Nintendo's suddenly made Switch 2 release dates for Metroid Prime 4 and Kirby Air Riders a lot easier to guess as it reveals an August launch for its Rocket League-style wheelchair basketball game

A player spinning a ball on their finger on the poster for the upcoming Switch 2 game, Drag x Drive.
(Image credit: Nintendo)

One of the lower-key announcements at Nintendo's big Switch 2 reveal was Drag x Drive, a Rocket League-style take on the real-life sport of wheelchair basketball. The publisher has revealed the release date for this 3v3 multiplayer title in yet another low-key Nintendo Today app post, and the August release plan makes the rest of the release dates for the publisher's upcoming Switch 2 games in 2025 a whole lot easier to guess.

Drag x Drive launches on August 14, 2025, and it'll be an eShop exclusive with no physical version. Hopefully, that means this will be a lower-priced title, though we've got no confirmation on pricing just yet. With a muted, but tentatively positive response to Drag x Drive at its reveal, I imagine Nintendo would be keen to keep the barrier to entry quite low.

If you've ever taken a close look at Nintendo's first-party output in the past few years, you'll know that the company releases its games on a more or less monthly cadence. The company previously announced that Donkey Kong Bananza is coming in July, and Pokemon Legends: Z-A is coming in October.

With Drag x Drive now locked in for August, there are only three months unaccounted for Nintendo in 2025. And, coincidentally, Nintendo happens to have three games which could launch in each of those months - Metroid Prime 4 and Kirby Air Riders, both of which are confirmed for 2025, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, which is confirmed for "this winter."

Since we've seen a fair bit of Metroid Prime 4 gameplay at this point and no more than a CG trailer for Kirby Air Riders, it's fair to guess that Samus will be returning a bit sooner than Kirby. That'd make an educated guess for Nintendo's 2025 lineup look something like this.

  • July 17 - Donkey Kong Bananza
  • August 14 - Drag x Drive
  • September - Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
  • October 16 - Pokemon Legends: Z-A
  • November - Kirby Air Riders
  • December - Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment

I'll reiterate that those dates are purely speculative, but I'd just about be willing to stake money on that lineup - with the exception of Hyrule Warriors, which is probably more likely to slip to January than launch in December, a month Nintendo historically avoids launching games in. And hey, early 2026 still counts as "this winter."

Check out the best Switch 2 games to play right now as you await this year's biggest hitters.

Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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