Nintendo Switch 2 Direct Roundup

That was quite the show. I'm not blown away, where I have to get this new console right away on June 5th, but it fell in line with what I was expecting yesterday. For the most part. In the topic of Zelda it even exceeded my expectations, but we'll get to that.

It opened with Mario Kart World, the big launch title. It looks like this is Nintendo's only new game at launch, the rest will be third party stuff or "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition" games. And I was completely wrong about this game, because all these years I was convinced that they will go deeper into the crossover direction to make it more distinct from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Well, they will make it more distinct from that, but in an entirely different way – by going in the direction of open world driving games, like The Crew or Forza. They are also going all in when it comes to characters (and their customization), seemingly exceeding Mario Kart Tour here. Well, there will be a Nintendo Direct about the game on April 17th, explaining more.

Then we learned what the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games are all about, which are going to include Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, among others. These will offer HDR, better resolutions and frame rates, but to give this a nice twist, Nintendo will add new features to them that are only possible on the Nintendo Switch 2. Metroid Prime 4 will have an additional control scheme with mouse controls and the two Zelda titles will be accompanied with new smartphone apps, but also now have a second set of save files.

This wasn't part of the Nintendo Direct, but a number of games will also receive free updates to improve performance, which includes the Link's Awakening remake and Echoes of Wisdom (see here). And that will be lovely.

As expected, the Nintendo Switch Online offerings will now also include a Nintendo GameCube library, but only as part of the Expansion Pack. The Wind Waker is one of the first games in it, which in hindsight explains why they won't bother with porting over The Wind Waker HD at this point. But maybe we will get enhanced versions of the Wii U remasters in some years...

The slightly more interesting game here is probably SoulCalibur II starring Link. I always wanted this to come back, though I also would have preferred the remaster on Switch with Link in it.

Also as expect, there will be massive wave of 3rd party games, including Elden Ring and even an exclusive game by FromSoftware, Duskbloods. I honestly couldn't tell if this was a Bloodborne remaster/port or a new game, because it all looks the same to me, but it's impressive that Nintendo was able to land this deal, since FromSoftware has been very loyal to Sony.

And there will be a variety of 3rd party games coming to the Switch 2 at launch, like Cyberpunk 2077, making up for the lack of first party titles other than Mario Kart World. Not that it needs much else – a lot of people bought the Switch for Mario Kart only. No DOOM: The Dark Ages, though, that's a bit disappointing, especially since they made the first two games magically run on the Switch. But I wouldn't play that on Switch anyway...

Street Fighter VI, though, that's a game that appeals to me on console, but it doesn't look like the game will be available physically. Instead there will be the new "Game-Key Cards", which can be used like game cards, but will simply enable you to download and play the game in question. Not exactly what I'm looking for...

It's almost funny how one of the most anticipated titles for any Nintendo Direct was just mentioned very briefly with Hollow Knight: Silksong. There wasn't any new footage, from what I could tell, and it's scheduled for 2025 according to Nintendo, but I believe it when I see a life sign from Team Cherry. Remember that two years ago Microsoft claimed that the game will release within a year...

Also, why is this a Nintendo Switch 2 game now? They had a demo of Silksong on the Switch at E3 2019, six years ago! And it ran perfectly fine. The original Hollow Knight had 60FPS and its sequel should use the same engine and everything. They also had announced it for Nintendo Switch as part of their Kickstarter program, back when this was still supposed to be DLC for Hollow Knight. So, why is this a Nintendo Switch 2 game all of sudden?

The same could be asked about Hades II. Why does this need to be a Switch 2 game when Hades runs fine on the Switch? Of course you will get even better frame rate and resolution on the new system, so there is nothing against a Switch 2 version, but you would think that this something that comes for both systems. Update: it is. I forgot that it was already announced for Switch as well. So, in the end this isn't a big deal and both titles will probably just released for both systems at the same time.

