Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

I don't know why, but I am throwing a wild card here and saying 'Eternal Darkness' remaster.

Only a handful of weeks away from our June direct. Surely these rumored 3ds/GC ports will show up there, yes? Looking forward to it for sure. Feels like we haven't had a banger direct in a minute. At least for me. The Feb direct didn't do anything for me, and neither have the recent indie worlds.

Seems semi unlikely the rumoured 2025 ports would be in this direct which will presumably be about 'Switch games launching in the latter half of 2024'. I mean, one of them might, but 2025 is definitely not going to be the focus. Not to say there won't also potentially be 3ds or gamecube ports coming out this year unrelated to that leak...

The next Direct if it was the best possible (in my opinion):

• Animal Crossing New Leaf HD
• Luigi’s Mansion 1 HD
• Kirby Air Ride 2
• Mario Sluggers Ultimate
• Super Mario Bros Wonder DLC
• Pikmin 4 DLC
• Mario & Luigi
• Mario Party 11
• DK64, Diddy Kong Racing, Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland, Super Smash Bros 64 for NSO
• 3D Mario tease

I know this is very unlikely and Mario-focused, but this is just what I’d really want to see! I’d be happy if just one of these happened.

What's interesting is that out of all the remakes/remasters/ports over the past year or so, none of them have been from N64.

Since the start of last year we've had:

• A GameCube remaster
• A Wii remake
• A pair of GBA remakes
• A pair of GameCube HD ports
• A SNES remake
• A collection of a DS remake and a Wii remake
• A GBA remake
• A GameCube remake
• A 3DS remaster

Sim City 64DD Definitive Edition is long overdue.

@IceClimbers Probably because 64 is on NSO. GameCube, 3DS, WiiU, DS, and Wii aren’t on NSO.

There are reasons for the exceptions for GBA/SNES:

• Advance Wars 1+2 was made before GBA came to NSO but was delayed due to a war going on
• Super Mario RPG was made originally by Square Enix, I don’t believe Nintendo has any Square Enix games on NSO so may be an issue getting them on there
• Mario Vs. Donkey Kong was likely created before GBA was on NSO, and they likely didn’t want to keep all of the original’s dialogue.

Most notable N64 games are on NSO which means it’s not very likely we’re getting a remake/remaster of any of them.

The main ones left are Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo Tooie, Donkey Kong 64, and Super Smash Bros. We’ll likely see some of them coming soon. The first 3 I listed are by Rare which already has several games on NSO. That just leaves Super Smash Bros 64 which is by HAL Laboratory, which also has several games on NSO already. Seems like Nintendo/Masahiro Sakurai are intentionally avoiding it right now, whether they simply are saving it or Sakurai doesn’t want it on there for some reason. This seems possible for a remake, however I think that it’ll probably just end up on NSO.

@IceClimbers N64 got hugely mined during the 3DS and Switch era, that's probably why. Within the last 2 gens we've gotten versions of / content from Zelda OOT & MM, Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64, Mario Party 1, 2 & 3 (in Superstars), Mario Kart 64 (in 8), Tony Hawk 1+2, Doom 64, all the Star Wars games, Turok 1+2, Smash 64 (in Ultimate).

Glover has been announced but who knows when it'll launch.

Rare's games did get a glow-up in Rare Replay, and it's not particularly likely to hit Nintendo consoles. Resident Evil has the same issue, having the remakes not land on Switch. Diddy Kong Racing is probably never getting a modern rerelease, but at least it's on NSO.

Starcraft (64) did get a remake in 2017, not on Nintendo systems.

Pokemon Stadium 1&2, Pokemon Puzzle League are on NSO, and wouldn't really make sense to remake (why not just make a newer stadium-like?). Same with Wave Race and 1080 Snowboarding.

