Grumblevolcano

I really hope Astro Bot is #1 next week.

AAI collection (sadly digital only in Europe), Echoes of Wisdom physical, FF Pixel remasters physical, Mario Party physical, Tomb Raider 1-3 physical and Sonic X Shadow Generations physical are definite but may get others as well.

Most excited for Sonic X Shadow Generations by far.

Considering cheaper games by SEGA get physical versions when extra content is added (e.g. Sonic Mania and Sonic Origins got "Plus" expansions which resulted in physical versions), I think it's a relatively safe guess that there'll be a physical bundle for some combination of Yakuza 0/Yakuza Kiwami/Yakuza Kiwami 2 in the future.

Probably Splatoon 3, leaning more towards Salmon Run in preparation for next weekend's Big Run.

Nice to see the focus being on GCN this time. While the N64 games are good, I like the GCN games much more.

@Fizza I agree not to rule it out considering Capcom chose to release 2 AA collections in a year.

An interesting approach pairing both together, excited to see what comes. Hopefully Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac happens considering the teases from the Pac-Man twitter account earlier on in the year.

Returning to the Klonoa collection. Its release timing was unfortunate with XC3 a week later and then Booster Course Pass wave 2 the week after so it got lost in the backlog.

They've got a really nice selection of levels and bosses for the Shadow campaign so far. Maybe it's 2 levels and 1 boss per game?

The Nintendo Museum was in last September's general Direct so I guess this makes sense.

The current announcement did remind me that the Super Nintendo World DK expansion is happening later on in the year so we may get a Direct for that as well.

I don't see Legends Z-A appearing considering this is an esports event. GO, Unite and the TCG mobile app are the most likely to get announcements, maybe something for Scarlet/Violet if you're very lucky.

Started the Scarlet Blaze path for Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes earlier this week. Figured now was a good time considering the absolute earliest an upcoming Fire Emblem game could release is February 2025.

@EVIL-C Porting 1st party titles to other platforms by choice always results in more coming to those platforms. The Xbox and PS strategies for PC shows this but most recently there's the Xbox strategy for releasing on PS. Even Forza Horizon 5 is seemingly coming to PS.

So if Lego Horizon Adventures was published by Sony on Switch then you'd likely see Sony decide to port more stuff that they think would sell well on Nintendo hardware. The upcoming Astro Bot being a very fitting pick considering it's very Nintendo-like.

So now we have our answer, Lego Horizon Adventures is coming to Switch solely because Lego forced Sony to bring it to Switch rather than Sony actually wanting to bring it to Switch.

This is really useful information as it says not to expect Astro Bot on Switch 2.

I wonder what happened to the Sonic 3 movie, it's apparently releasing in 4 months yet there's no news.

I'm really glad that Tango Gameworks got revived, this is fantastic news.

Splatoon 3 for the Splatfest, making the most of it while it lasts especially considering next month is the final Splatfest.

Sonic already has a game releasing in October, RGG are announcing their next game at TGS in September and announcing something Persona would steal the spotlight from Metaphor so I don't think the unannounced game is Sonic/Like a Dragon/Persona.

Two Point Campus successor maybe?

Upon finding out the Switch version of Tomb Raider 3 was buggy, I chose to play the Lara Croft collection instead. Currently on the 2nd game of the collection (Temple of Osiris) and I'm liking it so far.

@JohnnyMind I think Pokemon Legends Z-A will end up getting in the top 10 considering Pokemon Legends Arceus got around 15 million despite being sandwiched between 2 other mainline releases (BDSP in November 2021, Legends Arceus in January 2022, Scarlet/Violet in November 2022).

With seemingly more breathing room between the mainline entries this time, I'd imagine that Scarlet/Violet overtakes Sword/Shield this Holiday and Legends Z-A overtakes NSMBU Deluxe by the time Gen 10 is announced.

Nice seeing both games do well. I do wonder how well Brothership will do, 3 Mario RPGs in the space of a year was an odd choice.

It's very interesting that they chose to announce now. Maybe there isn't a Pokemon Presents in August after all and they announce stuff like the TCG release date at Worlds.

Definitely Outer Wilds, Tomb Raider 1-3 collection and Echoes of Wisdom. Hopefully Tomb Raider 3's stuttering gets fixed by the time the physical release happens, I started the game few days ago and it was very buggy so I'm holding off playing it further until the next patch.

