With Platinum Games bringing The Wonderful 101 to Switch via a Kickstarter campaign, that’s one more former Wii U exclusive that’s being moved to Nintendo’s newer, much more successful console. As of now, there are a few major games still stuck on the Wii U, but only a few that will likely end up on Switch.
It makes sense that Nintendo would want to port as many of its Wii U games as possible to the Switch. After all, there was nothing wrong with the games themselves, they were just stuck on the worst-selling home console in Nintendo’s history. Plus, Nintendo’s now had tremendous success with some of these ports. It’s sold nearly 6 million copies of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, for example.
With Wii U ports doing brisk business, what should we expect next?
Super Mario 3D World
This one’s a no-brainer. It’s got Cat Mario. It did have some sections that required players to use the GamePad screen, but otherwise it should be a fairly simple port that’s all but assured to be a money-printing machine.
Fatal Frame: The Maiden Of Black Water
We haven’t heard much about the Fatal Frame series since this Wii U entry, so who knows if Nintendo and Koei Tecmo are even interested in continuing on with it. If they wanted to test the waters to see if people still want to play horror games about taking pictures of ghosts, they might try porting this to Switch.
Xenoblade Chronicles X
With the original Xenoblade getting a “Definitive Edition” on Switch this year, any port of its Wii U spinoff would have to wait. But it seems like a simple enough job to craft a similar upgraded version of this for 2021.
NES Remix Pack
Remember NES Remix? That weird little game that broke up classic 8-bit games into little WarioWare-style challenges? That was cool enough to merit being on Switch. Since the NES games that this pulls from are part of the Switch Online’s library of free games, why not make this a Switch Online freebie?
The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD
Now we’re getting into “ports of ports” territory, but these former GameCube games deserve to be playable on Switch. (In fact, I can think of quite a few GameCube games that should be on Switch.) The only thing holding these games back might be that there’s already a lot of Zelda happening on Switch, with Link’s Awakening having just hit and the sequel to Breath of the Wild drawing ever closer.
Pikmin 3
Here we are in 2020 with no Pikmin content whatsoever on Switch. Maybe Nintendo decided that the GamePad and Wiimote implementation in the original Pikmin 3 was too deeply integrated to patch out. Or maybe Pikmin 4 is imminent. Who knows?
Yoshi’s Woolly World
So, yeah, this one ended up getting ported to the 3DS, but now that Yoshi’s Crafted World is out, maybe it’s time for a Definitive Edition of this one, too? If anything, it would be a good excuse to reprint that Yarn Poochy Amiibo, which now sells for over $50 even out of the package.
Paper Mario: Color Splash
Be honest, you forgot there even was a Paper Mario on Wii U.
I think that’s everything. Yes, there are more Wii U exclusives, but many of them have either been obsoleted by sequels (Splatoon, Super Mario Maker), use the GamePad too much (NintendoLand, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse), or are bad (Devil’s Third). I think it’s safe to say that the games listed here are the only ones still in serious contention. That doesn’t mean that all of them will definitely happen, but given Nintendo’s displayed propensity for ports, several probably will.
And then Nintendo can get cracking on porting GameCube games. Seriously, folks, I don’t need more Super Mario 3D World, I need Super Mario Sunshine.