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Nintendo has finally confirmed its Day One launch slate for the Nintendo Switch. Launching on March 3rd, there will be a total of five games for the Switch on its opening day, with a further three games releasing over the month of March.
The headline act, of course, is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the next instalment in Nintendo’s Zelda series that’s launching simultaneously on both Switch and Wii U. That’s followed by mini-game compilation 1-2 Switch, which, much like Nintendo Land and Wii Play before it, has been designed to show off all the new features of Nintendo’s new console, including its HD Rumble feature.
The remaining three titles come from third-parties. These include Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2017, Activision’s Skylanders Imaginators and Konami’s Super Bomberman R.
Take a look at a range of titles for #NintendoSwitch from Nintendo and our third party partners in 2017.
Trailer: https://t.co/FZcJE94Mpw pic.twitter.com/lsEaeRh96f— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) January 13, 2017
Five day one launch titles doesn’t sound like a lot, especially after the Wii U launched with 31 titles in Europe, but it seems Nintendo’s taking a more historical approach to its new console launch and following in the footsteps of the N64, which launched with just six games in Europe.
More games are due to follow those initial five as well, as a further three titles will be launching during the month of March. No specific date has been given for these yet, but among them are SFB Games’ excellent co-op game Snipperclips, Frozenbyte’s rogue-like Has-Been Heroes and Shin’en’s futuristic racer Fast RMX.
The next title with a confirmed release date is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is launching on April 28th. This adds new characters to the game, including the cast of Splatoon, new vehicles, and comes with both DLC packs. The game will also run at 60fps at 1080p on the TV and 60fps at 720p in handheld mode. The one thing it doesn’t have, sadly, is any new tracks.
There are also a handful of titles dated for Spring 2017, including Switch-exclusive ARMS, Rime, Disgaea 5, and Puyo Puyo Tetris, while Splatoon 2 is currently dated for Summer 2017.
Super Mario Odyssey will be the Switch’s big Christmas title, with a current release date of Holiday 2017, but in between then and now, players will also have Minecraft, FIFA, Steep, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers, Sonic Mania, I am Setsuna, Syberia 3, NBA 2K and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 to look forward to. These are all currently dated for 2017.
Read our hands-on impressions of the Switch to find out more about the console, and you can also see what the wider industry has to say about the new machine following its UK premiere on Friday.
