Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@Bolt_Strike I don't think Mario Kart is close to being ready, unless it take a little under a year and a half to make. But I have no idea about this sort of thing.

I think this week could be it and I want MORE mario lol

For this direct, basically the only even conceivable possibilities for Mario I think are some Mario sports game or Wonder DLC.

@FishyS Ehh, they do have a few old games they could remake, but the problem with that is that many of them, especially the ones they haven't already done, aren't really big sellers. They're decent enough, 1-2 million sellers, but there are a few experimental ideas that are more likely to outsell that, especially if they're based on an already popular IP or genre. To name a few I have in mind, here are some I think might be more profitable than a remake (or at least have a reasonable shot, I think all of these have a really good shot of being 5+ million sellers):

-An open world Mario Kart subseries
-A Rosalina spinoff that serves as a continuation of the Mario Galaxy series
-A Splatoon spinoff/subseries of some kind (pretty much anything adjacent to Splatoon's core gameplay could work, a platformer, an open world game, something survival based, all of the above, just something that explores different elements that a multiplayer arena shooter typically wouldn't).
-A Bowser spinoff of some kind (not quite sure what direction to go in with this, but Bowser is a very popular character so if they can come up with some that fits him well, it should sell well)
-A Tom Nook spinoff of Animal Crossing that's more of a tycoon game (think something like Roller Coaster Tycoon, something that's a bit more focused on building areas/facilities than repetitive chores and decorations).

Long term they're definitely going to want a few more IPs, and I don't even think this much is going to be enough to get them to 1 per month, but it would be a great start.

@GrailUK So there's a couple of things to consider with Mario Kart. First, up until the release schedule got screwed up with the Wii U tanking and the Switch sitting on a Wii U port, Mario Kart games reliably came out every 3 years. Second, everything they've done since the original version of 8 has been relatively low effort, mainly just porting old tracks to new devices with only a handful of new tracks and characters here and there. Third, the last retail release of a Mario Kart was 7 years ago, which is the longest drought in series history. With all of that in mind, I think they've had new ideas stewing for a while that should be ready soon. Short of them doing something really ambitious and different and unexpected like my open world Mario Kart idea (which again, I think would be better as a subseries to release in between core entries so they can have a 2nd Mario Kart per console that's very different from the core Mario Kart entries and won't cannibalize them), the next Mario Kart should be Year 3 at the latest.

@FishyS Wonder DLC would be cool, I do hope Nintendo pulls some unexpected stuff outta the bag.

@Bolt_Strike Definitely agree — they have lots of games they could port (and I personally desperately want quite a few of them) but if they don't consider them potentially profitable enough, they won't bother.

I would loooove Splatoon spinoffs. I'm still sad the current rogue-like DLC wasn't a proper spinoff. I agree more Mario universe sub-franchises would definitely be fun as well. I'm hoping Peach becomes a real continuing series. Rosalina was basically alluded to in the Mario movie, so I'm hoping she appears in another movie and then gets a game. More Captain Toad or Bowser would be good too.

@Bolt_Strike I have always wanted a Mario kart game that you could get out of the car lol, idk what the point would be but I think that would be cool.

@GalaxicGlobe I want one with more jumping and platforming. Crazy levels please

@GalaxicGlobe I don't think you would be able to, it wouldn't be Mario Kart if you weren't driving a vehicle. I'm thinking more like Forza Horizons or DKR, something that you can just drive around an open world instead of being restricted to a linear track and could race through open terrain. That would be unique enough from both core Mario Kart gameplay and other open world games to justify making into its own game.

Soooo... Mario Maker 3?

@Bolt_Strike
A few points regarding the three year cycle for Mario Kart being broken. Firstly if the GBA, DS, 3DS games count then Tour definitely counts. Hideki Konno has been the producer for all the Mario Kart games, since 8 he has been pretty much entirely on mobile games. Along with a division of EPD generally. Like it or not, this is where some of that "Mario Kart 9 time" has been spent. Same deal with the track DLC

Secondly it's worth noting that after Mario Kart 8 this same studio released an experimental new IP called Splatoon. Which has since received regular releases in its own right. Now at the management level the resources don't quite like up, Splatoon is mostly made by Animal Crossing people, but I can't see how it wouldn't have been swallowing some of the resources that would have been used on Kart

Now.... I've been pretty vocal about not really wanting a Mario Kart 9. New Mario Kart for me has always been about two things, new tracks and having a Mario Kart to play on the console. If backwards compatibility is a thing then Mario Kart 8 is good enough. Put out a free update so it can run with HDR and a higher resolution/framerate and I'll be happy. Spend those resources on making something new, take a risk with another experiment

But I think despite my lack of interest there will almost surely be a Mario Kart 9. Frankly I'm not sure what the hook would be. I'm not sure an Open World game would still be Mario Kart.