The big surprise and highlight for me in this Nintendo Direct was, of course, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment. Well, this is a game that I had expected to be a thing eventually – I've mentioned the idea several times on my blog and it's really a no-brainer. I also wanted to explore this idea for a while now, but I thought there was more time to do so, since I didn't really expect this to be shown already. I always thought that after Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes in 2022 Koei Tecmo directly started working on the next Nintendo collaboration, but since Tears of the Kingdom wasn't released yet at the time, this couldn't be it. So, instead I kept expecting a "Xenoblade Warriors" first. But maybe they got early access to Tears of the Kingdom, since it technically was finished in 2022, just entering its polishing phase.

Anyway, they are really riding on the success of the open world Zeldas here. Not only is Breath of the Wild getting an upgraded version, but Tears of the Kingdom as well. There will be five new amiibo of the sages, also coming out June 5th. And they are doing this new Hyrule Warriors game already. Something tells me that the next 3D Zelda will probably turn this into a trilogy...

The big bouncer at the end was Donkey Kong Bananza. It's the open world'ish 3D Donkey Kong game where there had been rumors about this for ages. So, no new 3D Mario yet, but this looks a lot of fun as well. I love how they are mixing your typical Nintendo platformer magic with this sheer brute force, it's something special.

...

In  the next days I will talk about a variety of topics from today in more detail. This will include Mario Kart World, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrades, and more. This blog will certainly get much livelier from now on.

Nintendo Switch 2 Direct Expectations

Tomorrow the big Nintendo Switch 2 Direct will happen and we will know more. A lot more, since the Nintendo Direct will be an entire hour long. Plus, the two following days, Nintendo of America will host Treehouse Live streams, featuring seven hours of gameplay. There were rumors that the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 is going to be packed and they might as well be true.

First, let's go through the things that we already know about. There will be a new Mario Kart. There are going to be "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition" games (see the Virtual Game Cards article). And they most likely will talk about the new Joy-Cons with their mouse-like feature.

 

New Mario Kart

As for the new Mario Kart, that's clearly going to be one of the big system sellers at launch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling Nintendo Switch game, after all, and it will be tough to compete with the sheer amount of content that game has. But Mario Kart 8 is also getting 11 years old now and has been played to death, where any novelty will potentially sell a new Mario Kart game at this point. From the footage so far we can deduce that there is potentially a new nitro boost functionality, that the game will now support up to 24 players at once, and that the path-changing feature from the Booster Course Pass may become more prominent.

I'm personally hoping that they will go more crazy with the whole crossover aspect, so that we might get Zelda as a new driver, or Zonai vehicle parts, and so on (see here). I also don't think it will be called "Mario Kart 9", because technically Mario Kart Tour is already that, where I'm sticking with the "Mario Kart X" branding... until tomorrow.

There were also rumors about a Mario Kart-themed Nintendo Switch 2 at launch. In general, any Special Edition of the console could potentially lure me in, even though that I'm usually not an early adopter, given that the edition in question looks nice. I also wouldn't mind one for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

 

Enhanced Nintendo Switch Games

Speaking of, this leads us to the topic of "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games". It's no secret that a variety of Nintendo Switch games could profit heavily from a hardware boost. Pretty much everything from the Zelda franchise comes to mind, where with the exception of Skyward Sword HD there is always some trouble with the frame rates. And maybe some of these games will already run more smoothly on the better hardware by default.

But enhanced versions of the games will certainly offer more, like upscaling to 4k resolution. This could happen via free updates, but knowing Nintendo they will probably charge a small fee for such updates. On the Nintendo Switch they made a lot of profit with remasters and ports from the previous eras, where that's a business they will likely want to keep to a degree.

The interesting question is how they will handle remasters of Nintendo Switch games. Will this be a thing separate from the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games? We had convincing rumors about a new version of Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Switch (see U-King-O). Will that be a new remaster? Or can the Nintendo Switch version be upgraded? I personally would prefer a remaster, because this opens the doors for all those quality of life improvements from Tears of the Kingdom and better DLC integration.

