The Nintendo Switch has entered what is likely its final year in the console market, and it appears to be going out in a blaze of glory with some exciting games to make way for its successor, the Nintendo Switch 2. Whether they’re exclusively developed for the Switch or ported over from other platforms, we’ve rounded up the upcoming Switch games that will make the hybrid console’s final year one of the most memorable.
The next release we've got coming down the pipeline is Princess Peach: Showtime, the Mushroom Kingdom monarch’s first solo game since Super Princess Peach was released on the Nintendo DS nearly 20 years ago. Then there’s the long-awaited remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, World of Goo 2, and Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, just to name a few amazing titles that were announced in last month’s Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase and prior. Here are all the new Switch games we can look forward to in 2024.
Princess Peach takes the spotlight in Princess Peach: Showtime, an adventure game in which she and her band of Toads must save Sparkle Theater from the clutches of the Grape and the Sour Bunch. Every level has Peach changing her costume, which changes the gameplay style depending on what she’s wearing. For example, Swordfighter Peach turns gameplay into a hack ‘n slash, Patisserie Peach introduces a baking minigame in which you decorate cakes and stack carts with cookies, and Mermaid Peach takes you underwater. Whatever her costume, she’ll teach those baddies not to mess with the princess.
Cartman, Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and all the other kids are having the best day off from school in South Park: Snow Day. In this four-player co-op, you play as the New Kid, whom you can customize any way you choose, and battle it out in a big game of medieval make-believe. It’s like The Stick of Truth, but Trey Parker and Matt Stone set it in a snowy winter wonderland.
From Ahr Ech and Devolver Digital comes Pepper Grinder, a 2D fast-paced platformer in which you can dig for treasure using your drill. You play as Pepper, a treasure-hunting pirate who sets out to retrieve her lost loot after a group of narwhal-type creatures make off with it following a storm that wrecked her ship and left her on an unfamiliar island. You can use the drill, named Grinder, to travel underground, power various vehicles, and solve environmental puzzles along the way.
Freedom Planet 2, originally released on PC in September 2022, is coming to the Nintendo Switch to give players a chance to play the sequel to the Sonic-inspired game at home and on the go. Play as Lilac, Carol, Milla, and Neera Li as they battle an army of robots led by Merge, a water dragoness hellbent on revenge for atrocities committed during Avalice’s deadliest war in ancient times. It’s sure to delight fans who have been wanting a Switch port of Freedom Planet 2 for some time.
Grounded is an originally Xbox-exclusive survival game that shrinks players down to the size of ants. In 1990, four teens — Max, Willow, Pete, and Hoops — wake up to find themselves bug-sized and trapped in the backyard of a scientist who invented a device that shrinks objects and people, hence their disappearance and small forms. Playing as one of the teens, you must scavenge for food to stave off starvation and dehydration and resources to build forts, and fight off other insects and animals lurking in the scientist’s yard.
Read our review of Grounded.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is an EA Original Metroidvania title developed by actor Abubakar Salim and his developer Surgent Studios. Inspired by the actor’s journey of grief after losing his father, the game takes players on a journey with the titular warrior-shaman, who works to capture the spirits of three monsters as offerings to Kalunga, the God of Death who promises to bring his father back to life. You’ll be equipped with two masks, the sun mask and the moon mask, that allow you to attack enemies up close and personal and from a distance, respectively, and collect soul energy that unlocks new abilities for each mask.
Produced and directed by the late Yoshitaka Murayama, creator of Konami’s Suikoden series that Eiyuden Chronicle is a spiritual successor of, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a six-player turn-based RPG that allows you to choose six characters out of 100, hence the title, to form a party to join you on a heroic campaign across the war-torn continent of Allraan. You can manage your town and work with your companions to gather resources and build new facilities while taking on some fearsome foes.
