Nintendo Switch – The Port Machine

Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!

It's no secret. The Wii U was a commercial failure with only 13.56 million units sold in the five years of its sad existence. The Nintendo Switch on the other hand seems to be a big success, where it already sold over 10 million units in less than a year and set records in various countries. The consequence? Nintendo's going to port all the good Wii U games over to the Switch. And here's a list of what this already covers, Nintendo published games only:

• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Mario Kart 8 DX
• Pokkén Tournament DX
• Bayonetta
• Bayonetta 2
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
• Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition

Out of these games I own Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U. So, all of them except for Pokkén Tournament. And with that a good chunk of my Wii U library already exists on the Switch as well, some of them as superior versions.

All these ports are certainly nice for those who didn't own a Wii U before. And to be frank, it seems like the Switch's target market are people who haven't invested in any video games in the last five years, because it's just re-rolling everything from the last generation. For those who did invest in a Wii U, however, this might leave a bitter taste, because it seems like skipping the Wii U was quite lucrative. Nintendo is teaching the people that no one should have bought a Wii U in the first place.

I suppose, it's not a big deal with straight ports like Breath of the Wild, Bayonetta, or even Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, where I wouldn't classify the Funky Mode as a meaningful addition for someone who has owned and completed the original game. This clearly caters to people who didn't buy the game before, while I'm perfectly happy with my Wii U version. But in case of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe there's the excellent Battle Mode that everyone already wanted on the Wii U back in 2014. They could have added this via DLC, but they didn't. Nintendo purposefully left this as an incentive to buy the new Deluxe version on the Switch, while the Wii U version was simply left as inferior. And it's similar with Pokémon Tekken.

In case of Hyrule Warriors there already has been the Nintendo 3DS version with Hyrule Warriors: Legends, which had many new (DLC) contents that didn't make it to the Wii U. At least the Wii U version still had the coop mode and the better graphics, but now even that became obsolete with the Definitive Edition on Nintendo Switch. This one basically becomes a "best of both worlds" with combining all features and merits of the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U versions.

It's also likely that there's going to be Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Switch, which combines Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS in a similar fashion. It would come with all the DLC, all stages of both versions and probably also a shiny new Adventure Mode and some new characters.

And this is really an answer to the phenomenon, where the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U were cannibalizing each other. The systems had similar interfaces and lots of similar games, where there were even games with different versions on both systems like Hyrule Warriors or Super Smash Bros. 4. The Nintendo Switch now aims to combine handheld and home console and with that some dual version games get combined into one as well... At least future games on the Nintendo Switch should be relatively safe from triple releases, if Nintendo keeps focusing on one system from now on.

Third party support so far also seems to be ports mostly: Minecraft, Rocket League, Stardew Valley, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Doom, Wolfenstein II - The New Colossus... to name few. At least Bethesda on Twitter is taking it with humor:

Priceless!

Well, the strong exclusives on Nintendo systems often came from Nintendo themselves, while it's certainly nice to have all these games on the Switch available and to see so much 3rd party support for a change. And the list of Switch games is getting longer and longer.

Anyway, one interesting question remains: will Nintendo port even more games? Super Smash Bros. 4 seems to be a candidate, but what else could make it to the Switch? What games might even remain as Wii U exclusives?

Super Mario seems to be doing quite well with staying exclusive so far. Super Mario Odyssey is already out and a new 2D Mario for Switch might be in the works as well, while New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Mario 3D World will most likely remain as Wii U exclusives. The same probably goes for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, which heavily used the Wii U GamePad. Only with Super Mario Maker Nintendo might not be able to resist, after all this got ported to the Nintendo 3DS already.

Following Bayonetta and Bayonetta 2, another candidate might be The Wonderful 101 by Platinum Games. There already had been rumors about it and I wouldn't expect much from such a port, however.

An often request seem to be the Zelda HD remasters: The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD. You know that Nintendo has arrived in easy money heaven when fans are asking for ports of ports. However, those two will likely remain as Wii U exclusives and not just because the Wii U has to keep something. Both titles focused quite a lot on utilizing the Wii U GamePad for their interfaces, though you can play both games just with the Pro Controller. But they also added new features based on Miiverse, where the Wind Waker HD had the Tingle Bottles for ingame Miiverse communication and Twilight Princess HD featured a collection of Miiverse Stamps. All of this would have to be cut from the ports, unless Nintendo finds some replacement usages for the bottles and the stamps.

Instead, it's more likely that Nintendo will deliver a new Zelda HD remaster for the Switch: Skyward Sword HD. The Joycons are predestined to bring this game back with improved graphics and maybe some new features. Talking about Wii games, there could also be a remastered HD version of the Metroid Prime Trilogy to accompany Metroid Prime 4. But of course such remasters would take more time and money in development, so we shouldn't expect as much here as with all the Wii U ports.

Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!
Ports, ports, ports, come buy some ports!