The games that are viable are just:
Nintendo: Yoshi's Story, F-Zero X, Kirby 64, DK 64, Pokemon Snap - DK 64 could use a remake that fixes tons of issues, but that's unlikely with Rare's situation. Kirby 64 is probably the most likely to resurface this year of anything. If you had to choose between remaking F-Zero X and GX, I assume the latter would get priority. And Yoshi's Story really is fine on NSO. Pokemon Snap took this long to get a sequel, I don't see a remake happening.
???: Ogre Battle 64 - I don't even know who owns these rights? Can't really speculate.
Capcom: Megaman 64 (Legends) - Since Legends 3 Capcom won't even acknowledge this series
Konami: Castlevania / Legacy of Darkness, Mystical Ninja - Maybe in a collection... someday...? Wouldn't count the Castlevania ones out at least.
Ubsioft: Rayman 2 - Like we'll get Rayman anything
Treasure: Sin and Punishment and Mischief Makers - Ah Treasure... so unlikely...
Marvelous: Harvest Moon 64 - They didn't even develop this one, unlikely to be remade

I'm sure I missed a few, but I'm still pretty confident almost every 64 game that doesn't have licensing issues and is likely to sell has already been rereleased on Switch / 3DS (or has been announced, Glover). The N64 library is frankly rather tiny, I think that well has just run mostly dry (for now, I'd expect SF64 / MM / OOT to appear again next gen)

EDIT: Ugh, I forgot Paper Mario 64 (though it probably won't release the same year as TTYD and SM RPG)

@FishyS for sure. I guess we'll find out soon! Exciting times, no doubt.

@link3710 I would love to see a Kirby 64 remake. It was my first Kirby game, the ability combo system was so fun, and they could really modernize it in some simple ways that wouldn't be too intensive.

For one, I think this game is a good candidate for 4 player co-op. You already have the framework for it already since Waddle Dee (which they might just retcon to Bandana Dee), Adeline, and King Dedede are NPCs in the game already, just let extra players control them. There are a few sections where you had to piggyback on King Dedede that might need some altering (how would you do that if you don't have a friend playing as Dedede?) but other than that this is an easy addition.

Besides that though, I think they can add in Leaf and Water and some new combos involving them. It felt kind of weird that the game had a lot of elemental based Copy Abilities but didn't have something like them, but then those abilities didn't exist at the time so it was more okay. In a remake though, this would feel like a glaring omission. Now adding new Copy Abilities might be a bit more intensive but I think they can do it with minimal changes, especially since Kirby 64 Copy Abilities are fairly simplistic and minimalist to facilitate the combo system. There's already some enemies in the game that would be suitable to give that ability (Floras would be a great candidate for Leaf, and Drops would be great for Water), and they might want to change a few of the Crystal Shards to require those abilities, but I think they can get away with it.

I do wonder what PS1 games we get this time, the vast majority of Directs since March 2018 (Crash trilogy) have featured PS1 games and there's still quite a few classics that aren't on Switch. Of course I'm excluding the 1st party IP like Syphon Filter and Gran Turismo that no chance of coming to Switch.

@Grumblevolcano Good question. Maybe something like the original Silent Hill game or maybe SOTN or maybe the PS1 Resident Evil games? Idk tbh.

I just hope if they remake Twilight Princess, they actually remake it. The HD treatment for that game was abysmal given that it deserves a TTYD style remake.

Going down your list. I'd argue there's little reason for Animal Crossing remakes just in general. It's a game that's a bit like Mario Kart or Smash, the new games are the remasters. So I think this one is very unlikely

Luigi's Mansion HD makes sense but I don't see why they'd do it so close to 2. Kirby is a good shout. Sluggers is not a bad shout but I think people generally take too much of a NA centric view on it. If they were to bring back a Mario Sports game I'd argue that Mario Hoops would be a better fit. IMO

DLC? Possibly. Always a reasonable guess. Whether or not the DLC is interesting is another question. As if stands there's not much I'm personally hoping we see DLC for

Mario & Luigi? I think that's unlikely. Mario Party is always a possibility so fair but again I couldn't care less. Expanding NSO will happen it's just a question of how. Personally I still think Pokemon would be a great closer for Switch leading into Switch 2 but DK/DKR are also pretty decent picks

Also I doubt we'll see anything about the next Mario game or anything significant. Metroid Prime 4 is possible I guess but I think they're not going to cross into "Switch 2" land with this direct so temper your expectations there

@skywake "The new games are the remasters."

