Nintendo Is Making A Sequel To The Switch’s Biggest Party Game

Everybody 1-2-Switch!, the sequel to Nintendo's 1-2-Switch!, releases on June 30.

By Jason Collins | Updated

Nintendo just surprised everyone by announcing a sequel to 2017’s party game 1-2-Switch!, which launched together with the Nintendo Switch handheld console. The sequel, titled Everybody 1-2-Switch! will launch on June 30, which is only a couple of short weeks away.

According to VGC, Nintendo has been sitting on this game for over a year for some undisclosed reason. And that makes perfect sense; development takes time, and for a company to re-announce a game only a short few weeks before its launch date means that the title has been brewing in Nintendo’s kitchen for quite some time now. The details surrounding this multiplayer minigame Nintendo Switch title are still scarce, but we can expect the upcoming game to be as wacky as its predecessor, if not wackier.

Everybody 1-2-Switch! will launch for both the Nintendo Switch and compatible smart devices, with some cross-platform capabilities. That gaming on compatible smart devices would require a Nintendo account, and while only certain minigames will be available in smart device mode, the players will have to be in the same room to play them. This means that you can have more players, than Joy-Cons participating in the game, which previously wasn’t the case.

And when it comes to titles basically comprised of minigames, well, the more, the merrier.

The original 1-2-Switch! fared beyond all expectations; it received mixed reviews upon release but became one of Nintendo Switch’s best-selling games during the handheld’s first year on the market. The 2017 game features 28 minigames which were played using the console’s infamous Joy-Con controller capabilities, as well as audio cues. This included the controversial milking game for which PETA claimed it has no cruelty whatsoever—not so surprising for a family oriented-console maker—and thus doesn’t depict the realities of the dairy industry. 

As for the minigames included in the game’s sequel, we’ll get the usuals, such as Musical Chairs, Bingo, and Spin the Bottle, in which players have to compliment other people. It would seem that Nintendo has implemented some fixes to the Nintendo Switch game following reports of extremely negative feedback the game has received during playtests, with families and children labeling the title as uninteresting and tedious at times.

nintendo switch

Other sources claimed that Nintendo had higher expectations from the game, suggesting a full-retail triple-A price for the game, which is ridiculous by all metrics. The previous game was a best-seller only due to the fact that there weren’t so many Nintendo Switch games available when the console launched—third-party developers were reluctant to develop the games for the console, following the abysmal market performance of Nintendo Wii U. But then Covid-19 happened, and suddenly handheld gaming was awesome again.

So, it’s hard to imagine Nintendo charging a full triple-A price for a sequel to a mediocre gaming title, especially when Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is performing so admirably on Nintendo Switch, boosting both the sales numbers of Nintendo’s iconic franchise, as well as the world’s second-most popular handheld. Everybody 1-2-Switch! is scheduled for launch on June 30 on Nintendo Switch.