Nintendo is playing things too safe
Nintendo is playing things too safe
任天堂正变得过于保守
Tuesday’s Nintendo Direct showcase felt like an important moment for the company. With the Switch 2 heading into its second holiday season, one in which the hardware will be even more expensive thanks to a price hike, it was a chance for Nintendo to really sell new audiences on its latest console — but that’s not exactly what happened. While there were some impressive-looking titles, there wasn’t much that felt truly new. Instead, the two major Switch 2 exclusives that will round out the 2026 calendar are both remakes from the Nintendo 64 era.
周二的任天堂直面会（Nintendo Direct）对该公司而言本应是一个重要时刻。随着 Switch 2 即将迎来第二个假日季，且由于价格上涨导致硬件成本更高，这本是任天堂向新受众推销其最新主机的绝佳机会——但实际情况并非如此。虽然展示了一些看起来令人印象深刻的游戏，但真正让人感到新颖的内容并不多。相反，即将在 2026 年底压轴登场的两款 Switch 2 重磅独占游戏，竟然都是来自任天堂 64（N64）时代的重制版。
If you missed it, the final reveal of the Direct was a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Switch 2. We don’t know when, exactly, it’s launching, but Nintendo says it’ll be out this year. The brief teaser didn’t reveal much of what the game will look like, nor how it might differ from the N64 original, so chances are you can expect an Ocarina-focused Direct in the coming months that will detail more. Whenever it comes out, the Ocarina remake will follow the Star Fox remake, which is launching later this month in an attempt to revitalize Nintendo’s long-dormant sci-fi series for modern audiences.
如果你错过了直播，直面会的压轴大戏是 Switch 2 版《塞尔达传说：时之笛》的重制版。我们尚不清楚确切的发布日期，但任天堂表示它将于今年内推出。简短的预告片并没有透露太多游戏画面，也没有说明它与 N64 原版有何不同，因此未来几个月内很可能会有一场专门针对《时之笛》的直面会来披露更多细节。无论何时发布，这款《时之笛》重制版都将紧随本月晚些时候推出的《星际火狐》重制版之后，后者旨在让任天堂沉寂已久的科幻系列重新焕发活力，以吸引现代玩家。
To be clear, Nintendo has a solid lineup for the Switch 2 for the rest of 2026, and already had two pretty big hits so far with Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and Pokopia (which is getting a series of expansions starting this year). For the rest of the calendar we’ve got: beloved strategy series Fire Emblem returning with Fortune’s Weave on September 17th; the Wii Sports energy coming back with Nintendo Switch Sports Resort on October 22nd; and the summer duo of Splatoon Raiders and Rhythm Heaven Groove, which continue to look great. That’s on top of strong third-party support with games like Final Fantasy Resonance, FromSoftware’s The Duskbloods, and ports of titles like Atlus’ Metaphor: ReFantazio and Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2.
需要明确的是，任天堂在 2026 年剩余时间里为 Switch 2 准备的产品阵容依然稳健，且目前已经有了《朋友聚会：梦想生活》和《Pokopia》（今年将开始推出一系列扩展内容）这两款相当热门的作品。在接下来的日程中，我们还有：9 月 17 日回归的备受喜爱的策略系列《火焰之纹章：命运之织》；10 月 22 日带来 Wii Sports 活力的《Nintendo Switch Sports Resort》；以及看起来依然出色的夏季双子星《喷射战士：突袭者》和《节奏天国：律动》。此外，还有强大的第三方支持，包括《最终幻想：共鸣》、FromSoftware 的《黄昏之血》，以及 Atlus 的《暗喻幻想：ReFantazio》和 Capcom 的《龙之信条 2》等移植作品。
But mostly, Nintendo seems to be playing things very safe, particularly in comparison to the original Switch. That console launched alongside a complete reinvention of the Legend of Zelda formula, which was followed just a few months later by a strange and expansive version of Super Mario. Even the Switch’s twilight years featured bold takes on Nintendo’s tentpole franchises with games like Super Mario Bros. Wonder and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. Things got off to a good start for the Switch 2 with a twist on the Mario Kart formula and a Donkey Kong game elevated to tentpole status. For the most part, though, the lineup has been full of familiar titles in the form of remakes and original Switch games that have been upgraded in some way for the Switch 2.
