Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

I really think the Direct was super solid, but the pacing ruined it. They would rush through 3 Mario games and then take 6.8 business days to finish telling you about The Roguelike: Ultime Deluxe Thingamabob. If it had been better paced, and the Mario section's fluff (marathon news, really?) had been pared down, I think most ppl would see it as a 9/10. Due to those issues I bumped it down to a 7.

@skywake Honestly, I think it's great Tennis has a real story mode. I hope more games like that have it. I'm not sold on the 9 million combinations of characters and racket types, but I would need to see more. It's the type of game I wouldn't buy without trying a demo first, so I hope they have a demo.

@skywake That was honestly the only disappointing announcement of the new 1st party ones. It would've been nice to continue the trend of delving into sports that don't appear on every console like if they chose Baseball or Basketball instead. Also repeating the cycle of new Mario Tennis and Mario Golf means they delay the release of best tennis and golf games (Power Tennis (GCN/GBA), Toadstool Tour (GCN) and Advance Tour (GBA)).

I think a Prime 4 Direct is plausible now, probably more similar to the MK World Direct where a lot of it will be stuff already shown, though.

Here's my predictions for Directs the rest of the year:

• Kirby Air Riders Direct 2nd Presentation
• The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Direct 1st Trailer
• Metroid Prime 4 Beyond Direct
• Kirby Air Riders 3rd Presentation
• The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Direct 2nd Trailer

While you're most likely correct about Switch 1 games not going anywhere for the time being, the thing is how do you know that for certain? Especially if you're not aware of Nintendo's release patterns? We know that Switch 1 is getting games until at least Spring 2026 because Nintendo's confirmed that, but after that point? We have to wait for further announcements to see. Those kinds of assurances only work for so long.

Yeah, I'm definitely suspecting a Prime 4 Direct in October or November. The trailer showed a pretty radical departure from past Prime games with the motorcycle and open world, and they really need to show just how the gameplay loop works. Is this still a Metroidvania? How open is the game world? How will the game progression work in the open world? They need to answer these questions before they're ready to put Prime 4 out into the wild.

Yeah, I've seen several influencers express concern over Tennis Fever (and there's probably a lot more fans that I haven't seen). Some of them wanted to see another sport since you can already play Tennis Aces and Golf Super Rush through BC (and they could've chosen to make S2Es for those games instead to save time) but they fear that this announcement signals that Camelot is just going to trade off Tennis, Golf, Tennis, Golf ad infinitum without experimenting with another sport or revisiting an RPG like Golden Sun. I myself don't really enjoy any of these IPs so I have no skin in the game here, but I can understand the concern that Camelot's releases are starting to get too predictable and that would be kind of a bad precedent for those that do enjoy them.

How many Kirby Air Riders directs do you think there will be before it releases?
I'm going with 7.
Closest gets a Kirby medallion.

@Uncle_Franklin pfft, at least 70 - that gives them one day off between now and launch.

@Uncle_Franklin, I'm thinking just two, counting the first one that has already happened and the recently announced second one.

@ShieldHero
Now you're just being silly.

The impression I'm getting for the rest of Directs this year is:

• Week beginning October 13th - Kirby Air Riders Direct (lines up approximately with the distance the 2nd Smash Ultimate Direct was before launch)
• Week beginning October 20th - Partner Showcase (3rd party support seemed oddly limited in the general Direct and Elden Ring is missing)
• Week beginning October 27th - Metroid Prime 4 Direct (the Prime 4 trailer said the road to launch begins with the Prime 1-3 book on October 28th, also it's a decent amount of time after Legends Z-A launches)
• Week beginning December 15th - Indie World (before 2024 there was a period of time when November/December Indie World was common)

Not sure about whether they'd do movie Directs like in 2022/2023, the news this week seems like a hybrid of the initial September 2021 Direct news and the first movie Direct so maybe they save next movie news for the Game Awards?

I did get a few predictions correct, a Switch 2 edition of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and a Metroid Prime 4 release, but to be honest I kinda though the Switch 2 edition of Mario Wonder was gonna be a new campaign with extra levels, but since the base game itself feels like it’s missing additional Co-op and VS. modes, I guess it works

@MrCarlos46 Actually there is going to be a new campaign, it was just a blink-and-you'll-miss segment at the end and they only gave us 10 seconds of teasers. They seem to be adding a new world with remixed levels where you collect Bellabel Flowers in place of Wonder Seeds and the Koopalings make an appearance and seem to use Wonder Effects.

See 2:10-2:20.

Yeah, I didn't really like the marketing for Wonder S2E spending so much time promoting the multiplayer modes and tossing in a short teaser for the actual levels at the end, but from what little we see of it it seems like the extra content is about Star Crossed Worlds tier which is acceptable IMO. They've got 4-6 months until release, plenty of time for them to show us another trailer later that gives us more details about how the new campaign actually works.

