Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

An exception is an exception, and you're dealing with N=6. They also don't usually release E ticket games in May (last one was 8 years ago). The fact still remains that Sony and Xbox aren't going to E3 either, and

While I'm firmly in the 2026 or later camp, and it's perfectly reasonable given the sales figures, any article with the word "could" in the headline is total BS. It's the ultimate weasel word.

@IceClimbers Nintendo marketing on Tears of the Kingdom is perfect, all of you, are worrying for too little, Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom dont need a huge marketing campaing to suceed, just Breath of the Wild impact in the franchise will be enough to make the game sales explode, i perfer that Nintendo will go blind on us until the release of the game.

@Giancarlothomaz In other words your reply is "Become a nintendrone and don't question or have concerns about Nintendo's marketing! Buy the game and love it anyways! Everything Nintendo does is good!"

Really, I hate people like this, who try to act as if those who are concerned have no reason to be, and that they need to just shut up and accept things. Some people want to know what they're buying, and the silence that Nintendo is having over this game, along with the repetition of the same screenshots for marketing doesn't really make the people who aren't just shills want to purchase this game. Nothing we have seen gives a reason for why TotK has to exist in the first place as it's own title, let alone the price of the game being increased.

The 3DS was only discontinued in late 2020 so you could have comfortably argued that the 3DS still had a few years left in 2016. Despite the Switch clearly replacing it in the market in early 2017

We are as close to 2026/27 now as we were to 2020 in 2016. Closer even

@VoidofLight i dont need to worry about Tears of the Kingdom, because i trust Nintendo EPD 3, they never disapoit, has any Legend of Zelda game been a disapoitement? no? you all acting Nintendo EPD 3 is Game Freak, that only do disapoiment after disapoiment, get this negative energy out of here and trust the Zelda team, i sure Tears of the Kingdom will be good

@Giancarlothomaz Sorry, but I don't place trust in a company that has been churning out disappointments after disappointments. Nintendo as a whole has been one massive disappointment this gen, and I don't trust them with Zelda. The silence with this game is unnerving, and the fact that they're resorting to marketing BotW instead makes me feel as if they truly have nothing at all to show. The marketing for TotK has been extremely similar to that of Animal Crossing New Horizons before it's release, where Nintendo themselves had nothing to show for the game, so they kept fans waiting in the dark until we got news from leaked renders and promo materials. They then did a big direct which revealed everything in the game (which wasn't a lot of content), and then people found out the hard way that Nintendo really didn't have much to showcase.

I would like to have faith, since Zelda is one of my favorite series, and the only one that Nintendo hasn't outright ruined for me yet, but until I actually see more of the game, I'm not blindly believing or trusting that this will be a good experience worth the price increase.

Well, that's certainly a post to this topic

Can we maybe chill out a little bit? It seems like it's getting pretty heated in here.

Video game executives need be capricious when answering questions about new hardware. What could be true today could be different tomorrow and they mustn't disrupt the momentum of the current product. If Nintendo announce the Switch successor as early as next year, retailers will still carry the current Switch for a couple or few years afterwards. We're almost three years into the PS5 and retailers are still carrying new PS4 bundles in stock, which is almost ten years old.

@ElRoberico
Not sure if that was directed at my post or the one above. TBH I am getting pretty tired of the contrarian takes. There just always has to be someone who points to the most successful and critically acclaimed titles and platforms and does the whole "I think this popular thing is bad, look how cool I am for having a different opinion"

I mean if someone wants to try and spin that the Switch has been "disappointment after disappointment"? They're free to make such a post. But said post isn't really worth the time it took to write IMO. Like someone taking the time to write a multi-page negative review of OK Computer or Revolver. We get it, you're too cool to like a thing that's well reviewed. Well done

I have no doubts that TotK will be a solid release. The trailers have looked solid, BotW was great and Nintendo know how to develop for the platform. There also are barely any Zelda games that I wouldn't give at least a "9" if I was to throw out ratings. It's a well received series because it's consistently good. So I think it's best to just outright ignore the posts that are talking **** about it at this stage

Yeah that kind of take is very much a contrarian take considering that most of the Switch entries are widely considered to be among the best in their respective series.

@skywake I just meant in general. It felt really heated. It's really easy to forget the person in online spaces, and at the end of the day, we're here to discuss video games, specifically the next direct here. Maybe I'm just mentally exhausted, and if I'm taking it out on anyone here, I'm sorry.

And I agree that it's definitely a very different take, and even if someone might not like the games from their series on the Switch, there's no denying there's definitely proof of their sales and critical success.

@skywake I'm not being contrarian because it's "hip" or "cool" to hate Nintendo. I just genuinely feel that the switch gen has disappointed me to no end. The only Nintendo games I genuinely liked this gen were BotW, Luigi's Mansion 3, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Other than that, I've mostly been gravitating towards 3rd party titles, given that Nintendo keeps burning their bridges with me.

