The Nintendo Switch 2 arrives this week on June 5, and for those lucky enough to get one, there’s an assortment of titles to choose from. From games made or ported over to the new console to older titles that include upgrades, there are close to thirty titles altogether that will be ready on launch day to take advantage of its newer hardware.
Now, before delving into what will be available on launch day, folks looking to get the console and play their older titles need to be aware that Nintendo is still doing compatibility testing, and well, it’s a bit of a mixed bag right now. Nintendo has broken its testing into five categories: no issues found during basic testing, games can be started but require further testing, playable albeit with some issues, issues found during start-up, and not compatible.
Testing in progress for older games
There are currently over 100 games with issues during start-up, but 22 of those come from one publisher called “Hamster”. Unfortunately, there are plenty of popular games such as Final Fantasy, NBA 2K18, Star Wars Episode I: Racer, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Nier Automata, Rocket League, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Darksiders Genesis, GRID Autosport, and WRC 9 The Official Game on that list. The list of playable, but with some issues, is about half as long with titles such as Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, Saint Row IV: Re-Elected, Mega Man Legacy Collection, Hot Wheels Unleashed, Alan Wake Remastered, Alien: Isolation, being notable titles on that list. Nintendo has another list of games that it’s hoping to have issues addressed by launch day or shortly thereafter. That list is around 50-60 titles and also includes DOOM Eternal, Everspace Stellar Edition, Batman: The Enemy Within, Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster, and World of Tanks Blitz. So long story short, there are currently about 200+ titles with varying levels of compatibility issues.
List of launch-day-ready games
Now, back to the good news. There are 17 titles that have been made for the new console, and while some are port-overs from other platforms, there’s at least one Switch 2 exclusive that many fans are looking forward to, which is, of course, Mario Kart World.
- Mario Kart World
- Street Fighter 6
- Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster
- Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition
- Yakuza 0 Director’s Cut
- Fortnite
- Split Fiction
- Fast Fusion
- Hogwarts Legacy
- HITMAN World of Assassination
- SONIC X Shadow Generations
- Deltarune
- Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Switch 2 Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars
- Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S
- Arcade Archives 2 RIDGE RACER
- Survival Kids
- Kunitso-Gami: Path of the Goddess
- NOBUNAGA’s Ambition: Awakening Complete Edition
Upgraded/Enhanced Nintendo Switch 2 Edition Titles
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Sid Meier’s Civilization VII
- Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma
Free Nintendo Switch game updates
Below is a list of games for the previous console for which owners can get free updates.
- Pokémon Scarlet
- Pokémon Violet
- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
- Super Mario Odyssey
- The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
- The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
- Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
- Game Builder Garage
- 51 Worldwide Games
- ARMS
- Big Brain Academy: Brain vs. Brain
Those who subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack will also gain access to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, F-ZERO GX, and SOULCALIBUR II via the GameCube classics app.