Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@rallydefault that's where I'm at. They could've had this in Feb or early March. The plan was more that likely in place at that point to set the ground work for switch 1 throughout 2025.

Jeff Grubb says there's gonna be a 3rd party game announced that will cause a lot of conversation.

I wonder...

Well I was proven wrong very quickly. Weird timing for this Direct, felt like we should've gotten this in February or early in the month.

Meh, aside from a Prime 4 blowout I don't think I'm going to enjoy this one that much. In fact, I very much DON'T want to see the rumored Planet Robobot remake. Not because there's anything wrong with PR, but this is the exact wrong time for it, this should be a Switch 2 title, not a last minute Switch 1 title.

@Grumblevolcano Maybe they want to announce their switch 1 games and switch 2 stuff around the same time for brand parity? This might be the final Switch 1 focused direct we end up having, so it makes sense to move it towards the announcement of the newer console and newer games. Especially since the Switch 2 is backwards compatible with the Switch 1, and all the games they'll announce tomorrow will be playable on the new system.

I don't think this is a situation where Nintendo is announcing majority of Switch 1 games while bringing nothing for Switch 2. The Switch 2 Direct is going to probably be around the same amount of time as a normal Nintendo direct, if not a bit longer. It'll probably focus around the system and then games developed exclusively for the system, or being brought over to the system by third parties. Sorta like a condensed version of the Switch 1 presentation we got back in 2017. The direct is most likely going to just be smaller titles with some stuff like maybe Prime 4 getting a trailer to showcase what the game is about (and then a trailer showcasing it running on Switch 2 in the Switch 2 direct).

@Bolt_Strike This is sorta the same response people had to the 3DS games coming out before the end of the 3DS lifespan. The only difference is that at least anything announced tomorrow will run on Switch 2.

@Bolt_Strike
Yea I feel the same. I really think we’re gonna be buying Switch 2s by the end of June at the latest. I guess I’m always down for a couple more Switch games, but this just feels weird.

Unless the heavy implication here is some big upgrades for these games if you get a Switch 2? I don’t know.

@rallydefault Yeah, I would agree it feels sort of sloppy. I have no idea why this wasn't in early March, or even February really. But it's more games, so I'm not gonna complain.

The most exciting part of this direct to me is that it's very likely we'll get news on Metroid Prime 4 here, meaning we'll have more time in the Switch 2 direct for new announcements.

@Bigmanfan I don't really see it as sloppy. I feel like the reason why they decided to do this was in order to bring parity with announcements. They want to promote the newest console whilst book-ending the older one in a way. I genuinely feel like they have a reason to move things to right before this direct. Maybe Skywake's theory is correct as well in regards to it being a situation with Switch Online and them announcing something about it.

I've been saying this for months. Welcome to the party pal!

@VoidofLight I went back and read skywake's nso theory and I think the logic checks out. You could definitely be right about it not being sloppy. There's also the possibility they waited so long because they were waiting on third party devs. What comes to mind is Level 5 for example, with the new professor Layton game. Maybe they weren't sure up until recently that they would be ready to show new stuff. But regardless, I'm so ready for tomorrow. This next week's about to feel like christmas lol.

Parity seems... a weird goal. For me, having them so close together lowered my hype level for both of them. I guess I can only fit so much hype per week. Soo.... there is parity, but that parity is less excitement than if there had been 2 months in-between.

@FishyS I agree. I have no idea why they couldn’t have had this in February or earlier in March. I can’t really complain at the end of the day though, since I’m very excited for both events. I suppose the Big N really does work in mysterious ways…

It's not just about it being a late gen game. It's that it's a game that's only 9 years old and was just on the previous generation. The only other late gen 3DS game that's analogous to this would be Bowser's Inside Story. The problem is more that the game is too recent and hasn't aged enough for a remake to feel needed. It's only going to have one console generation of improvement, so it's probably not going to look much better visually. And gameplay wise there really hasn't been much that's progressed since then so what else can they do to improve it? Another new gameplay mode? I... guess, but this game doesn't feel lacking in content or creative gameplay styles. I don't see what good this remake will do right now, it feels even more cash grabby than remakes typically are because the pitch feels even weaker.

Why do they need parity? The Switch 1 is outgoing and the Switch 2 is going to be the hot new thing. Equalizing them doesn't make much business sense, if you equalize them then there's less reason to buy a Switch 2 and you're shooting yourself in the foot. The Switch 2 needs to be given priority. The Switch 1 games just need to hold us over until the Switch 2 is out.

I'd think that they'll continue to release games for the Switch where it's lower technical specs won't compromise their performance too much. For instance, if they're releasing a remake from the Wii era, or a new 2D platformer, that's not going to be a problem.

Things like the next Zelda, 3D Mario, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, etc. are probably going to have to be Switch 2 exclusive though, so as not to be held back.

