Opinion: Has Nintendo Already Won 2026 AND 2027?

Four games specifically might have you answering "yes"

It’s been more tha a full weekend since Nintendo dropped its plans around The Legend of Zelda’s 40th Anniversary, as well as sharing details on a number of key third-party titles hitting either Switch, Switch 2 or both between now and early into 2027. It also, in typical Nintendo fashion with only ‘Direct fanfare’ (read: none), shared details on a couple of in-house joints that are already verified bangers.

The Big N, in the modern age, is the quiet confident type; no need for bells and whistles or slick hair. Don’t need to sidle alongside industry hustlers (we see you, Kojima) when internally you’re crafting the likes of Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Remake, Metroid Ravenous and Kirby and the World Beyond.

Nope.

You see, you just kind of know when Ninty does something -- a “Nintendo Something”, that the rest [of the industry] will follow. And its maturity with renewed power and an install base Xbox would die to have (though with work still to do around Switch 2), it can just do as Nintendo does which, it turns out, is whatever the fuck it wants. (Sorry for the swears, but the carpet doesn’t match the drapes, no matter how rainbow-soaked -- trust us.)

Moreover, since the OG Switch, Nintendo has enjoyed its greatest amount of third-party support for a home console since the SNES with studios, publishers and IP clamouring to get to the mount near the others fighting over there. The ‘swear’ as it can now be referred to is because Nintendo doesn’t need to care. Yet it still does and those four [specific] games and its blistering level of support reveal as much, without the need to shout from the rooftops. And all of that is a roundabout way of pointing out that of every company weary of anything around that November window, it’s Nintendo that steps in -- no flags, no shots across the bow, no challenge, just the acceptance of maybe one of the best memes of the modern age...

Why not both?

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Author: Stephen Farrelly
Date: September 17, 2026

That Rockstar Thing

Getting this out of the way early -- GTA VI will be the biggest entertainment release of the decade, if not of all time. Nothing will come close to it this year or further into the future, but that’s not worrying Nintendo. Where other companies have been treading lightly and carefully around release windows and even piggybacking on Rockstar's forthcoming release, Nintendo *kind of* hasn’t acknowledged it. The truth in this is with its Ocarina of Time release date, as well as the branded hardware around that release (and the cost involved there) with Ocarina of Time going on sale to the masses a whole two weeks before GTA VI. It could be conceived as bold or shrewd.  

Or just Nintendo.

"As one of the single highest rated games of all time (across generations), Ocarina of Time is not only culturally significant, but damn right needed in the world right now..."

The clincher, however, is these two juggernauts have a storied history and we reckon that’s why Nintendo hasn’t blanked, or even blinked, in the blinding sheen of GTA VI’s release date. (Let alone its month -- read our first “Would you like to know more?” box out for… MORE!)

We know time off from work will peak around GTA VI’s release. One US Army unit has offered elective time off in lieu of signing on for more years of service -- a ‘four days for two more years’ type of thing, which is wild, but speaks to the gravity of Rockstar’s upcoming release. Maybe Nintendo sees this as an opportunity to lean into the meme above as well as the ‘time off aspect’, or maybe it doesn’t care and just knows that, as one of the single highest rated games of all time (across generations), Ocarina of Time is not only culturally significant, but damn right needed in the world right now…

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It could be argued that The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was one of the first open-world games, or that it was Grand Theft Auto. Both were lo-fi in the modern scheme of things, and while Grand Theft Auto II took things to new levels, in between the first GTA and its sequel, Ocarina of Time was released. Rockstar's own Dan Houser (now no longer with the studio) cited both Zelda and Mario for the leap to 3D inferring that the studio's hugely successful sequel was both inspired by, but also borrowed heavily from, design elements throughout. And as we've spoken about, the timings of both series, their oddly-aligned design principles (despite being tonally opposed) and shared high-scores throughout their respective release years means Zelda and GTA will always share a similar plane.

The Definition of Meaningful

We need to draw attention to the hype that stemmed, then, from the announcement of its existence. We posited our own concept behind it while the rest of the landscape scoured and sought information of their own. Even the heavily-lauded Unreal Engine 5 remake copped some level of exposure and consequence as a result of the official Remake being announced. But even that valiant, solo effort hasn’t matched Nintendo’s own re-vision for its crowning opus.

"Ocarina of Time Remake is not just a new coat of Nintendo-branded paint, it’s a breathing world that makes sense in the modern scheme of things..."

From an entirely new Kokiri village, fully reimagined; filled with visual wonder built around the truly fantastical -- and magical -- to a Hyrule marketplace that experiences the genuine passage of time, Ocarina of Time Remake is not just a new coat of Nintendo-branded paint, it’s a breathing world that makes sense in the modern scheme of things. That we can also even swim and dive from the outset is huge (read our second “Would you like to know more?” box out for…MORE!), while freeing up both the camera and giving players the choice to let Link jump whenever we want, without losing the game’s defining lock-on combat camera, is also a step, or jump, beyond basic quality of life upgrades.

