Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

Id personally be extra happy with a BS Zelda port on NSO.

@Grumblevolcano I feel like early 2025 is probably when the console will launch. Either that- or the summer.

@rallydefault They never did that with virtual console. They aren't doing it here. Keep dreaming.

I love remasters and remakes because they take older games with horrid graphics and make them look up to par with current gen releases. We get to see what the actual vision that the devs had looks like with the newer coat of paint. Especially given that y'know, the older games were harshly limited by the fact that the consoles they were on were as powerful as a box of soap.

NieR Replicant 1.22 is one of my favorite remakes. The main reason why is because not only does it give the original game a massive facelift, but it also makes the combat more akin to what the developers originally wanted for the game- and they added in all of the content that was cut due to lack of budget at the time of the original game's release. It basically made the definitive release of the original game.

Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition is the only way I recommend playing the original Xenoblade Chronicles. It has a ton of Quality of Life updates that make the experience way better to play- and the visuals are more akin to what the developers originally wanted (but couldn't do on the wii).

Twilight Princess (One of the games I really want a proper remake for) has so many things wrong with it. It needs a full on remake to correct those issues.

I am the same, that said a full remake of skies of Arcadia, followed by an actual sequel, I’d play the hell out of that…

That's fair, but those old games are new to most players and a remake takes less resources to make than a 100% brand new game. Including the remakes basically just translates to more games in a particular franchise on Switch.

Sonic X Shadow Generations digital preorder hasn't gone up yet for Switch but is up on all the other platforms. So I think we'll get more info on the game in the June Direct.

@RygelXVIII Here's the thing though. Some of these games are games that not everyone got to play. Not everyone got to play The Thousand Year Door. A bunch of people were either children or infants at the time of the game's release- so they only got to experience it now.

I didn't get to experience NieR Replicant until I played 1.22, since the original game was niche and hard to obtain legally until the remake released.

While you don't really care about playing old games- I'd love to play older games. There's a wealth of titles that are classics, yet not many people are able to play them at the moment due to how hard they are to get ahold of. Games like Xenosaga, Xenogears, some of the older Fire Emblems.

I also find older games to be far better than some newer releases. It was back when most developers still cared about the art-form of making games in the first place. Back when a ton of game series were in their prime. Before Micro-transactions and before stuff like "battle-passes" or AAA gaming trying to trend chase with Battle Royales and Hero shooters. Sure.. you still have those games on occasion, but they're usually moreso an exception now than the rule. Especially with how singleplayer gaming is a shriveling market due to giants like Fortnite changing the gaming landscape for young buyers.

Having remakes of old games is never a bad thing imo. They take 0 resources away from the development of newer titles, given that it's always a side team handling remakes usually. They let people experience a new game that they wouldn't have played otherwise, and fans of the game get a version of it that has better graphics in turn. Sometimes they can be a mixed bag on the changes that they make, but most of the time I've seen remakes that make genuinely good changes over-all.

I'd say that it's good to have a mix of both old and new.

However, Nintendo have already been leaning very heavily on older games so far this year, so I'd think that the balance needs redressing somewhat during the remaining months.

That's not to say that there isn't room for one or two more, but when we've only had Princess Peach and Endless Ocean so far, it doesn't seem unreasonable to be asking for more new games.

@rallydefault
I think you missed my point there. These games got their remasters years before they appeared on NSO. I have no doubts that Nintendo intended to eventually put those games on NSO and knew it when they were making those games. But when these remasters released nobody could sit back and ask "why am I paying full retail for this remaster when the original is on NSO?"

You keep saying that they won't "remaster these games again" because they'll just be part of a future NSO. But you're missing the point. What I'm saying is that the fact that they've remastered these before is irrelevant because Wii U and the Wii U eShop are both dead. You can play them, I can play them, Joe Average with a Switch cannot. And the fact that these games are the most note-worthy million seller Wii U titles that haven't been ported to Switch yet (Nintendo Land, Wind Waker, Mario Party 10, Wii Party U, Yoshi's Woolly World and Twilight Princess) makes me think they're a fairly safe bet. That's my main argument

My secondary argument is that if they are doing a release of these games on Switch they could do more than what they did on Wii U. With Twilight Princess in particular given how clearly rushed that HD version was. And more to the point, it would seem to me a waste of sales potential to just slap the originals on NSO and call it a day. Now, I do expect them to be on NSO eventually but here comes in my third point. If these games exist on NSO then any remaster would have to either be improved enough to warrant getting in addition to having it on NSO or it would have to come out significantly before any release on NSO

So in my mind the timeline could be something like this:
This year Twilight Princess "Remastered", fully orchestrated soundtrack and generally more effort than the Wii U version. Seems to me like the most obvious play. Easy filler for this year, big Zelda game, comfortable million seller. Of course they will almost surely expand NSO this year in some form but I don't think GC is the immediate next step, there are other platforms they will go to first (will get into that later)

