Yes, yes – we know the Nintendo Switch is old now. There comes a time in every console’s life when the games start to dry up and we look to the future — and the Switch is very much in the fall of its years. Back in May, two months into its eighth year, Nintendo said a new hardware announcement was coming sometime before next April, and with that confirmation comes the sense that the really good stuff will be in store for the next console’s launch with a bang.
However, looking back at Nintendo’s past systems, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Switch will be running on fumes for the rest of the year. You’d be forgiven for thinking that Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was the Switch’s last hurray, and then Super Mario Bros. came along. Wonder. You might have thought that the Switch’s release in 2017 meant that the days of quality exclusive software from the mighty 3DS were numbered, but as we’ll point out below, that wasn’t the case. In fact, Nintendo is in good form when it comes to releasing brilliant games at the very end of a console’s lifecycle, and after selling over 140 million Switches, there’s a good chance there’s still gold in the first-party hills, as well as all the other third-party stuff. which we already know about.