Nintendo is One Step Closer to World Domination

Published Sep 12, 2026, 3:00 PM EDT A week after hiking the Switch 2's price, Nintendo pulled out all the stops Image: Nintendo Switchboard is Polygon's weekly newsletter for all things Nintendo, sent on Thursdays and published on the site on Saturdays. You can subscribe here. This week saw an unprecedented flurry of activity from Nintendo, with two Directs on consecutive days: one dedicated to the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda and the remake of Ocarina of Time, one a gut-busting (some would say indigestible) 45-minute smorgasbord of ports, partner titles, updates, and table-setters for Nintendo's 2027. What brought this on? Probably the price hike, at least partly. On Sep. 1, Nintendo increased the price of the Switch 2 by $50. After Switch 2 sales started incredibly strong, then lost some momentum in late 2025, the higher price is another potential speed bump. Nintendo's response: the hard sell. This sales pitch comes in two parts. The first hinges on Nintendo's rich pedigree and peerless stable of properties and characters, embodied this week in the Zelda celebration and Ocarina of Time remake. Never let it be said that Nintendo doesn't know the value of what it's sitting on. The Zelda Direct opened with a stirring orchestral medley, accompanied by a series-spanning video montage and a rare appearance by genius composer Koji Kondo, that left this Zelda fan almost overcome with emotion. I'm sure I wasn't the only one. You can count the franchises that can elicit this kind of reaction on the fingers of one hand. Emotions continued to run high through the Ocarina of Time reveal. While the reactions may not all have been positive, the fact that it provoked such strong feelings only spoke to how total Nintendo's command of players' hearts is. The special edition Switch 2 and Pro Controller sold out instantly and the announcement sent shockwaves across the internet that rivaled Netflix’s Grand Theft Auto 6 gameplay reveal in intensity, if not quite volume. (It's true that Nintendo's sense of self-worth can get the better of its judgment; the title reveal for the Zelda movie was a risible non-event. Sources tell Polygon that Sony Pictures is champing at the bit to promote the film, but Nintendo — carried away, as so often, by its control freakery — won't let it.) Image: Nintendo The second part of the pitch is more subtle, more unspoken, and was much less effectively communicated by the second Direct. But I believe its message is getting through anyway. It's this: Switch 2 offers all the games for less. The console may be $50 more expensive now, but in these benighted times it's still hundreds less than a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, and increasingly, it has all the same games. 007 First Light may look a bit ropey and Final Fantasy 7 Revelation may struggle to downsize, but they're serviceable and they're there. To a plugged-in, platform-agnostic games fan, the Direct was boring. As a pitch to Switch owners without other consoles to upgrade to Switch 2, though, it was bluntly persuasive. Alongside a cavalcade of any and every third-party game series you can think of (apart from GTA, of course), it reminded players about Mario Kart World, Pokémon Pokopia, Switch Sports Resort, and Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, and laid an enticing runway into 2027 with Metroid Ravenous and Kirby and the World Beyond. Considering the Switch 2 is only one year and three months old, its software catalog is already an embarrassment of riches. It's a lot of money, $500. But backed by all this firepower, and set against the even steeper prices of everything else, it looks like a pretty good deal. Nintendo's in the marketplace, loudly hawking its wares, and a crowd is starting to gather. eShop game of the week: Mewgenics Another wild, politically incorrect game from Edmund McMillen of Binding of Isaac fame. This one is a cat-breeding tactical roguelike of seemingly infinite variety and crass humor that will either work for you or not. But McMillen's ingenuity at crafting endlessly replayable game systems is as distinctive as his odd taste. "Charmingly churlish," as we put it in our review of the PC version. Nintendo Classics game of the week: Metroid Fusion Whet your appetite for Metroid Ravenous with this 2002 instalment of the series for Game Boy Advance. It's a little more linear than the classic Metroid, but it's still a ferociously enjoyable action platformer that has a bit of Ravenous in its hard-charging, parasite-absorbing take on Samus. Nintendo Music track of the week: "Title Theme" from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (2026) Image: Nintendo Ocarina of Time's spine-tingling title theme survives the fancy remake treatment with its mysterious and melancholy soul intact, thank God. The new orchestration is lush yet restrained. Can't wait to hear more — although the musical star of the Zelda direct was the electrifying Triforce Medley. This week's most interesting releases The Royal Writ Sep. 10 Switch Medieval roguelike deckbuilder with quirky art Hot Wheels Infinite Rush Sep. 10 Switch 2 Arcade racing series based on the toy cars goes (sort of) open-world The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero/Trails to Azure Sep. 10 Switch 2 Nihon Falcom brings the fourth and fifth Trails anime RPGs to Switch 2 RuneScape: Dragonwilds Sep. 15 Switch 2 Multiplayer survival game set in the world of the venerable MMO Welcome to Mars 9: The Tale of River Sep. 16 Switch Pixel art narrative adventure set on a luxury space station