These days, a big majority of games get DLC in some form, whether it’s free or (more often) paid. But with that being said, not every major Nintendo game has its own substantial expansion – some big-name titles that you would expect to have additional content don’t really have any to speak of at all. So today, we’re going over some of Nintendo’s biggest games that never got DLC, and including ideas for what said DLC could have added or changed to each title.
Honorable mentions
I figured this was important enough to give its own section: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. According to interviews and the like, Nintendo’s Mario Kart team made a quick port of Mario Kart 8 for Nintendo Switch and then started development on Mario Kart World, which at one point was slated for the Switch 1 before being delayed to the next console due to technical limitations. With that knowledge in mind, it makes some sense why Mario Kart 8 Deluxe took nearly five years to receive additional content in the form of the Booster Course Pass. That said, we didn’t know that was the case until relatively recently – and without that knowledge, many fans (myself included) were wondering why one of Nintendo’s flagship titles – and one of its best-selling – received little to nothing in terms of extra content for the longest time.
Another honorable mention here is Pikmin 4 – it did recently receive an update that added difficulty modes and such, but it hasn’t received DLC that adds new areas or anything major like that. That said, Pikmin 4 does not appear to work with Nintendo Switch 2’s new Handheld Mode Boost feature, which loosely implies a dedicated Switch 2 Edition may be in development.
I’d also like to include Mario Kart World here really quick – it’s almost certainly going to get DLC, and maybe mentioning the fact that it’s been almost a year since release will give us King K. Rool in the game in a little bit faster.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
This is quite possibly the highest-profile game Nintendo has released that doesn’t have DLC. And I’m not saying it needs it – the game was complete from day one, which is always great to see. There’s an absolute ton of content to explore within Tears of the Kingdom – Hyrule is as large and expansive as ever, and now that there are caves, sky islands, and the Depths, it takes most players well over 100 hours to see everything the game has to offer. Breath of the Wild had its own DLC, but it didn’t really feel essential to the experience – the Master Cycle was a great addition, but the rest isn’t very sharp in my memory even though I 100 percent completed the game (Koroks included, yes).
When I think of adding DLC to games, I think of adding features that fix flaws within the base game. For many, those flaws are lackluster storytelling and the return of weapon durability. If you’re familiar with how Xenoblade Chronicles does its DLC, that approach could have worked here – what if Nintendo made a short, 10-hour “extra” campaign where you play as Zelda in the past? Of course, that would have released before Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, but it could’ve been a way to tie Tears of the Kingdom’s story together a little better. If an extra campaign isn’t an option, then the DLC probably would have added another dungeon. And this might be an unpopular opinion, but I actually would have loved to see the Master Cycle in this game – yes, the Zonai machines are cooler, but they’re powered by Zonaite. You can power the Master Cycle with anything, including apples, which makes it much more accessible and easier to manage for quick movement. Overall, there are tons of angles you could go with for Tears of the Kingdom DLC. In the end, though, it’s okay that Nintendo chose not to do it – the game has plenty of content already.
Super Mario Odyssey
This is also quite possibly the highest-profile game Nintendo released that doesn’t have DLC. The company did update Super Mario Odyssey to include Luigi’s Balloon World, and that does technically count as some form of free DLC, but that’s definitely not what most people imagined when they heard “Super Mario Odyssey DLC”. Players were mainly hoping for new kingdoms, but in the end, this never came to fruition. Some of the requests I saw were additional playable characters, a new kingdom based on Isle Delfino, and expanded versions of the Cloud Kingdom and Ruined Kingdom. I feel like the developers definitely heard at least one of these requests, because they eventually added Mario’s Sunshine outfit via a game update. All of those ideas are good ones, but at the end of the day Nintendo decided to add Luigi’s Balloon World and then move on to their next project. Donkey Kong Bananza, which released eight years later, made that long wait worth it – and it has its own excellent DLC that already released (but was arguably marketed wrong).
Mario Party Superstars
Modern Mario Party is kind of interesting. New Mario Party games are very close to being really good, but all have one specific flaw that prevents them from reaching that mark. With Super Mario Party Jamboree, that flaw is the Jamboree buddies – the buddy mini-games take far too long and it’s very annoying to have to play one of these mini-games on the final turn. With Mario Party Superstars, that flaw is a lack of boards. I always thought a DLC that added 3 or 4 returning boards from previous Mario Party titles was a shoo-in. The mini-game selection in Superstars is already pretty solid, so some additional boards would really complete the experience. I also think Superstars’ roster is really lacking – no Toad, no Toadette, no Bowser, no Bowser Jr. – the roster is very basic and bland with only ten playable characters. DLC would have really, really helped this game, but Nintendo Cube tends to shy away from DLC – with the exception of Super Mario Party Jamboree’s Switch 2 Edition, if you count that – but at the same time, that’s a completely separate mode and didn’t improve the main game in any meaningful way. You could also argue for Super Mario Party on this list, but DLC would not fix all the issues that game has going on. Though it did receive online play via an update many years after its launch.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Almost every mainline Pokemon game on Switch has DLC, but Legends: Arceus doesn’t really have anything like that. It received a minor content update shortly after launch, but all it really did was add Massive Mass Outbreaks to the game. DLC for Pokemon Sword and Shield and Scarlet and Violet added all-new areas, so it was assumed that something similar could happen here. In the end, though, the team wound up moving right to Pokemon Legends: Z-A instead. That game did receive DLC, but after playing it for 100 hours, I’ve concluded it’s not very good – spoken as a true Pokemon fan. If Arceus’ DLC was done right, it could’ve added one or two big new areas to explore plus, perhaps more importantly, additional returning Pokemon and new Hisuian forms. There are only around 250 Pokemon in Legends Arceus, which is a much smaller number than other Switch-era Pokemon games.
What Nintendo game are you surprised didn’t get DLC? Let us know in the comments down below.
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