Topic: The Nintendo Switch Rumor and Speculation Thread

@SwitchForce
I was replying to your comment that "no one has seen previous Switch devkits to this day" bit and "hardware internals change in final product". Neither of these things are true. We know what the Switch devkits look like, I literally posted links to galleries of previous Nintendo devkits on the top of the page. Also the internal hardware, that should more or less be the same as the final product. Maybe with a tad more memory and an easier way to transfer code but fundamentally, should be the same. Because it being the same is literally the point of a dev kit

As I kinda outlined, you'd probably do the bulk of the early development on a PC. Compiling it not for the hardware you eventually intend to eventually run it on but for the machine that you're using for development. Then you would get to a point where you target a build for the actual hardware and run it on something that's, more or less, the hardware it'll run on. Without the dev kit being the "final hardware" it's pretty useless, because it being the final hardware is quite literally the entire point

With that said, I did say almost. There are a couple of things you would want in a dev kit that won't exist in the final product and there's one thing you don't care about. You want an easier way to transfer games, you would want more memory, you would want some way to debug or extract crash logs. You'd basically want a "hacked" console is what it boils down to. What you don't care about is looks. Completely irrelevant. Which is what would make a photo of a dev kit kinda meaningless for the internet. It'll probably look the same as the current Switch dev kit

I just wonder if the next thing is interesting enough for me to at least consider buying. There is no way in hell that I would buy an upgraded switch model. It might have just enough to differentiate between the one I own now, but it’s still similar to the Wii and Wii U situation. If I have a switch (Wii) why buy a super switch (Wii U)? It applies for both, really. (By the way, Switch 2 is a monumentally stupid name, I’m gonna call it the super switch or switch u as a placeholder joke name.)

And the reason to upgrade is the same as it was for both. And also the same reason to upgrade from the Gamecube to Wii, GBA to DS, DS to 3DS, Wii U to Switch. New content and new features. Don't ever buy into the marketing, the marketing is completely meaningless for the end user. What you should instead look at is what this new piece of hardware does that couldn't be done on the old hardware. What existing things can they both do that the new hardware does better

The Wii U offered off-TV play, it offered new titles, it offered HD visuals, it had HDMI out instead of component or composite. It also had a fairly compelling first party library of games especially by the end of its short life. Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker, Smash Bros Ultimate, Bayonetta 2? All solid releases and, if we're being honest, the strength of the Wii U Library is basically the backbone of the Switch's library

It's very easy to talk crap about the Wii U now and pretend that it was some kind of abomination. And the marketing as well as the relatively clunky "beta" execution of the concept clearly contributed to that perception. But there was certainly reason to get it. I mean, if you exclude Wii U ports and Wii U adjacent titles from the Switch's library? The Wii U is kinda competitive with the Switch in that respect.....

Tremendous exaggeration right here. The Switch does have a lot of Wii U ports but to say that the Wii U's library was driving the success of the Switch is inaccurate as there were TONS of IPs and gameplay styles on the Switch that were missing on the Wii U, and several of them are among the highest selling Switch titles. Did the Wii U have any Pokemon games like SwSh, LA, or SV? What about a main series Animal Crossing? Did it have a sandbox Mario game like Odyssey? How about Metroid? Main series Kirby? Luigi's Mansion? The answer to all of those is a resounding "NO!". Even if you remove all ports and remakes from the Switch's library what you have left is still a pretty strong lineup with multiple heavy hitters in terms of quality and/or sales. So many people are distracted by the number of Wii U ports that they seem to forget just how much the Switch has done that's actually original, and the difference is significant (in fact in my case it made the difference between me hesitating on and ultimately skipping the Wii U while jumping straight into the Switch because those IPs/gameplay styles were exactly the kinds of games I was waiting for all of the Wii U's lifespan). The Wii U's lineup is not competitive with the Switch's originals, sorry but that's just a ridiculous statement to make.

@Bolt_Strike
I think you're making a bit of a strawman there and also taking my comment outside of the context of the post I was replying to. Obviously the Switch's library is stronger, especially when you include the fact that the Wii U's library was pretty much entirely ported to Switch. But the argument that the Wii U had absolutely nothing and there was no reason to upgrade from the Wii? Well that's just dumb. Case and point all of the Wii U titles that were eventually ported to or got straight sequels on Switch. Titles which allowed the Switch to amass a huge quality library VERY quickly

Excluding BotW given it was never really a reason to pick up the Wii U. Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros, New SMB U, Splatoon, 3D World, Mario Maker, DKC:TF, Captain Toad, Hyrule Warriors, Pokken Tournament, Wind Waker HD. All pretty solid releases on the Wii U and they were certainly titles that made the upgrade from the Wii worthwhile. Which is why this specific statement was BS

If I have a switch (Wii) why buy a super switch (Wii U)?