但总的来说，任天堂似乎表现得过于保守，尤其是与初代 Switch 相比。初代 Switch 发布时伴随着对《塞尔达传说》公式的彻底重构，几个月后又推出了风格独特且广阔的《超级马力欧》作品。即使在 Switch 的末期，任天堂也通过《超级马力欧兄弟：惊奇》和《塞尔达传说：智慧的再现》等游戏，对其核心系列进行了大胆的尝试。Switch 2 的开局其实不错，有对《马力欧卡丁车》公式的创新，还有被提升至核心地位的《大金刚》游戏。然而，大部分阵容还是充满了熟悉的重制版，以及针对 Switch 2 进行某种程度升级的初代 Switch 游戏。
It’s not as if the Nintendo of the past was immune to remakes and rereleases. Its best-selling non-pack-in game ever, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch, is a port of a Wii U title. But seeing the upcoming Switch 2 schedule dominated by a pair of remakes, coupled with the fact that neither Zelda nor Super Mario has an original game on the console (yet), makes me worried that Nintendo might be a little too complacent following its dominating Switch era. That seems like a particularly dangerous mindset in 2026, when nearly every major video game company is struggling to manage the chaotic state of the industry. Nothing is a sure thing right now.
当然，过去的任天堂也并非没有重制和再版。其有史以来最畅销的非捆绑游戏——Switch 上的《马力欧卡丁车 8 豪华版》——就是 Wii U 游戏的移植版。但看到 Switch 2 即将到来的日程表被两款重制版占据，再加上塞尔达和马力欧系列在主机上（目前）还没有原创游戏，这让我担心任天堂在经历了 Switch 时代的统治地位后，可能变得有些过于自满了。在 2026 年，当几乎所有大型游戏公司都在努力应对行业混乱局面时，这种心态显得尤为危险。现在，没有任何事情是稳操胜券的。
This isn’t new for Nintendo — in fact, playing things safe is a defining trait of the company’s current era. The Switch 2 itself is an iteration of an existing idea, and other ventures like feature films have hewed to closely established norms. It hasn’t prevented Nintendo from being successful; the Switch 2 got off to a fast start, and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie made $1 billion despite being largely forgettable. And Nintendo isn’t exactly bucking the norm by staying conservative. Over the past week at Summer Game Fest, we saw Sony seemingly make a return to lavish single-player games, while Microsoft is toying with the concept of console exclusives again. With the industry in disarray, the biggest companies are coming back to ideas that worked in the past.
这对任天堂来说并不新鲜——事实上，保守行事正是该公司当前时代的显著特征。Switch 2 本身就是现有理念的迭代，而像电影制作等其他业务也紧紧遵循既定规范。但这并没有阻碍任天堂取得成功；Switch 2 开局迅速，而《超级马力欧银河》电影尽管内容平平，却依然斩获了 10 亿美元票房。而且，任天堂保持保守并非特立独行。在过去一周的夏季游戏节（Summer Game Fest）上，我们看到索尼似乎回归了奢华的单机游戏路线，而微软则再次尝试主机独占的概念。在行业动荡之际，各大巨头都在回归过去行之有效的策略。
But one of the things that has also defined Nintendo is the creativity and ingenuity that leads to oddball ideas like a dual-screened handheld or a bunch of cardboard video game accessories. Nintendo zigs when everyone else zags, and often succeeds because of it. That is part of the reason the company has managed to weather some of the many storms that are currently ravaging the rest of the video game industry.
但任天堂的另一个定义性特征是其创造力和独创性，这曾带来双屏掌机或纸板游戏配件（Labo）等奇思妙想。当别人向左走时，任天堂偏向右走，并往往因此获得成功。这也是该公司能够抵御目前席卷整个游戏行业的诸多风暴的部分原因。
At its very best, Nintendo finds the right balance between being conservative and being inventive. The Switch 2 needs a few more daring ideas to push the scale back in the right direction.
在最佳状态下，任天堂总能在保守与创新之间找到完美的平衡。Switch 2 需要更多大胆的创意，才能将天平重新拨回正确的方向。