After the incredible year of gaming that we enjoyed last year, the lists of Nintendo Switch games in 2024 look a little more restrained. There’s no big Zelda game or mainline Super Mario expected, but Nintendo has trawled through their back catalogue for some very desirable remakes and remasters, and there’s a brand new game starring Princess Peach!
But 2024 is still expected to be absolutely huge for Nintendo, with plenty of people expecting the reveal and likely release of the Nintendo Switch 2. You’ll just have to watch this space for that, but here’s everything currently confirmed and expected for Switch this year.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
18th January 2024
Ubisoft is taking a fresh look at one of their classic franchises with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, turning it into a side-scroller once more, but with Metroidvania elements thrown in for good measure.
You’re not a prince in this game, though, and are rather one of a group of mighty warriors known as the Immortals, haring after the prince who’s been kidnapped. The journey to Mount Qaf will naturally be filled with enemies to battle, traps to evade and some bombastic bosses, but we’re also keen to see more of the inventive elements that featured in our hands on preview, with time-shifting mechanics for a grand environmental puzzle.
A demo will be available from 11th January, so this is definitely one to check out in a couple weeks!
Another Code: Recollection
19th January 2024
Another Code: Recollection brings back the Nintendo DS game Another Code; Two Memories and its Nintendo Wii sequel Another Code: R – Journey into Lost Memories, a game that will be releasing in North America for the first time.
Another Code follows Ashley as she heads to Blood Edward island after receiving a mysterious letter from her father. You’ll have to piece together events from her family’s tragic past, making friends with a ghost named D and trying to restore his memories. The sequel mixes things up with an older Ashley as she meets a new set of characters and can start to reveal the memories of her mother.
A free demo is out now, with the ability transfer progress to the full game.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy
25th January 2024
After the remastered releases of the original Phoenix Wright Trilogy and the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, it was only a matter of time until the other games in the series got a similar treatment. It has been a wait, but the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy is almost here. It’s time to step back into the courtroom!
You’ll know exactly what to expect from these remastered games, with the blend of procedural investigation and interviews, before heading in for some courtroom battling. There’s some slight new twists to these, but the overall experience will be very familiar. All of this has been enhanced for current console resolutions, coming from Apollo Justice’s original release on Nintendo DS, while Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice originated on 3DS.
Read our Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy Preview here.
Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island
27th February 2024
The long-running Shiren the Wander series returns in 2024 with Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island. As with previous games and Mystery Dungeon crossovers, it will be a roguelike RPG tasking you to dive into dungeons and battle against monsters, with Shiren and Koppa heading to a mysterious island that featured in their dreams.
It’s been well over a decade since the last Shiren game in 2010, with only a few ports and remasters in the meantime. Thankfully those ports exceeded Spike Chunsoft’s expectations and they greenlit a brand new entry. For this game, they’re going back to basics, so while there’s an updated UI, the gameplay will be pretty old school – the story is set before Shiren the Wanderer 4, so don’t expect any features from games that came after that!
Mario vs. Donkey Kong
16th February 2024
It’s been a hot minute since Mario and Donkey Kong faced off, and so Nintendo are remaking the Game Boy Advance puzzle platformer Mario vs. Donkey Kong. What’s the source of their renewed beef? Well, DK couldn’t get a hold of any Mini-Mario toys in the shops, so he’s raided Mario’s factory and stolen all the toys for himself!
All the originally 2D puzzles from the GBA have been remade in 3D, but the action still takes place on a 2D plane, as you run around, hit switched to activate coloured blocks, and eventually have to face off against DK. This remake adds support for co-op.
Open Roads
22nd February 2024
The long-in-development mystery thriller Open Roads is finally coming out early in 2024. The game follows a family road trip that promises to reveal much more than anyone expected…
Starring Keri Russel and Kaitlyn Dever as mother and teenage daught, it will feature an interactive dialogue system to keep players engaged throughout, while there will also be environments to explore. There’s also a really interesting blend of 3D rendered environments and cartoon-like characters through dialogue.
Star Wars: Dark Forces Remastered
28th February 2024
Star Wars: Dark Forces is one of the highlights of Star Wars’ proud tradition of video games. Following in the footsteps of Doom and Marathon, it was a first person shooter that put a blaster in your hands and sent you off on missions to foil the Empire’s latest dastardly plots – namely the rising threat of Dark Troopers.
Playing it on Mac back in the day, I don’t think I ever got past the second mission, but now I’ll get another chance thanks to a remaster by Nightdive Studios, who’ve made a habit out of reviving 90s FPS classics. It will keep a hold of the original art style and graphics, but update it with support for high resolutions, widescreens and 60fps.
