Hey, gamer, are you ready for some $60 re-releases of old games? I know – perhaps unܫironically – that I am. I lov𝓡e playing games I’ve already played, preferably when they look slightly better than I remember. Again, totally sincere here. This is something I do more often than I’m comfortable with.
At the time of writing, very little has been said about what games will be coming to the🌳 Switch 2. There will probably be new games, but will there be old ones? Also probably! Nothing has really been announced, but we can speculate. So, let’s do that.
Now, Nintendo has said that the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible, and while they say there will be exceptions, I’m going to gue෴ss this will be a rarity. I’m assuming, perhaps over-optimistically, that most games will still be supported. So, we’re not going to talk about Switch games we want to play on our Switch. Instead, let’s talk about titles that Nintendo hasn’t given a glow-up to that will perhaps be given a second look when the new console comes around.
Chibi-Robo
My heard breaks for Chibi-Robo. The 2007 GameCube title is among the many that I won’t shut up about, but it’s gotten a raw deal. It wasn’t all that popular at launch, to begin with, but then its sequels kind of failed to follow-up on it. Okay, not all of the sequels. Okaeri Chibi-Robo: Happy Richie Ōsōji for the Nintendo DS was a pretty faithful and enjoyable sequel, but if 𒁃you can’t tell by the moniker, it never got released in North America.
Anyway, maybe if more people had a chance to play it, more people would love it. A good way to find out would be a re-release on Switch. Unfortunately, it would be too late for its developer, Skip Ltd., which seems to have disbanded. The key staff from there is currently working on a spiritual follow-up, KoROBO, which is just legally distinct Chibi-Robo. So, I guess worst case scenario, we’ll maybe get KoROBO on the Switch 2.
F-Zero GX
A few years ago, I’d opine Nintendo’s treatment of F-Zero in the same way I would with Chibi-Robo, but recently, the company has remembered that it exists. They’ve put many of the classic titles on their Nintendo Switch Online service and even released a (sort of) new entry: F-Zero 99.
However, many point to the 2003 GameCube title, F-Zero GX, as the best the series has to offer. extra, but then, what else would you expect from the crew that would go on to develop the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series? While a true follow-up would be the best-case scenario, a p💧ort would also be appreciated. The game⭕ deserves more respect.
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
It was long rumored that the two Wii U Legend of Zelda remakes, Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD, would make their move to the Switch. They didn’t. ♔So, we’re still waiting.
On the other hand, if they do decide to port it to Switch 2, I’m hoping that they, at the very least, allow you to undo the desecration they did to the lighting style. The original version had a striking, unique cel shading that evoked the look of a cartoon, which helped support the stylized art. Wind Waker HD sort of smoothed that over, then added a metric tonne of bloom. It ꩲlooks, uh, good. It just doesn’t have the same effect. It felt like an HD fan mod, like the art team didn’t really care about artistic intent.
It’s not the end of the world, and I’m not sure if that’s, like, a difficult thing to change. I don’t know how these shaders are implemented. I just know that whenever I think about playing Wind Waker again, I’m left wondering whether I should play the GameCube or Wii U version, and ෴it would be nice to have one ౠwithout compromises.
Lost Kingdoms Collection
Armored Core VI reminded a lot of people that FromSoftware made games before Demon’s Soul. And while I’d love a King’s Field Collection… There’s no but on that sentence, I’d love a King’s Field Collection. But I’d also love a Lost Kingdoms Collection.
The two Lost Kingdoms games were strange RPGs where you used cards to cast magic. Neither was spectacular, but both are unique in their own way. Unique enough that they should be experienced. Unfortunately, they sold about as well as tires made of bread, so not many people tried them out. Relatively speaking. Now’s a good time. People will eat anything FromSoftware touched. In fact, maybe we should bring back Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor.
Battalion Wars
Speaking of Battalions, I’m sure I’m not the only one who loved that strange little Advance Wars spin-off, Battalion Wars. It was this weird in-between of squad-based tactics and real-time strategy. You could take control of any of your units, and the vehicle controls were a bit like Halo’s.
