Grumblevolcano

Just Splatoon 3 for Summer Nights, nice seeing Urchin Underpass back in the Splatfest rotation (last time was the final Splatoon 1 Splatfest in 2016) and hopefully it's the tricolor stage.

It's a shame that vouchers are disappearing, it was good value if digital was your kind of thing. Also vouchers may be the reason why certain retailers priced Switch 1 games at £42.99 even at launch (2 physical games at that price is £85.98 which is comparable to the 2 vouchers price of £84).

What I will say though is it's really exciting that Nintendo effectively confirmed there'll be Switch 1 games released throughout 2026. Will be interesting to see the extent of the balance between crossgen and Switch 2 exclusives.

Smyths has the preorder up for this game and it's unsurprisingly a Key Card on Switch 2:

https://www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/gaming-and-tech/pre-order-games/nintendo-switch-2-pre-order-games/nba-2k26-nintendo-switch-2/p/252235

@WhiteTrashGuy The FFXIII trilogy needs a remaster the most as the only modern consoles you can play them on is Xbox.

@GrailUK Was that for the N64 original or the XB1 remaster?

An interesting thing this suggests if true is the merging of the N64 NSO apps. Forsaken 64 is a M rated game so wouldn't be in the base N64 app.

@Cakefish That's the point I was getting across, 1st party has a consistent pacing so Nintendo can technically get away with no general Direct and just drop info on Nintendo Today (not brilliant on the communication side but its something) but the 3rd party side of things is too quiet.

@Cakefish Nintendo has the Mario Party DLC (Jamboree's Switch 2 edition) and Drag x Drive in between DK and the Kirby DLC. What's needed the most on the 1st party side of things at the moment is a release date for Prime 4.

But yeah, the near weekly 1st party announcements (Legends Z-A release date, Splatoon Raiders, DK Bananza Direct, Drag x Drive release date) makes a general Direct before September seem very unlikely.

@Cakefish I am surprised they didn't do a Partner Showcase last week (e.g. June 25th/26th). It still would've allowed the spotlight to be on DK for 1st party but while at the same time making future 3rd party support seem less barren.

More MK8 Deluxe and maybe Pokemon Scarlet, the former has distracted me from the latter but someday I will get the BP required to upgrade the Canyon biome so I can finish catching the starters.

Just Soul Reaver 1+2, Patapon 1+2 and Shadow Labyrinth on Switch 1 for July/August. If I had a Switch 2, DK Bananza would absolutely have been a day 1 purchase but 1TB express cards still aren't available so I have to wait so I can do the system transfer and by that point there may be physical Switch 2 + DK Bananza bundles like there was at Argos with MK World in June.

Between this addition and the really nice remix of the Coast theme in World revealed via Nintendo Today, I feel like revisiting Sparkling Waters.

Tied between Tomb Raider 4-6 Remastered and XCX Definitive Edition. I think it may stay that way at the end of the year, those 2 releases were so fantastic.

More MK8 Deluxe and Pokemon Scarlet, that's probably going to remain the focus until Soul Reaver 1+2 and Summer Nights happen in 2 weeks.

Wow, so even games that were numbered LRG releases have the chance someday to be general retail releases.

I hope a shareholder asked about whether Nintendo Today is replacing general Directs considering the odd decision to announce Splatoon Raiders and Drag x Drive release date via the app.

While it's good that intermissions are part of random now, I don't think random should be limited to the 3 voting choices. At the very least it should be able to pick intermissions not listed in the voting choices.

EDIT: Turns out there's still a 25% chance of random picking a track not listed in the voting choices, that's decent.

It would be interesting to know what proportion of physical MK World sales are the download codes included with the hardware bundle.

@jarack The numbered Limited Run releases are exclusive to that site meanwhile those which aren't numbered get general retail print runs. The examples you gave weren't numbered releases meanwhile Gex Trilogy for example was Switch #280.

@AJWolfTill They said Winter for Age of Imprisonment so it could be December, January or February. Leaning towards February because of the Zelda anniversary.

