The First-Party Comeback
~To listen to this post in a video essay format, scroll down to the bottom of the page~
I’ll say it until the cows come home: 2018 is an underwhelming year for the Switch all around, but particularly in terms of exclusives. There just haven’t been that many of consequence, especially in comparison to 2017. Sure, we have Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to cap off the year, but the lead up to this game has been marked by underwhelming first-party titles, ports, and niche third-party exclusives. The Wii U ports do pad out the lineup and give a better impression, but when you look purely at new software, the lineup is more bleak. 2018 just feels like a stop-gap year in terms of new exclusives-- not much quality outside of a few key titles, emphasis on few.
Luckily, 2019 is looking to be a complete about-face. While we already had a fairly robust idea of the 2019 calendar going into this Direct, coming out, we really have a clear picture of what to expect next year, and it is only September of 2018. Confirmed for next year at this point are: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Yoshi’s Crafted World, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Animal Crossing, Town, and Pokemon Gen 8. Other games such as Metroid Prime 4 and Bayonetta 3 are very possible for next year too, but aren’t confirmed for 2019 like the other seven games are.
I cannot stress enough how important knowing about these titles now is; Nintendo has finally offered a roadmap, placating my fear that 2018 was going to be the new norm; a big game or two, with a disparate few smaller titles. No, 2019 is getting back on track, with a bevy of big-budget titles, spread across different development studios and genres spanning the entire year. Not everything in that lineup is of the scope and scale of Animal Crossing or Pokemon, but it is full of interesting and varied ideas for different audiences. Not to mention, a bunch of these are hotly anticipated crowd-pleasers, too.
Pokemon Gen 8 will be the first mainline home-console Pokemon game, and both Animal Crossing and Luigi’s Mansion 3 are long-awaited follow ups to beloved series, which coincidentally, both haven’t gotten new mainline titles since 2013. We’re even getting a brand new IP from Game Freak on a AAA-scale; no more are their original ideas confined to the downloadable space. Animal Crossing was of course my favorite reveal, I’m really excited to learn more about Game Freak’s Town. It got overshadowed by the announcements from established franchises, as I’ve heard very little buzz about it online, but it seemed incredibly interesting from what little we saw.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Yoshi’s Crafted World, while arguably the least exciting games in that lineup, will hopefully be great additions to their respective franchises too. While I need to see more of Three Houses before I deliver any sort of conclusive opinion (I was wholly unimpressed by the E3 showing) Yoshi’s Crafted World looks genuinely far more interesting than its 2017 debut. I’m not blown away by it in any sense, but it certainly looks promising, and I’m excited to explore its arts-and-crafts based environments.
Before I move on, though, I just need to talk briefly about Animal Crossing 2019. This was truly my Metroid Prime 4 moment; rarely, if ever, have I gotten so excited for a JPEG accompanied by a stock logo and a date. Animal Crossing New Leaf is one of my favorite games, period, so knowing that I’m at most, a year away from the next title is huge. I’ve heard some chatter saying that the announcement wasn’t that big, considering there was no way Nintendo wasn’t working on Animal Crossing, so just getting a confirmation isn’t exciting. I’d raise you this, though.
Didn’t we all think Animal Crossing was a lock for 2015 on Wii U? When that passed, wasn’t 2016 an inevitability? Or, how about 2018, where we were positive Animal Crossing would hit the Switch? My point is merely this; every time Animal Crossing has made sense for the past several years, it hasn’t happened. Saying Animal Crossing, pre-Direct, was a no-brainer for 2019 was no more or less valid than saying it in 2015. Yes, I was disappointed to not see gameplay. But, just knowing that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, Animal Crossing is imminent, is good enough for me.
With all of that said, it makes me wonder; what else on top of these games, if anything, is coming next year? The New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe port is already locked in for January, so there’s that. Both Fire Emblem and Yoshi are slated for Spring of that year. You’d presume Animal Crossing is a Fall title considering how little we know about it, and Pokemon will of course be holiday, as usual. Luigi’s Mansion, while it doesn’t have a release window, just makes the most sense in Fall, and Town could really go anywhere, but if I had to guess that is a Summer title, just to let it breathe before Pokemon.
So, when you break that down, there is still room for a few more games; another in Summer, one more for Fall, and a final Holiday release. There are a few games floating around in the ether that could easily plug holes in the calendar, and those are: Star Fox Grand Prix, Metroid Prime 4, Bayonetta 3, and Pikmin 4. Retro hasn’t released anything since Tropical Freeze back in 2014 on Wii U, and rumors suggest that Star Fox Grand Prix is a Summer 2019 title, so I’m going to go ahead and lock that in. I could see Bayonetta 3 launching in late Summer in the slot that has done both Mario + Rabbids and Octopath Traveller huge favors, but I see that more as a Fall title personally.
Actually, I think that Pikmin 4 actually makes the most sense for late Summer. That game, based on the evidence we have, seems to have been in development for Wii U and then transferred onto Switch. Considering how long ago Pikmin 3 was, of all the games that exist but aren’t confirmed for 2019, Pikmin 4 is the most likely. It simply has been so long, and considering that Miyamoto wasn’t even that involved with Odyssey, I’d imagine he’s had a lot of time to work on Pikmin. Launching in late Summer would also give the game its time to shine, and could perhaps generate the commercial success that Pikmin has lacked up to this point.
