Last year was a bit of a disappointment for Nintendo. They had barely any exclusives, and while Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a smash hit, there wasn’t much else that came out last year. Hyrule Warriors: Calamity was sold, Super Mario 3D All-Stars was a treat, but other than that, it was a lackluster year for Nintendo. When the Nintendo Switch launched, the system came out with a quality game roughly every month. This was not the case last year. While this isn’t the case this year, Nintendo has some blockbuster titles coming out. Monster Hunter Rise, which comes out this month, is going to dominate charts both in North America and in Japan. Bravely Default II had stellar sales and is one of the best JRPGs to come out on the Nintendo Switch. New Pokemon Snap is highly-anticipated. No More Heroes 3 looks spectacular. Disgaea 6 is another title not to sleep on. Mario Gold Super Rush is a surprise title that will exceed expectations. Skyward Sword HD is one of the most highly anticipated games of the bunch and is sure to sell like hotcakes. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will move Switch systems. There are too many games to count, and Nintendo is poised to have a fantastic year.
Nintendo has the best exclusives of 2021. There is no question about that. The system may well be the best system of 2021 all things considered. And this is only the first half of the year. With a possible Zelda Collector’s Edition on the way, as well as a possible holiday release date for Breath of the Wild 2, Nintendo way may well dominate 2021. There are a number of factors that play into this though. With Halo Infinite launching this year, as well as (possibly) God of War and Horizon Forbidden West, they may be foreshadowed. Regardless, due to the sheer amount of software Nintendo is churning out, this is doubtful. If Zelda launches in the holiday season, you can forget about it. It will follow the most successful Zelda game to date, and may even surpass those games.
Pokemon and Zelda are system sellers themselves. This is not to say that Nintendo will win the console wars this holiday season. They may, and they definitely will in Japan considering their sales numbers, but if the Switch Pro does release this year, they have a good chance, combined with the software Nintendo is putting out. Mario Golf is especially intriguing. While yes, we talked about how Nintendo may win the console wars, this isn’t the point of this article. Nintendo is just killing it right now. Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is another title that has found some major success. Older Switch games, such as Splatoon 2, Super Mario Party, Ring Fit Adventure, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and others are also finding tremendous success despite being well over a year old. This goes hand in hand with Nintendo’s President strategy going forward. Another positive for Nintendo this year is that there aren’t many ports. From my count there are only there (including remakes), which are Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, Skyward Sword HD, and Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl. This makes for an original year.
We’ve been talking on this site about Skyward Sword HD for four years. It’s so gratifying to finally have this game come to the Nintendo Switch. It will no doubt be a best seller and better yet, will introduce a whole new generation to the game. This will give Breath of the Wild fans a taste of classic Zelda. Likewise, Pokemon Brilliant Saphire and Shining Silver are in a similar boat. Both of these remakes look spectacular and if there are some added features to them both, it may catapult both into greatness.
This year’s lineup, at least for the first half of 2021, is spectacular on Nintendo’s part. Their most recent Direct hit the ball out of the park. This year is poised, so far, to be the year of Nintendo. They may not win many Game of the Year Awards, but that doesn’t matter. Their lineup of games is superb. This may be Nintendo’s strongest lineup of games yet, and it’s only the first half of 2021. Just imagine if Breath of the Wild 2 launches this holiday season. If so, Nintendo will surely be a force to be reckoned with. Not to mention that, as of now, Shin Megami Tensei V will be coming out this year, another exclusive, which will only add to the quality of games that Nintendo is releasing this year. It’s going to be an interesting year, and we can’t wait for Nintendo to announce what they have coming around the corner for the latter half of 2021! If the first half of this year is any indication, this may be the Nintendo Switch’s strongest year ever.