The most anticipated exclusive Nintendo Switch games of 2025

In 2025, Nintendo Switch will be entering its ninth year on the market. It’s early days. Since 2017, the console has continued to deliver first-party games at a higher rate than its two main competitors. The second half of the cycle has indeed seen it lean heavily on its trajectory, but overall the unreleased experiences have hit pretty hard (2023 was spectacular, for example). In 2024, we saw this with games like The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. There are a lot of green shoots even at the end of the solo business cycle.

This year’s software releases will be overshadowed by the launch of its successor. The Nintendo Switch 2 will be revealed between now and March, with its arrival in gamers' homes likely to follow shortly after. Unsurprisingly, Nintendo’s big names will be revealed alongside it, but the current console still has several confirmed stops along the way. Games, by the way, that will be playable on the new generation thanks to its backwards compatibility system. Everything is up in the air in an exciting 2025 for fans of the Japanese company and the general public around the video game.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD

Retro Studios' Wii (and later 3DS) classic is coming to Nintendo Switch in a remastered version as the console’s first treat of the calendar year. The penultimate 2D entry in the saga is considered one of the best platformers of the century. And no wonder. It is a truly great game that combines traditional platforming with interaction with the scenery and a multitude of systems that complement the basic formula. This edition, in addition to the graphical boost and slight visual changes in some levels, includes the secret scenarios of the portable version. You should not miss it.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition

It seemed like it would never arrive. The last great exclusive that had to be saved from the Wii U (with the permission of Nintendo Land and a few more circumstantial factors) will be landing on the Nintendo Switch very soon. This is not trivial news. With its arrival, Monolith Soft’s saga will be available on a single modern platform. All of the Xenoblade games will be available on the hybrid, and thus on its successor. We are looking at a JRPG with futuristic overtones, where robots as mounts are the main way to move around its vast world. We do not want to go into plot revelations, you have to surprise yourself while playing. The Definitive Edition will include graphical enhancements, additional content, and expanded story in ways that have not yet been revealed. Will it be linked to the remastering of the first part? Will it be integrated into the main quest? It remains to be seen what will happen.

Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time

The new Fantasy Life will be the first of Level-5’s titles to be released. It was scheduled for October 2024, but an indefinite delay has brought it to April if things don’t change again. We find ourselves with a game that is halfway between a life simulation and an RPG. We will be able to build our own village while exploring an island in different temporal states. It is a varied and complete game in which there will be no shortage of nods to the saga’s past. Ambition is the hallmark of this version.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Samus Aran returns to 3D in one of the most anticipated sequels of the last 10 years. It hasn’t had an easy road to release. It was unveiled in 2017 with a simple logo, and it was only in January 2019 that Nintendo confirmed the restart of its development with a change of hands that was a declaration of intent: it was now Retro Studios who would shape their vision of the game. The result for the moment translates into a small trailer that offers footage of the adventure in real time. There is much speculation about its arrival: will it be a launch game for the Nintendo Switch 2? It remains to be seen where it will be placed on the calendar.

Pokémon Legends Z-A

It was the biggest surprise of Pokémon Day 2024. When everyone was expecting a lesser title, Game Freak came up with the second installment of the new spin-off name. Pokémon Legends Z-A is something of a mystery at the moment. Since its unveiling, no one has said anything. Silence, by the way, typical of Japanese companies, but it is even more remarkable in this case because we have gone through a 2024 without any weighty video game on traditional consoles (yes, Pokémon TCG Pocket is there, but it is a different format). We know that we will travel to the Kalos region in a time yet to be revealed. It was the setting chosen for Pokémon X and Y, the sixth generation that interpreted French geography with the Pokémon touch. The trailer shows that Lumiose City will be the center of the experience, where the entire game will take place.

Professor Layton and the New World of Steam

Nintendo’s most famous puzzle saga (with permission from Brain Training Puzzles) will return in 2025 with a new installment that has been announced for quite some time. In 2023 it was confirmed that it would not arrive until sometime this year, the only release window we have at the moment. This time, the puzzles will be created by the Quizknock team, popular on social media for their challenging puzzles, led by master Takuji Izawa. Level-5 will have a busy schedule when it finally debuts in this slot.

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