|
In terms of game output, Nintendo's 2019 has been one of its most consistent years yet. It delivered quality games throughout the year with titles like Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Super Mario Maker 2, Astral Chain, and Pokemon Sword & Shield. It was impressive to see the tenured company maintain the momentum it has gathered since the Switch's launch. While 2019 may be coming to a close, there are heaps of Switch games worth getting excited about in 2020. Nintendo may be keeping its cards close to its chest in terms of its first-party output, but there's plenty of games from other developers on the way. Below you can find out more details about the biggest Switch games of 2020 and when they're expected to release. If you're more curious about which games are coming to other consoles, be sure to check out the features breaking down them down in the list below. Also, read our feature covering our 2020 predictions. More Games Of 2020 & Beyond To Look Forward To: Rest assured that the future will yield plenty of exciting new games, but there's still this year's games to deliberate upon. After all, GameSpot's Game of the Year awards is nearly upon us. If you want an intimate look into how we decide what qualifies as the best this year, be sure to watch our entertaining explainer video detailing our verdict process. Which upcoming Switch games are you excited to play next year? Let us know in the comments below.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
After seven years of waiting, a new Animal Crossing game is finally on the horizon, and better yet, it's coming sooner than you realize. Set for March 20, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has you building up a town from scratch, beginning your journey boarding the Nook Inc. charter which will ferry you to a deserted island where you'll set up a tent and slowly establish a community. As you settle into your new home, you'll pass the time doing all the classic Animal Crossing activities, such as shaking trees, catching fish, and giving the boot to your least-favorite animal villagers. But you'll also be able to craft tools and furniture using the materials you collect on the island at Tom Nook's workbench--To think he finally decided to offer actual help amid your crippling debt! If New Horizons adheres to the existing charms of the series, it could very well be the excellent return to the world of Animal Crossing we've wanted for years now. March can't come soon enough! Release Date: March 20, 2020
Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise
At first blush, the 2010 horror game Deadly Premonition is awkward and stiff, but dig a little deeper and you'll find that beneath all its clunky gameplay lies an oddly charming game that channels the strangeness of Twin Peaks, filtered through the oddly creative mind of Hidetaka "Swery65" Suehiro. It's the game he's known most for, and in 2020, we can look forward to a sequel that will continue detective Francis York Morgan's storyline--but he's not the only detective on the case. What little we know is this: in 2019, FBI agent Aaliyah Davis is investigating an old case in Boston, one that winds up being connected to a 2005 case in New Orleans that was led by the one and only, Detective Morgan. You will play as both characters, and come to better understand the bridge that spans across the country and across decades. With any luck, Swery's brand of weird will continue to shine in this unexpected sequel--here's hoping he hasn't become too self aware after years of the first game being celebrated as a cult classic. Release Date: TBA 2020
Doom Eternal
Just when you thought Doom couldn’t get anymore wild and vicious, id Software shows up with Doom Eternal. The 2016 reboot caught many of us by surprise with its fast-paced and fluid combat scenarios and unapologetic attitude. So what could a new Doom do differently while maintaining its core conceit? It’s the little things that matter. Having played preview demos of Doom Eternal, its new traversal mechanics almost immediately set it apart from the previous game. You’ll be navigating Hell and derelict space stations with new climbing abilities and hooks to latch onto and swing to distant platforms, which provides you more options in your combat approach than before. Enemies now have damage models for parts of their body, which adds another layer to firefights. This is all on top of the flow of chainsaw and glory kills to keep your ammo and health replenished in the midst of the chaos. Doom Eternal is also trying to do something new for multiplayer with its asymmetrical modes--Battle mode pits players as demons to face off against one doom slayer and incorporates MOBA elements, while Invasion lets players invade others' single-player campaign in certain instances. The developers at id Software appear to be doing their darndest to separate Doom Eternal from 2016 while delivering what fans love most: ripping and tearing demons. Release Date: March 20, 2020
Gods & Monsters
Ubisoft's new open-world game, Gods & Monsters, is of a notably different flavor compared to the publisher's other trips into open world games with Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. It certainly shares ties to Greek mythology like Odyssey, but Gods & Monsters is more about exploring a vast world and during your best to survive in it. According to its developers, the game has been influenced by games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, particularly its emphasis on character and resource management and a free-form approach to world exploration. We got to see a brief look at the game during E3 2019 and came away intrigued by its colorful and bright world full of mythological beasts and vast landscapes. Unfortunately, Ubisoft hasn't shared much about the game since then. Still, we're excited to see what kind of world you'll explore, and what other sights we'll you'll encounter while surviving against the odds in a more stylized and colorful take on Ancient Greece. Release Date: TBA 2020
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