Ehhhh New Horizons and New Leaf are two entirely different games which have two entirely different things they emphasize on. New Horizons emphasizes itself on being a sandbox decorating sim, where as New Leaf is an actual life-sim and social sim game. It might not be a big deal to people who don't care about the series or aren't really big fans of it- but there's a night and day difference to how the two games handle themselves.

New Horizons has Holidays, seasons, and talking to villagers, but there's a lot missing. The Holidays lack depth, and the villagers do as well. It feels like the world revolves around your character and that nothing changes or penalizes you for not playing. Watering flowers? Doesn't matter now unless you want to breed them. Weeding? Only matters if you want to use them for crafting or care about island rating. Villagers moving out on their own? No longer happens because a small fraction of the playerbase said it made them "sad," so now Villagers are held hostage on your island until you allow them to leave.

New Leaf had more emphasis on the Holidays by making them events where you actually have to memorize things or actively engage. There was the ability to fail them, but if you did you'd still be able to come back the next year to get them right. The game had more of a balance of control. You were given a ton of control over the town- being the mayor and all, but you weren't given the God-like control that you have in New Horizons. There were still consequences for not playing, and you still had the world change around you even if you haven't been around. It felt like a living and breathing world of its own- which is something that New Horizons completely lacks.

I'd say remastering New Leaf is still something that Nintendo would never do, since to them they see that New Horizons itself is enough for the Switch.. but to say that they're effectively the same game is entirely wrong- given how their approaches to content is entirely different from one another.

@Novamii Honestly, the main reason I want a full on remake of Twilight Princess is mostly due to wanting an orchestrated soundtrack. Twilight Princess' OST was composed with the feel of being orchestrated, but they didn't really want to commit fully to having an orchestrated OST at the time of release- opting for Midi instead. It wasn't until Skyward Sword that they actually acknowledged that they needed a fully orchestrated OST instead of going the midi route like they did with Twilight Princess. I also think the visual aspects would look way better if they remade them from the ground up. While I like the bloom effect they have with the Twilight, the execution was a bit rough in the original game. Changing lighting systems would probably be for the best in that regard. I also think that models deserve an upgrade, as well as just the overall texture work. I think Twilight Princess would be a really great game to show off Raytracing, given that the game itself would benefit due to the more realistic direction like you said. It would be a sort of waste on the WindWaker- given that even though the game has a ton of water, the water is highly stylized (reason I bring up water is because that's the largest source of reflection in games with ray tracing). Overall lighting and shadows would benefit more as well in Twilight Princess I feel.

@VoidofLight
I'm a fan of the series and do care about it so you're wrong on that point. Also I didn't say it was the same game, it isn't. What I said was that they're unlikely to remaster old games in the series because the new games are the remasters. You agree with this so I'm not entirely sure why that wall of text was warranted

New Horizons gets a lot of crap I feel. Some nitpicky, some valid. And that's probably where the wish for a remaster of New Leaf comes from I guess. But if they were to address these complaints it would be in the form of a new game. Not a remaster of an old game

@skywake I guess that's true. They would address or ignore the complaints of New Horizons in the next game.

@skywake Metroid Prime 4 will probably be at the Direct, not something I’m too interested in though.

Yeah a lot of the things I listed are pretty unlikely, just my wishes for the Direct. Personally if there isn’t anything I’m interested in at the Direct I can’t really complain much because I have TTYD, so I don’t care too much what else comes out this year. Wouldn’t complain if they had more things I’m interested in though!

Nintendo keeps bringing up Pikmin:

So it seems very likely that the June Direct either gets Pikmin 4 DLC or Hey Pikmin gets ported over from 3DS. Former seems more likely but maybe Hey Pikmin would be more positively received than it was in 2017 now that the real Pikmin 4 exists.

@Grumblevolcano If we get Pikmin 4 DLC I will be unreasonably happy.

Most games pretty much fall off of marketing after a few months (like Mario RPG, Another Code, WarioWare: Move It!, etc.) but for some reason Pikmin 4/Pikmin in general keeps being advertised. We’ve been thinking about DLC since it’s release, however I started to lose hope after there was no general Direct in February. I think June Direct is Pikmin 4 DLC’s last chance. I have a little hope since they keep talking about it.