A new Nitnendo Direct was announced today on Twitter, which will take place tomorrow at 4PM CEST and be 40 minutes long. And this must be the first time where I'm not excited about such an announcement, because I could really do without a Nintendo Direct at the moment... Why? Well, there is this itsy-bitsy problem that Tears of the Kingdom is freaking gigantic and eats up most of my free time already.
The Tears of the Kingdom Shaped Elephant in the Room
Tears of the Kingdom is one of these games where you can put hundreds of hours into it. It's without a doubt one of Nintendo's biggest games, if not Nintendo's biggest game. I will be busy with exploring the new old Hyrule for quite some time and therefore don't really need any gaming news for the foreseeable future. Of course, this is my problem, where I'm taking very long with the game. Most other diehard Zelda fans out there have certainly beaten it by now, some might have even 100% completed it and are getting bored. And I wish that I could focus on the game like that, but this is not in the cards for me.
So, it's all a matter of perspective, but I personally wouldn't have minded if they had skipped the June Direct this year once more. I'm also a bit worried about spoilers, where I haven't seen the Goron sage descendant yet. It may just be Yunobo, but I don't know and the character in question did not appear in any promotions yet, like the Nintendo Switch Online icons, where there is probably a reason as to why.
In any case, I expect there to be news about Tears of the Kingdom. If they have any plans for an Expansion Pass, it is now the time to reveal it. Well, I would say that there might not be any DLC or major updates, because the game feels very complete overall, if it weren't for the missing Master Mode. From what I've heard, it's not part of the base game and I can't imagine them leaving this out, but there is a chance that this might just be part of a free update. A slim one, admittedly, but there is one.
If there is more and we are looking at paid DLC, I hope that it will be substantially different from what they have done with Breath of the Wild. I don't necessarily need 20 new armor pieces with all the stuff that we already have, especially with how they handled it the last time, where none of the DLC armor pieces could be upgraded and they've went above the armor inventory limit.
What I would like to see are some updates to the house building, like different colors for the containers, the option to add windows, or more green life. And this could all lead to custom village building, which I would find quite entertaining as something to prolong the game. Rebuilding Hyrule is a big theme of Tears of the Kingdom and they should make the most out of it.
Otherwise, I would love to see a true world expansion, not just some things thrown in there. I doubt that we're going beyond the established borders, because there is just so much to it now with the Depths, all the caves, and so on, where the game already treats some of it as finite. But the sky world is still quite empty and offers a lot of potential for more content, like some new big groups of sky islands that appear very high up. And they have quite a lot of freedom there, where they could add new shrines for example, without the need of additional Lightroots. So far, I have been mostly disappointed with the skies, so if they add more content to the world of Tears of the Kingdom, they really should focus on the upmost layer.
But I haven't seen all there is to the game yet, far from it, where it's hard for me to make any meaningful suggestions right now. That's usually the stuff that I'm really into once I'm done with a new game, where this is also part of the reason why I'm unhappy with the timing of this Nintendo Direct. It's too early for me to even think about what they still could do with the game.
In the very least, they will probably announce more amiibo for Tears of the Kingdom, where Paraglider fabrics for two unannounced figures have already been data-mined (see: Eurogamer). Those two would really be enough for now, maybe with the sage descendants coming at a later point.
In Other News
There have been rumors (via Nintendo Everything) for this particular Nintendo Direct, which are about a new 2D Mario game and a remake of a Super Nintendo classic. Both sounds interesting, where the latter makes me think about Super Metroid, but this would be way too early, since Metroid Dread isn't even two years old and I'd expect MercurySteam to work on such a remake. I could see a port/remaster of Metroid: Samus Returns coming, though, as well as Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Remastered, but it also might be a bit early for the latter.
Maybe, just maybe, we could get a first glance at Metroid Prime 4, now that Tears of the Kingdom was released and we know that Retro Studios can make amazing graphics on the Nintendo Switch. But I would not expect the game to be released in 2023 already. And I'm in no hurry here, so I'm actually hoping that they will keep this for later.
As for a 2D Mario, it's been a while and it would be nice to get something fresh and exciting here, where they finally leave the "New" brand behind and truly come up with something new. First and foremost, I'd love to see new themes, where there have been too many games in the Mushroom Kingdom with the same set of worlds. I'd love to see something more different, like the Super Mario Land games.
Speaking of, the fifth wave of the Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe should come in the next two months and here it would be nice to get a teaser, e.g. a course based on Super Mario Land. And we could learn about the next character addition(s).
Otherwise, I don't really expect much. I certainly don't expect any other Zelda news before 2024, because this year will be all about Tears of the Kingdom, just like 2017 was all about Breath of the Wild. They're not going to throw ports of The Wind Waker HD and/or Twilight Princess HD onto the market, while the majority of people are still busy with the newest Zelda game. They don't want the same type of games to steal attention from each other, so these releases are usually well spread out over the years.
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