Nintendo Is Going Through Puberty Again In 2024

We are four months into 2024, and I’m not quite sure what games there are to be excited about. Especially when looking at the lineup (or potential lineup) of games coming from first-party powerhouse Nintendo.

I blame this, in part, on 2023 being an incredible, once-in-a-generation year for gaming across the board. It was a year when The Legend of Zelda: Tear of the Kingdom, in all of its beautiful majesty, didn’t stand a chance at winning Game of the Year when compared to Baldur’s Gate 3.

But here we are, a third of the way through the year, and all the Nintendo Switch has left to offer for 2024 is a remake of a 20-year-old spin-off. Of course, that’s to be expected when going through console puberty.

Nintendo Puberty Sucks For Gaming In 2024

Let me start by saying 2024 didn’t have to be the year Nintendo struggled with acne, body hair, and voice cracks. Nintendo was almost that one scrawny guy in 7th grade who went home for the summer and came back with six-pack abs.

2024 could have been the year of the Nintendo Switch 2, the New Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch Plus, or whatever Nintendo would have called their next console. However, according to reports, in 2023, Nintendo pushed back the launch of its next console to 2025 for developers’ sake. After all, wouldn’t it be better to have a console launch with a beefy line-up of games rather than one or two first-party titles?

Heck no! The Nintendo Switch launched in 2017 with a single, ground-breaking game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This game drastically changed the gaming landscape and birthed a new standard for open-world games. Snipper Clips and Arms can take a hike. We only needed BOTW. Mario Odyssey, a 10/10 3D Mario experience released the same year, was a bonus.

Indie devs caught up. AAA ports trickled in. Few were bothered by the lack of titles at launch, seeing as we granted a true Nintendo classic.

Rant over. Let’s talk about 2024.

The delay of the Switch 2 console leaves a substantial gap in Nintendo’s release calendar. We know of four first-party games for 2024, two of which have already been released, none of which are all too exciting.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a bare-bones remake of a 2004 platformer. Princess Peach Showtime, while a refreshing entry in the franchise, is an 8/10 at best. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, arguably the most exciting game in Nintendo’s 2024 arsenal, is yet another remake of a game from twenty years ago. And then there’s Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, a remaster of a Nintendo DS game from 2013.

And that’s it, as far as Nintendo has shown for this year. After Paper Mario next month and Luigi’s Mansion in June, we may not see another first-party Nintendo game until 2025.

That’s not to say we won’t, but it’s unlikely. Nintendo is trying to pad its launches between now and its next console. It’s weird and awkward, and no one really knows how to feel about the whole situation.

On one hand, Switch owners have been asking for remakes of their favorite titles for years. On the other, it’s strange seeing a console’s near-entire lineup for a whole year consist of said remakes.

All of this is to say that 2024 is shaping up to be a rough one for Nintendo fans. I already feel uncomfortable picking up my Switch and scrolling through games only to set it back down in confusion. And there are a lot of unanswered questions leading up to the end of the Switch’s lifespan. Where’s Metroid Prime 4? Why didn’t we get a Mario Odessey sequel? Where’s the Pokemon Scarlet & Violet performance patch?

But those are for another piece. This one should serve as a warning — advice to temper your expectations. If we can get through the messy, cumbersome year that is 2024, the Nintendo Switch 2 will greet us with open arms come 2025.