So they did a Nintendo Today drop on June 10th revealing Splatoon Raiders and the free Splatoon 3 update. Then the following week, on June 16th they announced a DK Bananza Direct. Now they’re doing a Nintendo Today drop on June 24th revealing the release date for Drag x Drive.

Perhaps next week is a Prime 4 Direct which reveals the release date for September? The London Underground ad looks like confidence in release timing.

@DwaynesGames Star Crossed World is already confirmed for August 28th.

It was neat that characters like Pianta and Cataquack finally got their time in the spotlight as a result of this. I do think crossover stuff will happen eventually if they plan on supporting the game for like 10+ years.

@Michael0916 It’s a similar kind of situation. If you revealed Bananza was made by the Odyssey team now, the narrative may shift to “Bananza is the reason there’s no 3D Mario” but doing it at launch means glowing Bananza reviews and general excitement about the game would be the focus rather than 3D Mario’s absence.

@Michael0916 In 2013, Nintendo hyped up the announcement of the next big game from Retro Studios but it somewhat backfired as people were expecting Metroid Prime 4, not DK.

It would be really sad if after a 11 year gap of no new entries (Tropical Freeze released in 2014), DK got overshadowed again just because it’s not 3D Mario.

@Cakefish Legends Z-A can act as the big holiday title, Mario Odyssey released in October and acted as 2017’s big holiday Switch title while November was left to 3rd parties.

More MK8 Deluxe and Pokemon Scarlet’s DLC. I have 1 more biome to upgrade and then I think I’m done with Scarlet, the DLC overall was fun but the Blueberry Quests to get BP are a bit too obnoxious to go beyond upgrading the biomes regarding the non-story stuff that cost BP.

It would be cool (though diminished by the absence of a real physical version) but hopefully a FF13 trilogy remaster for Switch 1 happens first. Releasing a game for Switch 1 seems the only way to guarantee a real physical version for Nintendo hardware nowadays so it would be best if games that could run on Switch 1 got Switch 1 versions before 3rd parties stopped supporting Switch 1.

I hope Tricolor is on Urchin Underpass.

@somnambulance I think it comes down to quantity of unannounced 1st party games. If they did a general Direct in June 2022, the only unannounced game would’ve been Kirby’s Dream Buffet.

Similarly, February 2024 would’ve been Endless Ocean Luminous (appeared in the Partner Showcase) + Nintendo World Championships NES Edition and September 2024 would’ve been XCX Definitive Edition.

So if they do a general Direct next week, it suggests there’s multiple unannounced 1st party games. Switch 2 lineup seems packed enough for the rest of the year so maybe it would be about Switch 1 players, that would be really exciting if they announced a bunch of 3DS ports for Switch 1 for example.

@somnambulance There was a similar situation in summer 2022 (lots of 2nd half of 2022 games without release dates and games which had release dates but needed more info) and the approach was:

• XC3 and Splatoon 3 had their own Directs
• Pokemon Scarlet/Violet had a random social media release date reveal followed by a Pokemon Presents later on
• A Partner Showcase had a bunch of 3rd party stuff including the edge cases of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope and Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes
• Kirby’s Dream Buffet, Bayonetta 3, MK8 Deluxe DLC and Mario Strikers update got social media announcements
• General Direct didn’t happen until September

I think they’ll go this route this year so that more focus can be given to DK Bananza but it would be really nice for a general Direct to happen next week.

For it to focus on stuff not already known.

@Jack_Goetz 2013 had the big E3 general Direct which announced a bunch of stuff including Tropical Freeze and MK8.

The reason I said 2022 was that was the year that instead of a June general Direct there was XC3 Direct, Partner Showcase, Pokemon Presents, Splatoon 3 Direct and a bunch of standalone announcements over the summer via social media (e.g. Kirby’s Dream Buffet, MK8 Deluxe DLC wave 2, Bayonetta 3 release date). Then the next general Direct was in September after Splatoon 3 launched.

