Updated: Was updated to change Super Mario Maker from possible to doubtful after the announcement of Super Mario Maker 2

As many Wii U owners are aware, Nintendo has ported a lot of their Wii U line-up to the Switch.  Besides filling in gaps in the release Switch’s release schedule, these titles have now been introduced to a larger audience (due to Switch being a bigger success) and also have the ability to be played fully portable.   For the most part, these ports are the “definitive” versions of these games.

Looking at what’s already been ported, and what’s left over on the Wii U, I thought it’d be fun to look and see what other Nintendo games might get ported from the Wii U.

There is a Nintendo Direct coming, and I’m sure some of these will pop-up, so I will update this after those announcements happen.

All of these Nintendo published games have already been ported for the Wi U onto the Switch.   Most of them actually sold better on the Switch than their original Wii U release despite not much new content being added to them.   Here is the full list of Nintendo Wii U Ports

• Bayonetta / Bayonetta 2 – This is mostly the same as the Wii U versions but they’ve added some amiibo support

• Captain Toad Treasure Tracker – New Super Mario Odyssey themed levels (New Donk City) were added, and the Super Mario 3D World levels were removed.

• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze – The infamouse New Funky Kong Mode was added, this allows something of an “easy mode” by using Funky Kong, who is invincible

• Hyrule Warriors – 2Player Co-op is now playable in split-screen, where as on the Wii U you had to use the TV and GamePad for different players.

• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – This version includes all of the DLC from Mario Kart 8 plus some other additions: 6 new characters, 4 karts, gameplay tweaks and brand new Battle Modes which fills a huge void that was in the Wii U version

• New Super Mario Bros Deluxe – Mostly the same as the New Super Mario Bros U + New Super Luigi U combo for Wii U but this version adds Toadette / Peachette which make the game easier to play similar to Funk Kong in DKCTF.

• Pokken Tournament DX – This version adds 5 new characters plus later 2 more were released through DLC

For various reasons that I’ll explain, I think these games have a pretty high chance of getting ported to the Switch.  None of these have been announced for the Switch at this point, but some of them have been rumored.

• Pikmin 3 – Back in 2015 Miyamoto said the next Pikmin was “near completion”, in a later statement Nintendo confirmed that “Pikmin 4” was in development.  When Miyamoto said the “next” Pikmin, maybe he was referring to Hey! Pikmin for the 3DS which hadn’t been announced yet.  Regardless, I’m sure most agree that Nintendo wouldn’t have referred to that game directly as Pikmin 4 though.    Why does this matter?  Because this likely means Pikmin 4 is coming to the Switch, and if that doesn’t happen in 2019, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo snuck in a Pikmin 3 port to hold us over another year or too.  In my opinion, Pikmin 3 was at a Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Metroid level of quality and polish.  If Pikmin 4 is announced for 2019, then I think the chances of a Pikmin 3 port drops to very doubtful.

• Super Mario 3D World – This was such a great Super Mario game and it goes very under appreciated.  There was an unfortunate cluster of complaints around this game because it wasn’t a “real” 3D Mario, and it wasn’t like Galaxy (or the eventual Odyssey).  I also was part of the group that wanted a Galaxy 3 more than a sequel to 3D Land, but I was wrong.  Super Mario 3D World is my favorite Wii U game and is by far the best co-op Super Mario game out there.  The game’s style allows unique level design you don’t get in the Galaxy/Odyssey types, or in the 2D “New” games. This is sure to sell, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see this sometime late 2019.    I’m also hopeful we get a sequel at some point too.

• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD – Breath of the Wild was huge for the Switch, it helped launch the system off so successfully.  Obviously there is a big Zelda fanbase on the Switch,  and most of them never had a Wii U.   Nintendo can easily cash in on this HD remaster, and I hope they do soon.

