Nintendo sped off toward the second half of 2021 today with its E3 2021 Direct presentation. During that media briefing, the company revealed a new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character, a Zelda-dedicated handheld, and more. But most important, the publisher also filled in a lot of release dates for major Switch games coming between now and the end of the year.
Here is that list in chronological order:
- Mario Golf: Super Rush — June 25
- Tony Hawk 1/2 — June 25
- Monster Hunter Stories 2 — July 9
- The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword HD — July 16
- WarioWare: Get It Together — September 9
- Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania — October 5
- Metroid Dread — October 8
- Mario Party Superstars — October 29
- Shin Megami Tensei V — November 12
- Pokémon Shining Pearl/Brilliant Diamond — November 19
- Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp — December 3
- Cruisn’n Blast — Fall
Return of the classics
Nintendo may have disappointed some fans when it confirmed that it is aiming to release The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 in 2022. So to fill its 2021 release roster, the company is turning to some dormant-but-beloved properties.
That starts with Wario in September.
Wario is getting his first Switch game with WarioWare: Get It Together on September 9. This takes the original microgame formula and gives players more direct control over Wario during the action. Nintendo hasn’t done a WarioWare game since 2018’s 3DS entry, WarioWare Gold.
Then Metroid is getting its first new 2D Metroidvania since Metroid: Fusion in 2002 (Zero Mission was 2004 and Samus Returns was 2017, but both are remakes). Nintendo is promising that Metroid: Dread will bring Samus’s Metroid-related story to an end.
In the fall, Nintendo is releasing Cruis’n Blast, which is a followup to the Cruis’n USA series that debuted in arcades and on Nintendo 64 in the 1990s.
Finally, in December, Nintendo has a remake of Advance Wars and its sequel coming to Switch with fully redone 3D visuals.
All of that is on top of Pokémon, Shin Megami Tensei, and a Zelda remaster. And just like that, Nintendo has an impressive lineup of first- and third-party games to ensure new and existing Switch owners have something to play for the rest of 2021 and into early 2022.