Nintendo has already had a killer first year for the Nintendo Switch, what with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild captivating gamers, along with other great games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, ARMS, Splatoon 2 and the forthcoming Super Mario Odyssey. But we’re just getting started, as the company apparently has big plans for the next year ahead.

While it’s too soon to tell if we’ll see Metroid Prime 4 or that new Pokemon game, we will be seeing new entries in the Kirby and Yoshi franchises, as well as games that have yet to be announced. And apparently, “non-traditional IPs” will be among them.

Speaking in an interview Nintendo’s Yoshiaki Koizumi spoke about the company releasing more than just the usual IPs for the system, meaning that we could see a few long-lost franchises make a return at some point. He stopped short of saying which ones, but we’ve got a few estimated guesses.

Punch-Out!!

This is a given, mainly because every release of Punch-Out!! that we’ve seen, from the old days of Mike Tyson on the NES to the absolutely stunning Wii game, has been nothing short of spectacular. If anyone has the nature of boxing down, it’s clearly Nintendo. That’s why we think that a Switch release of a new game, or maybe a “re-treatment” of the Wii game, would hit the spot, with new boxers, two player local fighting options (with the JoyCons) and various control schemes available. Plus, you’d have to bring back Donkey Kong, if only because he’s one of the best characters introduced to the franchise since the days of King Hippo. (Don’t tell him we said that.)

Excitebike

The last time we got revved up by Excitebike was with downloadable content for Mario Kart 8, where we actually race around one of the game’s arenas, unleashing power-ups on everyone. But the original Excitebike is still a racing marvel to behold, and, for that matter, the WiiWare game that came out a while back is a fun representation of the classic game with beautiful new visuals. We’d be happy with either a treatment of the old-school Excitebike, or even an advanced version of Excitebike 64 to roar through the streets with. We just need to play it again – and without overheating our engine, thank you very much.

Earthbound

And, finally, we come to the game that deserves to be revisited, simply because it was such an innovative adventure at the time of its release. EarthBound inspired a bunch of Super Nintendo players at a time when they needed it the most, during a role-playing renaissance where invention and gameplay were key. Where else are you going to find kids in an unlikely role to save the world? We know Nintendo has been paying close attention to this franchise, mainly because of its re-release on Virtual Console services. So, yeah, Mother 3 would be a welcome addition to the Nintendo Switch library. C’mon, Nintendo, we need adventure again!

Posted: Oct 26, 2017 9:21 pm
Last Updated: Oct 26, 2017 9:22 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: http://comicbook.com/gaming/2017/10/26/nintendo-non-traditional-ips-switch-f-zero-earthbound-star-tropics/#9