Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

I genuinely don't know why people act like it's confirmed that Planet Robobot is getting ported. Are we really going to ignore all the times NatetheHate got things wrong?

@VoidofLight My thoughts exactly! I love rumors as much as the next guy, but outside of 3rd kits in S3 and a Kid Icarus port, I do not partake in the copium!

@VoidofLight The only near guarantee is that we are getting a Kirby game next year simply because we haven't had one for awhile. And considering Kirby probably won't be one of the main Switch 2 launch games, a port which works on Switch 1 seems plausible; we already have 2 ports/remasters for Switch 1 next year but I suspect there will be more to fill out the schedule on the Switch-1 side during the transition year (e.g. Zelda, Kirby).

@FishyS Yeah, the only guarantee is that something related to Kirby is coming out next year. For all we know though, it could be a small free to play game.

Ehh, that's only been true somewhat, not entirely. It's true there's been a lot of late gen Kirby games, but not all of them are. Games like Canvas Curse, Squeak Squad, Epic Yarn, Triple Deluxe, Rainbow's Curse, Star Allies (although for the record I do suspect that Star Allies was originally intended to be late gen for the Wii U and was shifted to the Switch because the Wii U failed), and Forgotten Land didn't exactly spell the end for that console generation. The only console where that's entirely felt true is the N64.

@Grumblevolcano Yeah it’s really hard to say why they made that choice for TTYD. It’s not always the fan favorite (like when they did Skyward Sword over other 3D Zelda titles and LM2 over LM1), but it felt intentional from Intelligent Systems. Most Wii U games came to Switch but with the backlash Color Splash got, it hasn’t returned.
I think I prefer Triple Deluxe over Robobot (I may be bias), but I totally get why people want Robobot more. I think they will skip Triple Deluxe for now (unless this is a double pack), but I think they’ll return to it at somepoint (hopefully not too far away though)

I didn’t know people were acting like that. From what I’ve seen it’s mostly just people speculating and/or hoping this is true. I am very cautious about this rumor, but I think we are getting another Kirby game next year before the next mainline Kirby, whether it be Robobot or not.

For the Kirby series, I’d probably want to see Kirby Air Ride most. I’d be very happy with Robobot though, it’s a great title many people probably missed on 3DS.

@PikminMarioKirby I’ve seen countless people act as if Nintendo officially announced it because “credible leaker revealed it,” when Nate is far from being credible.

I'm not really a Kirby fan despite I already played two Kirby games on Switch but more ported / remastered Kirby games from other Nintendo machines to Switch is very welcome.
I just played Kirby games casually and when I finished the game, I (almost) didn't touch the game again.

I don’t see a timeline where this happens. (based off of Japan release timing) Return to Dream Land was late 2011, Triple Deluxe was early 2014, and Robobot was early 2016. The same month Robobot released in Japan, Nintendo announced that Switch would release March 2017, so I doubt Nintendo ever had time to plan Star Allies for Wii U. Also HAL often avoided Wii U, and ended up having 1 Wii U Kirby side game and 8 Kirby games on 3DS, so it would be unlikely that HAL would put a mainline one on Wii U.

I think the reason Star Allies initially lacked content was because they only had 2 years to make it (and it wasn’t really a part of the RTDL-Robobot era), and it had to be rushed for an early Switch release.

Hmm. It feels extremely inconceivable that they could get a Switch game done in a mere 2 years. And yet they say it started in 2017. Strange. But I do think at the very least that they had concepts before 2017. One thing I can say for certain is that Star Allies is designed with a similar design philosophy to other Wii U platformers like NSMBU, 3D World, and Tropical Freeze. I definitely associate it more with Wii U platformers than Switch platformers, Forgotten Land feels much more like the "true" Kirby platformer and has more in common with the Switch design philosophy.

