Topic: Nintendo Switch 2

GtA6 is like the sun, pulling everything with its gravitational force

I feel like 3D Mario would be a 2026 game. We already have a few tentpole releases this year and I feel like if we get anything else it'll be smaller scale. Maybe the REALLY big releases next year could be animal crossing, 3D Mario, Pokemon gen 10, and then like Metroid 6 or something.

Although I agree that Nintendo might effectively be treating Bananza as a 3D mario game, it's worth noting that Nintendo re-organized their team structure in the run-up to Switch 1 and that included shuffling some people between a couple Mario-related teams. It's at least possible they have done that again and now there are more teams or large sub-teams working on big 3D games then there used to be, with some of the Odyssey people on each team.

@Polvasti Didn't know Retro Studios was third party, and Nintendo EPD was too, since they made Returns/Tropical Freeze and Jungle Beat respectively.

Yeah I'm pretty confident we won't see 3D Mario until mid to late gen, around the same time as the next 3D Zelda as well as the next original 2D Kirby.

Now here's a different discussion point: does Star Crossed World mean the next 3D Kirby is further out than we think? Or is it possible we see it in 2026?

@IceClimbers this is just a hunch but I feel like this will be the timeline for Kirby on switch 2

2025: Star Crossed Word + Air Riders
2026: Robobot remaster + reveal of new 3D Kirby
2027: new 3D Kirby releases

@rallydefault I highly doubt we'll see it next year. It simply isn't in production, unless Nintendo has been working on it for 7 years, or unless Bananza itself was withheld from releasing for a few years.

Well, Nintendo is going to release something to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Super Mario Bros.
If it's not a new 3D Mario, what could it be? It's too early for a new 2D game, and Maker 3 isn't due for another few years.
A "Supreme All Stars" compilation featuring both 2D and 3D games in the series?
I wish I had that, I'm not going to lie.

I mean... it has been 6 years since smm2 came out so I wouldn't say 'not due for a few years'; I doubt it will come out this year but it's barely possible. I suspect what we'll get is less exciting. Could be Mario Wonder DLC/Switch 2 edition. Or a port of one of the new super games new. I think Galaxy 2 (or a Galaxy double-pack) is definitely possible also.

I think it's highly likely that a lot of these early Switch 2 games have been finished for a while now. I think it's fairly clear that Switch 2 was delayed, at least from earlier this year, in order to make sure they would have enough titles lined up for launch. But enough is not all, what we don't know is which titles were holding it back and which titles have been ready for possibly years

I think we can fairly safely say Mario Kart was not one of those games holding them back. Mario Kart World was originally a Switch game, starting development in 2017, before shifting to Switch 2 in 2020. In 2020 they had a fair idea of where Switch 2 would land with the SoC being finalised in 2021. And the way they talked about that transition to Switch 2 in the developer asks makes me think it was fairly far along when that switch happened. So that's one they've had in their back pocket for probably a couple of years

DK Bonanza? The rumours tend to suggest it maybe started around the same time, if so it would've had a similar development path to world. Whether it started targeting Switch 2? No idea. And, frankly, given Bonanza clearly uses the Odyssey engine as a base (just look at it) I'm not convinced that it was only just finished in time for Switch 2 to launch. I think we can fairly safely say that it is another game that has been sitting on the shelf waiting for a Switch 2 launch. Same as Mario Kart World.

I wouldn't be that surprised if we see a 3D Mario sooner rather than later. Or at least sooner than you would usually expect after the release of a game from the same team

As @skywake said, are we all choosing to forget that Switch 2 clearly was meant to release at least a year earlier? It’s hugely possible Bonanza has been finished for quite some time, and other projects have since been full steam.

And that’s not taking numerous other possibilities into mind.

And look at Nintendo’s strategy so far: do the stuff that worked so well with the original Switch, but amp it up.

Odyssey was a big part of making Switch successful. It STILL has people playing it on YouTube, especially the balloon mode.

I think they want the next 3d Mario out in the first two years of this cycle. I think we see it next year no matter what even if it doesn’t come out until 2027.

Waiting for mid cycle is waaaaay too long. Wii U showed us that not having a big 3D Mario in the first quarter of a lifecycle hurts. A lot.