We saw the most basic of changes with Metroid Prime Remake redefine the experience, and while that game was incredible with what we got, there’s a genuine sense that what we’re going to experience in OoTR will be transformative. And it does not appear lost on Nintendo in any light just how significant this game once was, to the point of what it can also now be…

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Ocarina of Time's original design template was specific to its control setup. That we're being given a level of freedom so early on by way of swimming, diving and a free jump tells us Nintendo has re-approached the way in which the early parts of the doled-out world will play. Obviously the modern Zelda player is more attuned to freedom and an open approach to the world and while we don't entirely expect that to be the full case here, we can see the need to open up earlier than the game would traditionally have had you playing. We're hopeful at the moment that's the case, but for now we an definitely see that with just a couple of changes in how we can control Link early on, that proceedings will be different -- which is entirely what we wanted with such a Remake.

Boss Samus

It’s not just Link’s one-(e)pon(a)y show, though. MercurySystem’s celebrated run in the 2D Metroid space, last experienced through Metroid Dread, continues with Metroid Ravenous, a game that has the community seeking connective tissue between all Metroid outings to work out just where, and how, this clearly even darker Samus adventure fits in the grand scheme of things. And while we only know that she has crashed on a moon and been beset upon by five “Space Ninjas” -- not in league with her mission statement(s) -- she classically traverses the moon’s subterrain, gaining new powers and, over time, facing off against her would be assassins.

"The vocal Metroid community more often than not demands a darker experience with Samus’ exploits and after the tonal and design disappointment Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, this couldn’t come at a more crucial time..."

The differential here, however, is that her latent Metroid-fused energy allows her to “feed” off her enemies which, eventually might manifestly change her into something else entirely. The vocal Metroid community more often than not demands a darker experience with Samus’ exploits and after the tonal and design disappointment Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, this couldn’t come at a more crucial time for the IP to maintain momentum and relevance among more mature gamers.

In addition, Dread, in isolation, was a triumph and brought MercurySystems to the design fore. Not just from the perspective of designing true to the Metroid experience, but in atmosphere, writing and in visuals -- tech and art combined. What the studio does with time, experience and a clear vision under its belt is an enticing prospect. But we’re here almost solely for the darkened Samus experience that may or may not be the second in a planned MercurySystems trilogy, the end of the Fusion arc, or the fifth overall if we count Metroid and Super Metroid.

Or it just might be a cool Samus adventure worth its weight in Chozo gold.

Absolutely Not All Revealed

Obviously as of publishing Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave has just dropped (review incoming), but early reports and our own read on proceedings points to another game-changer from within a Nintendo IP that ultimately set the benchmark in the first place. The key point here being, and we wrote this in our opening salvo, all of the highlighted games here are pretty much “already verified bangers”.

It’s just what Nintendo continues to do, and why it rarely cares about ‘industry trends’.

"Kirby and the World Beyond looks like it might be ready to take a tried, tested and arguably the company’s cutest mascot, into realms we just never thought it would..."

But that also leaves us with Kirby and the World Beyond, which in tone alone looks like a meta rip in and of its own directive. The last Kirby outing gave us something similar by way of its post-apocalyptic setting, yet was so cute and simple it belied that setting and left us wanting more (when we wrote elsewhere). But Kirby and the World Beyond looks like it might be ready to take a tried, tested and arguably the company’s cutest mascot, into realms we just never thought it would. Obviously that’s a lot to posit, but the sheer scale of the early game content shown versus the actual world split with what we can only describe internally as “Mega Kirby Link” teases at oh-so-much more and we can’t wait.

55 games in total were revealed in the non-OoTR and 40th Anniversary Direct, which is a big number for Nintendo and it’s just a surface scratched. GTA VI will be the most relevant game to the masses for the next little while, but if you don’t fancy living the life of a robber in sun-soaked Vice City, maybe consider riding Epona across an equally sun-soaked Hyrule Field, or taking revenge against Space Ninjas by absorbing their very essence or, you know, just split the world asunder.

It’s what Nintendo wants you to do.

About the author

Written By Stephen Farrelly
Stephen Farrelly is a veteran journalist and editor with more than two decades experience in the worlds of gaming, entertainment, lifestyle and sport. He is a proud pug dad, loves art in all forms (particularly street and tattoo culture), and is the director of Swear Jar Editorial and Media Pty Ltd, this site's owner and publisher. When not dispensing words, he's also dispensing boutique beers as a taproom fixture at Bracket Brewing in Marrickville, NSW...
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