• The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD –  Same situation as Twilight Princess HD.  Really I hope they release these HD remakes quickly and close together, just to get them out of the way before bringing Skyward Sword, Majora’s Mask or Ocarina of Time HD remakes too.  I’m certain they’ll all sell like crazy even if they don’t trickle them out slowly

• The Wonderful 101 – Hideki Kamiya (creator) has mentioned Wonderful 102, or that he at least has plans for one.  He also tweeted out some artwork of the Wonderful characters holding joycons and playing the Switch.  It could not surprise me if they released a Wonderful 101 port this year as a way to hype up a 2020 (or later) release for Wonderful 102.  It’d be a similar strategy to what they did for Bayonetta 3.    Obviously Wonderful 101 isn’t as popular as Bayonetta, but a port could make easy money and renew interest, especially with a few gameplay tweaks to polish it up.

• Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE – I would honestly put this as doubtful because it seemed so niche and obscure, but I’m actually holding onto some belief it’s got a chance.  Atlus developed this game for/with Nintendo, and that’s what gives me hope.  This came out very late in the life of the Wii U, and despite it scoring a 80 on Metacritic, it’s probably an unknown title to a lot of non-Wii U owners.   An argument could be made that it could be profitable to port this on the Switch, with their larger and more enthusiastic install-base.   Nintendo can stand back and allow Atlus the opportunity to make an “easy” cash-in on a port, while hoping Nintendo will benefit from Atlus wanting to bring other games, new and old to the Switch as well.  If this wasn’t a collaboration, I honestly don’t think Atlus would want to spend the money publishing it or Nintendo spend the money developing a port, but together I think they both benefit from another collaboration on it.

• Wii Sports Club – If this port doesn’t happen, there will have to be some sort of sequel or spiritual successor.  This was an excellent port of the Wii classic, with some new additions like online play.   The Switch, with table top mode is the ultimate way to play Wii bowling.  I can imagine people playing ANYWHERE, setting it down, pulling off the joycons and getting down to Wii Bowling or Wii Tennis match.  This would cause that Wii Sports casual “mania” to hit the Switch.

• Xenoblade Chronicles X – I should probably move this to “Doubtful” because the head of Monolith Soft himself, Tetsuya Takahashi, said it would be too expensive to port to Switch, even though he’d love to see it happen.  Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was the best selling one in the series, I figured they’d want to port X to capitalize on the newfound success…but maybe it’s more likely we get a sequel.

There are some games that just aren’t going to make it to the Switch.  Some of these games were flops, some of them are too reliant on the GamePad’s functionality, and some of them have licensing issues.   These are the games that I think will not get ported to the Switch.

• Animal Crossing: amiibo Party – This spin-off game was a failure and can still be found on shelves at retailers for under $10 (sometimes under $5) despite it coming with 2 Animal Crossing amiibo.    On top of it’s poor reception, A brand new main Animal Crossing game is due out in 2019 for the Switch, Nintendo surely wants to avoid confusion between the two titles and wouldn’t release this port anywhere near the new title.

• Devil’s Third – Nintendo never seemed too invested in this game in the first place.  They avoided even mentioning this game at the E3 6 months before it’s release, it initially came out on a rumored small print of around 500 copies (it later got a bigger print) and the servers were pulled 1 year later.   Currently a spiritual successor by the name of Rock Shot is under development for the PC, we’re more likely to see Rock Shot on Switch than a Devil’s Third port.

• Game & Wario – This game relied heavily on the touch screen and besides the Pictionary style game, it wasn’t very good

• Kirby & The Rainbow Curse – Rainbow Curse was another game that heavily relied on the touch-screen of the GamePad.   Also, in Early 2018 Nintendo released Kirby Star Allies for the Switch, it was a brand new game in the series and it looks as if Nintendo is moving forward and won’t go back to revisit Rainbow Curse.

• Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Summer Games – This game is a pretty solid no.  It is dated with the 2016 Summer Olympics and there are licensing issues tied into this game that will most likely mean this game will never make it to the Switch.  There is a chance however we see future installments of this series on the Switch.