More DK info is cool. That said while Splatoon Raiders and Legends Z-A hinted towards this, it’s still a bit disappointing that they’re going the 2022 route instead of doing a general Direct.

@NintendoWife Winter covers some months from both Q4 and Q1 so if you’re to assign a quarter to it, you have a chance of being wrong either way. You could list Q1 2026 and be wrong as a result of a December 2025 release but on the other hand you could list Q4 2025 and be wrong because of a January/February 2026 release.

@NintendoWife Age of Imprisonment having a Winter release rather than Holiday means it could be early next year instead, February would be a good fit because of the Zelda 40th anniversary. I think the BotW and TotK Switch 2 editions are acting as the 2025 Zelda games.

@N00BiSH I could see it being that they wanted to bring more attention to the 3rd party stuff. Cyberpunk is seemingly doing well from the port being well done and CDPR’s commitment to real physical media for example.

If Nintendo flooded the market with 1st party Switch 2 games, 3rd party support might be seen as an afterthought.

Continuing Pokemon Scarlet’s DLC (got 3 more biomes to upgrade) and probably returning to MK8 Deluxe. But first I’ll spend some time with Splatoon 3 for Big Run.

I wonder if this is a sign for game release timing so like September for Prime 2+3 and then 2026 for Prime 4.

I think in the end while some people will be able to have Switch 2 act as their only platform, PS5 and Switch 2 will generally remain companion devices for plenty of people much like PS4/PS5 and Switch 1 were.

It would be a huge get for Switch 2 but I think GTA6 will skip the console for example.

I’m really happy to see Urchin Underpass return. While it’s a good Mario Kart battle arena, it’s much better as a Splatoon stage. Hopefully Saltspray Rig is next as that’s the only Splatoon 1 map that’s not playable on Switch.

Continuing with Pokemon Scarlet’s DLC on my Switch 1 since the 4.0.0 update went live. I’ve completed Teal Mask and currently going through Indigo Disk. I’m glad that the game became stable enough for me to continue and it makes optimistic for how Legends Z-A will run on Switch 1.

On a side note, it’ll be interesting to see the extent to which Switch 2 is present at the Xbox showcase. If it’s minimal then that gives more hope for a Direct soon.

I’ll be buying this on Switch 1, September is looking packed.

Excited to pick this up day 1 on Switch 1.

I played for a bit after the update went live and the DLC feels more stable on Switch 1 than the last time I checked. I think I’ll work on finishing the DLC then as the freezes early on in the DLC were what made me stop.

@Ulysses That’s how I think they should’ve handled Key Cards for Switch 2 games. Instead of having Key Cards be an internet download with nothing on the cart, have it be the game is fully on the cart but it’s a cheaper slower speed cart so you need to install the game to the internal memory or microSD Express.

People would’ve seen it as an acceptable compromise as that’s what PS4/PS5 usually does with discs.

Raidou Remastered, Soul Reaver 1+2 and Shadow Labyrinth (all for Switch 1). Deciding to hold out for physical Soul Reaver 1+2 instead of double dipping digital back in December worked out very well with me not getting Switch 2 at launch.

@Wexter There were rumours of FFVII Remake coming to Switch Pro in 2021 and Nintendo confirmed in the Switch 2 “Ask the Developer” interview that Switch Pro was real so we may never truly know whether FFVII Remake trilogy on Switch 2 is part of the Square Enix 2024 multiplatform strategy or just a natural result of Switch 2 being powerful enough to run the games.

Decided to focus on MK8 Deluxe until the next Direct as I want to replay Prime 2 and 3 before Prime 4 of which the next Direct feels like the last chance for Prime 2+3 Switch port. Legends Z-A being in October instead of the usual November Pokemon slot makes me think Prime 4 could be as early as August.

Sounds like either an AI error or something connected to how Xbox socials got hacked with Crypto scams.

While Nintendo may go down the PC route if Switch 2 does badly like the mobile strategy caused by the Wii U’s commercial failure, I don’t see Nintendo sabotaging Switch 2’s launch by announcing PC ports.