Investigations is sadly digital only on Switch in Europe (much like MH Stories physical was only PS4) so undecided whether to wait for a sale. Also undecided on Emio.

I went for Switch carts because they're the most convenient to use. It's like how the Switch OS is my favourite OS despite stuff like themes and eshop music not being present.

Don't see it happening, especially while the NSO voucher program exists.

Finished the TTYD remake (I like it more than the original) but instead of moving straight on to Tomb Raider 3 and its DLC, I figured I'd return to Pac-Man World Re-Pac in case the next Direct has a Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac announcement.

I felt Three Houses had the better story meanwhile Engage had the better gameplay.

I'm not ready to move on, Nintendo could release Switch 2 in like 2030 and I'd still be happy provided the software lineup for Switch 1 continues to stay strong.

I wonder if Emio will get icons.

My guess would be mobile stuff considering the TCG app launches this year but it could maybe be for a random announcement like how a Pokemon car was at Gamescom 2022.

I finished Nintendo World Championships NES Edition yesterday so I'm now deciding on my next game. Leaning towards either Tomb Raider 3 + its DLC or TTYD with the other one being the game I play afterwards.

The intro shown off in the Direct definitely looked playable rather than just a cutscene.

@Sidewinder172 It's important to remember that the Playstation community uniting in backlash against Jim Ryan is the sole reason why the PS3 and Vita still live today. Without that monumental effort, the stores would've been shut down in 2021.

Splatoon 3 for the Splatfest, just like the last few I'm taking full advantage of the ability to play a Splatfest while they still exist. The "Thank You for Playing" message in the Sizzle Season 2024 catalog makes it seem like Summer Nights is the penultimate Splatfest with FinalFest ending up being around late August.

@OldGamer999 Online preorders for consoles are always a gigantic mess, Switch 2 will be scalped in droves as usual.

A huge shame, GAME instore preorders made getting the Switch extremely easy back in 2017. Getting a Switch 2 in its launch year will probably be harder than getting a PS5 in 2020.

Impressive seeing TTYD so high, it's really nice to see more turn based RPGs outside of the inevitable Pokemon releases be higher up for a change.

Interesting, with this timing it seems like the 2nd half of summer is completely devoted to Splatoon 3.

Undecided considering I finished LM2 a few days ago but with next weekend being Splatfest and then Nintendo World Championships the week after, I'm leaning towards starting Tomb Raider 3 and its DLC (TTYD would be a good fit for August).

Maybe Echoes of Wisdom is a prequel to the Zelda movie?

Golf and Urban Champion now means NSO has every game that was in the NES Remix games.

Just Nintendo World Championships and Outer Wilds. Definitely a backlog and Splatoon 3 focused few months for me.

Interesting that they priced it cheaper than the Splatoon 3 + Expansion Pass eshop pricing. Physical is £59.99 on the My Nintendo Store and digital is £72.48 (digital doesn't include 3 months NSO either).

Just Nintendo World Championships but I've got lots of backlog to catch up on and making the most out of Splatoon 3 while it's still being supported.

I had to go for the Tomb Raider 1-3 collection, it was so fantastic being able to revisit 1 and 2 (I'll play 3 later on in the year). I really hope a 2nd collection happens with at least The Last Revelation and Chronicles.

As for announced games that could potentially overtake it in the 2nd half of the year, Sonic X Shadow Generations feels the most likely if any. It's really exciting to be able to play Sonic Generations on a current console that's not Xbox and the new Shadow campaign looks a lot of fun too.

Continuing with Banana Rumble until I've finished or the difficulty gets too frustrating, I think the difficulty curve was kind of fair this time (Banana Mania got way too hard too early on). Afterwards, I'll start Luigi's Mansion 2 HD.

I'm really looking forward to playing it for the first time. I did own it on 3DS but never got around to playing it because the lineup was so packed back then that it got sent to the backlog (haven't played a Mario & Luigi game before either for the same reasons).

The traditional Zelda games aren't even all on Switch yet so I'd want those to be brought over with the Wii U remasters being the most important of the bunch.

@GrailUK I guess it's about what happened to PS5. PS4 had huge support in its later years even from Sony but then PS5 had some game droughts. One way to reduce the PS5 game droughts would've been to delay PS4 games to be PS5 games instead so as a result, some people are applying that logic to Switch 2.

The Prime 4 announcement in the Direct made me want to replay Prime Remastered again, I'm nearing the end of the game and undecided what I'll play next considering Banana Rumble is on Tuesday.