Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@Novamii I wonder if the Switch 2's 3D Mario game will be announced in the direct? 3D Mario platformers tend to come out fairly early on in each Nintendo platform's time on the market. Plus we got a glimpse of Odyssey in the Switch 1's first look trailer, and a full-blown trailer of the game in the 2017 presentation.

@MarioVillager92 I feel like it may depend when Switch 2 comes out. But it could easily by one more thing.

@FishyS Yeah, the console's release date could very well be a deciding factor. I do know that when the Wii U released, there wasn't even an official statement of its 3D Mario game just yet. We had to wait until 2013 for it to be announced.

And would you look at that? Just in time for MAR10 Day, members will be able to play two games featuring our mustachioed hero—the Mario’s Picross™ and Donkey Kong™ games.

Remember to keep an eye on your newsfeed for even more MAR10 Day activities. For now, let’s learn more about these classics!

This is from the news on Nintendo's US website. This doesn't necessarily mean anything big, but it at least seems like they're continuing to celebrate Mar10 Day in different ways. A lot of people were saying the bundle of announcements we got a few days ago were the only Mar10 Day celebrations, but since then we've got an eShop sale and 2 NSO games, and now are seemingly teasing more.

@MarioVillager92 I definitely think 3D Mario will be at this Direct. We haven't had a new 3D Mario game in a while, the last new one was Odyssey in 2017. There's also been strong rumors about this one being open world continuing what they experimented with in Bowser's Fury.

In fact, I think this 3D Mario game is the main reason they were quiet about Switch 2 for an uncomfortably long time. They've been spending most of their time trying to get this game right. If the rumors about open world are indeed correct, that explains a lot. Open world games have been notorious time sinks with numerous delays, I mean look at how many times BotW and TotK were delayed. I wouldn't be surprised if the 3D Mario did the same thing here and they didn't want to announce the Switch 2 without this game, so they just delayed the entire console.

I just realized we never got that Direct last month… I don’t care at all. I’m excited for the Switch 2 Direct, I don’t need another one focusing on the 8 year old console.

So the Mar10 Day announcements on the day itself (for Japan timezones) were:

• SMB3 for Nintendo Music
• SMB music for Alarmo
• A new Lego Mario Kart set releasing May 15th

Just waiting until April 2nd. We're so very close.

I’m worried about Metroid Prime 2/3 not getting a re-release. The rumored Direct for Switch 1 games never materialized and there were no updates from Nintendo on new releases. I assume the upcoming Direct will only be on Switch 2 games.

I think the direct will only be Switch 2 (plus maybe major cross gen games if there are any) but that doesn't mean there won't be an April or May Twitter announcement and game release. Despite skipping February, I really don't think Nintendo plans to have no games in April or May. A Prime 2/3 port is certainly one thing which could fit into that gap. There could be e.g. a late April extended Prime 4 trailer combined with a Prime 2/3 port announcement. Certainly not guaranteed, but there will be filler games and that is one possibility.

@FishyS
I look forward to see what releases Nintendo has lined up for this spring. At this point I would be happy if they only re-release Metroid Prime 2, I can just play the third game on my Wii U. Hopefully Nintendo has some great surprises for us, it would make up for the disappointing Pokemon Presents 2 weeks ago.

man, i am very hyped for april 2nd. is rhis the longest we have gone without a direct? The Mar10 day announcements were neat, but i kinda expected more 😕 like not a new game announcement, but i dont know, a mario movie 2 trailer possibly? sighhh. at least we are all waiting together haha

By Nintendo's reckoning, there was technically a direct in November 2024 about amusement parks, so the gap is less than 5 months which is less than the 2019 September general direct to Feb 2020 animal crossing direct gap. If you mean general directs, there was a 17 month gap without one from Sep 2019 to Feb 2021.

Regardless, it's definitely been a long time with no first party games direct.

Nintendo announced via the NSO section of the Switch dashboard that a XCX Tetris 99 event is happening for March 14th - 18th.

@Grumblevolcano Mar10 Day was pretty underwhelming compared to last year's Mario Movie 2 announcement, LM2HD and TTYD release dates, and NSO drops, or even 2023's Mario Movie final trailer & Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC. Nintendo will hopefully make up for it during April 2nd Direct and the 40th Anniversary celebrations.

@Dev-N Definitely would've been nice to see who was voicing Yoshi (Eddie Murphy please?) and other new characters, but I guess we'll have to wait. For some reason movies are typically announced 1-2 years before they release, but the marketing campaign is usually just half a year. If this is similar to how they did Mario Movie 1, we should get our first trailer in October or November (or perhaps September for the sake of the anniversary).

It feels like Nintendo is taking an unprecedented (at least to me) approach. No February Direct, no H1 games from Pokemon Presents (given that Champions doesn't have a set release timing), and no games announced for Mario Day. After next week, we have literally no upcoming games with a release date. The only upcoming Direct we know about is one for Switch 2 next month, and that probably won't announce anything for Switch 1 either. What is their strategy right now?

@FishyS wow thank you! feels like ages since november 😹 glad we don’t have to wait as long as we did in 2020!
@Novamii thats a really, REALLY good point! i will admit the wait does let me really go through the rest of the games on switch i want to play. and we arent like other fandoms who have announcement after announcement. thank you for making me feel grateful about this 😸😸😸

@PikminMarioKirby The last time there were no games with a release date was the gap between Origami King's release (July 17th 2020) and the reveal of Pikmin 3 Deluxe (August 5th 2020).

Yeah the further we get into the month, the more I'm convinced the Switch 2 Direct in April is the next bit of actual news, and they're happy to continue tweeting about DKCR HD and XCX in the meantime.

Also means no April game for Switch 1 most likely.

I wonder when the console goes live? I would imagine pretty quickly after the direct ends.

Must secure the bag

@Grumblevolcano Interesting, that’s like 4+ years ago, during a weird time for Nintendo announcements. I can’t imagine they’ll go too much longer without anything for Switch 1, right?