Or what about Metroid Prime 4? Will this get a separate version for the Nintendo Switch 2 that simply has much better graphics? Or will you be able to upgrade the Nintendo Switch version? Or will both be a thing and work in the same way? It's an interesting topic, which certainly will be clarified tomorrow.

 New Joy-Cons

I have to be honest here, I have no clue what the mouse-functionality could be used for, other than strategy games and a new Mario Paint. But I'm sure that Nintendo will have had some ideas and maybe even come up with some entirely new games that utilize these as a gimmick...

 

Nintendo Switch 2 Online

Another important topic will be the handling of the whole Nintendo Switch Online system. Ideally, everything will carry over to the Nintendo Switch 2, like all the existing game libraries for NES, SNES, Game Boy, Nintendo 64, and so on, or titles like F-Zero 99. But they will add upon that with new libraries and "free" online games that weren't possible on the current Nintendo Switch system. The first announcement will likely be a GameCube library, potentially also a Nintendo DS library. Thinking about it, emulating touch screen controls might be even be solved with the new Joy-Cons...

 

Other Game Announcements

This is going to be huge. The biggest launch of a system in gaming history. I'm certain that they will show us most, if not all of the following titles, in addition to the new Mario Kart X, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Prettier Edition, and Breath of the Wild 4K.

• New 3D Open World Mario
• New 3D Open World Donkey Kong
• New Fire Emblem (utilizing the mouse functionality)
• New Animal Crossing (in space)
• Splatoon 4
  
• ARMS 2
  
• Ocarina of Time Remake
  
• Super Metroid Remake
• Hollow Knight: Silksong - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
• DOOM: The Dark Ages

I'm kidding, of course... A little April Fools' joke, if you so will. Though, some of the things in this list are quite possible, first and foremost a new 3D Mario game. And maybe it does go into the direction of Bowser's Fury, where it's one seamless, interconnected world.

DOOM: The Dark Ages is entirely possible as well, together with a variety of other 3rd party ports. They loved porting games over to the Switch, no matter what it took, which will be so much easier now with the increased hardware power and AI-driven rendering technologies like DLSS. So, we're going to get a lot more here and the new DOOM (which looks absolutely awesome) is just an example.

However, as much as I would love to see Silksong, that game was already shown on the Nintendo Switch and shouldn't have anything to do with the Switch 2 presentation.

Also, I doubt that we will already see a new Splatoon or Animal Crossing. Both are made by the same team, sadly, where I'm curious to see what they will prioritize. But maybe they will split the development up, so that these franchises can be developed simultaneously, as both are huge sellers. But as much as Animal Crossing: New Horizons has sold, it got boring eventually without any new updates, since the team was busy with Splatoon 3 in the past years...

And I haven't even mentioned Super Smash Bros. in the above list, because that felt too unrealistic. This might go like on the original Nintendo Switch, meaning that we will see titles like a new Smash Bros. or Animal Crossing in the second or third years, but not already in the first. But as usual, I'm happy to be proven wrong, I'm just not holding my breath here.

Zelda is in an interesting position, because we just got new titles in the past two years, so I don't expect to see a new Zelda game already. But they will most likely hold us over with something, like that Breath of the Wild remaster, or at some point a new Hyrule Warriors game. The franchise has been too successful on the Nintendo Switch to not offer anything as soon as possible. However, I doubt we will see a full-blown remake of another classic already, because I don't know who is supposed to work on it, other than GREZZO, who were busy with Echoes of Wisdom.

My personal "realistic" wish, if they are going with a remaster of Breath of the Wild, would be a Shrine Maker, which also includes stuff from Tears of the Kingdom. That's something that the main team could have been working on as a side project...

Anyway, I'm game. And I'm excited for tomorrow.