Early next year Switch 2 and as part of the Switch 2 push they do something like an "RTX Remix" of some key titles. Wind Waker could be part of that, Ocarina of Time is probably a better fit. Also I assume they'll want to continue to support the "Switch 1" so a Wind Waker HD could also be part of that

There are some platforms that could appear on NSO that were on VC. Master System, TurboGrafx and Game Gear are all potentials I think, depending on what they can negotiate. Along similar lines NeoGeo would be interesting I think

Diving further into the third party stuffs there are other potentials from Sega that haven't been explored yet. On Switch 2 if we have that much more storage they could push for some of the CD based games. Saturn and Dreamcast could be on the cards eventually I think. Also I could potentially see the Mega Drive collection expanding to include 32X and Sega CD. But I think all of these are.... a bit more of a stretch than the ones I mentioned earlier

For Nintendo's stuff? I think this year we get some big titles to push it, possibly something like Pokemon, but no new systems. I think the next platform from Nintendo's list of systems they add will be DS, possibly next year, and they'll make it work by allowing different screen orientations like they did on Wii U. Presumably you'll be able to buy a alternate grip and stylus for it. After DS? Yes probably GameCube and then Wii. But I wouldn't be holding my breath for them

What I think they may do with NSO+ in the meantime is start to make it have value outside of the classic games libraries. There's a lot of talk about enhanced ports or patches for Switch 2, I could see that potentially being an upgrade path offered through NSO+. Also as we start to approach 10 years since the Switch launched and assuming BC I could see Nintendo start to do stuff like "if you are a NSO+ sub this month you can download and keep one of Captain Toad, Mario Tennis Aces or Clubhouse Games"

@Novamii
They certainly did although it seems the NA list was a much less impressive list than what I was offered. I believe I picked up The Wonderful 101

But yeah, there are many ways they could "add value" to NSO+ other than just putting new systems on it. And eventually they're going to have to because they're going to run out of systems very quickly if they keep adding a new one or two every year. Offering "free" games from their back catalogue or other such offers, certainly another way to add value I'd think. I mean they do already include DLC in NSO+ and the voucher program in NSO

I still just don't see Nintendo supporting the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 like Sony is with the PS4 and PS5. I don't think Nintendo is going to outright abandon the Switch in the first year of the Switch 2's launch- but I feel like they're going to ween people off of it like they did with the 3DS. There'll be games, but a ton of games will probably be exclusive to Switch 2 with Switch 1 having a few stragglers here and there that can also be played on the other console. @skywake

@VoidofLight
I don't see any reason why they wouldn't to some degree. The simple fact is that Nintendo has often supported their previous platform for a couple of years into the new console release. Think 3DS still getting support well after 2017. Kirby's Epic Yarn, Mario & Luigi, Yo-kai Watch, Luigi's Mansion, Wario Ware, Captain Toad, Pokemon, Fire Emblem Warriors, Samus Returns, Hey Pikmin were all post Switch launch releases. Some of them as late as 2019. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see a similar thing for Switch post Switch 2's launch

.... but more than that, the Switch isn't backwards compatible with 3DS. Switch 2 probably will be backwards compatible with Switch. This is the smallest change, in terms of capabilities and architecture, we've seen from Nintendo since GC -> Wii. To be clear, still a huge jump in power and in that sense it's certainly not the smallest jump. But for stuff like stylised 2D platformers, party games and the like? Why would you even bother making the game Switch 2 only? What do you gain out of that?

Of course for the Zeldas, Metroids, Marios and so on there will be a drop in support for Switch and everything will transition to Switch 2 fairly quickly I think. But just the raw install base, architectural similarities and just straight up diminishing returns? That equation means we'll get very a long tail of Switch support I expect. Unlike anything we've seen from Nintendo before this

@skywake I mean, I'm not saying they're going to fully stop support. I agree with you that we'll probably still get smaller-scale games for the console like things like "Hey Pikmin!" or third party titles that can be played on Switch 2. I just don't think they're going to be outright supporting Switch five years out into the next console's lifespan. Mainly given that the current system is on extremely out of date hardware in comparison to modern tech in the first place. I just can't see the next 3D Mario or next Zelda, or even Xenoblade Chronicles 4 running on Switch 2.

Also wasn't the Wii U to Switch one of the smallest jumps technically speaking? I get that the Switch is technically a handheld console- but the Wii U and Switch are both around on par with the PS3- at least last I've heard.

