Nintendo Switch: Ideas Of Games From Me

The Nintendo Switch was announced last month, and between now and January when the full information reveal is set to be, I’ll be covering some things here. As mentioned in the monthly update, this month is games I would like to see.

The first is a game I have an idea of, though changes every so often. It expands on what Wii Sports Resort gave us, including numerous other ideas within that. I am talking about Mii Resort Paradise, in which I gave numerous ideas for in a post way back in March 2015. Look on it if you want to gain some idea behind the thoughts to it, but I’ll be covering some of that stuff here.

Wuhu Island would be open to exploration, and numerous sports would be included. After all, there’s a tennis court, a bowling alley, a lot of water, and a separate island for golf. Then there’s all the other sports from Wii Sports Resort such as skydiving and sword fighting. All of these would be brought into one hub – the island. That’s not to dismiss quick access for when you want to just get into a game.

A Mii rides a jetski on the waters of Wuhu Island.

And just because it starts with sports, don’t think it has to be locked to sports. Numerous other things could be open on the island. It might be just one island, but an RPG of sorts would give something extra to the game. The Alola region of Pokémon Sun and Moon is made up of islands, and each one is within the size of Wuhu Island. Of course, no RPG is complete without a story, and for that there are many to choose from, whether simple or a bit more complex.

As I said, it would start with sports as the main package, but whether through free or paid download content, could be added upon a huge amount. And the hotel of the island would serve as the access to all of this. Quick access to sports, loading up a new adventure, jumping online, etc., would all be done through the hotel. There’ll be stuff for the collectors as well, since you need the best equipment to play better and you also need a good look.

I’m unsure whether it might be going overboard to include room decoration within that, especially since your room will be the last place you’ll spend most of your time within this game. Everything will also have that Nintendo charm that comes within their range of characters, especially Miis.

Mario Kart is Nintendo’s flagship racing series, and these days seems to be expanding into other Nintendo franchises. It’ll be a while yet before we get onto the level of Super Smash Bros. for franchise representation, but for now the smattering of crossover content has gone well.

And now it seems Mario Kart 8 is coming to the Switch with new features added. DLC Packs 3 and 4 are more than likely, but I want something more. Something a bit more… technical. 200cc mode was added when DLC Pack 2 hit the Wii U version, and with the hints within the Mario Kart 8 footage from the Switch reveal trailer, I’m hoping for something the same.

Allow me for a moment to talk about Double Dash. In that game, we had tighter steering, a more looser handling system, and items could not be held behind you at all. There was also two characters, and with that came two items. Getting the comparison yet? What I’m saying is that while you can’t necessarily have two characters to a kart with all the air-gliding, underwater driving, and anti-grav, the main other element can still be taken from it, as well as putting a new spin on the handling physics to make a new mode. That is, of course, one way to interpret the hints.

Daisy and Luigi ride on a kart in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, with three other pairs of drivers behind them in the distance.

The other way is to say “Why not take what Double Dash is and upgrade it to fit the modern age?” Rather than being called Double Dash 2, it would take the old naming system of including the name of the console within the game’s name. So Mario Kart Switch Dash.

I’m not going too far into this, but it would feature many of the characters introduced to the series since Double Dash. The new items would stay, as would the new features – reworked to fit within the two-to-a-kart gameplay. Most stuff can be reworked to fit into how Double Dash worked. While that would be interesting to see, there’s also something else I’d much rather see.

The Gamecube had some excellent games during its run of the market, but these days are becoming increasingly difficult to come across for a decent price. Enabling a Gamecube Virtual Console on the Switch would enable many to experience those games. I do understand that emulators take some working on to get right, but considering Microsoft have Xbox 360 games emulated on the Xbox One, and PS2 games are right at home on PS4, I don’t see any reason why Gamecube cannot come to the Switch. Especially as there seems to be quite a lot of grunt behind it this time.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if one had been worked on by Nintendo for the Wii U but like with most other major projects got moved over to the Switch. It would certainly explain the Gamecube controller adapter which then never got used for anything other than Smash 4.

Kirby Air Ride and F-Zero GX are two games I would love to get my hands on, and if Game Freak are planning a Pokémon game in the style of Colosseum and Gale of Darkness for the Switch it would make a bit of sense to put those two games on the Switch so people can get an idea of what could be a part of the new one.

The battle of Hoth as depicted in Star Wars Battlefront (2015), with two snowspeeders heading toward two AT-ATs.

