Is Pikmin 3 Deluxe All That is Left From Nintendo in 2020?

Nintendo has no games scheduled (at least no big games) scheduled for the Fall. Only a Remaster of Wii U’s Pikmin 3 is scheduled for an October 30th release, which makes us wonder: Is Nintendo back to its usual “Quality over Quantity” tricks?

It has been an incredible year in terms of sales for the company. Both, its Switch hardware and its software keep selling, but for those us who already have had the system for a few years, the lack of new significant titles has been frustrating.

The early 2020 rumors of a possible Metroid Prime 4 announcement over the summer accompanied by a Switch release of Metroid Prime 1-3 in re-mastered HD form, has for all intents and purposes, proved to be a false one.

Nintendo has a huge back catalogue of games that it can remaster for the Switch, and that many of its fans would eagerly anticipate. Yet, the company seems apathetic to actually going through with any of these rumored re-makes or re-masters.

It is baffling,  considering the draught of titles this year, Nintendo could have easily ported some of these titles to fill the game between big releases. At this point, we also have  to question what exactly Nintendo has planned for its holiday season.

The arrival of next generation PlayStation and Xbox Consoles will likely impact the system’s sales, and a big Nintendo hitter would likely mitigate some of the damage, but perhaps what is one of the most awaited titles in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 might not be ready until the 2021 Holiday season.

While the game was announced almost a year ago, there has been nothing on the way of news, or trailers from the game since, which means that it is likely that indeed we won’t see the game until 2021.

Nintendo instead might have to rely on Square/Enix to save the day, as Brave Default II, sequel to the 3DS sleeper hit by the same name, is scheduled to release at some point before the year ends.

Bravely Default was a brilliant RPG for the 3DS that took after the great RPGs of the 32-Bit era. It is a game that I look forward to playing, but the Nintendo faithful might need something more, and curiously they still have a new Pokemon Snap game listed on their “Coming Soon” schedule but as a TBD, instead of a 2020 release.

Now, I am not complaining of the Nintendo Switch line up at all. The indie games keep pouring in, though in that case, quantity over quality is definitely the recurring theme. There are some ports that will make it to the system too, even if said ports are inferior versions of its PS4 and Xbox One counter parts.

Perhaps, more importantly, Nintendo’s own stellar lineup is available and unless you are very rich ( and have loads of free time) it is likely that you have yet to play them all to their fullest. Buying a Nintendo Switch today will still open the doors to some of the greatest games ever made in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Mario Odyssey.

It seems that Nintendo is counting on the established library of great titles to keep moving Switch units, and that’s understandable, as the Switch has kept selling over 300,000 units per week during the lockdown months.

Still, for the rest of us long time owners of the device, it would have been nice to get that Metroid Prime HD Collection over the summer, and it could still be a decent 2020 years (as far as Nintendo gaming goes) if some of the rumored remasters make it to store shelves by the Holidays.