Grumblevolcano

Sonic Forces is missing from this list.

Mostly continuing with FFVII Rebirth but also spending some time with Splatoon 3's Big Big Run. Will be very interesting to see whether Nintendo decides to bring back Grand Fest and its corresponding Big Run around September/October 2026 considering the pattern of past Big Run and seasonal Splatfest repeats.

I really don't get why Nintendo skipped baseball again with Switch Sports Resort.

Continuing with FFVII Rebirth, so far it does feel like either this or FFVII Remake is going to be my 2026 GotY.

@Bolt_Strike Xenoblade Genesis was an exciting announcement and it was cool seeing more news about stuff like Fortune's Weave. I would've picked a different order for the 1st party announcements for better pacing though:

• Start with OoT remake (considering the reveal had barely any info)
• Then the Rhythm Heaven Groove deep dive
• Keep Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave, Pokopia DLC, DK Challenge, Switch Sports Resort, Star Fox and Splatoon Raiders positions unchanged
• Either keep Xenoblade position unchanged and end with the 3rd party reveal of KH or end with Xenoblade

Easily a 10/10. Lots of 3rd party games I want and a solid 1st party lineup alongside it. To think I may send Fire Emblem to the backlog is crazy but it may just end up happening considering lineup is so insanely packed as well as TR 2013 and Rise shadow drops means we may end up with a Shadow shadow drop in the September Direct.

That 3rd party support continues strong, last week's showcases give me hope that this is the case. Also a Fortune's Weave release date.

I think the Treehouse games will be the 3 we already know that are coming very soon (Star Fox, Rhythm Heaven Groove, Splatoon Raiders). With the exception of console launches and E3, Nintendo tended to use Treehouse for games much closer to launch like how the February one was focused on March games (Pokopia + Wonder Switch 2 Edition).

Will be continuing with Rebirth and also intrigued to see what Switch 2 games are announced at the Xbox showcase.

Had to deduct a point because of Key Cards but Switch 2 has been fantastic and I gave it a 9/10. The 3rd party support was extremely strong and it was also cool that Nintendo was rather unpredictable about 1st party. Who'd have thought Nintendo would have DK as the big 3D platformer of the launch window for example.

Communication has been weird like the general Direct in September being the only one of the 1st year but with a lineup this strong, I don't think it matters particularly.

@somnambulance Maybe FromSoftware is showing off the new classes via the PC or PS5 version at Summer Game Fest?

Whichever form it is, I hope there's a lot of 3rd party announcements. September general Direct while a good Direct was a bit too skewed towards 1st party.

The Nintendo games will come whenever but 3rd party support on Switch 2 so far is the strongest it's been for Nintendo hardware since the SNES era, it would be a shame for that to just collapse and people having to rely on PS/Xbox/PC as a companion device if they want 3rd party games.

I hope the next Direct reveals Rise and Shadow for Switch 2 releasing prior to LoA. While LoA is a reimagining of the 1996 game, they did say that the survivor trilogy is the origin story of the unified timeline and I don't want to return to my Xbox save file of Shadow.

Nice to see they added all the GP tracks, hopefully this is a signal for a new batch of NSO icons.

The previous DQ Monsters was announced in the June 2023 general Direct and released in December 2023. Maybe something similar here but perhaps release moved to February to avoid GTA6.

Undecided whether I want to start Mina the Hollower now or wait until later in June. I bought it day 1 but the difficulty is that I want to be finished with whatever games I play this weekend by 10pm on Tuesday. There's the over an hour long State of Play at that time followed Rebirth being playable at midnight.

@Mz3player Could be about Switch 1 cart speeds? For example if you buy Prime 4 Switch 1 physical and the Switch 2 Edition upgrade pack, you still have the long load times of the Switch 1 version.

3rd parties doing a standalone Switch 2 version instead of a "Switch 2 Edition" means they're not needing to deal with the limitations of Switch 1 carts.

Square Enix seems to still want to support Switch 1. Maybe there's still hope for FF13 trilogy getting a true physical release on Nintendo hardware considering Switch 1 should be powerful enough to run those 7th gen games.

It would be neat if Nintendo allowed Bandai Namco to make a Star Fox expansion for a theoretical Switch 2 version of Ace Combat 8 much like how Ubisoft was allowed to make one for the Switch version of Starlink Battle for Atlas.

Continuing with Indiana Jones, it's a very good game so far.

I think it's cool that Square Enix consistently releases demos for their games about a month before launch. Will play through this demo after I've finished Indiana Jones.

@jsty3105 I think the death of E3 allowed Nintendo room to experiment more with how and when to deliver news. With the end result perhaps being a conclusion that fewer general Directs results in higher game sales as there's more attention on each individual game.

I could see Nintendo aim more towards the multiplayer side of things this time like how they used to do MK8 Deluxe tournaments in the Switch era.

Already preordered but won't be playing day 1, maybe in July as that's a quieter month.

I think if Elden Ring releases before September, we'll get a release date announcement this month because of preorders for the boxed version.

Indiana Jones, the game is fun so far and they did a very good job with the Switch 2 port. The fantastic 3rd party support this year so far really gives me hope for longer term 3rd party support.

Maybe we end up getting general Directs that are solely for movies in the future.

