westman98

So long, (Doug) Bowser!

• In “Free Roam”, you can now transform into the character pulled into the UFO

This is a game changer, you can now unlock certain characters without relying entirely on luck (i.e. another racer using the Kamek item + that Kamek transforming you into a specific desired character).

The game should have been delayed on all platforms.

Don't all the WWE 2K games (and all the annual licensed sports games in general) shut down just a few years after launch? Maybe it's not as short as just 2 years for other titles, but it isn't that long either.

I'm someone who really enjoys the move to open world for certain Nintendo IPs like Zelda, Pokemon, and even Mario. However, I hope Metroid Prime 4 is NOT an open world game. I enjoy the labyrinthine level design of the Metroid games and I think an open world would ruin that.

With that being said, if the open area(s) shown function more like a central hub area that connects the individual regions of the game (similar to Hyrule Field from Ocarina of Time), then I'd be fine with it. My ideal way would be to have open world traversal replace the loading-screen elevators or gunship from the previous Prime games.

Seems like almost every cross-gen game published by Square Enix doesn't support Switch => Switch 2 upgrade paths or save data transfers. Quite ridiculous given how other publishers - including indie developers - are able to offer cross-gen upgrades/transfers with little issue.

All the $40 amiibos were priced at $30 up until August before Nintendo raised US prices across the board for a bunch of stuff (Switch 1 hardware, Switch 1/2 accessories, amiibo).

$30 amiibo is still quite expensive, but the jump to $40 and now $50 is definitely tariff-related.

Every Nintendo 1st party game the have in the pipeline:

• October 2025: Super Mario Galaxy 1+2
• October 2025: Pokemon Legends Z-A
• November 2025: Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment
• November 2025: Kirby Air Riders
• December 2025: Metroid Prime 4 Beyond
• February 2026: Mario Tennis Fever
• Spring 2026: Super Mario Bros Wonder Switch 2 Edition + Bellabel Park
• Spring 2026: Yoshi and the Mysterious Book
• Spring 2026: Tomodachi Life Living the Dream
• Spring 2026: Pokemon Pokopia
• 2026: Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave
• 2026: Rhythm Heaven Groove
• TBA (2026?): Splatoon Raiders

2025 is ending off strongly while 2026 is looking stacked just from what we know of. This was a great 1st party-oriented Direct, no mega-huge announcements like the next 3D Mario but there was still a lot of good stuff unveiled.

Well Nintendo finally brought back stereoscopic 3D, just not in the way anyone predicted.

Nintendo also brought back Labo for the cardboard Virtual Boy headset 😄

In general this is one of the crazier announcements Nintendo announcements, all hail the Virtual Boy indeed.

Ubisoft's upper management and marketing teams must have watched that GVG video and thought the Outlaws Switch 2 port was terrible, only to be surprised by how good it is when it released.

That's the only reason I can think of as to why the port would have near-nonexistent marketing prior to launch, followed by actual decent marketing well after launch.

Some of yall have way too high of expectations for the first 3 months of a new platform. This is probably about as good of a lineup as you'd get from both 1st and 3rd parties (Switch 1 launch really lacked in the latter) for a new Nintendo platform launching outside of the holiday period.

I'm not too surprised though, most people expected the Switch 2 launch window to include a new 3D Mario or Zelda, so it launching with a new Mario Kart and 3D Donkey Kong instead would understandably lead to some disappointment.

@Jeronan
Maybe this is a regional discrepancy, but every PS5 and Series X bundle that I have seen comes with a digital copy of a game.

Going back to Nintendo, the majority of Switch 2s sold is the Mario Kart bundle, which comes with Mario Kart World pre-installed onto the Switch 2 itself.

@Jeronan
All games that are bundled with hardware either ship as a download code with the console or is pre-installed into the console itself, it has been like this since the Switch 1 (and probably before that too).

Pretty sure this is also the case for games bundled with PlayStations and Xboxes.

Silksong ultra-killed every digital storefront, incredible achievement.

In all seriousness, this is why allowing pre-loads are a good thing.

Uhhhh this actually looks and runs quite well, far from a disaster that GVG claimed in their hands-on impression.

Definitely bodes well for the rumored Assassin's Creed Shadows (another open-world Ubisoft title) port, as well as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (another game that mandates ray-traced lighting).

How is a PS6 handheld that is weaker than the PS5 supposed to natively run PS5 or PS6 games?

Either late October/early November (right between Pokemon Legends Z-A and Kirby Air Riders) or early December.

To add to this, I think Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment will release in either early December or very early 2026.

The Great Circle exclusively uses ray-traced lighting on other platforms, so I'm curious to see how this runs on Switch 2.

I imagine it'll be similar to Stars Wars Outlaws (another game that exclusively uses ray-traced lighting), maybe a bit better since it's MachineGames/Bethesda and not Ubisoft.

It wouldn't be a Sakurai presentation without the long duration.

@Bentleyma @sixrings
Pokemon Legends Z-A is the big fall game.

Definition did not expect this given the new battle system, looks like it could be fun.

This would be a mode to play on Switch 2 over Swich 1, as I can't imagine playing at 30 FPS with likely frame drops will be good with this battle system.

@SpaceboyScreams
No game casually sells 100 million copies like what you are suggesting.

Aside from the late 1990s and 2016, Pokemon is at its peak right around now. A "higher-quality" release isn't selling much more than Sword/Shield and Scarlet/Violet.

Looking back, I'm surprised Nintendo never went crazy with controller accessories for Switch 1. I thought the huge success of Ring Fit Adventure and the RingCon would lead to more crazy JoyCon attachments, but it never materialized.