Considering the title of the DLC says 'meetup', I think it's fair to assume it will be highly multiplayer focused even if there is some single player stuff also. Personally I was hoping for a lot more single player challenge levels and new modes and mix-ups, more like what new super mario bros U Deluxe has. In particular, the badges are very under-utilized and could have both cool challenges and special modes to use them more. I'll be disappointed if all the DLC is is multiplayer stuff and a few extra levels.

Edit: Although I would pay $10 for a DLC which added literally nothing except additional save files. This DLC better add that.

Let me get this straight then. This was a very bad Direct because Nintendo has yet to do enough to get you over the line on Switch 2. There's just too much stuff coming out that's still coming to Switch and you want Nintendo to force you to migrate to the new platform. But also, simultaneously, the fact that Switch is still being supported means nothing because outside of Prime 4 most of the big upcoming games seem to be Switch 2 only and they've given no assurances of continued support after Rhythm Heaven

......... so which is it? Is it bad that Nintendo hasn't forced you into buying a Switch 2 due to the continued support of Switch? Or is it bad that potentially at any point they could stop releasing games for Switch and force you into buying Switch 2? It can't be both

The way I see it, is that the Switch being supported is going to be akin to the 3DS and the support it saw at the end of it's life. I don't think we've gotten any new game announcements for Switch 1 after Rhythm Heaven, so I doubt the console is going to be supported beyond the end of next year.

@FishyS,

"Although I would pay $10 for a DLC which added literally nothing except additional save files. This DLC better add that."

Amen. I was surprised by Wonder's lack of this except making another Switch user profile. The Switch 2 Editions of Zelda BotW and TotK added an extra save file each, so hopefully Mario Wonder's Switch 2 Edition does the same thing, hopefully with at least two extra save slots.

I'm not so convinced of this. As an example, what would anyone gain from the Super Mario Galaxy remakes being Switch 2 only. Especially given from the product page it seems as though it's getting a "free update" to "take advantage of the processing power of Nintendo Switch 2". Which I assume just means the Switch 2 gets an update that makes it run at 4K native or something

The end user doesn't really gain anything, especially if the title doesn't really need the extra power. Because the resolution/HDR improvements can be a free update and the performance gains are just part of how backwards compatibility works. The publisher doesn't really gain anything because by being Switch compatible they're not locking out people who have already moved on to Switch 2. Especially if there's a Switch 2 update or Edition in there

Really, there are only four reasons I see why a game would be Switch 2 only:
1. The developer wants/needs the extra power of Switch 2 to deliver their product
2. Someone in the chain wants to cut costs by removing the QC required for cross-gen support
3. From a marketing perspective being Switch 2 only has value
4. You want to force users to migrate to Switch 2

For #1 that's going to apply to some games but not all. The second point is valid but I don't think so valid that we'll have a sudden cut-off given the Switch install base is as big as it is. Although I expect it will be the thing that finally kills Switch support, eventually. The third one has some merit, and is why this discussion even exists. I don't like it, but it's a thing....

.....and the fourth point only matters to investors who have a specific and IMO incorrect view of how Nintendo can and should be profitable. Software is the product, hardware is the vehicle, the goal isn't to move hardware at the expense of software. The goal is to begrudgingly sell hardware in order to be able to continue selling software

@skywake I just don't think Nintendo is going to keep the Switch alive forever. I doubt they'll be as stupid as Sony was with the PS5- where the Switch 2 ends up barely having exclusive titles to play on it. Their end-goal is to get as many people to upgrade to the Switch 2 as possible down the road. We'll get to a point where most games aside from the less intensive ones will be only on Switch 2- and eventually Nintendo will probably cut off Switch support entirely.

@skywake I was speaking more on in terms of the general fanbase there, not my personal situation.

My personal situation is that I bought the Switch 2 Day 1 partially because of concerns over price increases due to tariffs (in other words, buy it now or pay more for it later) and partially because MKW and DK Bananza within the first month gave me confidence that there would be a good enough lineup in the first year. I ended up being wrong about that because I thought they were saving another top tier game for the holiday but they haven't and are in fact relying on more niche, B tier stuff like Air Riders, Age of Imprisonment, and Prime 4. My concern is that I'm not going to have much to play on it and it's going to end up a glorified paperweight for months.

@Bolt_Strike I mean, a new Mario and new Zelda are going to be a good while away due to Nintendo making DK Bananza and releasing Tears of the Kingdom on Switch 1. Animal Crossing probably isn't coming for a while since the Splatoon team and Animal Crossing team are the same, and the Splatoon team is working on a new Splatoon spin-off. There's also the fact that two other games- that Pokemon Spin-Off and Tomodachi Life Living the Dream occupy the Life-Sim niche that Animal Crossing would fill next year.

This year is going to be more empty, but there'll be a good chunk to play next year. Gen 10 of Pokemon is most likely going to end up being a Switch 2 exclusive game, and it's 100% releasing next year.