My thought is not that Star Allies would've released earlier than 2018, but the Wii U would've lasted longer than 2017. The Wii U's lifespan does feel a bit cut short because of its failure, it only lasted a mere 4 years and 4 months, which is a pretty short lifespan, especially by modern standards (it's more around 6-8 years nowadays). I could see a scenario where if the Wii U hadn't been the tremendous failure that it was, that it would've lasted until around 2019ish. And in that timeline, Star Allies would be squarely in late game Wii U territory.

@Bolt_Strike I speak largely in jest... but not entirely.

Whilst there are plenty of Kirby games that appear early in the life of a console, there is often a Kirby game at the end of console life. Kirby's Adventure was amongst the last first party games on the NES. Kirby's Dreamland 3 was amongst the last first party games on the SNES. Return to Dreamland was a late Wii game (though the console lasted another year) etc. I also buy into your theory that Star Allies was probably originally intended to be a late Wii U game.

TPC just announced a Claymation project with Aardman that's happening in 2027. For something that's so far out I'm surprised they didn't save it for Pokemon Day so maybe there is no Pokemon Presents in February 2025.

No Pokemon Presents in February to me would suggest that Switch 2 is being revealed in March and February ends up being a Switch 1 general Direct.

On a different note, we've now got the DKC Returns HD overview trailer:

@Grumblevolcano Doubt there’s no presents. They’re not revealing anything pertaining to Z-A still.

@Grumblevolcano Yeah, I see a near 0% chance there's no Presents in February. Potential cross gen releases of an upcoming game don't really hinder their ability to talk about upcoming games. They'd just hide whatever content or upgrades are exclusive to the next gen version. They didn't stay quiet about BotW until the Switch was revealed, they haven't stayed quiet about Metroid Prime 4 until the Switch 2 is revealed, and they won't stay quiet about Z-A until the Switch 2 is revealed either. It seems fairly obvious that they're saving a big Z-A reveal for this Presents regardless of what's happening with the Switch 2. And heck, we don't even know that Prime 4 or Z-A are cross gen games yet, for all we know they're just late Switch games that won't have a Switch 2 version at all. Way too early to be concerned about no Presents. The Aardman collab is kind of a minor reveal and they know everyone is going to be watching for the main game news, they don't need to hold these kinds of reveals for Presents.

@Bolt_Strike I see it differently. Because of the expectation for mainline news, people watch Pokemon Presents and as a result find out about stuff they weren't actively looking for. This provides more visibility to that other stuff.

So not including something like the Aardman collab in a Pokemon Presents, it gives me the impression that the central pillar of a February 2025 Pokemon Presents (Legends Z-A) is missing so they do standalone announcements instead.

@Grumblevolcano TPC would certainly like that and it's a good bonus for them, but the people watching the Presents aren't as likely to buy into those products. Most of the people actually consuming their side projects are casuals that don't play close attention to Pokemon news and just buy stuff that has Pokemon branding on it.

It's also worth noting that Presents sometimes repeats announcements that were already announced elsewhere. That's been the case with some mobile game announcements for example. Even though they already revealed the collab now, they might repeat it for people that don't follow the news/social media sites covering this now.

The Game Awards happened and while Nintendo did have 2 ads (a "Nintendo Switch has Games" style ad and a Echoes of Wisdom ad), there wasn't the usual one from Indie World. Makes me further think there's an Indie World next week paired with an Indie World eshop sale.

Oh joy. Can't wait to not watch that indie world. They're always pretty awful showcases.

@VoidofLight Honestly, the biggest pet peeve of mine is the narration. No disrespect to the narrator (obviously), I just think it's just a bit...much. Overbearing? Super trivial, but it just makes me feel like I'm being talked down to. I'd be lying if I said some of the selections for games weren't a bit meh, but I also realize that's super subjective. More often than not, my indie discoveries are courtesy of people playing them on YouTube or just skimming the eShop. Overall, while I'm fine with them, I get why some just really don't like them.

@Novamii Yeah. I don't like the narration, and I don't really like the games they have to show. Usually with indie presentations like these, they really have a lot of samey looking games when I'd rather have more unique looking ones.