Grumblevolcano

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.

Nice to see the game finally get a release date, will be a day 1 purchase and hopefully there's a physical version.

The reduced price on the eshop (£33.99) compared to normal Switch 1 pricing also makes it seem like NSO vouchers aren't eligible hence meaning Nintendo's "NSO voucher games added throughout 2026" comment further confirms there's more Switch 1 games incoming.

Considering the lack of Switch 2 3rd party support post-June, it felt like April Partner Showcase was likely. However Push Square reported on a rumour yesterday that a 3rd party focused State of Play was happening next week so maybe that event fills in the gaps instead.

Hopefully the port turns out well when it releases. I'd much rather wait for the Switch 2 version to come out than get the game on a different platform.

A port of Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD from Wii U would be ideal. But as those games weren't in the poll, I went for the DS games.

Seems that Switch 2 won't be given a price hike for at least a month then.

If I get the time, my focus will be Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair. As I finished Kena Bridge of Spirits earlier on in the week, it's all about backlog until Pragmata comes out.

I'm starting Kena Bridge of Spirits this weekend. This is one of the games that made me want a PS5 but in the end just like the FFVII Remake trilogy and Stray, waiting for it to come to Nintendo hardware instead paid off big time.

@michellelynn0976 Where did you find that info about a physical release? I picked up digital because all signs were pointing towards no physical.

This makes me wonder if the next 3D Mario is a crossover game. Like Bowser does something which causes all the Nintendo universes to merge and Mario has to journey across them in order to defeat Bowser.

@Willo567 Other regions have been doing more expensive physical for Switch 2 only 1st party games since June, like with the UK the RRP was:

• £67 digital/£75 physical - MK World
• £59 digital/£67 physical - DK Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, Age of Imprisonment, Mario Tennis Fever, Pokopia
• £50 digital/£59 physical - Yoshi and the Mysterious Book

We can tell from this that Yoshi's pricing in the US is not because of a new norm for standard price but rather it's instead like how Emio was £40 in the Switch 1 era when the standard Switch 1 game price was £50.

Considering the price of Yoshi in other territories (e.g. in the UK digital RRP is £50, physical RRP is £59), this is a price increase for physical rather than a digital discount. Probably safe to expect stuff like 3D Mario, 3D Zelda, Animal Crossing, Pokemon Gen 10, etc. to be $90 physical at this point.

Very grim for the future of physical.

@iLikeUrAttitude By this time in the Switch 1's lifespan (late December 2017) the upcoming roadmap was:

• February 2018 - Bayonetta 1+2
• Spring 2018 - Kirby Star Allies (would later be announced to release in March 2018)
• 2018 - Unnamed Yoshi game (would later be delayed to March 2019)
• 2018 - Unnamed Fire Emblem game (would later be delayed to July 2019)
• TBA - Unnamed mainline Pokemon RPG (would later be revealed to be a November 2019 game)
• TBA - Bayonetta 3 (would later be revealed to be an October 2022 game)
• TBA - Metroid Prime 4 (would later be revealed to be a December 2025 game)

Meanwhile for Switch 2 it's:

• April 2026 - Tomodachi Life Living the Dream (Switch 1)
• April 2026 - Pokemon Champions (Switch 1 and 2)
• May 2026 - Yoshi and the Mysterious Book
• 2026 - Rhythm Heaven Groove (Switch 1)
• 2026 - Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave
• 2027 - Pokemon Winds/Waves
• TBA - Splatoon Raiders

Both are similar scale roadmaps but with the Switch 2 era list being closer to releasing than the Switch 1 list.

I think a new entry is years away (2029/2030 perhaps?) with the strategy being that heavy hitters are spread out over the whole generation instead of the Switch 1 strategy where they crammed almost all the non-Pokemon heavy hitters into years 1-3.

Continuing with MH Stories 3, so far it seems to have fixed all the problems I had with the previous 2 entries. I'm not noticing any big difficulty spikes in this entry so far for example.

@Don I think it'll be Sunshine in June and Colosseum in August.

@ShonenJump121 I wouldn't exactly say other platforms are safe either. While PS5 has leaned much more towards true physical, Crimson Desert does create a different problem. The concept of locking single player games fully on the disc behind an online check.