Zelda Movie Launches March 26th 2027

After the latest Nintendo Direct came the launch of Nintendo's newest app, Nintendo Today, which they are going to use as their own news platform. And the first major news was the announcement that the Zelda film is coming to theaters in exactly two years, on March 26th 2027. Well, I can wait...

They should have ended the Nintendo Direct with this message, maybe even give a small teaser or glimpse. Instead they made Miyamoto announce a news app, which then told us about the Zelda movie one day later. It feels a bit unnecessary, like they are just doing this to push the new app. But in reality it's simply inconvenient, especially since they chose to make these news app-exclusive.

With the Nintendo Music app I can fully understand the reasoning behind it and I like using it, but I also understand the people who want to have everything on Spotify or other music platforms instead. It's effectively how I feel about Nintendo Today, though the main difference is that Nintendo has already used platforms like X (sadly not yet Bluesky) or Youtube to reach their audiences "directly". And they will still do, but if you want all the news and tidbits, you will have to check their app in addition.

Anyway, as for the launch date of the Zelda movie, there isn't much to say here. I'm wondering if they are also targeting 2027 to launch a new Zelda game, but that's only four years after Tears of the Kingdom. 2028 feels more likely, but they could move from the Zelda movie into marketing the new game.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond ~ Viewros Presentation

In today's Nintendo Direct we got some more footage and insights into Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. The games looks very beautiful, it's easily going to be one of the best-looking games for the Nintendo Switch, but everything also looks underwhelming at the same time... Why is that?

It starts with the marketing itself, where they are handling things in a similar fashion to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom last year. So, they are picking things up from where they had left off in June, on a planet called Viewros, giving us an overview of what the players can expect there. And all of that randomly in the middle of the Direct.

It wasn't the big opener and it wasn't the big finisher. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, but they are effectively putting this on the same level as a lower budget top-down Zelda title at this point. It can't compare to the treatment of games like Breath and Tears, where they had felt the need to give these games a dedicated showcase.

The other problem is the same as with the original trailer: everything just looks so familiar, like you've seen it all before – it's a blend of elements and themes from the Metroid Prime Trilogy games. Viewros may remind you of the Tallon Overworld from Metroid Prime, you even get the same orange plant pods. The main foes look and behave a lot like the Reptilicus from Bryyo in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. There's a crashed ship hanging in the trees, something seen in pretty much every Prime game. And how the Lamorn race, the inhabitants of Viewros, see Samus as their chosen one, feels very reminiscent to the Luminos in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, who already were a replacement for the Chozo.

It all was done before, it now just looks bigger and prettier. The only thing that sets it apart from the rest of the trilogy is the new gimmick with the psychic abilities. But both Prime 2 and Prime 3 had their own unique gimmicks as well, with the dark world and the Hyper Mode respectively. And for the most part the psychic stuff looks like it's this game's equivalent to the special visors, which lets you interact with the environment in new ways, like the Echo Visor or the Ship Visor did before. I won't be surprised if it even gets activated like one.

Steering your own beams is a really cool idea, however, where you even have entire games built around this, just with sniper bullets instead. So, there is quite some potential here, but for the most part it looked underwhelming again. "It let's you open doors, wow."

It also seems to be the reason why both the visor and the arm cannon have this purple glow to them, which wasn't the case in the announcement trailer. But it's something that you are getting right after, because all the new footage was still from the early game with only one Energy Tank available and so on.

Also, the big plant boss is giving Flaahgra vibes, adding to the list of familiar things, but I like how the Mochtroid(?) merged with it, which looks like it's going to be a general thing for bosses in this game. That's really cool and certainly a fresh idea for the Metroids as an enemy. It's also the only connection to the whole Sylux situation from the first trailer, where we have yet to learn how Samus gets from there to Viewros.