If they were to do one personally I'd rather they just go the Smash Bros route. Update the engine maybe but make the hook simply that ALL of the tracks are there. That would get my attention

@skywake ARMS was the Mario Kart side of the studio, not Splatoon.

I think the next Mario Kart is basically done and was never needed due to MK8D. I think they probably have used this time to polish it up for the next console, and that it will be a launch window title.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 2.

@Grumblevolcano
Officially yes, but we're talking resources not labels. If you look even at just the high level credits you'll see some of these people going on from Mario Kart to Arms for sure.... but also Mario Kart Live, Mario Kart Tour, Animal Crossing New Horizons, Splatoon 2, Splatoon 3, Mario Maker 2, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and the Booster course

Of course if you look at the last couple of years? It does appear to dry up a bit. And you can even look at some some of these guys and they just seem to disappear entirely after Arms outside of minor credits on Smash Ultimate, at least on their IMDB pages. So some of these guys are on on something we don't know about, haven't been credited for stuff or have left Nintendo. But..... we also don't know much about what Nintendo is releasing at all for the next couple of years so not knowing what these guys are working on isn't entirely unexpected

For sure, they could well be working on a Mario Kart 9 and given that Mario Kart is basically a licence to print money they almost surely are. But my point was more that it's not as simple as saying that "it's been 7 years since we had a retail Mario Kart so what have these guys been doing for 7 years". Because it's clear a lot of these guys were pulled into stuff like Splatoon, Animal Crossing, Tour, the DLC, Live, mobile games etc. And if technical leads, producers, directors, composers etc were on these things then you can be sure that more junior staff were moved around also. They haven't been on Mario Kart 9 for 7 years is my point, Splatoon is definitely one of the other things they've been on

And ok, I get it. We're never going to agree on this topic @Bolt_Strike so there's no point arguing. We've played this game before so I don't see much value in doing this dance again. Especially in regards to what Mario Kart should be and where they should go next. But I do think you're far too quick to dismiss the amount of effort that would've gone into Tour and the DLC. Just because it has been tainted with the "mobile game" brush doesn't mean it was low effort

If the next Direct reveals ARMS II I will die happy.

It's not JUST because it was a mobile game, it's because it's a mobile game with a lot of old content and not much new content. There's only been 14 new courses in Tour, and they were spread across 4 years of live service support, whereas console Mario Kart games get 16 completely new courses at launch (and 8 got 9 more added as DLC just a few months after release). They were mainly just recycling old content for BOTH games, it's not like they spent a lot of time on new courses and assets, that entire period was largely just an asset flip for a quick buck.

At risk of extending this discussion into an actual argument I do have one thought RE: what Mario Kart 9 could do. Mario Kart all the way up until the first Mario Kart 8 DLC was strictly Mario universe stuff. Then they dropped that DLC and it was a special thing to have F-Zero, Animal Crossing, Zelda tracks/characters. But even with that fundamentally Mario Kart 8 is still predominantly tied to Mario

What if the gimmick of Mario Kart 9 is that it isn't Mario Kart 9 at all. What if this time they actually go all in on making a proper full roster, diverse IP Kart racer. Smash tier crossovers, third party collaboration tier crossovers. As in you go from a Mario themed track to one from Metroid then Pokemon and Zelda. Bayonetta to Sonic to Minecraft. Would allow for a massive boost in course variety and would also allow them to expand well beyond the restrictions of a "Mario Kart" game

@Bolt_Strike
14 tracks over 4 years, basically a full game's worth of tracks since 2019 for Tour. Plus the work involved in porting those tracks for the Booster Course and also reworking some classic tracks for both. I'm not sure what your argument is here, you've basically proven my point

@skywake The path I thought was the case was: MK8 + DLC (2014 - 2015) -> MK8 Deluxe + ARMS (2017) -> MK Tour (2019 - 2023) + Booster Course Pass DLC (2022 - 2023) -> Whatever the next project is

Given a new Smash game would be a downgrade on Ultimate due to lots of cuts (like roster and stages) as a result of licensing, I feel the best outcome would be: ARMS being the franchise to get a brand new game meanwhile Smash gets more DLC for Ultimate and Mario Kart either gets more DLC for MK8 Deluxe or a "Everyone and everywhere is here" compilation title.