The Major Nintendo Series That Haven't Made It To The Switch

With a Switch successor seemingly imminent, which franchises have yet to come to Nintendo's best-selling home system?

The Nintendo Switch has seen a plethora of games Nintendo fans have been requesting for years finally come to fruition. Between the long-anticipated follow-up to Pokémon Snap, the elusive Metroid Dread, the return of Advance Wars, and later this year a remake of Super Mario RPG, many games that once seemed impossible are all available to play on Nintendo's hybrid system.

While the Switch boasts one of the most diverse first-party libraries in Nintendo history, not every series has had the luxury of making the jump to the platform. With the window of opportunity for them to do so narrowing as the Switch ages, Nintendo has precious little time remaining to implement some of its most iconic games into the Switch's twilight years.

Star Fox is One of Nintendo's Most Cherished—and Troubled—Series

Created by Shigeru Miyamoto, the Star Fox series started life as an on-rails shooter, and its 1993 Super Nintendo debut boasted cutting-edge 3D graphics. Its follow-up, Star Fox 64, received further acclaim, but since then the series has struggled with maintaining a consistent identity, shifting from developer to developer and genre to genre.

The series' previous attempted relaunch, 2016's Star Fox Zero, was met with a mixed reception, and the series has since been put on hiatus. Still, Fox and company haven't been completely absent from the Switch, making guest appearances in the Ubisoft-developed toys-to-life game Starlink: Battle for Atlas, whose deluxe edition included a figure of Fox's signature ship, the Arwing.

Thanks to his continued presence in the Super Smash Bros. series, Fox McCloud remains one of Nintendo's most recognizable faces. As such, it's unlikely the company will lay the franchise to rest completely, but its tumultuous history has left its fanbase splintered. A new entry would face an uphill battle trying to please every Star Fox fan out there, but hopefully one could finally step out of the long shadow cast by the first two entries.

F-Zero Revolutionized Racing Games, but Does Mario Kart Make it Redundant?

Another sci-fi-flavored franchise debuting on the Super Nintendo, F-Zero was one of the system's launch titles, demonstrating its ''Mode 7'' capabilities to deliver a racing game experience previously impossible on home consoles. With the advent of Super Mario Kart, later F-Zero entries would distinguish themselves from their sister series by featuring more intense difficulty.

Despite critical acclaim, F-Zero struggled to sell as well as other premiere Nintendo series, and since 2004 the series has laid dormant. Series co-creator Takaya Imamura has cited the struggle to find a fresh angle for the series as the main reason why a new entry has yet to be released. What's more, Mario Kart 8 borrowed F-Zero's antigravity mechanics, meaning a hypothetical F-Zero revival would have an even greater struggle to distinguish itself from Nintendo's more successful racing series.

While F-Zero finds itself in a precarious position, not all hope is lost for the high-octane racer. In an interview with Red Bull France, F-Zero GX producer Toshihiro Naogoshi expressed a desire to work on a new installment, so long as he was permitted to keep the series' staple difficulty. The Switch has seen Nintendo seemingly more comfortable publishing difficult games again with the likes of Metroid Dread, so it stands to reason that F-Zero could be granted the same luxury. Still, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe remaining the system's best-selling game, F-Zero has stiff competition on the racing game front and may have more room to carve out its own niche on Nintendo's next platform instead.

Golden Sun Would Be Right at Home on the Switch

With the Switch serving as a haven for JRPGs, one dormant series that would be a perfect fit for the platform is Golden Sun. Developed by Camelot Software Planning for the Game Boy Advance in 2001, Golden Sun was one of the first JRPGs to be released for the handheld. Both it and its 2002 sequel The Lost Age sold over a million copies each, but the series' third installment for the DS, 2010's Dark Dawn, failed to match those figures, and Golden Sun has languished ever since.

Camelot is more recognized by Nintendo fans for developing the Mario Tennis and Golf subseries, and with both of those receiving entries for the Nintendo Switch, Camelot's next project remains unknown. While the studio could be concentrating efforts on another Mario sports title for the Switch's successor, if they have another Switch title waiting in the wings, Golden Sun would be the perfect candidate.

With series protagonist Isaac making an appearance as an Assist Trophy as recently as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the trilogy hasn't been completely forgotten by Nintendo. Dark Dawn's meager sales may have put them off from publishing a fourth entry for a while, but if fellow GBA stalwarts like Advance Wars and WarioWare could make their long-awaited revivals on Switch, then perhaps not all hope is lost for Golden Sun either.