I won't deny that these games are successful, but calling a lot of the Switch games the best in their respective series is a massive stretch. Animal Crossing New Horizons isn't the best in the Animal Crossing series. It's the best selling game, yes, but it really cuts back on a good bit of stuff that New Leaf did to improve the series, and it feels inferior due to it. It alienates one side of the fanbase, while bolstering up the other, when previous games used to keep a perfect balance of both customization and life sim elements. The update model made me drop the game fairly fast as well, since it was such a slow trickle of content that really should have been in the final game on launch.

Mario Odyssey was disappointing to me, but it's hard to put into words how I feel about that game, or why I feel the way I do. It just gives me an incredibly off feeling.

Splatoon 2 and 3 don't really appeal to me, but from what I have played of 3, there's no reason why it had to exist on Switch. Other than the storyline and some buffs and nerfs to weapons, it's pretty much the same game as 2, but with a new skin over it.

You have games like Switch Sports or the Mario Sports games, which also launched completely unfinished and suffered because of it. Tons of the content in those games also should've been in the game at launch, but for some reason Nintendo keeps doing this stupid update model which ends up ruining their games outright.

The switch online expansion pass really has no reason to exist, when the online is already suffering in terms of quality as is, and the Mario Kart 8 DLC showcases how lazy Nintendo has been getting with releases. The DLC's graphical style looks completely rough, and feels completely out of place with the rest of the tracks in the base game. Not to mention, the DLC courses quality are also inconsistent among one another. Sure, the price is a "value" for the DLC courses, but it's clear that NIntendo rushed those out in order to make a quick buck and give people a reason to keep being subscribed to the Online expansion pass. I also know the online is cheaper than the other competition, but at the same time the quality of the online itself is not worth paying a dime for.

I want to believe that Tears of the Kingdom will be good. The game will sell no matter what, and I'm not denying that, but the way that this game is being marketed worries me. With all the other things Nintendo did this gen that burned me, I just have no reason to accept that everything will be fine, and that this game will actually be worth the asking price. Nothing in the trailers we have had made me truly excited for TotK or showcased why the price had to be increased. This is a first for Zelda as a series as well, since Zelda is my all time favorite Nintendo series, and yet I just feel nothing by watching the trailers we've gotten for TotK. The fact that they've resolved to just marketing BotW now also has me worried that TotK truly has nothing of substance for them to show, hence why they're showing off a game that came out 6-7 years ago instead.

In terms of Nintendo-published releases, my primary disappointments have been...

Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Dumbed down the social/life sim elements too much, placing too much of an emphasis on customizing your island. Lack of multiplayer features, even compared to New Leaf. Not a fan of how slowly they doled out new content, either.

Splatoon 3 - It's not a bad game, but the connection issues in the first several months, combined with the general lack of new modes and content made it feel underwhelming compared to previous entries.

As I understand it, both of those series are developed by the same team, so I guess you could say I'm disappointed with their output in general.

Also, Yoshi's Crafted Island was disappointing compared to Woolly World, and Pokemon Sword and Shield was a terrible generation of games in that particular series.

It's also annoying how we still don't have a new Mario Kart game.

I've been pretty happy with their other output, though, with games like Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Super Mario Odyssey, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Breath of the Wild being some of my favorite games of all time. Also, definitely my favorite set of third-party exclusives among all the platforms.

@Ralizah
In contrary, I really like ACNH better than ACNL since the villagers in ACNH will never moving out by themselves, something that I really dreamed of.
I like the terraforming in ACNH since I like designing like The Sims games so I really enjoy the terraforming process and looking at my beautiful island that has been shaped.

My biggest disappointment is still NO cartoonish BOXING games on Switch even ARMS 2.
I really wonder is peoples in this universe really do not like cartoonish boxing games?

@VoidofLight
I think you're being a bit contrarian and I think the dislike of New Horizons some push is probably the most obvious example of it on the platform. I mean it's Animal Crossing, it did Animal Crossing things. I struggle to see how it was worse than the GC/DS releases. I certainly don't see how its worse than the Wii entry

You could maybe make a case that it was a step back from New Leaf but, if you actually think about it, aside from Streetpass everything New Leaf added was either retained or expanded. New Leaf had Re-Tail and item customisation with Ore, New Horizons added crafting. New Leaf added the ability to add structures outside of your house, New Horizons allowed you to put any item outside and terraform your island. New Leaf had a late free Amiibo DLC and a spin-off game Happy Home Designer, New Horizons had Amiibo on day 1 and released Happy Home Designer as integrated DLC

I feel the only real criticism anyone ever seems to have about it that stacks up is the rate that content was added. Which in some cases I certainly agree, by the time they added potatoes/tomatoes etc and Kappa I was pretty much done with the game. But for a game based on a real world clock? If ever there was a game where the game is released "unfinished" and gets patches to add stuff later, this is the game where that's not an issue. It's a game meant to be played over years, it literally has a slow trickle of content as its main gameplay loop. That's the entire point