• Mario & Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games – Same story as above with the 2016 Summer Games

• Mario Party 10 – Nintendo has already released Super Mario Party, and my guess is we’ll see Super Mario Party 2 before we see Mario Party 10 re-released or even a Mario Party 11.   Mario Party 10 offered modes that were reliant on the touch-screen, and it wasn’t very well received, so it’s unlikely Nintendo wants to go back to it.

• Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash – Nintendo released Mario Tennis: Aces for the Switch in June 2018 and this game for the most part is a port of Ultra Smash, but with a lot of added content.   It runs on the same engine and for the most part looks the same graphically.   Aces offers everything that Ultra Smash does, plus it has a Story Mode and the “Special” Shots.   There’s no chance Ultra Smash comes to the Switch, because as I said, it was “kinda” ported already.

• NintendoLand – I wouldn’t be surprised if we got some sort of sequel to this game on the Switch, but I doubt we’d ever see this same game get a port.   NintendoLand was the pack-in game with the Wii U and was a bit of  a tech-demo for all the functions of the Wii U GamePad.  This wouldn’t carry over to the Switch very well.

• Paper Mario: Color Splash – The battle functions of this game were reliant on picking and swiping cards on the touch-screen of the GamePad.   While it’s possible they could port this and remove that functionality, I think it’d be much more likely that they would create a new Paper Mario game instead.  Actually, if they just use the same engine, they could possibly have one out as soon as 2020.

• Splatoon – With the release of Splatoon 2 early in the life of the Switch, there is no reason to port Splatoon.  Splatoon 2 has a lot of the maps from the original and offers everything the original does.  In-fact, releasing Splatoon 1 on Switch would actually be detrimental to Splatoon 2 as it would cause online players to get split between the 2 games.

• Star Fox Zero – I would like to see this re-released with gameplay tweaks and motion controls removed.   This game was so disappointing.  However if they invested some more time re-working the mechanics and removing all of the GamePad functionality, there could be a really good game in here.   I’m calling this doubtful because the game did bomb, and Platinum is already busy with Bayonetta 3 and other projects to spend the necessary time to rework Zero.  This would be more than a port.   Nintendo also greenlit Ubisoft’s heavy use of Starfox in the Starlink: Battle for Atlas game, which leads me to think they wouldn’t have wanted that competing with any Zero port, if there was one.   Lastly, there’s heavy rumor that the series has already moved on over to Retro Studios and is going to have a new gameplay style.

Super Mario Maker – Nintendo just announced Super Mario Maker 2 is coming to the Switch in June 2019. This means we’ll never see Super Mario Maker 1 on Switch. This is one of those games where previous versions don’t get re-released because the sequels make it obsolete (similar to sports titles).

Wii Party U – This, like NintendoLand was a bit of a tech demo for the GamePad’s functionality, it’s a pretty solid “no chance”.

• Yoshi’s Wooly World –  This was a really cool Yoshi platformer that already has been ported to the 3DS, but I think this is not going to come to the Switch.   Nintendo’s already putting out a brand new Yoshi game (sequel?) for the Switch in 2019 called Yoshi’s Crafted World.  Putting a Wooly World port anywhere near this game would cause confusion and be a bit unnecessary.  By the time enough time will have passed to distance itself from Crafted World, they might as well put out a sequel.

So almost 2 years into the Switches life we have seen 8* (including Bayonetta 1) games ported to the Switch by Nintendo.   While I think there’s a good possibility for as many as 9 more Nintendo ports, I would say only about 4 of them are near-guarantees:  Super Mario 3D World, Super Mario Maker, and the 2 HD Zelda Remasters.   I’m hoping 2 years from now, the door will be closed on the Wii U ports and we can see some more all-new games.  If Nintendo is still looking for “easy” schedule-fillers, maybe we’ll get new HD remasters like Super Mario Sunshine, Eternal Darkness, F-Zero GX or other GameCube classics.

If you have any suggestions, ideas, etc please contact me on Twitter @TheGamerPad or on the Discord Group