Wario Land Has Been Left Astray Without A Developer For Years

Before WarioWare, Wario was better known for spearheading the Wario Land series. The games bridged the gap between the beginner-friendly nature of Mario and the open-ended, exploration-based style of Metroid—a befitting choice, given that Wario Land was developed by Nintendo Research & Development Team 1, the crew behind Samus Aran's first four adventures.

After developing five handheld Wario Land entries, Nintendo R&D1 wound up restructured in 2004, and Wario's last side-scrolling adventure was handled by a new developer, Good-Feel, in 2008. Despite boasting a gorgeous anime-inspired art style, and the Wii's large install base, Wario Land: Shake It! performed below Nintendo's expectations, and the series hasn't seen a new entry since.

Nonetheless, Nintendo and Good-Feel have retained a strong relationship, with Good-Feel developing Kirby's Epic Yarn, Yoshi's Woolly World, and Yoshi's Crafted World. Their next collaboration with Nintendo, assuming there is one, has yet to be announced; given the variety of IP Nintendo has loaned them over the years, it remains to be seen whether Good-Feel would ever helm another Wario title. If not, then there are other studios who could do Wario Land justice. For example, MercurySteam, who developed Metroid Dread, the long-awaited continuation of Nintendo R&D1's other major brainchild.

Donkey Kong Country Has Seen Plenty of Love on Switch—but With No New Game In Sight

Unlike other series, Nintendo hasn't neglected Donkey Kong on the Switch altogether. 2018 saw a port of the Wii U title Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, which was enough to temporarily satiate fans hungry for a new game, but the nearly decade-long gap since the original 2014 version has since been felt.

Between the Tropical Freeze port, Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle's Donkey Kong Adventure DLC, and King K. Rool being added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, 2018 was a monumental year for Donkey Kong, and it felt like he was being geared up for a new major release. Despite this, the momentum of that year was not capitalized upon, and five years later the Switch still has yet to receive a homegrown Donkey Kong title of its own.

Like other series, it may simply come down to finding the right developer. Retro Studios, who helmed both Tropical Freeze and its predecessor Returns, have been preoccupied with the development of Metroid Prime 4. Whether another developer can take up the mantle or if Nintendo would rather wait until Retro is free again is currently unknown. Given that development was abandoned on Bandai Namco's version of Metroid Prime 4, it's possible Nintendo is reluctant to trust other developers to continue Retro's legacy, resulting in Donkey Kong being put on ice.

Mario Kart Has No Original Switch Entry to Call Its Own—and Likely Never Will

It's strange to consider that the Switch technically has no unique Mario Kart of its own. At 55 million units sold, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling game on the system, and feels integral to the console's identity, making it easy to forget that it started life as a 2014 Wii U game. As it stands, however, the Switch is the first Nintendo console since the Game Boy Color to not have a Mario Kart to call its own.

The prospect of a hypothetical Mario Kart 9 for Switch was once a source of much fan speculation, but that speculation died down after the announcement of the ''Booster Course Pass'' DLC for 8 Deluxe. After several years of receiving little post-launch support, the pass ensured that 8 Deluxe's course count would double from 48 to 96, in the form of incremental updates across 2022 and 2023.

With the Booster Course Pass's existence, the notion of a Switch Mario Kart 9 was seemingly put to rest. Thanks to the Pass, the Switch now boasts twelve unique Mario Kart cups of its own; they're just built on the foundation of a game from 2014. At this stage, it seems far, far likelier that Nintendo would wait for a new system for a brand new Mario Kart to serve as a marquee title, instead of releasing it on the Switch and cannibalizing the sales of both the new game and the Booster Course Pass.

Which Other Series Are Absent?

While most of the heavy hitters are accounted for, there are a plethora of other series still yet to be released on the Switch. Like F-Zero, Wave Race was an innovative series of racing games that fell into obscurity after a GameCube release, likely to also avoid overlap with Mario Kart. Equally innovative was Nintendogs, one of the Nintendo DS's biggest hits, utilizing the system's touchscreen controls to their fullest. However, its 3DS successor, Nintendogs + Cats, failed to leave the same impact, and the virtual pet simulator has yet to be seen since.

After a twenty-year absence, the Kid Icarus series returned in 2012 with Kid Icarus: Uprising, one of the 3DS's most acclaimed titles. Despite the game's reception, the series' revival seems to be a one-and-done; Pit and the rest of the game's colorful cast being relegated to Smash Bros. with no follow-up in sight.

Nintendo has one of the richest back catalogs in gaming history, and the Switch has seen them put it to good use. That said, there will be always room for more returning faces, and so long as the company continues to announce and release games, there will always be a handful of series put on the back burner that fans will be begging to make a comeback.