After Zelda, Mario Kart, Pokken , and now Bayonetta , which Wii U games will end up on Nintendo Switch next? Here are the most (and least) likely suspects.
Nintendo hasn’t been shy about porting its Wii U games to Switch, and for good reason: Wii U had a few excellent games, but it was also the worst-selling home console in Nintendo’s history and so those games got in front of very few people. And, of course, Switch’s portability means that even if you’ve already played these games, you might double-dip for the best ones.
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But not all Wii U games are created equal. There are a few that would seem like locks for a Switch port in 2018, some whose continued existence is questionable at best, and some that will almost surely never see light of day on the Switch. Here’s how I see it breaking down. Note that this is not just a list of the best and worst Wii U games; I’m taking into account a variety of different factors.
Most Likely To Succeed Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE We’ll begin with the game I think is most likely to get ported. A dark horse candidate? Hardly. In a bizarro world where Fire Emblem is a hit series and Persona 5 rocked the sales charts on PlayStation 4, a crossover of the two series would make tons of sense on Switch. Yes, Nintendo would have to shift all the second-screen stuff to a sub-menu, but it’d be worth it.
Xenoblade Chronicles X Basically the same idea: Big, expansive open-world RPG for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 players to roll right into after they’re done with the last one? Makes a lot of sense. Plus it has “off-TV play,” meaning it’s already a single-screen game.
Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze Speaking of off-TV play, not only did Donkey Kong’s Wii U outing have that, nothing even displayed on the Wii U GamePad while playing the game on the TV. An easier Switch port (in that regard) doesn’t exist. Plus, Tropical Freeze was generally well-received (if weirdly, intensely difficult ). The Wonderful 101 I’m cheating a little bit here, as Platinum Games already posted a teaser cartoon that appears to show its clever action game Wonderful 101 being played on a Switch. It followed this up with a Bayonetta Switch tease that came true. Advertisement You can skip ad after 1 second
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The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess Maybe as an HD combo pack. Now, if Nintendo really is thinking about doing a GameCube Virtual Console as has been reported, then that would cause a potential conflict here—do they port these HD versions or just emulate the originals? I bet it’s these.
Switch Me Maybe? New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Mario 3D World Nintendo likes to look back on Zelda games, but it tends to look forward with Mario . Bringing back one of these games would strike me as less of a “the beloved classic returns” situation and more of a “here’s an old game” situation—especially after the transcendent Mario Odyssey . Still could happen, although both games have touchscreen controls that would need to be sliced out or redesigned.
Super Smash Bros. Of course, Super Smash Bros. will eventually launch on Switch to great fanfare and probably huge success. But while a Mario Kart 8 Deluxe -style port would have made sense if Nintendo wanted to get Smash out in 2017, the fact that it’s taking its time with the series means that the Switch version might end up being a sequel, not a simple port. Then again, it’s still possible that Smash Switch might just end up being fundamentally the Wii U game with some extras. Hence the “maybe.”
Hyrule Warriors Again: I have zero doubt that Hyrule Warriors will end up on Switch, and the only question is, does Koei Tecmo do a port of the Wii U game, or a sequel to it? As with Smash , the longer we wait, the more likely it’s a sequel.
Pikmin 3 The Wii U version had a lot of GamePad integration, but none of it was strictly necessary. You could play it all with the Pro Controller. On the other hand, that was not really the best way to do it . Maybe the Wii Remote implementation could be done with split Joy-Cons instead? Or maybe it’s all too much bother for a port of a 2013 game.Advertisement You can skip ad after 1 second
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Yoshi’s Woolly World It was already ported to 3DS with extra levels, and there’s already an original Yoshi game coming out on Switch, so maybe Woolly World won’t get another... bite at the apple.
Super Mario Maker First of all, I definitely think Mario Maker needs to come to Switch, although again we run into the “port or sequel?” conundrum. Either way, I’d like to see Nintendo package the game with a capacitive stylus pen, because no way is anyone going to be designing levels with their finger. Maybe this (and Smash , come to think of it) are waiting on the launch of the Switch online service.
Nah Nintendo Land, Game & Wario, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, Star Fox Guard Good games, but dual-screen gameplay and/or GamePad touch controls are too tightly integrated into them to make a port make sense.
Star Fox Zero, Paper Mario Color Splash Could Nintendo redeem Star Fox Zero by ripping out the ill-considered GamePad controls and just let you play it with a freakin’ Pro Controller already? Possibly, but that feels like a lot of work for a game with a bad rep. Ditto Color Splash , which got better reviews but not great reviews.
Splatoon, Mario Party 10 Insofar as the multiplayer aspect has been rendered obsolete by Splatoon 2 , the first is extremely unlikely. And Mario Party is most likely to just be replaced with a Switch sequel that uses Joy-Cons in wacky ways.
Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash These games were designed on a budget and released in a hurry to get some content on the shelves during Wii U’s worst years; I doubt Nintendo wants to resurrect them.
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Devil’s Third Insofar as Nintendo tried to literally hide the existence of this game when it shipped, I imagine it would just like to pretend it never did.