Four of the ten top selling 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo Switch games are Mario titles, while a further four are shared evenly by Pokemon and Zelda. The last two spots are taken by 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Animal Crossing: New Horizons and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the latter of which combines all four of the other top ten franchises. None of these characters began life on the Nintendo Switch, nor the Wii U or even the Wii. As the Switch 2 (or whatever it’s called) looms large, how long can Nintendo go on this way?

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Animal Crossing is the most recent series featured, at the spry age of almost 23 years old, having debuted in 2001. Extending the list to the top 20 changes things, but only a little. We only have one fully-fledged Switch newcomer in there, through 11th placed 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ring Fit Adventure, and even that takes cues from Wii Fit. But with the ring itself, transformation of the aesthetics, levelling systems, and narrative mode, it seems fair to call that 'new'. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Splatoon 2 & 3 both feature too, and while the original Splatoon predates the Switch by arriving on the Wii U, the🐻y also represent newer franch💦ise power.

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However, most of the list is familiar reading - a further three are Mario games, as are 21st and 22nd, while another three are more Pokemon titles. If you've been keeping up, you'll know that leaves one spot, which goes to Nintendo Switch Sports, an extension of the Wii Sports series.

Nintendo and its fans will tell you to look beyond the series titles; 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Breath of the Wild and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tears of the Kingdom offer new life and fresh imagination for The Legend of Zelda, while Pokemon's hits include Let's Go and Legends, both of which did things a little differently. But then, Nintendo fans have a tendency to take things personally. The fact remains that Nintendo is in the exclusives business more than either 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:PlayStation or Xbox, 𒁃and it relies on a far smaller roster to carry th💖is business model.

A screenshot of Pokemon Violet with the player, Penny, Nemona, and Arven

It has spread the weight well, and thus far the model has been successful - it's 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mario Kart, rather than one of his mainline adventures that tops the charts, and he is featured across the list with 2D games, 3D adventures, tennis tournaments, wicked parties, footy matches, a bout of construction, and a round of golf, not to mention his brother exploring scary mansions. Then there's the fact that the next Mario-adjacent game gives Peach the spotlight for the first time since 2005, in what might be the Super Mario family's last hurrah on the Switch before its successor arrives.

Clearly making a bunc𓆏h of very good, highly approachable family games featuring the two most recognisable mascots i🙈n gaming (Mario and Pikachu) is a good strategy. But exactly how long term a strategy is it? With talk that the Switch 2 - name TBC - will be on the level of the PS4 and the Xbox One, does Mario Tennis do enough to prove this? A new Zelda could make use of it, but that will be years away, while Pokemon has failed to show the level of ambition required to make the most of this potential.

If the Switch 2 is to be sold on the idea that it brings Nintendo's graphics up to scratch and is powerful enough for games like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ghost of Tsushima, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:The Last of Us, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Red Dead Redemption 2, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, or 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Detroit: Become Human, then Let's Go Johto and Mario Super Sluggers 2 just won't cut it.

Give me Let's Go Johto and Mario Super Sluggers 2 anyway.

Nintendo is at a crossroads with the Switch 2. On the one hand, the Switch is one of the most successful consoles ever made and its mascots have better brand recognition than anyone else in gaming, while most games work perfectly well on the current console. On the other, sales are slowing down and many games are impossible to port over without seriously compromising the experience (and even that often isn't enough).

A new console that can keep up with modern gaming enough that the Switch remains a viable option, that can reap the revenue of cross-platform releases alongside its own exclusives, and that can cater to its own development teams' ideas seems to have reached a point of necessity - but how can you justify that off the back of Mario games?

Mario isn't going anywhere, and Bowser aside, few would want him too. I thoroughly enjoyed Wonder this year, will be getting Peach's spin-off, and have all the other Mario games in the list. I'm not the sole reason they sold so highly, obviously, but me and people like me, who play a variety of games across a variety of consoles, still being drawn to Mario, as well as Pokemon, is an important reason the Switch has been so successful.

It now faces the challenge of keeping that consistency while introducing more powerful games into the ecosystem and retaining the strong identity it has enjoyed throughout its lifecycle. If we do get a new Switch this year, the old one wi⛦ll be going out at the🍸 top, and that leaves its successor with a tough act to follow. A fresh series might be needed to help it get there.

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