Nintendo is widely known for its epic RPGs and family-friendly platformers, thanks to the likes of Zelda, Mario, and Xenoblade Chronicles. Most of its franchises, like Animal Crossing, cater to all audiences, but the Japanese company has a surprising game in its library that people tend to forget about. Or at least they don’t know it’s a Nintendo title, which is fair considering the genre it belongs to. Ladies and gentlemen, an Eternal Darkness Nintendo Switch 2 remake is in order.
No, Nintendo isn’t very well known for horror games, yet the company boasts one of the most iconic games in the entire genre. Eternal Darkness is 23 years old this year, launching exclusively on the GameCube in 2002. Its full name is Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, and trust me when I say it even gives the Resident Evil games a run for their money when it comes to survival horror.

The game was a huge critical success, earning its place among the greatest videogames of all time, and rightly so. However, if there’s one thing a publisher loves, it’s numbers, and Eternal Darkness sold under 500k units, making it a commercial failure. Now, when you put it like that, it’s no surprise that there isn’t a sequel, though the developer Silicon Knights desperately wanted to make one before disbanding in 2013.
Since then, the game’s director, Denis Dyack, has attempted to revive it, yet the Kickstarter campaigns never quite made it off the ground, leading to an indefinite hiatus for Eternal Darkness II. Developing a game isn’t easy. It takes a lot of time and money, but Eternal Darkness is a gold mine ripe for the taking. It’s a cult classic at this point, has a big following among horror fans, and is frankly better than some of the recent games to enter the genre – looking at you, Stray Souls and Silent Hill: A Short Message.

A remake on the Nintendo Switch 2 does feel like a pipe dream, but it’s one I’ll hold onto, as the console should have a stellar, terrifying title to its name. What makes Eternal Darkness so special, beyond its excellent writing and intense atmosphere, is the sanity meter, the concept that arguably enticed Nintendo into backing its first-ever mature-rated game.
Throughout your horrifying ordeal, you have to constantly keep an eye on the meter, as when it drops too low, you begin to see things, representing a loosening grip on reality as you lose sight of what’s real and what isn’t. The game’s name makes a lot of sense now, doesn’t it?
Remakes and remasters are more popular than ever, and Nintendo itself clearly wants in on the action with the numerous Mario games it freshened up for the Switch; Princess Peach Showtime, Luigi’s Mansion 2, and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door are but a few examples. Only time will tell if Eternal Darkness will find its way into the light on the upcoming hardware, but at least I have plenty of indie horror games to keep me busy in the meantime.