Volgarr the Viking 2 will take you back to your Ghosts ‘n Goblins days

This story is part of our Summer Gaming Marathon series.

Xbox has confirmed that it will be attending Gamescom again this year.

There is no shortage of all-time greats to choose from when seeking out a new 16-bit platformer to play. SNES and Sega Genesis classics like Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Mega Man X are probably the first things to come to mind. During that same era, Contra and Castlevania developer Konami released a series of platformers that rivaled those greats but didn’t get as much recognition as they deserved. Now, these titles are getting a new lease on life thanks to a collection that launched earlier this month on PC, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch.

The Nintendo Switch is in its last year, but it's certainly not on its last legs. That much was made clear by the Japanese gaming giant at its Nintendo Direct showcase on Monday, where the company unveiled a packed slate of games coming to the hybrid console before it makes way for the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025. The 40-minute-long presentation served as a last hurray for the Switch, that has sold over 141 million units in its seven-year run since it went on sale in 2017. The successor to the Nintendo Switch, the third-highest selling game console of all time, will be announced next year, but the Switch's swansong will keep players busy till then.

One of the best platformers on the Switch is still Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, despite it being a pretty straight port of the Wii U game. But what about the original Donkey Kong Country Returns? Some people like that game even better than Tropical Freeze, and it’s currently stranded on the Wii and 3DS. Well, bust open the banana barrels, baby, because the game is coming back!

Nintendo announced a brand new Mario & Luigi RPG, with Mario & Luigi: Brothership coming to Nintendo Switch on 7th November 2024.

Nintendo revealed The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, letting Princess Zelda step into the role of the hero for the very first time. It’s coming out on 26th September 2024.

Nintendo delivered a jam-packed Nintendo Direct for June 2024, and while there wasn’t even a half mention of the Nintendo Switch 2, there were still a ton of big announcements. There’s new Mario & Luigi, a Zelda game where you play as Zelda, more Ace Attorney remasters, Stray on Switch, Metroid Prime 4 gameplay, and plenty more besides!

Mario & Luigi Brothership, a new entry in the series, is coming to Nintendo Switch in a few months.

Final Fantasy 14 Online director and producer Naoki Yoshida has said he'd like anybody to be able to play the popular massively-multiplayer-online-role-playing-game (MMORPG) «regardless of device,» including the tentatively named Switch successor, Nintendo Switch 2.

Nintendo is back with a Direct presentation that will feature the slate of Nintendo Switch titles coming to the hybrid console this year. The Nintendo Direct showcase will be livestreamed Tuesday, June 18, at 7am PT (7.30pm IST). The show will be roughly 40 minutes long and will focus on Nintendo Switch games arriving in 2024. The Nintendo Direct presentation arrives days after the Xbox Games Showcase, where Microsoft provided updates on its first-party titles.

Today's Nintendo Direct will be "light" on first-party titles, but it might very well contain some surprise announcements.