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.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (Review)

Donkey Kong Country Returns has a similar history to Hyrule Warriors when it comes to its three different releases. It first came out on a console, the Wii in this case, and then later received a port on the Nintendo 3DS. That port made things easier on you and also offered new exclusive contents, but it it looked worse and halved the frame rate to get the game even running on the smaller system. Some years later you get the "definitive edition" on the Nintendo Switch, which offers the improvements of the Nintendo 3DS version without the downsides in the graphical department. And that's very nice to have, but are there really no compromises...?

The port was done by Forever Entertainment, a fairly unknown Polish studio, where this is their first time working for Nintendo. It was completely rebuilt in Unity according to Digital Foundry, where – for a Unity game – the performance is impressive overall, but it doesn't run as smoothly as Tropical Freeze does. You will encounter dips in the frame rate here and there, which you may not even notice, but they are there. This is still much, much smoother and playable than the 3DS version was, but it's not quite on the level of the Wii version.

And there is one major downside over both its previous versions: the long loading times, which even exceed those in Tropical Freeze. When playing the game normally this isn't a big deal, but it completely breaks the Time Attack mode, where they haven't bothered with fixing its main flaw. If you die, it will put you at the latest checkpoint with the timer still running, which is about as useful as the rewind feature in Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition, meaning that it's completely pointless whenever you're going for the best times. And if you chose "Retry", it will load the entire level again, which is where the loading times will make this very tedious. Too tedious. This is something that they already had overhauled with Tropical Freeze and this would have been a much needed improvement for Returns HD as well.

Overall, it seems like the port was based on the Nintendo 3DS version, which means that it comes with all of its improvements, but also with most of its flaws. It certainly looks better and has a much higher frame rate and resolution. You also have better control options, where the left analogue stick and the D-pad are active all the time and you can switch between them whenever you want, as you would expect with such a game. But there are some rough edges otherwise.

For example, the final boss still doesn't drop a shadow, which was a critical indicator for landing the last hit without being hit, making this boss fight very frustrating in Mirror Mode. Most of the enemies got their shadows back on the Switch version, though, so this feels like an oversight.

And the Super Guide pig still shows up everywhere whenever you die eight times in a level, even in the very challenging temples, which is just annoying. They should have given you the option to turn it off completely. Or at least hide the Super Guide in Classic Mode, because whoever plays in Classic Mode obviously doesn't want any help. At least the game never punishes you in any way when the Super Guide has appeared, unlike New Super Mario Bros. Wii and alike... (And it never did.)

Speaking of Classic Mode, the Nintendo Switch also comes with what's now called "Modern Mode" and works exactly like the "Normal Mode" in the Nintendo 3DS edition. So, you get one additional heart per Kong and there are other helpful items found in Cranky Kong's shop, where the inventory space was even increased now. Switching between the modes is not possible.

If you want to play Returns in it's coop mode, however, then you will face one of the biggest issues from the Nintendo 3DS version: there are no lingering bounce "boxes" left by enemies any longer. On the Wii it was possible that both players can jump off the same enemy with the correct timing, because there is still something to bounce off from after an enemy gets defeated, for a couple of milliseconds. This was missing on the Nintendo 3DS and now it's missing on the Nintendo Switch as well, making some of the harder levels nearly impossible to play cooperatively.

There are also some general issues with the game that never were fixed in either iteration, like how you can't repeat puzzle rooms without killing yourself. And the collision detection with enemies and obstacles feels overly tight, where it could be more forgiving. But that's all debatable, so there might be no need to change anything here. And some aspects are general design flaws with the game that cannot be easily fixed, like the blowing mechanic, which wasn't brought back for the sequel.

Anyway, with all this said, it's still the best version of the game and this is very nice to have on the Nintendo Switch, right next to its younger sibling, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Being able to play both games back-to-back on the same console in 1080p and (mostly) 60FPS is a treat. And this also allows you to play the eight additional levels from the 3DS in HD for the first time, which is lovely and makes some of them shine a bit more.

Whether this justifies the full price point or not is a different question, however. In the face of Metroid Prime Remastered, which is one of the best-looking games on the system, while costing only 40€, this doesn't make any sense. Both of these were games by Retro Studios from the GameCube and Wii era, and their Nintendo Switch remasters were treated very differently for some reason. But in the overall picture of Nintendo, it's really Metroid Prime Remastered that is the outlier here, while Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is simply more of the usual.

Speaking of the usual Nintendo issues, the credits read again "based on the work of the original development staff", which means that they are completely skipping over the cast from both Retro Studios and Monster Games. This is not okay and never will be okay. Forever Entertainment is not the creative mind behind Donkey Kong Country Returns or any of its contents, but the credits make it look that way.

Anyway, if you're a fan of the game and want to replay it in its best version, then you can't do much wrong here. And if you haven't played it yet, it's highly recommended to give it a try, because Donkey Kong Country Returns is a fantastic platformer all in all. Just keep in mind that Tropical Freeze is the better game for the most part. So, maybe wait for a discount.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD x Tetris 99

Another Maximus Cup is taking place in Tetris 99 right now with a theme for Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. I've just beaten this remaster the other day, so the timing was very nice. And the theme is quite nice as well, I like the visuals a lot and how the Rambi blocks are used for the garbage.

The only complaint is that the music choices are a bit vanilla. It starts with "DK Island Swing", the track from the first levels, then goes into the title theme, and finally plays the "Lift-Off Launch" rocket barrel music. Those are good tracks and can make you hum along, but I would probably have swapped the title theme with something else, because it doesn't feel like the stakes are raised at that point.

Anyway, get this while you still can. The younger Maximus Cups are not up for purchase via tickets, so if you miss one of them, you probably won't have the opportunity to obtain them anytime soon.