The trailer also made it sound like Viewros with be this game's Tallon IV or Aether, meaning that after the inciting incident with Sylux the entirety of the game will take place on this planet. So, you won't be planet hopping like in Prime 3. Instead you will be moving through time, apparently, if you put weight on the words in the trailer...

The threads intertwining beyond space and time are beginning to weave a new tale.

The producer of the Prime series, Kensuke Tanabe, also revealed in the past that he wants Prime 4 to have some sort of time shift mechanic, so it would add up. Potentially, the scenes in the first trailer from the beginning of the game, where the Galactic Federation Research Facility gets attacked by Space Pirates, also take place on Viewros, just in a later time, meaning that Samus gets transported into the past.

Let's see. I don't expect a major info dump next week, in the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, but we will likely see the game again for how it may look on Nintendo's new system or even an upgraded version. We have learned today that there will be "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition" games (see here), which may be enhanced versions of Nintendo Switch games – and this could become one of them.

We may also get a proper release date next week, where maybe this is planned as one of the launch titles for the Nintendo Switch 2, or at least one of the early releases, and they didn't want to give this away just yet. Or Nintendo is simply aware that everyone will be speculating exactly this and they didn't want to create the expectation / assumption that the Nintendo Switch 2 is coming around the same date.

The new trailer ends with the introduction of a new suit for Samus, which reminds me of the Light Suit from Prime 2, but with a red and black color scheme. If they are doing things like with Echoes of Wisdom, then the next trailer will probably start with showcasing some of her new power-ups, including this suit. But I don't expect this to happen next week already, so maybe in a June Nintendo Direct. Next week will probably just tell us how they will treat this game in relation to the new console.

Nintendo Direct March 2025 Roundup

Well, that was a bust... Probably one of my least favorite Nintendo Direct presentations of the recent years. To be fair, my hopes and dreams can run wild, but I've went into this mainly expecting ports, remasters, and already announced titles, but still got disappointed. Seeing Metroid Prime 4 in action again was nice, but it wasn't awe-inspiring or able to carry the Direct. More on this title in a separate post, where its section was the only interesting one for me personally.

You can now treat digital games like game cards, which is a quality of life feature coming eight years too late, but better late than never. However, it won't make any difference for me, because I buy all my Nintendo Switch games as cartridges whenever I can.

They ended things with Tomadachi Life: Living the Dream coming to Nintendo Switch next year and a special announcement by Shigeru Miyamoto that wasn't a game. For a second I thought that we might get an update on the Zelda movie, but it was just a new app, Nintendo Today. It's essentially a day calendar, which Nintendo will use to communicate news, game-related content, and so on. Well, this is effectively what they are already doing on X and other social media platforms, so I don't see the value (yet).

But this is what they brought Miyamoto on the stage for? That's how they are ending this Nintendo Direct, which potentially was the last and final Direct dedicated to the Nintendo Switch? A news platform where they will show you the Nintendo Switch 2? It's such a low note...

The bright side is that they seem to be dedicated to support the Nintendo Switch even going into 2026 with games like Tomadachi Life, so all the things that you may have hoped for today can still happen further down the road.

Nintendo Direct March 2025 Predictions

Nintendo has just announced that they will be holding an additional Nintendo Direct in less than 24 hours, this one focused on games still coming to the current Nintendo Switch, before they will deep-dive into the Nintendo Switch 2 next week. There had been rumors by NateTheHate about this, though the format was unclear, where this could have been another Partner or Indie World Showcase, but it isn't.

And that's actually quite exciting and reassuring. Of course, Nintendo will want people to migrate to the Nintendo Switch 2 sooner than later and they will certainly focus on making hits for their new system from now on. At the same time they have a massive audience with the existing Nintendo Switch and it won't hurt to entertain it a little longer. They may even bring out some titles for both systems, where the Nintendo Switch 2 version will look and run much better.

