Highlights
- Nintendo is focusing on remaking games from its back catalog, with titles such as Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door getting remakes.
- The remakes of these classic games are generating excitement among fans and provide some variety alongside Nintendo's new games.
- While Nintendo is heavily investing in remakes, there are also rumors of a potential Switch 2 release in the future, indicating that the company has other projects in the works.
Nintendo has been in the video game business for decades as both a game developer and hardware manufacturer. While the company has announced some fresh new titles like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and the recently showcased Princess Peach: Showtime!, Nintendo seems to be relying heavily on remaking games from its extensive back catalog in the next few months.
While it is always nice to see new games coming out, remakes can sometimes be just as exciting as new releases. For example, Metroid Prime Remastered blew fans new and old away and earned a respectable Metacritic score of 94. Whether the success of Metroid Prime Remastered has had any bearing on Nintendo's decision to start remaking more games is unknown, but there are a handful of remade titles on the way, so it might seem like the Japanese gaming giant is going all in on this strategy.
Nintendo Has Multiple Remakes In The Works
In the June 2023 Nintendo direct, a remake of Super Mario RPG was announced. The title first came out on the Super Nintendo system back in 1996 and was met with critical acclaim as Mario's first RPG-style adventure. Fans of Super Mario RPG had their prayers answered when the title was revealed in June 2023. Its release is imminent with a date set for November 17, 2023.
Action-adventure RPG spinoff Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is also in line for a remake and will arrive in 2024, 20 years after it first dropped on Nintendo's GameCube platform. Mario vs. Donkey Kong, a crossover title that features puzzle-platformer gameplay first released on GameBoy Advance in 2004 is also getting a remake. Nintendo has locked in the release date for Mario vs. Donkey Kong for February 16, 2024.
While Mario is clearly in the spotlight in this list of remakes, he is not the only character getting some retroactive love from Nintendo. Luigi's Mansion 2 HD was announced in the June 2023 Nintendo Direct and was also placed in the 2024 release window. The horror-lite action-adventure title featuring Mario's brother as the hero was originally launched on the 3DS family of handheld systems in 2013.
Another lesser-known Nintendo franchise is also getting the remake treatment. Another Code: Two Memories and Another Code: R - A Journey Into Lost Memories are being remade into Another Code Recollection. The two point-and-click adventure games featuring protagonist Ashley Robbins were released in 2005 and 2009 respectively. The latter was released on the hugely successful Nintendo Wii console, while the former was on the Nintendo DS handheld.
While it might not technically count as a remake, F-Zero is also getting some attention. An online version of the original NES arrived on Nintendo Switch Online on September 14, 2023. The new version is called F-Zero 99, and as the name implies it pits players against 98 others in a battle royale-style race.
Switch 2 On The Horizon
With all these remakes, it certainly seems like Nintendo is banking heavily on reviving old games, but it must be remembered that Nintendo is rumored to be working towards a Switch 2 release in the near future. If the rumors are true, then it is almost certain that Nintendo has a significant amount of its resources working on unknown projects behind the scenes.
While remaking games can be a significant undertaking, it is arguably less of a commitment than designing an entirely new title, so it is a sensible approach to delivering new games for the Switch as it heads into its twilight years. With that said, there are still some fresh titles coming to the aging console. The long-awaited Metroid Prime 4, for example, may be one of the last cherries on top of the Switch's library.