Princess Peach: Showtime!
22nd March 2024
It’s about time that Princess Peach get her own adventure! Sure, she’s been a playable character in handful of the Super Mario Bros. platforming adventures, and always a character in the sports spin-offs, but now she’s the main star for the first time in almost two decades!
Peach will be battling to save the Sparkle Theater from the nasty Grape and Sour Bunch. Throughout, she’ll be able to channel the powers of new companion Stella’s Ribbon to whip out and hit nearby theatre scenery, as well as transform into different roles like Swordfighter Peach, Detective Peach, Patisserie Peach and plenty of others brand new abilities. Think Kirby, but without having to eat everything in sight!
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
23rd April 2024
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has been in development for what feels like forever. This Suikoden successor started off as a Kickstarter back in 2020, had a companion game released in 2022, and is only now getting a release in 2024 after a bunch of delays.
Much like Suikoden, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will let you recruit from a vast pool of 100 playable characters to take on your journey through its typically epic JRPG narrative. There’s a fair bit of Octopath Traveller’s HD-2D art style to the art direction being taken here, as it blends 2D characters together with a 3D world, though without quite so much tilt shift. There’s also a War Mode that looks like an intriguing variation from the main JRPG battles.
SaGa Emerald Beyond
25th April 2024
A new SaGa will begin in 2024, with SaGa Emerald Beyond set to tell a sprawling narrative that follows six distinct protagonists as they traverse a broad set of 17 connect worlds that make up the Beyond, each of which promises different cultures and landscapes.
Each protagonist will bring intriguingly varied abilities to the table in the turn-based combat of Timeline Battles, whether it’s Tsunanori Mido’s ability to command puppets in combat, the crime fighting duo of Bonnie & Formina, or the songstress mech with no voice and no body. There’s five narrative arcs that you’ll be able to explore, with the story branching based on your actions, and the promise of more narrative possibilities than in any SaGa game to date.
Braid Anniversary Edition
30th April 2024
Jonathan Blow’s breakout game is returning with Braid Anniversary Edition. One of the first hits in the modern indie development scenes, it’s being remastered to fit with modern platforms, and will come with developer commentary to peel back the creative process.
Braid first burst onto the scene with its innovative take on puzzle platforming an time manipulation. As you explore the 2D worlds, you’ll have to learn how time works in each area, and how you can move it backwards and forwards with different effects in order to reach the end. Leaning into platformer tropes, you’re trying to rescue an abducted princess… but is that what’s really going on here?
Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD
Summer 2024
Luigi’s misadventures with property ownership made for a cult classic launch title on GameCube, and it took over a decade for him to try again, with Next Level Games entrusted with making a sequel for Nintendo 3DS. With the popularity of Luigi’s Mansion 3 on Switch, that second game is being remastered with an HD remaster.
What’s great to see is that the ScareScraper multiplayer mode is sticking around, with up to four players able to team up online and tackle a series of floors stuffed with ghosts to defeat.
On Your Tail
2024
Mixing together detective work and slice of life cosiness, On Your Tail will be coming out in 2024.
Diana was hoping to enjoy and idyllic summer holiday, in a secluded Italian town of Borgo Marina by the sea, but the longer she stays there, the more mysteries she’ll get wrapped up in. As you get to know the village’s inhabitants and take in recreational activities, you’ll also be able to snoop around the streets and shops for leads, interrogate people, and then deduce what’s going on through a strategic card game.
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
2024
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is getting the remaster it deserves in 2024, bringing the classic GameCube RPG to Nintendo Switch for its 20th anniversary.
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is generally held up as the best game in the Paper Mario series. Originally released for the GameCube in 2004, it retained the same battle system as the original game, while later games incorporated more platformer elements or had totally different battle systems. From a narrative perspective, later games started to use Toads more and more heavily to fill out the world with NPCs, while earlier games were more creative in that regard.
If you can’t wait, then the original Paper Mario is playable via Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.
Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution
2024
A Switch remaster of a Game Boy Advance classic, Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution has everything you’d want from the series, with Shantae’s hair whipping attack and transformations, world-altering puzzles, as our genie hero tries to defeat the nefarious pirate Risky Boots.
Naturally you can expect a game that’s been spruced up compared to the GBA in a bunch of ways, but there’s also a big addition with a brand new 4-player local multiplayer battle mode.
As you can see, there’s still plenty of games coming to Nintendo Switch in 2024, and a lot of them already confirmed for the next few months. Stay tuned to TheSixthAxis for all the news on these big releases and everything else that’s happening in gaming.
