N00BiSH

@KoopaTheGamer of course I don't mean it literally, mind you.

Sakurai wasn't kidding. This game is wild.

You'd have to be aggressively - pathetically - cynical to dismiss the effort put into this Direct and the game it's promoting. The way this was presented was all killer, no filler.

People tried to say it'd be Crossworlds, but it really does seem like Air Riders is gonna dethrone MKWorld as the best mascot racer of 2025. Rightfully so - Sakurai and the Bamco team really went and packed this game to the gills, and there's at least like six different things that made me go "WOAH." For example:

• The returning and refined Top Ride mode
• Returning courses from the OG Air Ride
• The lovely and playful main menus
• Shogo Sakai and Noriyuki Iwadare on the music
• The wide variety of accessibility and cosmetic options
• Forgoing DLC in favor of just being a solid standalone package

Air Riders feels like Sakurai's true finale to Kirby. A wonderful celebration of not just the games he made, but to the entire franchise beyond him. If this were his final game ever, I'd be okay with that. It's more than fitting that he'd put 110% into this given it's the series that started his career.

I'd honestly pay $70 for this. $80, even.

11/10. Good stuff.

@Cloudman so we're getting mad about things Nintendo's been doing since 2015 now. Okay then.

@Max_the_German "I‘ve got the feeling there are no secrets about this game anymore."

Except yes there are. More information does not inherently equal "nothing is secret"

@OldManHermit it still looks great on modern displays.

@Zeebor15

Good choice. It's not as if the cutscenes in Prime were in a dire need to be restaged.

@Olliemar28 really? Didn't know about that.

Yeah, no. It's more likely we'll see double package port of 2 & 3 than we will a remaster. I'm still convinced Prime 1 was remastered mainly to test how well the Switch could handle something like Prime 4 in terms of visuals.

@CaleBoi25 it's an unconventional racing game with a high skill ceiling. That's the draw(for me at least).

@Dark-Luigi insane right? With the OG Air Ride, it felt like there was more focus on City Trial then with any of the other modes. The main racing was alright but that's all it was. Now it feels like there's more of an effort to make the racing just as fun and engaging as City Trial.

I'm now more convinced that as a racing game this is going to blow MKWorld outta the water for me.

@Scapetti Well Luigi had to save Mario before he could go on his vacation.

The Nintendo Switch 2 has now cemented itself as the greatest gaming system of all time thanks to being able to play three(count 'em, three) Luigi's Mansions*.

_{*even if the port of 2 is kinda whatever but let's not worry about that}

@Warioware the unfortunate truth is no one likes to be surprised by things anymore. The gamers have replaced intrigue and curiosity with aversity and hostility towards games when they don't know anything about them.

It's funny that people still believe they're going to make Prime 2 and 3 remasters.

Anyways, this book looks pretty great. An intricate visual deep dive through the creative processes that got us to the Prime trilogy today. Love seeing stuff like this. I hope we see more Nintendo art books.

@Markatron84 eh, more than Mario Kart at least.

We might finally see the rest of this roster.

They should put Mario in.

Eh, I prefer NSO's approach over the VC at this point. Not exactly in anticipation at having to re-purchase the same popular NES games I already bought on other systems.

@SirLink so you're the one.

@The_Nintendo_Pedant I'm with you on this statement, but I'll take double-pack ports over a glossy remake any day of the week when it comes making older games more accessible.

"Bananza can't carry a system by itself like BotW did."

I have to assume this is yet another case of people downplaying Bananza because it's not the game they thought they wanted.

19/21. Not too bad.

While there's a charm to playing old games on their original hardware, with the NES I don't really feel it's necessary to recreate the old setup to truly experience what makes those games great.

If they're going to put proper lipsyncing in their cutscenes then they can at spring for VAs.

Or alternatively, they can keep with the current approach but do what old silent films did and include a caption that interrupts the scene

@Aerona @tseliot @Kid_Sickarus

@canaryfarmer Xceptionally Xuberant Xplanation.

