Considering that a big Nintendo Switch 2 stream is coming next week, I can’t imagine that anyone saw today’s surprise Nintendo Direct coming. Rather than saving all its big announcements for April 2, Nintendo held one last minute showcase focused entirely on upcoming Nintendo Switch games. I assumed that would be a moment to fill out the system’s next few months, giving players something to do until the Switch 2 launches.
That wasn’t the case. Instead, the stream was filled with third-party games, many of which are set to launch this summer and beyond, and a small handful of Nintendo games that don’t have release dates. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond isn’t coming anytime soon. Pokémon Legends Z-A is still slated for a late 2025 release. A few new games got revealed, but they’re not coming until 2026. It was a bizarre 30-minute showcase that didn’t tell us much about the Nintendo Switch’s next few months — but it sure did tell us a lot about the Nintendo Switch 2.
That might sound like a stretch considering that the Direct explicitly did not show the Switch 2 and only mentioned it once to plug next week’s showcase. Read between the lines, though, and you can start to get a sense of how Nintendo is about to position its next console from a tech standpoint and what kinds of left-field franchises will still have a home on it.
Look at the 2026 first-party games that were revealed today: Rhythm Heaven Groove and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream. Considering that they won’t be out for another year, we can reasonably assume that they’re going to launch on Nintendo Switch 2, making their inclusion on a Switch-focused stream odd. Why not just drop them in next week’s Direct to buff up the console’s library of upcoming games out the gate? Well, just look at them. Both games come from franchises with oddball art styles that are on the minimalist side compared to other Nintendo franchises. Tomodachi Life‘s trailer showed smooth, simple characters walking around flat patches of grass while Rhythm Heaven’s trailer revolved around little round dudes that look like they were sketched out in pencil. They both look adorable, but they’re not exactly technical showcases.
Now imagine if those two games had been shown on next week’s Switch 2 Direct as Nintendo hyped up its upgraded hardware. It would have been a meme in the making, with cynics screenshotting cartoon blobs in an attempt to dunk on the hardware. Increased power is the main thing the Switch 2 has going for it considering that the system itself doesn’t differ from its predecessor all too much. I get the sense that Nintendo understands that and is being very careful about what games it advertises as Switch 2 games right now.
That would also explain the odd marketing push for Pokémon Legends Z-A. With a late 2025 release date set, the new game will surely cross-launch on Switch 2, but Nintendo has been shy about confirming that. Instead, it keeps tying it to the current Switch. That makes more sense when you take a look at its trailers, which are filled with the kind of unimpressive textures that have plagued recent Pokémon games. Keeping that away from the Switch 2 branding seems like a deliberate choice that sends a message about Nintendo’s next system.
If that’s the case, expect next week’s Switch 2 Direct to be more focused on tech than Nintendo usually is. The company will need to come out swinging to make a great sales pitch that’ll convince players to upgrade. Having great games won’t be enough on its own; they have to look and run better too. Pokémon Legends Z-A and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream are exciting, but they clearly aren’t the games for the job. At the very least, that’s a good sign of what to expect from the Switch 2. Expect to see some more technically impressive first-party reveals next week that would make potential features like 4K shine.
While I do feel a little bummed to see some of Nintendo’s more niche franchises pushed to the side in this way, there’s a silver lining: It’s clear that there’s still going to be a home for oddball games and left-field revivals on Switch 2. The Switch proved that small series could thrive on a Nintendo console with a huge adoption rate. A string of sales successes gave us some seriously surprising games through the console’s lifespan, from Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club to Endless Ocean: Luminous. It doesn’t look like Nintendo is slowing that strategy with its next console headed into 2026, as Rhythm Heaven and Tomodachi Life are about as niche as they come.
Today’s Direct may have been designed to showcase the Switch, but I walked out of it with a better understanding of its successor instead. I feel like I now know how Nintendo is positioning the console as a tech upgrade and the spread of first-party games I can expect to see on it in between the tentpole releases. These 30 minutes set the stage for what I expect to be a crowded show next week that focuses on showstoppers from established franchises, a change from 2017’s Switch reveal that led the charge with 1-2 Switch and Arms instead.
But as is always the case with Nintendo, go in expecting the unexpected. I just hope that the unexpected is a good thing this time.