I feel that PS fans would really appreciate it if Sony took the Switch 2 era approach for PS5. Like imagine if State of Plays announced that 2027's PS5 1st party lineup was:

• Infamous remake
• Resistance remake
• Syphon Filter remake
• MediEvil 2 remake
• New Wild Arms
• New Jak & Daxter
• New Motorstorm
• New Twisted Metal
• New Warhawk
• New Ape Escape
• New Killzone
• New LittleBigPlanet

Push Square would be talking about how amazing the 2027 lineup is and hoping for other revivals to happen in 2028 like SOCOM and Wipeout.

Meanwhile Switch 2 conversation has pretty much devolved into "Where's 3D Mario?" which is rather sad.

More Kirby Air Riders, while I've got 100% completion for Road Trip (completed the checklist and played through every stage) I'm still getting a lot of use out of the other modes. May throw in some other games but I'm not starting a new single player game until Indiana Jones releases.

I think we will see a quieter 1st party holiday lineup because of GTA6 but that an increased pace at other times of the fiscal year keeps the total average at 1 game a month.

@Dman10 Not really, what Nintendo's done this year so far isn't much different from what happened in 2024 and that had a June general Direct.

I'll wait to see how the summer unfolds as I already have 8 games locked in for May - July (Indiana Jones, Yoshi, Bubsy, Mina the Hollower, Rebirth, Elliot, Rhythm Heaven, Splatoon) which is a lot.

On the one hand it's disappointing that Star Fox is yet another remake of 64 but on the other hand it happening despite 64 being on NSO gives me hope that Wind Waker HD finally comes to the Switch ecosystem.

Either is fine provided if there's no general Direct, there's a Partner Showcase instead. Partner Showcase still has the feel of a general Direct even though 1st party stuff is absent as I play plenty of both 1st and 3rd party games on Switch 2. Like irrelevant of what Nintendo does in June, FFVII Rebirth is my primary game that month.

Though the ideal situation would be the return of E3. I think in an E3 environment, Nintendo would've backtracked from Switch 2 Key Cards in a similar way to how Xbox backtracked from Don Mattrick's XB1 vision.

@somnambulance I think in general there's not enough physical copies being provided for newer releases. For example with Amazon, Saros is out of stock and the next delivery of Tomodachi Life is May 31st.

Hopefully the Starfighter movie is a hint that the 6th gen Starfighter games get remastered.

Not really decided but currently thinking about starting Kirby Air Riders, I bought it at launch but didn't get around to playing it because of the strong 3rd party support and Metroid Prime 4.

Indiana Jones, Bubsy and Yoshi for May (all physical) meanwhile Rebirth and Elliot for June (both digital). Considering the Spring release window, I'd also imagine that Mina the Hollower fits somewhere in here too perhaps a shadow drop in a State of Play for example.

I guess FFVII Remake Part 3 is later in 2027 then so this expansion gets some breathing room?

If I have the time, I think I'll be starting Legacy of Kain Defiance Remastered. Completed Pragmata but there's still a few weeks before Indiana Jones comes out on May 12th.

I don't particularly like it when non-gaming media like books and movies are required prior knowledge for games. Like when 343 started relying on books to cover plot points unresolved in the Halo games, it made future games like Halo 5 and Infinite a complete mess in terms of story.

@RenanLK It's pretty normal in the post-E3 era. Nintendo revealed more 2026 games than normal in 2025 resulting in them skipping February 2026 general Direct as 1st party release dates can be revealed on Nintendo Today/social media while 3rd party games can be announced via Partner Showcase.

Happy to get a release date and it's earlier than I thought it would be (figured late July for Fire Emblem and early/mid September for Splatoon). It's cool that the game is single player focused and the price is reasonable.

Very exciting summer ahead so far between FFVII Rebirth, The Adventures of Elliot, Rhythm Heaven Groove, Splatoon Raiders, MGS Master Collection Vol 2 and 007 First Light.

Pragmata is my focus this weekend and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's really nice how strong 3rd party support for Switch 2 has been this year.

Captain Toad for Wii U launched the year after 3D World meanwhile the 3DS/Switch port launched the year after Odyssey so maybe a Captain Toad sequel happens the year after the next 3D Mario?

Already preordered and it's waiting on my Switch 2 to unlock at launch. Will be the next game I play after finishing Ace Combat 7.

It'll be interesting to see what Raiders actually is. When first announced I figured it was a larger scale single player campaign but now I wonder if it's the normal single player + multiplayer combo tackling a different genre like extraction shooter.

My plan is to start Ace Combat 7. Summer 2024 was a busy time for Switch 1 so I didn't get around to it then but with Ace Combat 8 on the horizon and probably coming to Switch 2 considering Bandai Namco's support of the platform, now seems like a good opportunity to start 7.

I never thought this would've come because of the Square Enix/Embracer situation in 2022. But sure, I'd play a native Switch 2 version.

Hopefully Kingdom Hearts and Control also are freed from cloud versions.

@StarCollector Games cheaper than £40/$50 aren't eligible for NSO vouchers so as Rhythm Heaven is £34/$40 it's still the case that Tomodachi Life is currently the only 2026 NSO voucher game.