So yeah, I'd VERY confidently say that New Horizons is the best Animal Crossing game in the series. Not by a massive margin over New Leaf but IMO definitely above New Leaf. I'd put Breath of the Wild in the same boat, personally, or at least competitive in that very competitive list. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe I'd put there also although obviously the Wii U version did most of the heavy lifting there. Smash Bros Ultimate is in a similar boat to Mario Kart 8. Metroid Dread I'd confidently say is the best 2D Metroid. Odyssey? I think it's a bit tough to figure out if it's above the Galaxy games but mostly because it's just a very different game in a lot of ways, still a top tier release

I'll give you the disappointment in the Mario Sports titles as well as Switch Sports. They certainly fall short of the peak of their franchises. Switch Sports, as objectively as possible, is at the very least well short of Wii Sports Resort. In some ways I'd say it exceeds Wii Sports Club and Wii Sports but the JoyCon is no WiiMote and the Avatars are soul-less compared to the tight integration of Miis

The Mario Sports games? I'd agree they're pretty un-interesting, in the last 20 years the only "Mario Sports" games I've picked up were Mario Tennis on the 3DS and Mario Strikers Charged on the Wii. From what I understand those titles were both fairly well received entries compared to what's on Switch. And even then, Mario Tennis on 3DS is WELL short of Mario Tennis on the GBC. Hell, give me Super Tennis on the SNES and I'm happy. Really, you have to go back to the 90s to find a time where sports games, Wii Sports excluded, were top tier games on Nintendo's platforms

But yeah, in general? I think it's fair to say that the Switch broadly speaking the home of some of the best entries in various Nintendo franchises. Often convincingly so. And I stand by my point that people trying to spin this narrative that it's not the case are just trying to make themselves stand out for having a hot take. It's an old bit, find some new material

I can’t even tell what this drama is over. Is it something like Animal Crossing is bad so Zelda Kingdom Sad 😢 will be bad as Americans have to pay the same higher price as the rest of world paid for Breath Of The Wild and people want another trailer?

@skywake The update model is a very big issue in terms of animal crossing, or at least how it was handled in New Horizons. For example, a good bit of features that Animal Crossing New Leaf had were not in the game at launch of New Horizons. Things like the art gallery were an additional update months after launch of NH, same with diving and the dream suite. The reason why these updates were an issue was because of how empty the base game was, compared with the fact that these updates added back features and functions that were in other games at launch. Not to mention, the type of game Animal Crossing is, is one based upon making your own goals and achieving what you want when you want to do so. With New Horizon's updates, if you were playing before the updates had finished, you effectively had to wait for them to drop the content before doing everything you wanted to do. You didn't unlock things at your own pace, you unlocked things when the game developers say you can have the ability to use them.

Another issue with New Horizons is that while the game does bolster the creative aspects, handling them better than previous games in the series while giving players more freedom, there are drawbacks in terms of the life sim aspect of the game. For the most part, New Horizons is a lifeless dollhouse simulator, and barely a life sim, where as all the other games in the series are proper life simulators first, with customization being more balanced out. In New Horizons, things like shop upgrades barely exist. Holidays are very shallow compared to their New Leaf counterparts, with them basically being a massive step back as you don't actually seem to be able to prepare for them unlike you could in New Leaf. Tons of special characters had been cut from New Horizons and in turn got replaced with "Quality of Life" features, which end up making the game feel more soulless. Smaller holidays were cut and replaced with kiosk items, and things like online multiplayer mini-games are completely gone, which is ironic considering how New Horizons was the first game to include 8 player multiplayer. Things like golden tools are also extremely worthless in New Horizons as well, being delegated to trophies instead of being actual beneficial items that you can use.

Villagers feel more lifeless in New Horizons as well, since they had their request system turned down. They can't move out unless you allow them to, so it makes it feel like the island is one massive hostage situation. There's no reason to play every day either, since things like flowers won't die if they aren't watered, and villagers again won't move out randomly.

I will say that New Horizons does have some good features that make it hard to go back to previous games, like the ability to place furniture outside, edit terrain, destroy rocks, and move your home/villager homes, but I feel like outside of these things, it is vastly inferior in terms of the life sim aspect, which is the biggest shame imo. As someone who doesn't enjoy decorating, given they aren't good at it, New Horizons is probably my least favorite game in the series, given that there's absolutely nothing for me to do outside of the decorating aspect of the game. I'm hoping the next game will at least do better in this regard.

The BotW marketing makes me think they're going to add the DLC to NSO Expansion Pack alongside whenever we next get news for TotK. Kind of like what happened with Splatoon last year, this trailer dropped at the same time as Octo Expansion being added to NSO Expansion Pack:

I have noticed that Nintendo has been getting sloppy in a number of different ways in recent years. Hard to determine who the specific culprits are though. It seems like all we can do is speculate about such things.

I wonder exactly how their corporate board positions have shuffled around in recent years... that would probably give us some insight.