_{...Xylophone.}

Of course, any enthusiasm for this is significantly dampened by the upcoming swath of unfunny "Nintendo legal" comments and jokes

I wonder when they're gonna ditch the Xbox brand...

@premko1 that doesn't mean it would be a better game.

Man, that headline is doing Mayles a huge disservice. He's been responsible for just about all of Rare's big endeavors from DKC to Banjo to Viva Piñata all the way up to Sea of Thieves. Heck of a legacy, that's for sure. Whether he does anything new in the future or not, I'm glad he was able to keep making such great games at Rare(even if they weren't Banjo-Threeie or whatever).

@premko1 Yeah I don't mind open worlds but this the one case where I gotta draw a line. Captain Toad isn't that kind of game.

@NatiaAdamo .. what does that have to with anything? At the end of the day NoA is still just a branch of NCL, who makes the majority of the big decisions. Just because Doug was from EA doesn't magically mean that Nintendo stooped to their level, and if anything it could've been much worse. I'll never say they're saints(they're still a business at the end of the day), but they're not pure evil either.

@Jedrus_Lilac yes we get it you don't like things being expensive - NONE of us do. Doesn't mean Nintendo is now on the same level as EA.

Those poor, poor theater workers.

@1UP_MARIO Didn't they rerelease those shorts onto YouTube a bit back? It's not like they're lost to time or anything.

Neat. I wonder if that means we'll get shorts on other games too. Would be cool to see them explore Metroid or Mario in a similar light as the OG Pikmin shorts or that Star Fox Zero short.

@abbyhitter I wouldn't dismiss Mario & Wario; that's honestly pretty fun.

@MirrorFate2 not any time soon. Nintendo wants the kids to have their Bananza fun before making them suffer through Beaver Bother

Such a great selection of games! _{and bubsy}

Reading these comments makes me glad I've never been too hung up on frame rates.

@gcunit because we've seen how Baby Mario, Luigi and Peach look in that film and they don't look anything like the baby in this short. Even with Illumination's weird changes, the character designs are still fairly in-line with how they look in the games.

Alright, so maybe this is a Pikmin thing, but the question is what kinda Pikmin thing is it?

@gcunit Baby Rosalina doesn't look like that.

@DTFaux "I don't see why suggesting there's any intent or connection behind all this sounds so farfetched when we're talking about a company that's always in Marketing Mode and loves to hold their cards close to their chest."

As I mentioned in a previous comment, Nintendo isn't needlessly vague when it comes to marketing - especially in regards to their major franchises. There's no sensible reason they would ever try to be coy about a new project like this if it were related to Mario in some form. They know it would get eyes immediately and probably sell like gangbusters. The fact that there isn't any sort of Mario or 40th Anniversary branding and that the visuals are very different from the usual Mario style is enough to tell me this has nothing to do with Mario in any meaningful sense.

As for being this being a Pikmin thing, well...this is just me speaking, but I just don't see enough of a thread here to follow. Outside of the music and the Pikmin itself, this doesn't necessary scream "It's a big new Pikmin thing" and since they're trying to make Pikmin one of their big franchises, this kind of teasing makes no sense. Like why would you make this big push for Pikmin and announce a new Pikmin project without actually saying it's a Pikmin project?

TLDR; Nintendo doesn't do vague brandless teasing for their big dogs and if this were a Mario or Pikmin thing, they would've said so right then and there.

@nervous-noodles better yet, they would've said "A new Pikmin game for Nintendo Switch 2 is now in development" or something

@SBandy1 it has Pikmin, but that doesn't mean it is Pikmin.

@SBandy1 huh. musta misread. Still though, outside of the music and background easter egg, I don't think there's enough evidence to suggest that this is leading to some big new Pikmin thing. If it were, they would've outright said so right in the video. Nintendo isn't much for the "embarrassingly vague teaser" for their big franchises.

@SBandy1 We're not getting Pikmin 5 anytime soon so I wouldn't hold your breath for that