DLC for nearly six years. And there’s certainly no shortage of characters fans are rabid to see in a Smash game.
Of course, there are a lot of question marks around an enhanced version of Smash Ultimate — not the least of which is if director and series creator Masahiro Sakurai even wants to work on the series anymore. And adding even a single new character to a fighting game like this is a monumental undertaking of balancing. Then there’s the future of the franchise, and whether we’ll see a new Smash game, and what that could even look like.
But even just an enhanced version that only updates visuals and performance would likely be worth it. And it’s not hard to see that a new version of Smash Ultimate, with new characters, would sell like hotcakes.