There have been numerous Lego Star Wars games over the years, but now that the Skywalker Saga will officially come to a close once Rise Of Skywalker opens in theaters this December, it's the perfect time for developer Traveler's Tales to take one more pass at the numerous iconic series. This time, rather than pick and choose a single movie or a specific trilogy, TT is crafting an open-world game that encompasses every mainline film in the Star Wars saga. Ok, so it's not technically the first time the team has tried something like this, but 2007's Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga was made before Disney came along, and obviously a lot has changed for Star Wars since the 2012 acquisition. To further differentiate it from The Complete Saga, TT is designing The Skywalker Saga as an open-world experience, and surprisingly enough, you can tackle storylines in any order you wish. Each movie will have its own hub world and a selection of relevant planets to explore. It sounds like a massive outing for the Lego series, but one that will surely keep the Skywalker spirit alive in 2020. Release Date: 2020
No More Heroes III
No More Heroes III is the highly-requested sequel to the cult-favorite action series by famed Japanese developer Suda 51 and his team at Grasshopper Manufacture. It's set two years after the events of the spin-off game, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, and sees the beam katana-touting assassin returning after a self-imposed hiatus. Unfortunately, an alien invasion seems to have occurred in Travis' home of Santa Destroy during his absence. So, it's up to him to fight off the alien horde while dealing with a pack of intergalactic assassins. If the debut trailer is anything go off, it seems that No More Heroes III will play much like its predecessors, maintaining its focus on fast-paced action, beam katana duels, and professional wrestling moves. Release Date: TBA 2020
Trials of Mana
If you loved Square-made SNES RPGs during the mid-90s, you likely know the pain of having never gotten the third Mana game, Trials of Mana. Fortunately, Square Enix released an officially translated version via the Collection of Mana in June 2019. While this proved an exciting opportunity to play the long-forgotten classic, it was confirmed a full-on remake was also in the works. The upcoming Trials of Mana remake reconstructs the original as a third-person action-RPG. Early footage of the game in action looks to capture the series' exciting real-time battles with a more streamlined combat system. The SNES original's beautiful pixel art has also been converted into gorgeous 3D visuals. Despite the addition of new dialogue scenes, it seems Trials of Mana's story will mostly remain faithful to the original, once again allowing you to alter how events play out based on the main character you choose and those you allow to join your party. Release Date: April 24, 2020
Bayonetta 3
We've heard little about Platinum Games' Bayonetta 3 since it was announced at The Game Awards in 2017. Throughout the years, both Nintendo and Platinum have both reassured that work on the latest sequel to the critically-acclaimed character-action series is going well. Despite having no real indication of whether or not it's coming anytime within the foreseeable future, our excitement for Bayonetta 3 remains strong. After all, the previous two games still stand as some of the best character action games ever and are essential playing for fans of the genre. So if Bayonetta 3 is anything remotely like its predecessors, then this highly-anticipated sequel is bound to be a journey that's as thrilling and as it is over-the-top and absurd. We're crossing our fingers that 2020 is the year of Bayonetta 3. Make it so, Platinum! Release Date: TBA
The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild 2
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild helped launch the Nintendo Switch with a bang. In the two years since its release, BotW remains not only one of the best Zelda games, but one of the best Nintendo games ever made. With that kind of momentum, it makes sense that the company would make a sequel. And with the original design team having too many DLC ideas for BotW's post-launch content, a new game became inevitable just to fit everything they wanted to include. Announced at E3 2019, the next Zelda game takes place directly after the events of BotW. The reveal trailer confirmed that both Link and Zelda are returning to embark on what seems like a quest to rid the world of Calamity Ganon once and for all--or at least, his reanimated mummified remains. All of this is based on speculation from scenes in the trailer, so we could be wrong. Still, whatever's happening there, it doesn't look like good news. Nintendo hasn't confirmed a release date for the upcoming BotW sequel, but seeing as no other big first-party games scheduled for next year, we could see it sooner rather than later. Release Date: TBA
Metroid Prime 4
We haven't heard much about Metroid Prime 4 since it was announced at E3 2017. Longtime Metroid Prime producer Kensuke Tanabe is leading the title, and we know Retro Studios is working on the game with a bunch of returning talent from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. But that's about it--the game is in development, and we're waiting to hear more. Nintendo's first-person take on its classic action series has quite a few fans, thanks to the way the game combined combat, platforming, and exploration. What the Prime games did best was capture the feeling of stepping onto a vast alien world and getting lost within it; even today, there's nothing quite like them. Hopefully, Nintendo will have news about when we can expect to step back into Samus Aran's boots sometime in 2020. Release Date: TBA
Overwatch 2
Since its release in 2016, fans have been asking for more from Overwatch. The team-based shooter is set in a pretty vibrant world, but so far, Blizzard has relegated that world to cinematics and side material, without much context actually available in the game. That's changing with Overwatch 2, which takes the core team-based multiplayer of the original and adds a bunch of stuff on top of it. Blizzard's sequel to the original game includes a single-player story and cooperative modes that promise to make the Overwatch world more immersive than it has been so far. There will be a lot more to Overwatch 2, according to Blizzard, but that doesn't mean players of the original will be left behind. Blizzard is keeping the competitive side of Overwatch 2 compatible with the original, so the competitive community will stay whole even as some people upgrade to the sequel. From the sounds of things, Overwatch 2 will give players what they want, while maintaining everything that fans already love about Blizzard's shooter. Release Date: TBA
|