Metroid Prime 4, I do think, is also very likely to launch next year. Nintendo is going to need another Holiday game, and Metroid Prime 4 would be just the ticket. It would generate a lot of hype, and I’m hard pressed to believe it wouldn’t be ready. Unless I’m sorely mistaken or something has gone awry behind the scenes, Nintendo wouldn’t have announced this game in 2017 if it wasn’t going to be ready by the end of next year. I still think that it was announced too soon regardless, but I’d find it nearly inconceivable that Metroid misses Holiday 2019.
So yes, just for the record, I do think that all eleven of those games could launch next year. Sure, it seems lofty, but hear me out. Town, Fire Emblem, Bayonetta 3, Star Fox Grand Prix, and most likely both Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Metroid Prime 4 are being developed by second or third party teams. That knocks a potential six games off of the list, leaving only five titles to be developed in-house. Considering how long these projects have been in development, I’d imagine that both Yoshi and Pikmin 4 are almost done already. I simply don’t think that is unrealistic at all, especially considering how few games were released this year, and how many studios Nintendo can leverage. It isn’t like Nintendo really exhausted themselves making Kirby and farming Mario Tennis out to Camelot again. It really feels like 2019 is the time when the dominos will really begin to fall, and I couldn’t be more excited.
Sure, I said the same thing about 2018 during 2017, but that was purely conjecture. In late 2017, it felt inevitable that 2018 would surpass the Switch’s launch year in every way. Well, that clearly wasn’t true. But, in 2017, we didn’t have anywhere near the number of upcoming, confirmed titles for 2018, as we do now for 2019. I can’t help but feel like the evidence really does point to next year being explosive. I’ve felt really down and out about the Switch in recent months because of how few exclusives have been releasing how uninteresting or poorly executed they have been. However, 2019’s lineup has me filled with nothing but optimism, and I cannot wait for these games to start rolling out.
So, when you break that down, there is still room for a few more games; another in Summer, one more for Fall, and a final Holiday release. There are a few games floating around in the ether that could easily plug holes in the calendar, and those are: Star Fox Grand Prix, Metroid Prime 4, Bayonetta 3, and Pikmin 4. Retro hasn’t released anything since Tropical Freeze back in 2014 on Wii U, and rumors suggest that Star Fox Grand Prix is a Summer 2019 title, so I’m going to go ahead and lock that in. I could see Bayonetta 3 launching in late Summer in the slot that has done both Mario + Rabbids and Octopath Traveller huge favors, but I see that more as a Fall title personally.
Actually, I think that Pikmin 4 actually makes the most sense for late Summer. That game, based on the evidence we have, seems to have been in development for Wii U and then transferred onto Switch. Considering how long ago Pikmin 3 was, of all the games that exist but aren’t confirmed for 2019, Pikmin 4 is the most likely. It simply has been so long, and considering that Miyamoto wasn’t even that involved with Odyssey, I’d imagine he’s had a lot of time to work on Pikmin. Launching in late Summer would also give the game its time to shine, and could perhaps generate the commercial success that Pikmin has lacked up to this point.
Metroid Prime 4, I do think, is also very likely to launch next year. Nintendo is going to need another Holiday game, and Metroid Prime 4 would be just the ticket. It would generate a lot of hype, and I’m hard pressed to believe it wouldn’t be ready. Unless I’m sorely mistaken or something has gone awry behind the scenes, Nintendo wouldn’t have announced this game in 2017 if it wasn’t going to be ready by the end of next year. I still think that it was announced too soon regardless, but I’d find it nearly inconceivable that Metroid misses Holiday 2019.
So yes, just for the record, I do think that all eleven of those games could launch next year. Sure, it seems lofty, but hear me out. Town, Fire Emblem, Bayonetta 3, Star Fox Grand Prix, and most likely both Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Metroid Prime 4 are being developed by second or third party teams. That knocks a potential six games off of the list, leaving only five titles to be developed in-house. Considering how long these projects have been in development, I’d imagine that both Yoshi and Pikmin 4 are almost done already. I simply don’t think that is unrealistic at all, especially considering how few games were released this year, and how many studios Nintendo can leverage. It isn’t like Nintendo really exhausted themselves making Kirby and farming Mario Tennis out to Camelot again. It really feels like 2019 is the time when the dominos will really begin to fall, and I couldn’t be more excited.
Sure, I said the same thing about 2018 during 2017, but that was purely conjecture. In late 2017, it felt inevitable that 2018 would surpass the Switch’s launch year in every way. Well, that clearly wasn’t true. But, in 2017, we didn’t have anywhere near the number of upcoming, confirmed titles for 2018, as we do now for 2019. I can’t help but feel like the evidence really does point to next year being explosive. I’ve felt really down and out about the Switch in recent months because of how few exclusives have been releasing how uninteresting or poorly executed they have been. However, 2019’s lineup has me filled with nothing but optimism, and I cannot wait for these games to start rolling out.
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