During the GameCube era, Nintendo was at the forefront of horror gaming. Their exclusivity deal with Capcom allowed them to use high-performing hardware with big-budget horror games. It involved one of the definitive horror games, being the original Resident Evil 4. Not only that, but the GameCube was also home to titles Resident Evil (2002) and Resident Evil Zero. Nintendo also dipped their toe in the genre with Luigi’s Mansion, a game about battling ghosts and exploring a mansion. The idea of Nintendo mixing with horror is weird in today’s perspective, but they might be bringing that era back. Hints of this were seen with Nintendo Switch, but the sequel system is coming out to be a resurgence. Cronos: The New Dawn by Bloober Team recently released on the Nintendo Switch 2, proving the return of horror gaming on a Nintendo system. This is only the beginning.

Horror Games on Nintendo Switch

The resurgence is owed to the original Switch’s library. In 2017, Capcom released their Resident Evil Revelations Collection on the system, the first survival horrors to appear. Afterwards, Resident Evil HD and Resident Evil 0 HD were rereleased, followed by Resident Evil 4 through 6. Inspired by this, several smaller horror titles were released, including many indie inspirations. While this was its own event, the system never carried the latest horror games. The system was not powerful enough, only being able to deliver old games as rereleases—though we didn’t complain. Discussion already sparked about how the next system from Nintendo could give us the latest, playable on the go. Trusting that Capcom had a good relationship with Nintendo, it is quietly understood that they would deliver on this. Yet, other things came unexpectedly. Beside the Resident Evil franchise, there was more that could bear fruit. 

Nintendo’s Darkest Titles

Within the life of the Switch, Nintendo themselves released games with darker themes and undertones. The two releases that really support this are Metroid Dread and Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club. For the general Nintendo fan, these games might seem uncharacteristic of Nintendo, yet they remained. Metroid Dread is the first in the series that focuses on fear-based gameplay. Emio is the newest entry in the Famicom Detective Club in decades, featuring allegedly more unsettling gameplay than its prior entries. During a period of time when Nintendo was careful about its younger audience, this was a bit unexpected. And still, it indicated a change in Nintendo’s thinking, at the very least opening up to more adult themes. Nintendo was finally ready to open up the floodgates to horror.

Connecting the two entries together is producer Yoshio Sakamoto, who primarily works on the Metroid franchise and has been the writer for all Famicom Detective Club games. Metroid Dread, at the time of release, was a bit of a shock considering its name. This is one of the few times where dread would be the focus of a title. For hardcore Metroid fans, it was a relief: it was the element the franchise was looking for. But for everyone else, it was not the typical announcement. Fortunately, Dread went on to sell very well for the franchise, owing to its impressions.

Nintendo’s Ambition

The most unexpected title was Emio. The marketing strategy was unprecedented. On July 10, 2024, Nintendo released a teaser on their YouTube channel, unprompted. In the teaser, a man with an eerie brown paper bag eyed the camera, spotlight on him in the darkness. The paper bag had a gross, grinny smile drawn on it in dramatic irony. There wasn’t even an official title for the game, showing only one word at the end: “Emio.” Until the actual announcement of the game, fans speculated on what it could be. Nintendo was the company they least expected to do this kind of thing, and word really got around. Sakamoto himself did not expect Nintendo to be receptive to the idea, according to an interview with Inverse. He directly addresses the peculiarity: 

“This game is clearly doing something different from most Nintendo games, so I expected that we would have a hard time getting approval from Nintendo teams internally…I was honestly surprised how smoothly this project was approved.”

In the same interview, Assistant Producer Kaori Miyachi chimes in:

“While Sakamoto expected an uphill battle for internal Nintendo approval, I had the opposite thought…Thinking back, I think this was an ambitious game for Nintendo in many ways.”

The idea of an original horror IP coming from Nintendo with genuine adult imagery was tantalizing. In looking towards Nintendo’s future that is the current day, Miyachi’s words are expressly relevant. Nevertheless, Emio went on to meet minor success as a visual novel, getting few sales for the niche crowd of fans. But it introduced a side of Nintendo that we didn’t know we could get.

Not Quite Horror

In retrospect, neither of these games were of the horror genre. Dread is a metroidvania, and Emio is a visual novel. Their gameplay is neither survival horror, nor atmospheric and fear-inducing as the genre would expect. It simply doesn’t serve that purpose. Sakamoto expresses such, saying that Dread is about the protagonist Samus Aran facing a daunting situation but eventually overcoming it. In the case of Emio, the game is meant to give catharsis to its story, leaving its dread to be atmospheric. Despair enhances the revelations in the story, not merely being used to shock players.

This is the reason that Nintendo can’t be considered to have actually opened up to the genre. They haven’t released an exclusive horror game since the GameCube. Even worse, the current-gen third-party titles served only as cloud-only titles. You couldn’t natively play Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, or any other titles in the franchise. And they didn’t perform at their best. The Switch 2 generation seems like it’s going to change that.

The Biggest Titles in the Launch Year

During the time of this writing, a new Nintendo Direct had been announced and has now been released. In line with the topic, Nintendo announced the Switch 2 version of Resident Evil 7 through 9. These are the franchise’s newest and current-gen titles, finally coming onto a Nintendo console. In particular, the direct showed off never-before-seen footage of Resident Evil: Requiem, the ninth entry set to release next year. This is a big get for Nintendo, showing the collaboration between them and publishers with horror titles. While the days of console exclusivity of franchises within the genre are over, this is reminiscent of that GameCube era.

