Forgotten Nintendo Series We Want To See On The Switch 2

Whenever a new Nintendo console releases, there is always hype for new games in the company’s line-up of iconic series to show up at some point. Whether it be Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, or Super Smash Bros., these series have been touchstones of the company’s many platforms since their debut. The Nintendo Switch 2 will be no exception, with rumors of new games in these series already underway.

However, there are a lot of series Nintendo hasn’t touched in several years, or even decades, that are overdue for a return. The Switch 2 could be the perfect opportunity to bring them back, both delighting fans of these games’ older installments when they were first released and introducing them to a brand-new generation of players.

10

F-Zero

The Futuristic Racer Has Been Overshadowed By Mario Kart

Every fan of video games knows who Captain Falcon is, thanks to his appearance in the Super Smash Bros. games and his iconic Falcon Punch. But his series of origin has not been in the spotlight in over two decades. The last original F-Zero game was 2003’s F-Zero GX on the GameCube, and its only new release in the Switch era was the free-to-play online racer F-Zero 99.

Since GX, there have been attempts to make a new game, but they have never come into fruition due to struggles with finding a developer willing to work on one or coming up with new gimmicks to make it stand out from Mario Kart. Despite that, there is still tons of potential for a new game in the future, if the series follows a direction more similar to Burnout or Twisted Metal.

9

Golden Sun

This Handheld JRPG Series Has Been Inactive Since 2010

Golden Sun is a series of RPG games that were exclusive to Nintendo’s handheld consoles. They follow a group of teenagers who are tasked with stopping the power of alchemy from taking over their world. While not huge hits, they became cult favorites among those who played them. However, production on these games virtually ceased after 2010, with Camelot Software instead prioritizing the development of Mario Sports titles.

Thankfully for fans of the series, the relationship between Nintendo and Camelot remains strong well into the Switch era. In 2024, the first two Golden Sun games were released for the Nintendo Switch Online service, much to fans’ delight. A new game could follow in the footsteps of Fire Emblem and make the leap into 3D, exploring more modern role-playing elements while keeping the traditional turn-based gameplay that was once ubiquitous in the JRPG scene.

8

EarthBound

This Cult Classic Trilogy Deserves The Mario RPG Treatment

Also known as Mother in Japan, the EarthBound games are among the most acclaimed games in Nintendo’s line-up, despite their relative lack of commercial success. The game’s second installment, simply titled EarthBound in North America, helped get lead character Ness a slot in the Super Smash Bros. series. This led to a third game, Mother 3, for the Game Boy Advance in 2004.

However, the series has been dormant since Mother 3, despite that game’s protagonist Lucas joining Ness in Smash. That hasn’t stopped the games from being major cult classics. The Switch 2 would be a perfect way to bring it back, with the popularity of games like Undertale that took inspiration from Mother, and both a remake and an entirely new game in full 3D graphics, similar to Super Mario RPG, would make fans happy.

7

Kid Icarus

Pit’s Next Adventure Could Try New Styles

Kid Icarus started out as a popular platformer on the NES, and while there were hopes it would become a cornerstone for Nintendo like fellow 1986 arrivals The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, that never came into fruition. While a Game Boy sequel, Of Myths and Monsters, was released in 1991, Pit went mostly quiet afterward. The angelic hero’s appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, however, changed that, and Kirby creator and Smash producer Masahiro Sakurai would helm a reboot for the 3DS titled Kid Icarus: Uprising.

While elements of Uprising would be incorporated into the next two Smash games, there has been little news about Kid Icarus since. Sakurai has parted ways with the Uprising developmental team and has mostly focused on Smash since. While Uprising mainly functioned as a third-person shooter, a new Kid Icarus may work better as an action RPG like Xenoblade or an open-world adventure like the Breath of the Wild line of Zelda games.

6

Sin And Punishment

Developer’s Dormancy Has Put Rail Shooter In Limbo

Sin and Punishment: Earth Successor, was released as a Japanese-exclusive Nintendo 64 game in 2000. This futuristic rail shooter focuses on Saki Amamiya and Airan Jo, two teenagers who join a volunteer army to help save humanity from genetically-engineered mutants called Ruffians. The game was a modernized take on run-and-gun shooters that developer Treasure made for the Sega Genesis, like Gunstar Heroes and Alien Soldier.