It may well work out that they make roughly equal numbers of games in both categories to start with, but I don't think that parity is necessarily a goal, and you can expect the number of games playable on the OG Switch to drop rapidly if the new console sells well.

@Bolt_Strike
To be fair, Planet Robobot is almost a 10 year old game and the Switch is quite a bit more capable than the 3DS was. From a pure platform power gap and time since release perspective it'd be not that different to any of the HD Zelda remakes. Frankly if remaking that game is too soon and not enough of a jump to be worth it then no remake is worth it

And more broadly, I don't see an issue with them padding out the Switch library over this last stretch with remakes and smaller titles they farm out to external studios and smaller teams. This stuff is supplemental, from next week most of us won't be looking back at Switch releases anyways

........ unless they finally release a Wario Land or Rhythm Heaven game then I'm all over it

Less than 10 year is usually too soon for a remake. In general (not in all cases, but as a rule of thumb), 2 console generations and/or 10+ years feels about the right time. Robobot is neither right now, definitely feels like it should be a Switch 2 game.

Power wise, ehh I haven't felt like the Switch is a massive step up in terms of graphical quality. The real steps up from 3DS have been more the scale of the levels/game worlds and the number of assets displayed on screen. Which a remake/remaster can't really take advantage of.

Well yeah, of course it's going to need to be more remakes/remasters and smaller titles. My issue is not with that, my issue is that Switch 1 is too soon for 3DS remakes/remasters. Wait until Switch 2 for that.

@Bolt_Strike I think you might need your eyes checked if you think Switch isn't a big graphical improvement over 3DS, a system that's weaker than the GameCube.

3DS -> Switch is most likely a bigger jump than Switch -> Switch 2 in terms of power.

In fact, that's honestly a concern of mine - that Nintendo's cartoony graphics won't benefit enough from the jump from Switch 1 to Switch 2. Games like Mario Kart, 3D Mario, Kirby, etc may not look much different from their Switch 1 entries from a visual standpoint unless they take advantage of fancy lighting techniques and change models/designs/art direction for the sake of it.

@FishyS @Bolt_Strike One reason they could be close together is because Nintendo would want to show off the backwards compatibility with their console. While they could go with something like Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey, I feel like they're probably wanting to lean more into more recent examples that would be fresh in the audience's mind.

As for Bowser's Inside Story, that wasn't the game I was referring to. There were several games released towards the end of the 3DS lifespan that made people upset that they were "trapped on the 3DS." Stuff like Luigi's Mansion, or Hey! Pikmin! Games that came out at the end of the system's life in order to pad out releases so that it didn't seem like Nintendo was going to flat out abandon it. This is most likely no different, being a case where we're going to get a lot of "padded" releases. Smaller niche titles that Nintendo didn't touch this generation (like Fossil Fighters, some Mii games, etc), or remakes/ports. We'll see some third party releases I'm sure, but nothing that would take advantage of a more powerful system. Stuff that would have no problem running on the original system's hardware.

If games like Silksong are here, then that is probably why we didn't get this in February. If Nintendo has big NSO announcements, that's also probably a reason why we didn't get it in February. There's a chance they could also be using this showcase in order to make room for Switch 2 titles in the Switch 2 showcase- all by showing games like Metroid Prime 4 here (so that they can show the enhancements on Switch 2 without having to drop an entire trailer dedicated to it).

The way I see it, there's a chance that instead of Nintendo having nothing to show, they have a lot of things they want to show, and are using this direct as an attempt to not crowd the Switch 2's entire thing. They've done this sort of thing before with Directs right before the main E3 one. This event for Nintendo is probably just as important as E3 used to be for them.

I mean yeah, 6th gen is about when it feels like diminishing returns set in. Every jump from them felt barely noticeable. Once GC got rid of the jaggies of the N64's low poly models, I couldn't really see much further improvement.

Switch -> Switch 2 isn't the relevant comparison here because again, I'm arguing that the jump should be 2 or more console generations. It needs to compare to past remake jumps. And honestly, combining 3DS having GC-level graphics and both the Wii and Switch having barely any graphical improvements over their predecessors, you could kind of consider 3DS -> Switch 1 console generation's worth of power anyway, from GC/Wii/3DS level to Wii U/Switch level. 3DS -> Switch might be a bigger jump than Switch -> Switch 2, but you know what's going to be even bigger than 3DS -> Switch? 3DS -> Switch 2.

headdesk How many times do I have to explain it before you get my point? It has nothing to do with it being "trapped" on past gen. There's a degree of inevitability with that. My issue is with it being too soon for a 3DS remake. If they wanted to remake something from an even older system, like N64, GBA, GC, DS, or Wii, I'd be fine with a game like that being "trapped". 3DS is too recent and could use the extra bump from Switch -> Switch 2.