I haven't been keeping up with the Switch 2, but I heard that it would be more of a technical leap? Since the closed doors gamescom presentation stuff said that it was able to Raytrace and play games at 4K.. something probably helped by the NVIDIA chipset, but something that's still going to make a massive graphical leap, possibly allowing for games that are more current to run on the platform without as much issue.

@VoidofLight
I was talking more in terms of hardware compatibility. Wii U in terms of power is somewhat close to the Switch I guess. But Wii U was a tri-core PPC with Radeon graphics and optical media and a controller that had a screen in it. While Switch is a 4/4 Big/Little ARM CPU architecture with NVidia graphics and a flash based storage media and multiple power tiers for portable/docked modes

Switch 2 will be a significant power jump sure. But it'll still be ARM and Nvidia and it'll still be a portable console that docks and uses flash based storage for physical games. So functionally it's fairly similar even if the power gap is fairly significant and so games built for Switch should be able to just run on Switch 2 with little effort and no compromises. Something that we haven't really seen since GC -> Wii

Can they really achieve this by just limiting themselves to graphics though? Because that's about all that most of these remakes and remasters are doing. Occasionally they might throw in a new gameplay mode, but for the most part they don't seem to be motivated by a desire to make the game closer to what they envisioned, it feels more like a cynical attempt to squeeze out a few more bucks from that game.

Again, let's go back to Metroid Prime Remastered. The original had a lot of concepts that never made the final cut like unused bosses and powerups, did we see those? Did we see them attempt to add in gameplay improvements from newer Metroid games? Nope, aside from adapting the game to the Switch's control options, there were 0 gameplay changes in Prime Remastered. That game seems entirely motivated by simply wanting to sell Metroid Prime to us again. Nothing more.

@Bolt_Strike I mean to be fair, Nintendo has gotten far lazier with their remasters/remakes of games. We've gotten some cases recently where they included cut content from previous titles (like Xenoblade Definitive Edition), but most are just texture redraws. Skyward Sword HD was one of the last few Nintendo remakes that added Quality of Life features- that being the ability to play with button controls and silencing Fi so that she doesn't go on and on about batteries being drained.

@skywake Ohhhhh that makes sense. The way I'm thinking about it is that the Switch 2 is going to be comparable to how the 3DS and DS were. DS games were still made for a while before Nintendo moved to the 3DS- and the 3DS was fully capable of playing DS games just fine.

@Novamii I think you have hit the nail on the head Nova. You have to handicap all the voices bemoaning remasters because (hopefully) they have already played them and it's easy for them to think the market is one demographic...them. The same voices constantly ask 'Who keeps buying Mario Kart?' lol. The fact is, since the Switch launched, there are millions of new gamers. Gamers who haven't played a Gamecube or Wii (I would say Wii U but that's everybody hahaha!) Gamers who probably regard sub HD as 'old' (or retro if they are a hipster!) pretty much like how I used to moan at my dad watching black and white films lol. I get gamers want new games, but at the same time, I think Nintendo gets taken for granted how creative they are. 'I want a new <insert franchise here>' is actually meaningless outside of indirectly saying how much you like the franchise. Because there is no idea attached to it. And I certainly hope these fans don't want Nintendo to turn into a Western AAA company churning out the same games year after year. Nintendo don't forget franchises. Otherwise we wouldn't have NSO etc. But they create games based on ideas not franchises. When they have a cool idea, they discuss which franchise it would suit. Say in the case of racing games, an idea might suit F-Zero but it could take Mario Kart somewhere different. It's not rocket science to figure which would have the most impact. But I would venture that franchises often thought of forgotten, do get mentioned in that conversation. Anyhoo, better have a coffee before I start ranting...

Brace yourself when Nintendo Direct will be aired during this week.
Anyway, I don't have expectations about the games that will be announced.
If I see Mario stuffs revealed, I will show 10% energy.
If other Nintendo IP that I have no interest with them like Zelda / Metroid / smash bros / fire emblem, I will be cactus and silent.
If I see interesting 3rd party kids games also have PS5 version, I will give 100% energy and consider them on PS5 version instead.
If I see ARMS 2, I will lost my mind and scream aloud.
If I don't get quite a lot of upcoming Switch games from the Direct, well... I can continue playing my PS5 games.

@VoidofLight
What am I dreaming of? lol

@skywake
I see what you're saying more clearly, but here's what I think:
Still no on the second remasters, at least for now. At most for this Direct they'll bring WW HD and TP HD to the Switch. As per your logic, Nintendo knows both of those games will easily be million+ sellers even if they are just the Wii U remasters slapped onto the Switch.

Maybe down the line, years from now, TP will get another pass. Personally, I think they're done with it. Both games will eventually appear on NSO and we'll all move on with our lives.

I find it more likely that something's been cookin in the 2D Zelda world for this Direct.

I think people are far too confident that Gamecube NSO is even remotely close to being a thing.