Despite its lack of a worldwide release, it became a cult favorite, and a sequel, Star Successor, was released on the Wii in 2009, this time being released in all markets. The popularity of futuristic action games like Nier: Automata and Stellar Blade proves there is a market for titles like Sin and Punishment, and many fans would like to see another installment in the series.

5

Eternal Darkness

One Of Nintendo’s Few M-Rated Games

Nintendo has only published a handful of M-rated video games in its history, and the most acclaimed of them all was 2002’s Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem for the GameCube. This psychological horror video game took inspiration from genre heavyweights like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, and allowed players to play both as modern-day protagonist Alex Roivas and other characters in the past. Despite its critical acclaim, a sequel was never greenlit, and the game’s developer, Silicon Knights, went out of business in 2014.

Still though, Eternal Darkness remains a cult classic, and fans have been clamoring for either a remaster of the original game or a sequel. Horror games, from Resident Evil to The Last of Us, have thrived more than ever in the many years since Nintendo dipped their toe into the genre, so the game giants cashing in with a remake in the vein of Resident Evil would be a smart move.

4

Wave Race

Jet Ski Racer Deserved More Love

While Mario Kart, and to a lesser extent, F-Zero are the racing games most associated with Nintendo, they have several other series that have gone relatively unnoticed. One of those was the jet ski racer Wave Race, which released three games from 1992 to 2001. While the games had their following, the jet ski subgenre was never the most popular type of racer, and even then, they were largely overshadowed by the Splashdown games on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

Giving the series another try would be a high-risk-high-reward venture on Nintendo’s part. While jet ski games have largely gone out of style since the 2000s, all it takes is one success to bring it back into the spotlight. A new Wave Race game could be a test of whether there is still an audience for this type of game, and could innovate many new ideas that were absent from the previous generation of jet ski racers.

3

Chibi Robo

A New Rival For Astro Bot?

Chibi-Robo sees players control the robot of the same name as he helps maintain the house of his owners and provides them with services like electricity. It was a unique take on a traditional 3D platformer, and it spawned a series of games afterward. His future adventures were all on Nintendo’s handhelds, and once again focused on maintaining other settings like a park or a museum. The final game in the series, 2015’s Zip Lash, was highly divisive for its shift to a standard side-scroller, and its developer, Skip Ltd., went out of business in 2020.

In 2024, fans had hope of the series being revived when a spiritual successor called KoROBO was announced by Tiny Wonder Studio, made up of former Skip employees. Additionally, the success of the Astro Bot video games on the PlayStation proves there’s a market for platformers starring small robots. Nintendo reviving their miniature robot mascot could give Astro a brand-new rival to compete with.

2

Wars

Military Strategy Game Has Gotten Fire Emblem Comparisons

Nintendo’s Wars is a series of turn-based strategy games where players command a military in wars against rival countries. While originally Japanese-exclusive, they were introduced to the American market in 2001 with Advance Wars for the Game Boy Advance. The games were modest successes for Nintendo and three sequels were released, one more for the Game Boy Advance and two for the DS, plus a spin-off line on consoles called Battalion Wars.

However, after 2008, no new games were produced, with Intelligent Systems prioritizing its more popular titles like Fire Emblem, Paper Mario, and WarioWare. Luckily, after years of absence, a remake of the first two Advance Wars games was released in 2023, to the delight of its fans, though with WayFoward taking the reins from Intelligent. The Switch 2 could be the perfect opportunity for a full-on comeback for the series, especially if it follows many of the innovations Fire Emblem made since then.

1

1080 Snowboarding

Nintendo’s Snowboarding Game Couldn’t Compete With SSX

1080 Snowboarding was released in 1998 as Nintendo’s answer to the PlayStation hit Cool Boarders. The game was well-received by fans and eventually got a sequel in 2003 on the GameCube called 1080: Avalanche. However, it struggled to gain traction in the new generation, as it was largely overshadowed by the monumental success of EA Sports’ SSX games. By 2005, Nintendo was licensing out the right for Mario characters to appear in SSX: On Tour rather than make snowboarding games of their own.

Enough time has passed, though, that snowboarding games have largely gone out of style, and there’s always going to be an opening for a new game to reignite the craze. SSX might not be the series to do it, and if Nintendo releases a 1080 game, they could beat them to the punch.