It seems that Nintendo will have just two first-party games ready for the system's March 3 worldwide launch. Those games are Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and 1-2 Switch. Nintendo does have one more March game in its Switch lineup: Snipperclips.

Nintendo will follow mentioned games with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, a DLC-loaded, full-priced port of the Wii U racing game. What's more important for Ars Technica's game critics, this version of the game will finally get a quality Battle Mode-one with circular and square arenas that players can rotate around and attack one another, just like in older Mario Kart versions.

One of those Battle Mode tracks will have a Splatoon theme. Also, Splatoon's Inkling characters will join the race, besides all of the other arenas in both the retail Mario Kart 8 and its DLC packs. And yes, the rumors are true and this version will one more time let kart racers carry 2 items at the same time. Besides all of that, a new item-stealing Boo pick-up will also be available.

As for the rest of the Nintendo's first-party Switch lineup, we'll have to wait a bit longer. It seems that ARMS will be the first offering after Mario Kart. That motion-loaded, Joy-Con motion-boxing game full of '70s anime-inspired boxers is coming this spring. Unlike in Wii Boxing, it looks like ARMS offers more fine-tuned controls for dodging opponents' attacks as well as aiming punches.

The Switch event showed footage of upcoming games in the Fire Emblem and the Xenoblade Chronicles series. Curiously, the latter will be developed by Tecmo Koei's Team Ninja which is much better known for the hack-and-slash fare (Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive) than Fire Emblem's turn-based strategy.

Nintendo will apparently close the year with Super Mario Odyssey in "holiday 2017," which Ars' Kyle Orland has written up here.

Tags: mario mario kart mario kart 8 nintendo Splatoon Switch