For the software. Always

@Slowdive I don't see it happening due to some of the Peach scenes.

If it's true, I'll keep my expectations in check and expect nothing more than the bare minimum - that is, almost the exact original game being rescued from being lost to time (with maybe one or two potentially "offensive" elements removed). There's a LOT of stuff that could be done, and thus a LOT of room for disappointment if they don't.

@Slowdive I guess I'll believe it when I see it. That would be amazing, but I kind of doubt Nintendo would ever want to remaster it, considering the direction the Paper Mario series has taken for the past three entries.

@Slowdive My concern with a TTYD remaster would be if they ruined the unique Toad designs. I don’t know if I would trust Nintendo to make this game an exception to their modern Toad rule, even with Toad characters who play a notable role like Jolene.

Why are these people just suggesting a buncha GameCube game remasters? Every first party, fan favourite GameCube game under the sun has been rumoured for a remaster at this point, save for a few. Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD for the switch is something Grubb refuses to shut up about, suggesting he wasn’t wrong about the fact that those two games didn’t show up last September direct when he said they would. F-Zero GX has also been rumoured by NateDrake, who thinks he is some prophet because Prime Remastered got released. He’s not. Funny enough, Nintendo Prime of all people suggested that remaster is not only real, but being developed by Next Level Games, which makes little sense. And now Thousand Year Door is up next. The only one that has come true so far is Metroid Prime, which made the most sense for a remaster considering Prime 4 is impending. And Metroid is a super white hot franchise these days, so bringing back the older titles including Prime, Metroid II, and Fusion makes much more sense than something like a random F-Zero GX drop. I’m pretty sure Nintendo isn’t that fixated on GameCube games as much as people would like them to be. It all sounds super suspicious.

@TheBigBlue I just need the Skies of Arcadia Remaster to be legit. I don't care much about the rest.

@TheBigBlue It's probably do with how each system is being treated at the moment:

• NES - NSO
• SNES - NSO
• N64 - NSO Expansion Pack (SM64 was temporarily brought to Switch before N64 came to NSO Expansion Pack)
• GC - Very few games on Switch
• Wii - Nintendo's gradually going through the library, most obvious omission is Galaxy 2
• Wii U - Most of Nintendo games have already been ported over in some form, biggest ones missing are the Zelda remasters and XCX
• GB/GBC - NSO (a few remakes happened before GB came to NSO like Let's Go and Link's Awakening)
• GBA - NSO Expansion Pack (a few remakes were announced before GBA came to NSO Expansion Pack like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX and Advance Wars 1+2)
• DS and 3DS - Some games are on Switch but the fact the Switch isn't dual screen makes plenty of DS and 3DS games complicated to bring to Switch

Which makes the speculation go to 4 main areas:
1. Games that were never released outside Japan (e.g. Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776, Binding Blade, Mother 3)
2. GC remasters
3. Finishing up Wii and Wii U catalogs
4. DS and 3DS games that don't need dual screen

We're stuck in a perpetual cycle.

@Magician fair enough. Might give that game a shot myself if it’s a real switch release.

@Grumblevolcano this makes sense. I understand the whole GameCube thing because there are limited games on there anyways. And similar to the 3DS, the switch is expected to get a whole bunch of older titles for a while now. I can see at least one of those GC rumors being somewhat true, but why are there so many conflicting reports of so many GameCube games? Nintendo will certainly not port all of the ones I listed above. One or even two is more reasonable. Speaking of Genealogy Of The Holy War, that game’s remake has been also rumoured for a while. The same person that predicted Engage and all of its core mechanics and even a few characters (Alear, Vander, etc) also said a genealogy remake in Echoes: Shadows Of Valentia fashion is coming too. So that might be a latter half of year release, since the next FE entry will be probably a few years into the next console. DS and 3DS is kind of up in the air. An entry from one of those consoles will admittedly probably take some time. But which could it be? Most believe it’s Kid Icarus Uprising, since Sakurai dropped that giant hint bomb on his YouTube channel, and they are probably right. Kirby’s Return To Dreamland from the Wii just came out over a month ago, so I wonder if a title from the Wii could cross over, if at all. Galaxy 2 is an obvious ommission, you are correct. A straight port of that maybe, or something else entirely?

Since most retro Nintendo consoles are on NSO now, there are only a select few they can pull from to put on switch. Which ones they are exactly can probably be determined by process of elimination.

@Fizza so true. I swear, a new GC remaster port rumour comes out once a week these days. NCS is bang on here

@TheBigBlue Out of the GC remaster rumours, I feel the most believable ones are Prime 2 and Skies of Arcadia. Former because of preparation for Prime 4 and latter because SEGA seem to be starting to embrace their post-Genesis catalog like how Sonic Origins Plus has all the Game Gear Sonic games. Could see Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD used as reducing the Zelda drought after TotK is over like a 2025/2026 release but not this year.

