Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@Bolt_Strike I don't think we'll be getting a new 3D Mario for at least 2-3 years now. Since the majority of the EPD8 team were busy with Bananza, they'll probably be in like, the early stages of production for their next Mario project - too early to announce next year. Plus, it'd make zero sense from a business standpoint to suddenly announce a brand new 3D platformer so close to their last big 3D platformer - one that they clearly want to push as their major system seller in its early stages.

@N00BiSH Actually there's been an analysis of Bananza's credits and there's a lot of names missing. So it's extremely likely that Bananza is a splinter team that's been started sometime between Odyssey and Bowser's Fury. Bananza being built on mechanics from Odyssey also lends to the theory that this team was spun off fairly early, probably before Bowser's Fury was released. 3D Mario should not be in the early stages at this point, it likely would've started after Bowser's Fury and should be far into development.

Also one year after Bananza is not "close" and they've had no issue having big games in similar genres that close together. A few months away, sure, that might cause problems but they're not going to clear out 2 or 3 years of 3D platformers just for Bananza. They have too many major IPs that they need on the Switch 2 ASAP to spread out the major ones this thinly.

@Bolt_Strike Exactly, Koichi Hayashida is a big EPD 8 name who was missing from Bananza for example. There's no way concurrent development of that and the next 3D Mario hasn't been taking place.

Highly recommend this video for more information though it's worth noting this was made before the confirmation of Bananza's developers.

@Nintoz Hayashida moved from EPD8 to join the 2D Mario team at EPD10 for Wonder. His absence was more than justified. Same can be said for the other names absent - just because they're not Bananza doesn't inherently suggest the existence of a new 3D Mario. They all could be working on other projects.

@OmnitronVariant there's nothing about Bananza that screams "sideshow." I feel like we're just saying anything.

They shuffle their EPD teams pretty much every time they have a new console so they could easily have more teams working on 3D games recently. Programmers who used to be junior on one team are now more senior and could take over a portion of a different game. People are weirdly obsessed with very specific game devs working on specific Nintendo games (like the idea there could never be a Smash without Sakurai) but both people and companies evolve and change and I'm sure Nintendo has generational planning to make sure plenty of experts are around to form new teams or take over old ones.

@OmnitronVariant I know this is subjective, but personally, I (and many I know) vastly preferred Bananza to Odyssey. I don't mean that we liked it more — I mean that if we had to erase one from existence, it would be Odyssey, and we'd have no hesitation. So I don't think it's as cut-and-dried as you claim.

@OmnitronVariant see this is just being very dismissive to me - "It's not a 3D Mario, so therefore it's irrelevant!" - which to be frank is an attitude I have zero interest in entertaining any further.

The way I see it, is that some people might think differently about whether a game is a mainshow, or a sideshow, or whatever it is.

For some, Bananza might be a mainshow. For others, who are more interested in Mario than DK, it might just be a sideshow.

An example of this is that even though there are way more mainstream, or mainshow, games available on the PS4, I got my PS4 just to play Hyperdimension Neptunia games. So, at least for me, the Hyperdimension Neptunia games are a mainshow on the PS4, even though they aren't for a lot of people. As for Bananza, I think it's pretty understandable that a lot of people would think of it as a mainshow, since it's one of the big new games available during the Switch 2's early days, and it looks pretty awesome, though I will have to pass on it due to wanting to focus on other games instead.

I'm on the side of enjoying Bananza more than Odyssey but I would also agree Odyssey was definitely a bigger game production-wise. Maybe more to the point in this conversation, a non-Mario platformer is not going to sell 30 million copies; Bananza was a nice medium-big title to go alongside Mario Kart but it is unlikely to be one of the very top sellers on Switch 2 in the long run.

