The Switch era has been an unprecedented age for many of Nintendo’s IPs. Niche franchises like Fire Emblem and Xenoblade got their chance to shine, but what really stuck out for me this generation were Metroid and Pikmin.
Both of these games, Metroid Dread and Pikmin 4, were basically vaporware until the 2020s. I’m more of a Metroid fan than a Pikmin fan, but I teared up when I saw that logo for the first time at E3 2021. In hindsight I should have figured that Dread was in development, given the hints dropped after I 100%ed Samus Returns on 3DS, but the reveal was no less shocking. I’m so happy this game and the Metroid series is getting the attention it rightfully deserved decades ago.
And third parties also got the dream ball rolling as well! Square Enix and Capcom gave us long neglected versions of Final Fantasy 7-12 and the entire Ace Attorney series on the console, but the biggest showstoppers from them both were Sora in Smash and the Marvel vs Capcom collection. I was never a big Sora advocate but I knew how much he meant to fans across the world, and I nearly flipped my table when I saw “take you for a ride” during the Nintendo Direct this past June. The MVC series was effectively dead since 2018, with no signs of revival on the horizon despite both Marvel and Capcom seeing great success in their video games. So when this collection got announced I McFriggin lost it.
by Asad_Farooqui