I managed to get silver on my first try with the current Big Run so the focus turns to MH Stories 3.

@Nintendofanatic994 Just because Nintendo said that before doesn't mean it can't change in the future. Circumstances can easily change like see how quickly Nintendo went from saying the Mario Kart bundle would be discontinued in Fall 2025 to it still being readily available in March 2026.

@ShadLink When I made my comment, the My Nintendo Store physical listing wasn't up yet. Thanks for the info.

@RushDawg On the eshop, the digital preorder price for Yoshi is £49.99 meanwhile the price of the other games I listed were £58.99 (except MK World which is £66.99).

Hopefully there's a true physical release. The reduced price compared to past Switch 2 exclusives (MK World, DK Bananza, Age of Imprisonment, Air Riders, Mario Tennis Fever, Pokopia) is nice but Pokopia makes me worried Yoshi will be a Key Card.

@datamonkey @Yodalovesu Time zones, MAR10 Day had already started in Japan when the Galaxy movie Direct happened.

I plan on returning to Daemon X Machina Titanic Scion. I need something to last until MH Stories 3 releases and what I had planned previously (Legacy of Kain Defiance Remastered) got delayed.

@Lord Excluding 2020 where there was no general Directs, 2024 was the latest. First general Direct of that year was June 18th with the prior Directs being Partner Showcase, Pokemon Presents and Indie World.

I'm kind of surprised it wasn't a MAR10 Day video more like 2024 considering Yoshi doesn't have a release date yet but there's still plenty of time to announce Yoshi's release date at another time.

While I'll still be buying Tomodachi Life day 1 to secure the physical copy, in terms of actually playing games in April I'm definitely prioritizing Pragmata over Tomodachi Life.

@The21zonz That's happened before like Mario 64/Link's Awakening/Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

It's the reverse that's never happened before. So far if a game releases on NSO, that means it's never getting a port/remaster/remake. Like if that Walmart Prime 2 GCN NSO rumour is true, then that rules out Prime 2 Remastered.

Surprised Onimusha is missing, I wonder if it's been delayed to 2027 because of GTA6.

@garfreek 2024's first general Direct was in June.

@AlonditeFE Nintendo always has their July game dated by the end of May so I think they'll do the same this year. My guess is Yoshi in May, Rhythm Heaven in June, Fire Emblem in July and Splatoon in September.

As for the general Direct discussion. We already have 4 1st party games announced that don't have release dates which are either confirmed for 2026 or are likely 2026 (Yoshi, Rhythm Heaven, Fire Emblem, Splatoon). So if Nintendo wanted to do they could use a MAR10 Day video like the one in 2024 for Yoshi and do Nintendo Today drops/single game Directs for the other 3.

Also, if there's more 3rd party stuff that's being announced via Direct, they could do another Partner Showcase over the Spring. Hence meaning the next general Direct doesn't really need to happen until June, it could happen earlier but it absolutely doesn't have to be earlier.

Mina the Hollower release date perhaps?

Continuing with the first MH Stories, it’s an enjoyable game so far but some of these difficulty spikes are brutal.

Looks promising and it’s nice seeing the game receive extra time in the oven. It’s cool diving is returning, that was a neat feature from Gen 3.

It does seem like TPC is spreading out the Pokemon news over the week. FRLG announced last Friday, Pokopia Nintendo Treehouse on Tuesday and a Presents on Friday so far.

I decided to play the original Monster Hunter Stories in preparation for the 3rd game. I played the 2nd game back in 2021 near when it launched but the Switch port of the 1st game released at a busy time so I didn’t get around to it.

I could see it perhaps being that the Presents itself is only Gen 10 meanwhile the other stuff like Pokopia, GCN NSO, etc. are standalone announcements in the lead up to Pokemon Day. That would explain the Fire Red/Leaf Green news today.

MGS Master Collection volume 2 announcement felt like the perfect opportunity to return to MGS3.

I'll take the Switch 1 physical, would've liked it all on a 32GB cart but at least it seems Peace Walker and Ghost Babel are on the cart judging by the info provided.