Considering this strong start from Capcom and their close partnership with Nintendo, we can reasonably expect the missing Resident Evil entries on Switch 2 later on. It will be important for the Nintendo-only fan, without other consoles, to be introduced to the games. The opposite might be true however, for already established Resident Evil fans. Yet, I expect more on Switch 2 to satisfy that “survival horror” crowd. This leads us back to the words of Miyachi on Nintendo’s “ambition.”

The First Survival Horror

The most recent release of Crono: The New Dawn is the earliest survival horror game released for the Switch 2, just three months after the system’s launch. It was actually Piotr Babieno, CEO of the development studio Bloober Team, who seemed to approach Nintendo about it. In an interview with The Game Business, he elaborates:

“I’m trying to make my personal dreams come true. I am a huge Nintendo fan. I grew up with Nintendo consoles. The most important horrors…were available on Nintendo GameCube. In some ways, we would like to be the one to open a new chapter for Nintendo right now…We have some plans. We are not able to share our vision for the future yet. But definitely Nintendo fans could take a look at Bloober Team.“

Babieno is personally involved in this case, but key publishers may be thinking the same. In fact, Babieno welcomes the competition, as he relates his own ambitions to Nintendo’s own. He notes in the interview about their good work environment, where developers are interested in improving their game design and pushing the needle further. No doubt, at least one other developer thinks the same. The corroboration invites Nintendo to achieve more with horror, as they did with the original Luigi’s Mansion. Paying further respects to Nintendo, Babieno also believes more could be done with that franchise. If he, as a leader in current survival-horror games, sees that title as impressive, there’s no reason Nintendo couldn’t do it again.

Nintendo Exclusives

Notably, Emio was an important game for Nintendo, expressing their interest in adult themes but also showing what they are capable of achieving. In that vein, the very first direct for the Switch 2 indicates this with one crucial title. The Duskbloods by FromSoftware, a dark action game from famed developers that created the subgenre called “soulslike.” Because of the gothic aesthetics and darker themes, the games made by FromSoftware can be considered horror adjacent, by some stretch. The Duskbloods is going to be FromSoftware’s newest title releasing in 2026, exclusive to the Switch 2. Not a horror game of course, but significant in Nintendo’s alleged ambition. It doesn’t seem that Nintendo’s hidden objectives are solely to publish horror games, but it most certainly includes them.

The Hidden Objective

Since the reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo has targeted an adult audience. They have always targeted children within that of course, but there are already strategies in place. The Switch 2 was revealed to have a sleek, modern design with a great bulk, most suited to young adults, their biggest audience. There is less of a whimsy, and less affordability—Nintendo is especially leaning into their “premium” messaging. The prices of games and accessories increased, pricing out kids even further. While first-party games still populate the system, there are very few new exclusives. Carrying the bulk of releases are several third-party titles, such as Cyberpunk and Yakuza 0, suited for the older, “gamer” customers. It is fair to say that more than ever before, Nintendo is interested in mature themes for this audience.

The Nintendo Switch 2 generation is already seeing third-party titles that would define the resurgence of horror games on a Nintendo system. The opportunity that is unexplored though, are new IPs exclusive to Nintendo—and the chance for them to actually get their hands in the genre. The expectations have already shifted at Nintendo, signified by Sakamoto and Miyachi’s statement about approval for Emio, internally. If Nintendo were truly ambitious and geared towards their hardcore consumers this generation, they could probably be working on a title currently. They don’t even need to be creating the game in-house, they could still hire another studio for the job. This is the case for Smash Bros. for example, in which a studio not under Nintendo is responsible for development. In the same breadth, Emio and the Famicom Detective Club remakes are other examples of this, made by studio MAGES.

New Nintendo Horror Games

Like Duskbloods, the game could be a new IP exclusive to the Switch 2, made by an extremely reputable developer. Nintendo not only has been fostering some relationships but has gotten bigger and more influential than before. New partnerships are being formed, such as with EA on their sports games, Activision with Call of Duty, and Bloober Team. In aims to strengthen their relationship once more, Capcom could release another Resident Evil game exclusive to Switch 2. This holds weight as Capcom has already done this with the original Resident Evil: Revelations on the 3DS. It’s time to expect the unexpected, as some Nintendo fans already do.

This new era of Nintendo isn’t exclusive to horror games. It is about Nintendo finally accommodating the core gaming population. This is new because gaming is getting far more popular and is intersecting different audiences. No longer do players have to compromise on Nintendo systems so much when playing third-party games. Brand new players are jumping onto this generation off the momentum of the Switch, as playing on the go is indispensable. The Switch 2 has a wider appeal and a more mature audience due to this. Horror games have inevitably become a part of this momentum, even if they aren’t the focus. Since they are intrinsically tied to mature content, Nintendo simply has to capitalize on the genre.

The Resurgence of Horror on Nintendo Switch 2

All the publishers seem to want to make it happen, going out of their way to put titles on Switch 2. In the worst-case scenario, Nintendo doesn’t produce any of their own, for one reason or another. What is a sure thing is that the third parties themselves will bring that resurgence to Nintendo. It is a part of the forgotten Nintendo legacy, and everyone is here for it. Fans will support the franchises as they always have, indulging in their nostalgia of the GameCube days. Officially, horror games are making their comeback on the Nintendo Switch 2. They’ve already made their start early, surrounding us with an optimism of the future. What else is in store for the rest of the generation? If this is just the beginning, then what is the really big thing awaiting players? It seems that Nintendo is suited to give us some great answers.