If you find scuba diving to be a relaxing hobby, Endless Ocean: Luminous, the second sequel in the Endless Ocean series following Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep, is the most relaxing endless ocean game you’ll ever play. During your dive, you explore the Veiled Sea, a mysterious underwater region where the environment changes every time you dive into the water. You can also explore more than 500 species of marine life inhabiting the area.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has finally gotten the remake treatment for the Switch nearly 20 years after its release on the GameCube. Intelligent Systems redid the graphics and animations to make the game modernized, smooth, and more theatrical as Mario races to rescue Princess Peach from an alien race called the X-Nauts after they kidnap her. This could likely be the final Mario game on the Switch.
World of Goo 2 comes 15 years after the release of the original physics-based puzzle game on the Wii and PC. As the name heavily implies, players will use tiny balls of goo to build bridges, towers, and similar structures to overcome chasms, cliffs, spikes, hills, and other obstacles to reach goal points. The challenging part is, when you build these structures, you have to use as few goo balls as you possibly can.
Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is an enhanced version of the original game, with an additional storyline and other new content. The game’s story mode lets you choose between two storylines: Canon of Creation, the original storyline, or the titular Canon of Vengeance, which undergoes drastic changes in the latter half of the game stemming from your choices, as well as new characters like Yoko Hiromine. The game will also have 40 new demons, new locations, quality-of-life upgrades, and new gameplay mechanics.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble surprised fans during the Nintendo Partner Direct with cute new character designs for AiAi and the other monkeys and loads of new gameplay features. You can customize your monkey and Monkey Ball in 300 different ways, use the new Spin Dash move to zip past opponents and create shortcuts (a la Sonic) in 200 new levels. And for the first time in the Super Monkey Ball series, you can play with up to 16 people in online multiplayer mode.
Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is a remaster of the 2013 Nintendo 3DS title, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. In the game, Luigi is sent to Evershade Valley by Professor E. Gadd to capture ghosts in five haunted mansions with his invention, the Poltergust 5000, and retrieve a Dark Moon fragment hidden within it. Each mansion is built around a specific theme, such as a frozen mine, an overgrown greenhouse, and a sandy clock factory. Get your flashlights ready!
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Deluxe Edition is an enhanced version of the original game developed exclusively for Nintendo Switch. The game follows fighter pilot Trigger, who gets assigned to a penal squadron after being accused of murder during a war between Osea and Erusea. The Switch-exclusive deluxe version will come with six DLC packs and bonus content not seen in the original game.
Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is a hand-drawn 2.5D action platformer inspired by Japanese folklore developed by Squid Shock Studios in partnership with Humble Games and funded on Kickstarter. You play as Bo, the celestial blossom (fox tentaihana) descended from the heavens to embark on a journey through the mystical land to take part in a mysterious ancient ritual. The bo staff helps you bounce and glide seamlessly from place to place throughout the dreamlike realm, and you’ll get to meet yokai and monsters of various types, shapes, and sizes.
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is the long-awaited sequel to the original RPG-style life-sim game that released on Nintendo 3DS in 2014. In addition to working any job you want — from woodcutter, blacksmith, paladin, cook, and more — each with its own set of quests, you’ll get to build your own city on an abandoned island, travel through time, and meet new characters with some mysteries of their own.
Over the last year, we’ve been hearing rumors about the Nintendo Switch 2 regarding its appearance, release date, and name. Though the Switch 2 should have been released by now per the 7-year console release rule, Nintendo has reportedly delayed its release to March 2025 in an effort to curb scalping and garner enough stock to satisfy demand. There are also rumors that the Switch 2, if that’s its final name, has the same hybrid functionality as the original, but with a bigger screen.
Meanwhile, there are other upcoming Nintendo games coming out this year and the next that don’t have a solid release date yet, but will update them as soon as we hear them. Here are the games without release dates.
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. She has contributed her work to various publications, including Digital Trends, TheGamer, Twinfinite, Mega Visions, and The Escapist. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
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The next release we've got coming down the pipeline is Princess Peach: Showtime, the Mushroom Kingdom monarch’s first solo game since Super Princess Peach was released on the Nintendo DS nearly 20 years ago. Then there’s the long-awaited remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, World of Goo 2, and Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, just to name a few amazing titles that were announced in last month’s Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase and prior. Here are all the new Switch games we can look forward to in 2024.
