Nintendo's Switch is about to hit its prime

engadget.com:

As the Switch reaches five years old, are its best times behind it? No, the opposite. This year is shaping up to be the biggest for Nintendo’s hybrid hit. Yes, I mean even bigger than its debut year, which gave us Super Mario Odyssey, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Mario + Rabbids and Splatoon 2.

So far, we’ve seen Pokémon Legends: Arceus in January, but that’s just the start of the Pokémon hype train on Switch. Nintendo also announced that a new generation of mainline Pokémon games, Violet and Scarlet, is coming to the console in “Late 2022.” 

There aren’t many details, but we’re being promised an open-world adventure, which could mean a new Pokémon game that balances the traditional franchise parts of Sword and Shield with some of the more interesting choices made in Arceus. Also, weed cat.

A fresh Pokémon generation rounds off a lineup of major games (both from Nintendo and its partners) that makes 2022 a year packed with hugely anticipated titles. It starts now: Kirby and the Forgotten Land launches in a few weeks on March 25th.

The big one, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, is still set for a 2022 release, according to Nintendo. An outright sequel is a surprise for the Zelda series and will be set in the same open world of the original. Judging from the teaser trailers so far, the game appears to expand gameplay to the skies above Hyrule, with Link plummeting from the sky in one of the latest teaser trailers. (Something he’s done before in Skyward Sword – also now available on Switch.)

There are more sequels to games that set the tone at launch too. Splatoon 3 is coming this summer, offering more of the same family-friendly multiplayer inky shooter fun. There’s also Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of