One of these titles will likely be Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which is probably going to be Nintendo's last big game for the Switch. It was shown in the last Nintendo Direct for the first time and still announced to come to the Switch, but everyone and their mother expects this to be another Twilight Princess situation, where it will also be one of the first major games for the Switch 2. Nintendo could use tomorrow's Direct to tell us what's the game all about and show some more gameplay. And then next week they could try to convince us to buy the Nintendo Switch 2 version instead, because it will be looking so much nicer.

"You liked what you saw of Metroid Prime 4 so far? Well, how do you like the game looking like THIS?"

Another Warriors game would be the perfect candidate for this as well, where I'm still convinced that they are going to make a Xenoblade Warriors, now that all Xenoblade games are united on the Nintendo Switch. The timing would be impeccable. I also wouldn't mind a new Hyrule Warriors based on Tears of the Kingdom, but it's a bit early for that. Such games could technically still work on the Switch, but would profit tremendously from the upgraded hardware.

Otherwise, I'm not expecting anything new, at least not from Nintendo's side. But they will certainly go hard on additional ports and remasters, because you can't ever have enough of those. There is the eternal broken record about bringing The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD to the Switch, ideally in a bundle. And it's now or never for that. It won't make sense to port them to the Nintendo Switch 2, because these are Wii U games and there is no justification to not have them on the Switch as well, unless they are going to remaster them all over again, which I doubt at this point.

As for actual remasters, Nintendo loves to recycle their Kirby games, especially so late in the game, where the same guy, who has predicted this week's Nintendo Direct, also talked about Kirby: Planet Robobot coming to Switch (source). Which is neat and only that, but it's about the type of stuff I'm expecting tomorrow.

There is also still the potential of getting Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Remastered as a warm-up to Metroid Prime 4, but I'm personally not counting on it, because the situation seemingly is that Retro Studios had remastered the first game to show what's possible on Switch and then moved on to work on Metroid Prime 4. So, if we're getting additional Metroid Prime remasters, they most likely will be done by a different team or after the fourth game is finished.

Another possibility, one that I find even likelier, is getting Metroid: Samus Returns HD. Metroid Dread is getting four years old in 2025, which is the amount of time it took to make the game, where potentially they area already working on a new 2D Metroid title for the Nintendo Switch 2, like Metroid 6 or another remake. But Samus Returns HD could be a side project and it would be great to have this game in the engine of Dread. In any case, the big star of tomorrow's Nintendo Direct will be Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.

Except... well, there is another long-awaited Metroidvania game that has been announced for Nintendo Switch many years ago. And there have been rumblings lately about this particular title, like an update to the Steam store page and other things. You know where I'm getting with this and you may laugh, but Hollow Knight: Silksong will come out eventually! Well, I was already convinced that this was to be shown at the last Nintendo Direct, also because it's long overdue, so my gut feeling has betrayed me here once already. But keep in mind that they already had a demo of the game running on Nintendo Switch in 2019. It's essentially another must for the system, just like Metroid Prime 4, even with the Nintendo Switch 2 coming out the day after.

Nintendo Music: A Link to the Past Added

Sorry for the silence lately, but I've been very busy with some other hobby projects and there weren't many Nintendo news to talk about: But this will certainly change with the Nintendo Switch presentation in early April.

What's not so silent is Nintendo Music and here we finally have another album for the Zelda franchise with A Link to the Past. 31 tracks filled with classic 16-bit tunes will give you a good amount of retro charm, where some of these tunes have endured the ages, with the themes of Princess Zelda, Hyrule Castle or Kakariko Village reinterpreted by recent games, such as Echoes of Wisdom.

Of course this is all from the SNES, so in the future it would be awesome to get the first disc of the "Sound & Drama" album as well, containing nine re-arranged tracks in much higher quality. Those were even used for the live broadcast of Ancient Stone Tablets, one of the Satellaview-exclusive games based on A Link to the Past, so maybe they could turn this into an album for that game.

Also, no additions for Metroid as of yet. But I suppose they are saving those for when we are getting closer to Metroid Prime 4.