All Upcoming Switch Games With Release Dates
Princess Peach: Showtime (March 22, 2024)
Princess Peach takes the spotlight in Princess Peach: Showtime, an adventure game in which she and her band of Toads must save Sparkle Theater from the clutches of the Grape and the Sour Bunch. Every level has Peach changing her costume, which changes the gameplay style depending on what she’s wearing. For example, Swordfighter Peach turns gameplay into a hack ‘n slash, Patisserie Peach introduces a baking minigame in which you decorate cakes and stack carts with cookies, and Mermaid Peach takes you underwater. Whatever her costume, she’ll teach those baddies not to mess with the princess.
South Park: Snow Day (March 26, 2024)
Cartman, Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and all the other kids are having the best day off from school in South Park: Snow Day. In this four-player co-op, you play as the New Kid, whom you can customize any way you choose, and battle it out in a big game of medieval make-believe. It’s like The Stick of Truth, but Trey Parker and Matt Stone set it in a snowy winter wonderland.
Pepper Grinder (March 28, 2024)
From Ahr Ech and Devolver Digital comes Pepper Grinder, a 2D fast-paced platformer in which you can dig for treasure using your drill. You play as Pepper, a treasure-hunting pirate who sets out to retrieve her lost loot after a group of narwhal-type creatures make off with it following a storm that wrecked her ship and left her on an unfamiliar island. You can use the drill, named Grinder, to travel underground, power various vehicles, and solve environmental puzzles along the way.
Freedom Planet 2 (April 4, 2024)
Freedom Planet 2, originally released on PC in September 2022, is coming to the Nintendo Switch to give players a chance to play the sequel to the Sonic-inspired game at home and on the go. Play as Lilac, Carol, Milla, and Neera Li as they battle an army of robots led by Merge, a water dragoness hellbent on revenge for atrocities committed during Avalice’s deadliest war in ancient times. It’s sure to delight fans who have been wanting a Switch port of Freedom Planet 2 for some time.
Grounded (April 16, 2024)
Grounded is an originally Xbox-exclusive survival game that shrinks players down to the size of ants. In 1990, four teens — Max, Willow, Pete, and Hoops — wake up to find themselves bug-sized and trapped in the backyard of a scientist who invented a device that shrinks objects and people, hence their disappearance and small forms. Playing as one of the teens, you must scavenge for food to stave off starvation and dehydration and resources to build forts, and fight off other insects and animals lurking in the scientist’s yard.
Read our review of Grounded.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau (April 23, 2024)
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is an EA Original Metroidvania title developed by actor Abubakar Salim and his developer Surgent Studios. Inspired by the actor’s journey of grief after losing his father, the game takes players on a journey with the titular warrior-shaman, who works to capture the spirits of three monsters as offerings to Kalunga, the God of Death who promises to bring his father back to life. You’ll be equipped with two masks, the sun mask and the moon mask, that allow you to attack enemies up close and personal and from a distance, respectively, and collect soul energy that unlocks new abilities for each mask.
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (April 23, 2024)
Produced and directed by the late Yoshitaka Murayama, creator of Konami’s Suikoden series that Eiyuden Chronicle is a spiritual successor of, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a six-player turn-based RPG that allows you to choose six characters out of 100, hence the title, to form a party to join you on a heroic campaign across the war-torn continent of Allraan. You can manage your town and work with your companions to gather resources and build new facilities while taking on some fearsome foes.
Endless Ocean: Luminous (May 2, 2024)
If you find scuba diving to be a relaxing hobby, Endless Ocean: Luminous, the second sequel in the Endless Ocean series following Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep, is the most relaxing endless ocean game you’ll ever play. During your dive, you explore the Veiled Sea, a mysterious underwater region where the environment changes every time you dive into the water. You can also explore more than 500 species of marine life inhabiting the area.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remake (May 23, 2024)
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has finally gotten the remake treatment for the Switch nearly 20 years after its release on the GameCube. Intelligent Systems redid the graphics and animations to make the game modernized, smooth, and more theatrical as Mario races to rescue Princess Peach from an alien race called the X-Nauts after they kidnap her. This could likely be the final Mario game on the Switch.
