Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@Slowdive Donkey Kong Racing had a trailer and was canned when Rare was bought by Microsoft. There was talk (which may or may not be true) that Retro revived it one point and that was why they were working on Mario Kart 7 to learn racing track design for it.

Zelda-Shiek was worked on for 3 years, only Ninty and Retro know how far along it was but 3 years sounds like a long time for it to not to get to the prototype phase at least.

I still want that Mario wrestling game, I don't think it was announced though, but imagine old skool wrestling with big characters, entrances and promos plus the arcade fun and power ups of Mario sports title. I can see Luigi scared in the corner refusing to fight or Wario as a monster heel like Vader or Bam Bam Bigelow, Yoshi as a lucha/Rey Mysterio underdog high flyer etc.

@jump Sadly the Shiekah game probably won’t see the light of day, as it was supposed to be the origin story to the master sword, which skyward sword took it’s place.

@VoidofLight I dont' think it will happen it's been too long and they seem happy with Fujibayashi directing (it's kinda weird that Ninty hired Capcom to do those GameBoy Zeldas and then just took their talent so they can work on the 3D Zeldas from now on) and Aonuma producing 3D Zeldas internally now. But I can't see the "story" stopping it from being made as it's fairly easy to retool the McGuffins to be something else.

@Slowdive I vaguely remember an interview around the time of the Wii U version of MK8 and they talked about the future of Mario Kart might be with a "Smash Kart" approach but tbh playing as Kirby instead of Yoshi doesn't make much of a difference to the game. If there's to be a second Nintendo kart racer game/series I'd rather it be Double Dash 2 or Donkey Kong Racing where there are differences in how it's played.

I think the best approaching regarding Nintendo racing games would've been:

• Keep MK8 Deluxe as the traditional Mario Kart and add DLC over time like Smash has done for the past 3 years
• Have a Forza Horizon type game but use a Nintendo IP like DK, Diddy Kong Racing had an adventure mode which if expanded would be like Forza Horizon

Xbox is the only platform to have a Forza Horizon type game and it is Xbox's biggest IP (pretty sure it overtook Halo around 2016).

@Grumblevolcano Nah, Halo 5: Guardians is still the Xbone's biggest selling game but the numbers are messy since they have GamePass. Microsoft even made a song and dance about Halo selling 80m games a few months ago.

I wouldn't say Forza Horizon is such a unique game myself, Need For Speed and Burnout offer similar thrills of open world racing.

Anything new regarding Nintendo's E3 plans?

So any theories on why Pokemon Legends is coming out in the usually dead month of January? Usually we get either ports or late translations of odd titles like Brain Training... Or nothing at all.

@link3710 could be a jam packed 2022 then. Botw 2 in March possibly and splatoon 3 in May or June.

@link3710 I suspect that Legends was actually meant to be the big holiday title and got pushed back a few months due to COVID (although really it should probably be pushed back even further, but TPC seems to insist on not delaying games to make them good), it does seem like it was intended to be the big 25th anniversary game. Instead, now we get BDSP during the holiday.

@Bolt_Strike We don't know the quality of the game though. People are all saying "GAME'S RUSHED" the moment the release date even got revealed.. but we don't know the quality. All we have right now is a trailer made from an old build from December of 2020. Purposely made that way to obscure features.

@link3710 My best guess is The Pokemon Company are high and think Pokemon is too big to fail so just release it Jan as that’s when it’s ready.

If it’s solo focussed then there’s a good chance it will be an evergreen unlike the past games where they drop off when the next one is out so it doesn’t really matter when it’s released.

Or it’s a dud so they have dropped it in the dud month.

@VoidofLight I dunno, I feel like that's a fair statement... for any other dev besides Gamefreak. I've been burned by them too many times, honestly all it would take for me to believe they rushed a game is to hear that it was announced lol.

@EOTW I still think people shouldn't make assumptions when the game isn't even out. When it's out, and if it's a garbage fire, then it's fair.. but anything other than that isn't.

But, what do I expect from pokemon fans honestly? Pokemon fans hate pokemon the most out of anyone else.

@VoidofLight I mean, it's true. Anyone who's stuck with Pokemon the past decade has been unbelievably burned over and over and over again. Of course they don't hold GameFreak in high opinion.

Personally, I'll just do a replay of Platinum when BDSP comes out and probably be the happier for it. (Unless the Battle Frontier returns, in which case I'll follow my word from earlier this year and actually buy it. But we all know that won't happen.)

@VoidofLight Haha, true enough!

@link3710 I've been burned, but I'm still hopeful that one of these days they'll put out something good. I've been burned since gen 6, but I'm still giving them a shot and hoping one day the games will get better. Arceus seems to be them trying something new, which I'm excited for honestly, and I'm really hoping it'll turn out well. For me, I'm withholding judgement of the game's state until it actually, you know, releases.

As for BDSP, I'm also excited for that, mainly because I never got to play the original games, and my Platinum cartridge no longer works. I heard Gen 4 were pretty slow anyways.

@link3710 Yeah, I'm definitely in that camp. Can't say I care too much for the franchise anymore considering how crummy they've been. Wouldn't touch a new game until I see outstanding reviews, but it's hard to believe that will happen with the current model they have.

@link3710 I'd guess it's because of BotW 2. I did think they'd release in the same month (March 2022) but perhaps TPC wouldn't feel confident in it doing well enough if it was released too close or after BotW 2 so chose January instead.

That's what I'll most likely do as well, but that's not because I think it'll be bad, just because it seems like a very faithful remake from what we've seen so I don't see any reason to buy it when I have Platinum. As one of the (seemingly) few who really enjoyed Sun/Moon, I'm not as negative on modern Pokémon as a lot of people are, but I have to admit I've felt a bit burned out on it after the last few games. I'm excited that they're finally doing something new with Legends Arceus, I just hope it lives up to its potential.