Nintendo announces a slew of remakes as the Switch 2 looms

We really are at the end of the life cycle, aren’t we

It feels like everything is accelerating towards an inevitable console launch next year. Typically at the end of a generation Nintendo will either announce a bunch of Kirby games or remakes. We got those Kirby gems last year, so that leaves remakes and ports –and boy has 2023 been full of them. Metroid Prime, Kirby(!), Advance Wars, the upcoming Super Mario RPG, and heck, even F-Zero 99 have all been a big push for the publisher. Well, the rest of this year and next don’t look like things are slowing down any time soon.

During today’s Nintendo Direct, the company revealed that a Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake is on the way. The game will feature updated visuals, text, audio and more. It lands on the Switch in 2024.

But that’s not all! We already knew the remake of the 3DS’s Luigi’s Mansion 2: Dark Moon was revealed, but a new trailer gives us that updated appearance and a general Summer 2024 date.

For those missing the portable platforms of old, Nintendo has another of its small screen games getting a remake. Another Code: Recollection is bringing the original DS game and its Japan-only Wii sequel to the Switch next year. The adventure games were considered niche, but have a pretty solid fanbase. The collection arrives on January 19.

Mario vs Donkey Kong is widely regarded as the sequel to the GameBoy’s incredible Donkey Kong ’94. Since that GBA game, the series morphed into a Lemmings-like, which kind of killed the magic of the games. But that first one is still great! And Nintendo knows it, announcing that the game is getting a full remake for the Switch on February 16. It’s a great cinematic trailer, with hints of the Mario movie thrown in, but we’ll see if it’ll captivate the audience now as much as it did back in 2004.

Not surprisingly, there are plenty of third parties popping out remakes too, but we’ll get to those later. Until then, say goodbye to the end of the OG Switch with some of Nintendo’s most unique games making a comeback.