World of Goo 2 (May 23, 2024)
World of Goo 2 comes 15 years after the release of the original physics-based puzzle game on the Wii and PC. As the name heavily implies, players will use tiny balls of goo to build bridges, towers, and similar structures to overcome chasms, cliffs, spikes, hills, and other obstacles to reach goal points. The challenging part is, when you build these structures, you have to use as few goo balls as you possibly can.
Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance (June 21, 2024)
Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance is an enhanced version of the original game, with an additional storyline and other new content. The game’s story mode lets you choose between two storylines: Canon of Creation, the original storyline, or the titular Canon of Vengeance, which undergoes drastic changes in the latter half of the game stemming from your choices, as well as new characters like Yoko Hiromine. The game will also have 40 new demons, new locations, quality-of-life upgrades, and new gameplay mechanics.
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble (June 25, 2024)
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble surprised fans during the Nintendo Partner Direct with cute new character designs for AiAi and the other monkeys and loads of new gameplay features. You can customize your monkey and Monkey Ball in 300 different ways, use the new Spin Dash move to zip past opponents and create shortcuts (a la Sonic) in 200 new levels. And for the first time in the Super Monkey Ball series, you can play with up to 16 people in online multiplayer mode.
Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD (June 27, 2024)
Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD is a remaster of the 2013 Nintendo 3DS title, Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. In the game, Luigi is sent to Evershade Valley by Professor E. Gadd to capture ghosts in five haunted mansions with his invention, the Poltergust 5000, and retrieve a Dark Moon fragment hidden within it. Each mansion is built around a specific theme, such as a frozen mine, an overgrown greenhouse, and a sandy clock factory. Get your flashlights ready!
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Deluxe Edition (July 11, 2024)
Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Deluxe Edition is an enhanced version of the original game developed exclusively for Nintendo Switch. The game follows fighter pilot Trigger, who gets assigned to a penal squadron after being accused of murder during a war between Osea and Erusea. The Switch-exclusive deluxe version will come with six DLC packs and bonus content not seen in the original game.
Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus (July 18, 2024)
Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus is a hand-drawn 2.5D action platformer inspired by Japanese folklore developed by Squid Shock Studios in partnership with Humble Games and funded on Kickstarter. You play as Bo, the celestial blossom (fox tentaihana) descended from the heavens to embark on a journey through the mystical land to take part in a mysterious ancient ritual. The bo staff helps you bounce and glide seamlessly from place to place throughout the dreamlike realm, and you’ll get to meet yokai and monsters of various types, shapes, and sizes.
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (October 10, 2024)
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time is the long-awaited sequel to the original RPG-style life-sim game that released on Nintendo 3DS in 2014. In addition to working any job you want — from woodcutter, blacksmith, paladin, cook, and more — each with its own set of quests, you’ll get to build your own city on an abandoned island, travel through time, and meet new characters with some mysteries of their own.
Upcoming Switch Games With Unknown Release Dates
Over the last year, we’ve been hearing rumors about the Nintendo Switch 2 regarding its appearance, release date, and name. Though the Switch 2 should have been released by now per the 7-year console release rule, Nintendo has reportedly delayed its release to March 2025 in an effort to curb scalping and garner enough stock to satisfy demand. There are also rumors that the Switch 2, if that’s its final name, has the same hybrid functionality as the original, but with a bigger screen.
Meanwhile, there are other upcoming Nintendo games coming out this year and the next that don’t have a solid release date yet, but will update them as soon as we hear them. Here are the games without release dates.
- Epic Mickey: Rebrushed - TBA
- Hollow Knight: Silksong - TBA
- Metroid Prime 4 - TBA
- Professor Layton and the New World of Steam - 2025
- Pokemon Legends: Z-A - 2025
Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer for IGN. She has contributed her work to various publications, including Digital Trends, TheGamer, Twinfinite, Mega Visions, and The Escapist. To paraphrase Calvin Harris, she wears her love for Sonic the Hedgehog on her sleeve like a big deal. Follow her on Twitter @SonicPrincess15.
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