Sadly, I wasn't able to watch today's Nintendo Direct live due to a conflicting appointment, but I pretended to when I arrived at home and avoided spoilers beforehand. It was the first major Nintendo Direct after the launch of the Nintendo Switch and with that came a lot of expectations. But it mostly aligned with my own from two days ago, so I got what I wanted out of this. Though, sometimes you have to be careful with what you wish for...
The 40th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros. was a big part of the Direct, where it started with lots of stuff outside the games, which is now Miyamoto's thing, including a first look at the new movie. The big surprise to me here was that it's going to be The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. After the ending of the first film, I would have expected a "Super Mario World Movie" instead, but I suppose Yoshi will still play an important role and the psychotic Luma was so popular that they decided to skip right to this instead.
They will also release a collection, but not of the New Super Mario Bros. games, but Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2, as a perfect companion to the movie. This is still coming to Nintendo Switch and looks better than the 3D All-Stars collection from five years ago, but not by much, where it seems to be a low effort remaster. Maybe Tantalus was working on this?
Curiously, there was no DLC for Mario Kart World announced, but for Donkey Kong Bananza instead. Didn't see that coming... But maybe they are making a whole new world for Mario Kart World and this will take time. This is where they could throw in all the crossovers, including Link and Samus riding on bikes.
Speaking of, we finally got the release dates for both Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, as hoped... And they both are coming out this year, on December 4th and November 6th respectively. And I hate it. I absolutely hate it! Don't get me wrong, Prime 4 in December is fantastic. What throws me off is getting Hyrule Warriors before that and with only one month in between.
Warning, absolute first world problem incoming: I want to play both of these games when they come out, take my time with them, enjoy them, and blog about them. But Age of Calamity took me about two months to complete and Warriors games are super beefy in general, so it will definitely clash with Metroid Prime 4. This week was already miserable enough, because I just want to play Hollow Knight: Silksong, but I don't find much time for it. And now I feel like I need to take a small sabbatical or reduce my working hours for the last two months of 2025 just to keep up.
Plus, all three games are big Game of the Year contenders for me personally. I usually only have one or two "must play" games per year, which is more than enough. And all of this could have been avoided if Age of Imprisonment actually came out in winter, as they had said it would. Some early 2026 release, like February 5th 2026, would have been perfect, instead of shoehorning this between Silksong and Prime 4.
But February is where they have more important things to release... like the Nintendo Switch Online Virtual Boy... Really? Reeaaally? Generally, I love the idea of having these games as part of the NSO service, but why don't they offer them without the 3D and the ugly red colors? They require you to have this atrocious peripheral (or a cardboard alternative) and this feels more like a joke, where this will sell for the memes only. I mean, it had flopped for good reasons... At least it will make the Virtual Boy and its games a lot more "accessible" in 2026.
What's also funny is how they keep treating Kirby Air Riders like the next Super Smash Bros., just because Sakurai is making it. Does it really need two full presentations of its own? It certainly has some fans, but far from the reach that Smash Bros. gets. But I guess Sakurai just loves doing this sort of stuff.
What's not so funny is how Nintendo is creating generic video game patents around Pokémon, so they can sue companies like Pocketpair, while at the same time they are making a Minecraft rip-off starring Pokémon. It doesn't get any more hypocritical than this.
The bouncer this time was Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, starring Alucard from the Castlevania franchise. And it looks absolutely glorious – I can't wait to pull for its characters in Fire Emblem Heroes. I wish I was joking with that one... As said in my predictions, the mobile game is nearing the end of its storyline, where 2026 may open the final book. So, it makes sense that Intelligent Systems is pushing out one more main game to be featured in this.
I'm personally always intrigued by the Fire Emblem games, I like their worlds and characters quite a lot. The soundtracks are also among the best Nintendo has to offer, if not the best. But their gameplay is so slow and time-consuming that I usually drop them in the middle, because there is always something more interesting to play. I have never finished Engage and never even started Three Houses... It's a shame, but at least Heroes is designed to be played in-between and lets me take a glimpse at those worlds. So, I still play that, even though the power-creeping has become beyond ridiculous. Be sure that some of those characters from Fortune's Weave will be walking nukes that auto-win any battle they enter.
Oh, and for some reason they keep making amiibo... Didn't look like the new ones for Tears of the Kingdom were selling, they are all over the stores, but you may blame this on the hype being over. But we're getting three different amiibo on vehicles here, which is interesting. I actually like how you can swap out the riders with the Kirby Air Riders amiibo.
As usual, I will write separate posts about the more interesting topics, which is the new footage for Age of Imprisonment and Samus on a bike.
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