We got a sequel on Wii, Battalion Wars II, but I swear that game is, like, 95% tutorial for some reason. Eve🦩ry level seemed to be a tutorial. That was kind of the Wii for you. In an effort to make things acceꦑssible to everyone, they usually made things fun for no one. So, I’d take a collection, but it’s maybe not necessary.
Cool Riders
Cool Riders should just be on everything. But, right now, it’s not on anything. Unless you count arcade. It is an absolutely incredible perversion of OutRun (seemingly having been intended to be titled OutRiders). You choose from a cast of weirdos on tricked-out bikes and fly through a fever dream distortions of places from around the world. It takes the OutRun formula and tweaks its nipples, t📖urning it into a high-speed blur of over-stimulation. You needཧ to play it, that might not be an option for you right now, so shovel it onto the Switch 2.
Star Fox Zero
Okay, now do it right this time. Star Fox Zero feels like one of the most tragic victims of Nintendo’s need to over-innovate. Or, possibly, it’s specifically Shigeru Miyamoto’s need. So, rather than just being a standard on-rails shooter, it requ🌌ired you to aim with the gamepad screen while flying with the stick. It sucked.
As much as I detested the waggle rolling in Donkey Kong Country Returns, I got used to it in a small way and could live with it. It wasn’t ideal. The dual-screen controls of Star Fox Zero were cement shoes; they sank the whole game.
The game itself is fine. Somehow, I got through it. Even without the dual-screen controls, it wouldn’t be spectacular, but it would be far better than the series has seen since Star Fox 64. So, it would be nice to get an updated versi🌄on on the Switch 2. The only upgrade needed would be the deep-sixing of the second-screen aiming.
Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller
Hey, Sega. Instead of making a live service multiplayer Crazy Taxi that no one wants, maybe just re-release the best one. Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller not only included a new 🍨level set in a version of Las Vegas, it also took the better levels from the first two games and edited them slightly to balance them for the new skills i💟n your repertoire.
For extra credit, Sega could just include all the levels♋ from all the games. But let’s slow down. Wouldn’t want to distract them from building platform▨s where they can sell endless skins.
Rule of Rose
It’s tempting for me to put my beloved Chulip on this list, but maybe that’s too predictable. How about Rule of Rose? It’s an incredibly🐎 unique take on the survival horror genre during its heyday on the PS2. For its main antagonists, it turns to the real monsters of the𝓀 world: children. You play as Jennifer, a young woman who gets tormented by a group of orphans.
Its humanity manages to come through all the abstract weirdness of the game. Beneath the grimy horror is a story far more tragic than it is terrifying. It’s less about monsters, and more about what causes a person to become a monster. And 𒊎I don’t mean some sort of virus. I mean fear of losing something.
Unfortunately, Rule of Rose had a🙈 pretty big setback in the fact that its combat is terrible, even by survival horror standards. It’s the hit detection that really drags it down. Even if this was improved sli﷽ghtly in a Switch 2 port, it would go a long way in making the game more palatable than it was at its 2006 release.
Metal Max 2 Reloaded
Metal Max is the best series to have barely touched North American shores. To date, of the series’ mainline seven games (not counting remakes), only two have been localized in English (Metal Saga and Metal Max Xeno). I’d take pretty much any out of the series to hit the Switch 2, but Metal Max 2 Reloaded is generally considered to b💯e one of ౠthe high points of the series.
The games are JRPGs that center around tanks. The acquisition, upgrading, and utilization of tanks. You can always get out of your tank, but – and I hope this isn’t news – there are a number of advantages a steel-armored machine of war has over your squishy human flab. Metal Max 2 Reloaded is a DS remake of an SNES game. Yet, despite its vintage, it is an extraordinarily sprawling adventure across a post-apocalyptic world packed to the gills with bizarre monsters. It would be the perfect introduction to anyone who hasn’t experienced Metal Max before.
Published: Jan 17, 2025 12:23 pm