The problem with DK "replacing" Mario has less to do with DK itself and more to do with everything else, it's that there's nothing on Switch 2 that's a guaranteed hit in terms of critical acclaim and sales. So many of Switch 2's games are either not broadly appealing games that have the potential to sell 10+ million and/or have some kind of major issue that are likely to give someone pause before buying it. Now I will say Bananza is the closest game to not being that, but I can't quite say this for sure yet because no DK game (not counting the DK arcade games where you play as Mario which are very different games, I mean a game with DK as the protagonist) has cracked that 10+ million ceiling. And it certainly won't outsell 3D Mario and probably may not quite reach the highs of the 3D Mario because Mario is simply the face of Nintendo and they'll want to put their best foot forward for that game. But the larger issue is that the Switch 2 doesn't really have that "it" game that's a 10/10 and cultural phenomenon that everyone wants. That's what we need 3D Mario for, Mario rarely if ever misses (I would argue 3D World is a miss, but there are a fair amount of fans that praise it to high heavens and think it's the best game ever so even when Mario is controversial it still gets high praise). The Switch 2 in general needs those megatons and they need them to be high quality games. We need the 3D Mario, the 3D Zelda (yes I know it's not coming anytime soon, I'm just listing it as an example of the caliber of game that is needed), the Gen 10 Pokemon, the Smash 6, the Animal Crossing Newer Horizons, the Splatoon 4, the Luigi's Mansion 4, etc. Those are the types of games that are the surest wins.

@Bolt_Strike unraleted to the topic at hand, but I love how you said stuff like Smash 6, LM4, Pokemon 10, etc... and then hit us with Newer Horizons. Dunno why, but it made me chuckle 😆

@CaleBoi25 I didn't make that one up, IDR who I saw that from, but it is a fun way to refer to the next AC before it's announced.

@CaleBoi25 You could even say the NS2 Edition is 'Newer Horizons'...which must mean Newest Horizons is surely on the cards!

@Nintoz
The amusing thing about the free update and S2 Edition is that in the "what do you want in the next Animal Crossing" thread my wildest idea was shared hosted online towns, detached from your own town, for friends to gather in and collectively own

Now I don't like the limitations of the implementation vs what I was thinking. At least as far as I understand it. But they've kinda done this in the 3.0 update.....

@Bolt_Strike Dunno about Luigi's Mansion - loved 3 but I never considered that a big "it" game. Probably would've put Kirby there(and yes, I know, Air Riders, but that's a non-HAL developed spin-off racer)

People seem to be talking about Mario Odyssey vs DK Bananza in this forum for some reason, so I'll throw my hat in the ring.

I am a big Mario fan and not someone who ever really took an interest in Donkey Kong until 2025. Super Mario Odyssey is in my opinion, one of the most mediocre Nintendo games I have ever played. The controls did not feel good, especially with the lack of a proper run. Additionally, captures often felt like they limited the platforming Mario is known for. Finally, there were far too many moons which served zero purpose once you reached the threshold to move on to the next mundane world.

Donkey Kong Bananza on the other hand controls fantastically, uses its central mechanic to its advantage, and gives the collectathon a gameplay incentive rather than a quota to fill. Overall, I would say Bananza is the vastly superior game.

Some people seem to say Bananza is worse than Odyssey just because Mario is a system selling IP and Donkey Kong, historically, is not. Yes, Mario is far more popular in the eyes of the public than Donkey Kong (and as stated previously, I am more of a Mario fan than a DK fan), but why should the amount of units a title sells dictate its quality or how worth it the game is? Why should I care if Bananza doesn't sell as much as Mario, Pokemon, or Zelda? I had a blast with DKB and the amount of money Nintendo got from it doesn't change that one bit.

People need to be less concerned with sales numbers and more concerned with how fun we find games to be for ourselves.

(Side Note: Obviously Bananza is not replacing 3D Mario. 3D Mario is absolutely coming at some point. I highly doubt we'll see a new 3D Mario before 2027, and that's okay.)

One of Nintendo's key marketing points for Switch 2 was being powerful enough to run the 3rd party games so surely we should be taking into account stuff like Resident Evil Requiem when talking about Switch 2 heavy hitters?

@N00BiSH I'm using sales as a factor, primarily if the game can sell 10+ million. LM3 did, it sold 14.25 million. Kirby has not, its highest selling game is Forgotten Land at 7.549 million. Maybe a future Kirby entry will reach the double digit millions, it's not terribly far off, but it's not quite there yet to put in the "it" game range.

@Bolt_Strike Fair enough.

@Nintoz Animal Crossing: The One With Horizons That Are Newer Than The Previous Entry's

@UpsideDownRowlet That's about how I feel about the two games. I definitely should have mentioned that I do believe Mario is more of a system seller in general than DK, for sure, but so many people seem so focused on "Mario is bigger" that they can't consider that "DK can be big too!"