I always felt Binding Blade was the most likely to get the Echoes treatment next given Melee made Roy super iconic (Nintendo even used Melee to promote the limited time release of the FE1 localization in 2020) but it feels likely that whatever the order, all the Japan exclusive ones would be localized eventually.

Most likely next DS game I'd say would be Explorers of Sky given there was that Mystery Dungeon remake in 2020 and Explorers of Sky is the most popular Mystery Dungeon game. I agree that Kid Icarus Uprising is most likely next game for 3DS given Sakurai's teases.

As for Wii, if the next new Mario platformer is far away I could see Nintendo relist 3D All Stars and have Galaxy 2 be DLC.

And I agree that the Wii U didn't have "nothing", that's also an exaggeration, but it wasn't the Wii U ports that allowed the Switch to amass a large library quickly, it was because it's a hybrid console with Nintendo's full force thrown behind it instead of only half of it like the Wii U. The Switch's library is still fairly respectable even without the Wii U ports (the only major IPs that are really leaning on Wii U ports are Mario Kart and DK), the Wii U ports have mainly just been supplementary. The Wii U, in the meantime, had several glaring omissions in its lineup such as the IPs I mentioned, so you could definitely argue the lineup wasn't compelling enough to convince people to buy it. This is especially true for people that like the more exploration heavy genres/gameplay styles, the people who like stuff like sandbox Marios, Zelda, Metroid, etc. The Wii U... really didn't have much of those types of experiences, pretty much just the Zelda remasters (which we shouldn't really count if we're arguing about original experiences), XCX, and BotW (which was cross gen and far more people experienced on the Switch). That's... really not going to impress people who say, like games like Skyrim on other consoles, or grew up with games like Mario 64/Sunshine, OoT, Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie, Metroid Prime, etc.

Now as to the overall argument as to whether the games can convince Switch owners to buy a Switch 2, well yes. And they can do more than just sequels to games we already loved on the Switch, there's a few omissions on the Switch's library that are prime opportunities for the Switch 2 to differentiate itself in a positive way. As I said, the Switch has no original Mario Kart or DK game, those games could stand out on the Switch 2. 2D Mario and 2D Zelda haven't really done anything original in a while, high quality entries there could turn heads. Might Yoshi follow Kirby into 3D next gen? Not quite sure, but that's another possibility. And of course there's always the possibility of new IPs.

Now ideally you'd like for the Switch 2 to also do something hardware related and knowing Nintendo they've probably come up with something. But I think it's more of a DS -> 3DS sort of upgrade, in the same way that the 3DS was a DS that could do all of the DS things but with stereoscopic 3D layered on top, the Switch 2 can do all of the Switch things but with some new gimmick layered on top. But I think at best that's going to feel like a bonus in the minds of gamers, most people do just seem to want more Switch games.

@TheBigBlue @Grumblevolcano So many damn rumours. And now Metroid Prime got a remaster these rumours about more GC games getting the remaster treatment is just exploding. I don’t believe any of them until Nintendo officially says something. It’s all just dreamers.

@FragRed yeah I fully agree, the smart thing to do would to not truly believe any of this until Nintendo says otherwise. Some people like those youtubers take this 'speculation' type of information and blow it out of proportion, to the point where the more casual viewers of Nintendo who don't know any of the internet BS end up watching a clickbaity YT video which talks about how "Oh my goodness everyone, this MASSIVE leak just DROPPED saying (insert the millionth rumored GC remaster here) is COMING to SWITCH!" and people get fooled. Just like the September direct. Everyone got so pumped to see Wind Waker and Metroid Prime Trilogy come to switch due to these internet 'leakers' and they got angry and cried online when that didn't happen. I just wish more people could keep their expectations in check and not fall for garbage like always.

@Grumblevolcano for the whole Echoes thing, people have been predicting which older FE title is next to recieve the treatment due to the chronological order of the games, i believe. Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon (1) and New Mystery Of The Emblem (3) got remade for the DS. Shadows of Valentia is a remake of the second FE game, Gaiden. Genealogy Of The Holy War is the 4th game in the franchise, so people believe naturally, that game is up next for a due remake, also because it is Japan Exclusive. After that, Binding Blade is most likely since it is game 6 in the series. The fifth entry in Fire Emblem is a strange one; it's truly up for debate since that game's events happen the same as the ones in Genealogy. So 4 and 5 could be remade together, there is a chance. But again, this isnt for sure. Binding Blade has been a long requested remake, so either games could come before the other.