At least these patents show Nintendo was at least interested in some weird wacky ideas.

It's kinda weird to see games that perform only slightly better in docked than undocked in terms of resolution and/or image quality.

Anyways, it's good to see this. One of the biggest benefits of Switch 2 will be to play modern multiplayer shooters (not named Splatoon) on a Nintendo platform at 60FPS rather than (a very unstable) 30FPS.

I think Super Mario Bros Wonder Switch 2 Edition is more likely than Super Mario Maker 2 Switch 2 Edition, mostly because I think Mario Maker 3 has been in the works for quite some time and will be released in 2026/27. But I guess it's impossible to say for sure.

Other than that, a trailer for the next Mario movie has to be imminent.

@anoyonmus
Not just that, no Battlefield games have been released on any Nintendo platform, not just Switch.

"Nintendo's forecast to sell 15 million Switch 2 units this financial year remains unchanged from its May forecasts."

Nintendo will absolutely blow past this forecast - Switch 2 is already 40%+ of the way there as of mid-July and there are 8 more months until March 2026.

@LazyDaisy
Very doubtful that Sakurai is working on Kirby Air Riders and the next Smash Bros simultaneously unless Air Riders is a small-scale budget title (unlikely).

Occams razor tells me that the next Smash Bros title hasn't started development yet, won't enter full production until after Kirby Air Riders is released, and will launch in 2029/30.

Donkey Kong Bananza was never going to debut to the launch sales of Super Mario Odyssey (or any mainline Mario game) regardless of the Switch 2's install base. Donkey Kong simply isn't as popular as of Mario.

In the US, Oblivion Remastered is the 2nd best-selling game of 2025 (as of May) in revenue, despite not being full-priced and debuting on GamePass Day 1. I dont know the exact stats in other regions but I imagine it was a hit elsewhere too.

And yet Virtuous got hit with layoffs anyways.

The western gaming job market is a joke.

@SpaceboyScreams @karatekid1612
Turns out I was wrong, in the final game, Odd Rock/Pauline's voice cannot be turned off (at least not in the settings).

Goomba-with-hands Bananza is probably what the Switch 1 prototype of the game looked like.

Would be cool to see an actual Goomba video game given how iconic the character is (doesn't have to have environmental destruction like Bananza).

I'm just surprised the game leaked 4 days before launch rather than a full 2 weeks before release.

@WiltonRoots
A new 3D Mario game isn't coming out this year, it would have 100% been announced by now if it was.

Late 2026 release at earliest is my guess.

Nevermind, NBA 2K26 will still release on Switch 1, PS4, and XBO.

Microsoft will respond to this by canceling even more games.

@HenrikL
Who at Nintendo would develop a new Perfect Dark game?

Would be a great early title for Switch 2, there aren't many multiplayer shooters on the platform (just Fortnite for now, Splatoon and Call of Duty sometime in the nebulous future), let alone PvE shooters.

@SpaceboyScreams
You can choose to mute Oddrock/Pauline or only have her provide hints in the game settings.

Nobody takes Metacritic user reviews seriously.

I'm surprised 2K didnt just wait until WWE 2K26, it's cool that the IP will arrive on Switch 2 sooner than that.

The difference between Switch 2 LCD and other screens is actually quite noticeable...if you slow down you optical lobe to process what you see at 11-33% speed.

Either I am completely insensitive or there is some screen lottery because I have no issue with the Switch 2 display.

Kits and Krysta dont know anything about Nintendo's development pipeline, even when they worked for Nintendo.

@fenlix
Cyberpunk 2077 is by far the most high-profile and technically-ambitious 3rd party launch title, which partially overrides it being a late port.

The same can't be said for something like, say, Yakuza 0, Puyo Puyo Tetris 2S, or Bravely Default HD. Even something like Street Fighter and Split Fiction are small bananas compared to Cyberpunk.

Nobody picked up a Switch 2 to play full-priced late ports of years-old games, release some new high-profile 3rd party titles and the situation will change significantly.

Looks incredible, Nintendo Tokyo EPD (the 3D Mario devs) don't miss.

Honestly, I don't think Richtman knows anything regarding the Zelda movie or any Nintendo movie in general. Back before the Zelda movie was officially announced, he claimed it would be an animated movie produced by Illumination (like with the Mario movie). This ended up being completely wrong.

Now he's claiming they are looking for 16-23 year olds to play Link/Zelda, even though two weeks prior he claimed Hunter Schafer - a 27 year-old - was being considered for Zelda.

I would buy a 1080p version of this, hopefully that is made someday in the future.

@Dhaladog
I think the next 3D Zelda will be announced in 2026 and released in 2028.

New 3D Zelda games are huge ambitious projects, we just saw this with Tears of the Kingdom releasing 6 years after Breath of the Wild. I think the next 3D Zelda will have a shorter development cycle than TOTK since there (hopefully) won't be another global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, but I'd still expect it to take ~5 years of development.

@OorWullie
I'd say both Zelda Switch 2 Editions and Jamboree Switch 2 Edition will continue to sell well until the next brand new 3D Zelda and Mario Party entries are released respectively (probably late 2027 for the next Mario Party and 2028 for the next 3D Zelda).

I always thought Nintendo would eventually develop a spin-off to Splatoon, but I figured it would be a smaller-scale title, maybe something like a rhythm game.

I'm glad that Raiders is not that, it seems to be an (open world?) action-adventure game that retains Splatoon's core movement/shooting mechanics.