The stylus input for Uprising was mostly there to cover the lack of a second analogue. I would agree that a mouse is a better input for aim and would really want to see a game like this land with mouse input, at least as an option. But I'm not sure what, if anything, mouse input brings to character movement /2c

@rallydefault I just can't see it. At least not until they reveal something from it, I just don't think it's happening any time soon. Bananza is clearly meant to take the place of that 3D Mario niche that Nintendo is missing for the launch of the console. From what we've seen, it plays very similar to Odyssey- especially regarding the final part of Odyssey, where you dig through the moon rocks. I could see them probably holding back because of Bananza needing to be delayed- due to how all of the terrain in the game is outright destructible, and the game remembers it. A massive undertaking in comparison to the team's last project.

@rallydefault @skywake @VoidofLight I think Pokemon could explain the delay considering mainline Pokemon gives hardware a huge sales boost. Under the old cycle of a new generation every 3 years (only Gens 3 and 4 were longer than 3 years long), Gen 10 would be Late 2025 so that would suggest Legends Z-A was Late 2024 considering there's no ILCA remakes this time.

Pokemon needs more time and gets delayed (Late 2025 for Legends Z-A, maybe Late 2026 for Gen 10) so perhaps Nintendo then decides to delay Switch 2 in order to keep the Pokemon boost for early in the console's lifespan.

@VoidofLight @rallydefault
Not trying to have it both ways here but it's possible you're both right. I think DK is clearly taking some of the space the "Mario game" usually takes in the first year, especially when combined with Kart being as big as it is. I don't think they need a 3D Mario urgently to fill some gap here. The Mario/Platformer itch is being scratched IMO

But also, I wouldn't be so quick to discount a 3D Mario early in the Switch 2 cycle. Because DK has possibly been done for a while, locked behind a Switch 2 launch

@VoidofLight
See, to me, Bonanza is likely not going to feel much like Odyssey. Why? Because it's not really a platformer at the heart of it. It's a destruction game with some platforming moves.

People who have played it describe a control scheme that feels very unintuitive for a platformer, for instance, and the gameplay seems to revolve around digging/destruction for exploration, not platforming for exploration, which is honestly a huge difference.

@skywake
I think the most likely scenario is that yes, lots of the Odyssey team worked on Bonanza, but internal dev teams aren't monoliths. I think it's highly, highly likely that members of that team have either been working on both Bonanza and the next 3D Mario OR been working exclusively on 3D Mario while the rest of the team was doing Bonanza. And, with the very real possibility that most of this game was finished a year or so ago, I wouldn't doubt the next 3D Mario has been well underway for a few years.

And as Nintendo's flagship IP (and in some ways, their straight-up flagship title), absolute secrecy around 3D Mario is not shocking.

@Grumblevolcano
I just don't see that, but I'm also not a Pokemon person, so I'm just being blatantly biased. How long was Switch out before Sword/Shield?

Let's not kid ourselves, nothing can replace Mario. It doesn't matter if DK Bananza is the same genre, it simply lacks the mass appeal of the Mario franchise. It's been about 8 years since the last new 3D Mario was released, I cannot imagine the new entry being very far away from release.

@rallydefault Let's Go was November 2018 (20 months) and Sword/Shield was November 2019 (32 months), 2017's game was the 3DS exclusive Ultra Sun/Moon. I think Legends Z-A having a Switch 2 Edition could be an indicator of eagerness to jump onto the new platform considering the contrast to Black 2/White 2 only having a DS version in the 3DS era.

I was wondering, is Mario and Luigi Brothership decent? I didnt get it because it got slammed on pretty hard by certain critics for being too long and repetitive, but someone has offered me a new copy for 20 bucks.

At this price it has to be worth it, right? Is its framerate unlocked, do we think itll be one of the ones that benefit from SW2 natural enhancements?

@Quantumz00 I would give it a go. I think it's pretty great, I've loved every moment of my 15-20 hours so far - the game is just so charming and the gameplay is as you'd expect from a Mario RPG. Most of the complaints are about its length - I can't completely comment as I've not finished the game yet (it's supposedly pushing 40 hours) - but my personal view is if I can get 15-20 hours of solid fun out of it, I don't really care if I never make it to the end. Not every game has to be beaten / 100%ed.

Can't comment on frame rate, but personally I've had no issues with performance on Switch 1. I imagine it's a locked 30 fps so won't have any automatic enhancements.