Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@FishyS Lol fair enough. 😅 I do enjoy the conversation on the topic, just wish everyone was respectful of other peoples’ ideas even if they don’t think they’re feasible. We gotta remember this thread is literally designed for wild speculation, so I don’t think there’s really such thing as “nonsense” here.

In before they call it Mario Kart X and Elon Musk tries to sue them for using "his" X branding

@GalaxicGlobe @Nintoz Gosh, now that you've mentioned it, I'd love a Mario Kart Wonder as well! Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed had a similar concept where whole courses would change during the race, so that sounds like something I'd get behind... the wheel on. (Had to make that pun!) Plus I loved Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the wonder effects were my favorite part of that game.

I think that whatever they do with MarioKart, they need to shake things up. I feel like we are going to see alot of our favourite IP's get a lot of change with the next gen. With games like MarioKart, Smash Bros, Animal Crossing, Zelda, 3D Mario. They all feel like the latest iteration has been an 'Ultimate' version of the game (obviously Smash being the most notable of that).

Who knows what could be next? Top down shoot em up metroid? MarioKartVR? Animal Crossing Go?

@JoeM103 I don’t see Zelda be given another shakeup after the huge successes that were Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom

Time will tell whether TotK sales get near BotW sales or not.

But also recall Animal Crossing and Mario Kart did even better than BotW (by a large margin) and smash ultimate about tied it. In fact all 4 are in the top 13 best selling Nintendo games ever. Smash, AC, Zelda sales more than doubled the previous best selling games in their franchises and Kart almost did.

My point is... how does Nintendo try to follow up any of those?? If they try to sell more Zelda that is too similar it will presumably sell well but with slowly declining sales. So they will want to attempt to shake it up a little but not too much. For the other series it's even less clear how to try to recapture that amount of sales. Honestly, sucks to be in charge of those teams at Nintendo right now. 😆 Must be so stressful.

I think I cracked the code on this Mario Kart thing. First, they're counting 8 Deluxe as 9. Next, Tour and Home Circuit and each their own game. (10 and 11) Then, the Booster Course Pass is 12, which lands on Mario Kart 13. Nintendo obviously can't do 13, because that's an unlucky number, and Shuntaro Furukawa's psychic is my uncle's barber's sister-in-law, who recently told him that he needs to avoid any sort of unlucky number at all costs. (The ghost of the Virtual Boy told her that)

This then lands us on Mario Kart 14, and since there are 14 tiles in a complete mahjong hand, the obvious theme of the game is playing Riichi mahjong while driving around in karts. This then opens the opportunity for Chibi Robo to make an appearance driving inside a mahjong tile. The art team got so caught up in making Chibi Robo content for the game that Miyamoto, upon discovering how Chibi Robo-focused the game had become, ran out in a blind rage. He passes by the marketing department while on his furious storm-about, and they ask him what's wrong. He responds, "We're making Chibi Robo Kart instead, apparently!" They take this literally, and since they have manufacturing deadlines coming up, they have to produce all this new marketing before being able to run it by anyone, and the branding sticks because they put millions into it already. Thus, logically, obviously, the only possible name for the next game in the Mario Kart franchise is Chibi Robo Kart 14: Riichi for the Stars!

@chiiizu
There was number 13 in video game, Final Fantasy XIII, King of Fighters XIII, Beatmania IIDX 13: DistorteD.
13 is not always unlucky number.
My signature number is number 13 that I designed almost looks like letter B.

@MarioVillager92 I know right! It would be fun.

@Nintoz Fr and then they could just go crazy so it wouldn't feel old.

@Anti-Matter The psychic told him to scour every culture, every number, every possibility. While usually he wouldn't have worried about it, the psychic struck a chord with him, and he went to unprecedented lengths in his search.

@chiiizu It's only March, but this is the post of the year

@Sigran102 Thank you very much, I was quite proud of it

I've made a fair bit of noise on these forums over the last few years saying that a lot of people are to wedded to the idea of Nintendo always coming out with something insane for their next hardware. Some "Nintendo hook". I don't think Switch 2 will have that and I think people are wrong to assume that something like that will happen.......

But for software? I wouldn't bet on Nintendo being at all predictable. This is the same Nintendo that made Wind Waker after Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. They went from Mario 64 to Sunshine to Galaxy to 3D World. If some leak/rumour came out that said Nintendo was working on a new Zelda game that was set almost entirely in space with a pencil-drawn art style

.... I'd respond to it by saying.... well, if they can do an oil-painted Zelda in the sky and a cell-shaded Zelda in a boat and another Zelda is built around a time loop and an angry moon? Sure, why not. If anything I'd be more inclined to believe a rumour like that than one that said "Nintendo is making another BotW"

@skywake
I think your right that the series will change in terms of artstyle and the worlds games take place in, but the open world format of Zelda is here to stay.

I wouldn't be so sure about 'here to stay'... trends come and go. But they basically already implied in the one interview that the next major 3D Zelda would be open world still.

I feel that TTYD and LM2's release dates would decide the fate of Direct. If both are released by the end of June then there's a good chance for April general Direct but if it ends up being 1 in June + 1 in July then it seems that the only chance of Direct before June is another Partner Showcase and/or a Metroid Direct considering the only times we got general Directs after February but before June were when we didn't know the July release:

• 2017 - Splatoon 2 got a July release date in the April 2017 general Direct
• 2018 - Octopath Traveler (this was back when Nintendo published it) and Captain Toad got July release dates in the March 2018 general Direct
• 2019 - There was a February general Direct which revealed Fire Emblem Three Houses for July
• 2020 - No general Direct at all that year, Paper Mario The Origami King releasing in July was a standalone trailer in May
• 2021 - There was a February general Direct which revealed Skyward Sword HD for July
• 2022 - There was a February general Direct which didn't reveal a July game but XC3 releasing in July (2 months early) was a standalone trailer in April
• 2023 - There was a February general Direct which revealed Pikmin 4 for July

Lego announced their Mario Day related announcements:

• Bowser Express Train (from 3D World)
• King Boo's Haunted Mansion
• Battle with Roy at Peach's Castle
• Mario Kart in 2025

Wow, that was all kinds of cringe…. Those were terrible actors.

Pyoro was right again. Paper Mario in May, Luigi's Mansion in June. Big yikes at Luigi's Mansion being $60.