And talking of retro games, I’d much rather have a much better option of playing them than buying individually. Inspired in a way by EA Access, this service would allow people to play retro games while at the same time getting early access to new games for a small amount each month (or a slightly discounted yearly fee).

Talking of EA, they are talking about putting a big game on the Switch. While most would expect a sports title or Mass Effect, I’m thinking about something else. Star Wars. The Wii U missed out on one of the biggest Star Wars video game releases in ages – Star Wars Battlefront. In fact, the Wii U pretty much missed out on any Star Wars games. The Wii got both Force Unleashed games, as well as two The Clone Wars games.

Now admittedly, that is more to do with the state of the Star Wars gaming scene at the moment, but now that numerous projects are on the go from EA, at least one of them should be coming to the Switch. None of them will be ready for the launch, unless they’ve been very quiet on that front. Now yes, we did get LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the Wii U, so that should count for something.

As for the game on the Switch I’d want, I’d like to at least think one of the cancelled projects is getting revived in some way, though 1313 might be a bit too similar to the game Visceral is working on. With more than a year between the two, it might be possible though. And wouldn’t it be great if a Star Wars game got released as close to the 40^th anniversary as possible?

The world of Animal Crossing: New Leaf as depicted by its box art. Re-Tail is at the fore to the left, with a villager, Reese and Cyrus outside it. To the right, another villager and Isabelle are discussing the town. To the rear on the right is Main Street, with the left being Tortimer Island.

Games that I’ve mentioned thus far are definitely ones I’d buy. I’d also buy a new Animal Crossing game, and considering the main series skipped the Wii U – as well the portability of the Switch – it seems very logical to assume a new main Animal Crossing game is headed for the Switch. I’d hope as close to launch as possible, though any time within 2017 would be fair game.

If it can expand upon what New Leaf gave us, and fix certain issues with Public Works Projects, than that will be good. The idea that the town was growing and more shops opened over time worked well, but they felt a bit cramped within that street. Allowing all of that back into the town, or having a separate area that you would own that serves as an urban location, would help with the space issues and finally break the barrier that the series has been trying to and allow greater customisation of our towns.

Rather than have us move to a new town that’s struggling, we are instead prospecting for a place to start a new town – with the help of Isabelle, of course. In a slight change, the rural part of town no longer has a beach. That’s for the urban area. We place where our house and the town hall will be in the rural area, and get our first two shops opened in the urban area. We can place areas for residents to build their houses when they move to the town.

The idea behind this is expanding the mayor role of our character by starting the town, not just picking up where the last one left off. And by expanding the town into rural and urban parts, it allows for a lot more space overall. I’ll see about going into quite a bit more detail about this later down the line, as I find this concept would be interesting. It gives a greater goal while still retaining the relaxed pacing the series is known for. While there’s a lot more stuff to build up, in no way would it need to be done all at once.

A battle taking place in a desert on Battalion Wars 2, with several infantry having destroyed an enemy vehicle while a second chases one of their own.

I’m rather unsure about suggesting this next one, as it is a series that has different representation on both handheld and home console. It is the Wars series. On home console, it has taken real-time strategy and crafted Battalion Wars. For handhelds it takes turn-based strategy and crafts Advance Wars. Both have skipped over this current generation, so it could be time to bring the series back.

While it certainly wouldn’t be necessary to do so, it would be interesting to see Advance Wars styled like a Battalion Wars game, while keeping all the turn-based strategic gameplay intact. It would need to at least overhaul how it is presented – whether using more detailed sprites or going for a new art style. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin went for a darker tone to its story, but I feel the one thing that the Wars series has done well was keep a light-hearted tone despite the war setting.

Even Battalion Wars, with its brighter colours, didn’t feel like a real war, despite the real-time gameplay. I’d be more willing to accept a new Battalion Wars first, but Advance Wars has always felt the stronger of the two. Intelligent Systems always do a good job on the games, and also with the Fire Emblem series. And since the DS had no Fire Emblem games, it only made sense to have a series that could fill the gap. With Fire Emblem getting two games on 3DS, now seems like a great time to have an Advance Wars game.

Quite a few ideas have been covered, and most of them will be expanded on in other articles. Mario Kart will be talked about in the next Switch article, which will talk about games that have been confirmed, and I’ll definitely be expanding upon that Animal Crossing idea. Of course, Star Wars as a whole is going to get mentioned a lot next year, so video games will be a part of that. Any new game that gets shown at Celebration Orlando I’ll be sure to talk about. Well, I’ll be covering the whole event with pre- and post- show articles.

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