Wednesday, March 26, 2025

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.

close-up of the Sylux

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.

fake art with The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD for Switch

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.

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