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News Nintendo Direct announced for February 8th

Big Hopes: A creative 2D Mario, a decent TOTK trailer with further information teased, Mario Party Superstars DLC, anything F-ZERO
Smaller Hopes: Tomodachi Life, Style Savvy, Mario Kart DLC preview
 
Has this been shared yet? NS新闻速报 (NS News Flash), a Weibo (Chinese Twitter) account with 1.88 million followers, seems to be teasing GB and GBA content in this Direct:

muSlWdO.jpg

“What is the GB/GBA game you want to revisit the most?”
 
Jesus christ is 11 pm late. A full day of work and at my bed-time. Sigh.

Has this been shared yet? NS新闻速报 (NS News Flash), a Weibo (Chinese Twitter) account with 1.88 million followers, seems to be teasing GB and GBA content in this Direct:

muSlWdO.jpg

“What is the GB/GBA game you want to revisit the most?”

I'd just like to go on record to say that I got an Analogue Pocket 2 weeks ago. I sacrificed 220$ so that we could finally get Game Boy games on Switch Online.
 
About the FF IX remake thing.
I'm definitely not a fan of the OG FF IX for numerous reasons :

1: The Limit Break system is ass and off course, whenever a character Limit jauge is full, it takes ages for it to show the animation of going full saiyan.
2: Everything loads so slowly.
3: Each battle takes around 15 seconds just to actually start and, personnal opinion here, I hate the battle theme.
4: The world map runs at 4 FPS.
5: Battles are so slow... sometimes you give orders to your characters and the game just do nothing for 3 to 5 seconds until it checks.
6: God the Chocobo minigame is crap.
7: You can't 100% the game whatever you do because one weapon requires to get to the 4th CD under 12 hours. I'm not a speedrunner, guys.
8! The forced card game moment. I was pretty "meh" about the Triple Triad in FF VIII because of the numerous and stupid rules that kept changing all the time. I hated FF IX' version and being forced to play it at one point -and to win-, piss off, game.

Coming from FF VII and VIII, everything feels slow in FF IX. In fact, the game actually killed my brother's PsOne when he went to farm XP in the last CD.

That being said, sometimes, remakes / remasters can fix games.
I wasn't a big fan of The Wind Waker back then and only the remaster made me enjoy the game much, much more (I love it now). I'm all in for QoL corrections but the FF IX "HD" remaster fixed nothing since it was just an emulated PS1 version of the game with 0 fixes and the same exact problems.
 
Has this been shared yet? NS新闻速报 (NS News Flash), a Weibo (Chinese Twitter) account with 1.88 million followers, seems to be teasing GB and GBA content in this Direct:

muSlWdO.jpg

“What is the GB/GBA game you want to revisit the most?”
And how is that different. to random western news account posting something like this?
Does anything imply they may know more other than it just being a foreign account?
 
About the FF IX remake thing.
I'm definitely not a fan of the OG FF IX for numerous reasons :

1: The Limit Break system is ass and off course, whenever a character Limit jauge is full, it takes ages for it to show the animation of going full saiyan.
2: Everything loads so slowly.
3: Each battle takes around 15 seconds just to actually start and, personnal opinion here, I hate the battle theme.
4: The world map runs at 4 FPS.
5: Battles are so slow... sometimes you give orders to your characters and the game just do nothing for 3 to 5 seconds until it checks.
6: God the Chocobo minigame is crap.
7: You can't 100% the game whatever you do because one weapon requires to get to the 4th CD under 12 hours. I'm not a speedrunner, guys.
8! The forced card game moment. I was pretty "meh" about the Triple Triad in FF VIII because of the numerous and stupid rules that kept changing all the time. I hated FF IX' version and being forced to play it at one point -and to win-, piss off, game.

Coming from FF VII and VIII, everything feels slow in FF IX. In fact, the game actually killed my brother's PsOne when he went to farm XP in the last CD.

That being said, sometimes, remakes / remasters can fix games.
I wasn't a big fan of The Wind Waker back then and only the remaster made me enjoy the game much, much more (I love it now). I'm all in for QoL corrections but the FF IX "HD" remaster fixed nothing since it was just an emulated PS1 version of the game with 0 fixes and the same exact problems.
The Chocobo Minigame I find amazing. I love finding chocographs then exploring the world map to find better weapons
 
And how is that different. to random western news account posting something like this?
Does anything imply they may know more other than it just being a foreign account?
Jason Schreier has 384.8K Twitter followers globally, and Jeff Grubb 103.4K. NS New Flash has 1.88MM Weibo followers in Chinese speaking countries alone. While popularity itself doesn’t guarantee quality, a “random” account this is not.
 
You lunatics were right on the money once more regarding the date of the Direct's announcement. This place is awesome.

Now give me that Silksong date, Nintendo.
 
Would love to play Minish Cap on Switch, keep hearing great things about it.

Also Zelda blowout, 2D Mario, peace on earth and mercy mild.
 
About the FF IX remake thing.
I'm definitely not a fan of the OG FF IX for numerous reasons :

1: The Limit Break system is ass and off course, whenever a character Limit jauge is full, it takes ages for it to show the animation of going full saiyan.
2: Everything loads so slowly.
3: Each battle takes around 15 seconds just to actually start and, personnal opinion here, I hate the battle theme.
4: The world map runs at 4 FPS.
5: Battles are so slow... sometimes you give orders to your characters and the game just do nothing for 3 to 5 seconds until it checks.
6: God the Chocobo minigame is crap.
7: You can't 100% the game whatever you do because one weapon requires to get to the 4th CD under 12 hours. I'm not a speedrunner, guys.
8! The forced card game moment. I was pretty "meh" about the Triple Triad in FF VIII because of the numerous and stupid rules that kept changing all the time. I hated FF IX' version and being forced to play it at one point -and to win-, piss off, game.

Coming from FF VII and VIII, everything feels slow in FF IX. In fact, the game actually killed my brother's PsOne when he went to farm XP in the last CD.

That being said, sometimes, remakes / remasters can fix games.
I wasn't a big fan of The Wind Waker back then and only the remaster made me enjoy the game much, much more (I love it now). I'm all in for QoL corrections but the FF IX "HD" remaster fixed nothing since it was just an emulated PS1 version of the game with 0 fixes and the same exact problems.
Most of that was helped with the port since you have the 3x speed option.
Without it, the game is unplayable in todays world.

Its a great game, that's technically somehow even worse off then the predecessor, not because it looks worse, but because it pushed its platform to far. The port is a solid middle ground to play it, get the og experience, without loosing all that time to loading, but a remake would help that game a lot.
 
This year is lacking a big casual game and Tomodachi Life seems like the perfect fit if you ask me....
I wouldn't call Tomodachi a casual game. It's one of Sakamoto's weird ass games like WarioWare or Kiki Trick. He said he had some new ideas for the future of the series, I expect them to be even weirder than before. But the lack of system level mii maker on Switch could mean a whole new direction for the series, similar to Switch Sports.
 
Jason Schreier has 384.8K Twitter followers globally, and Jeff Grubb 103.4K. NS New Flash has 1.88MM Weibo followers in Chinese speaking countries alone. While popularity itself doesn’t guarantee quality, a “random” account this is not.
Yeah anyone could be asking which gb game you want to revisit, no matter what follower count, doesn't mean you know something, could still be just speculation just like us over here.
 
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Yeah I meant a Wii or 3DS like Mii maker. The one Switch has is just for profile pic, games cannot use it. That's why we got Sportsmates in Switch Sports and Miitopia got its own weird Mii Maker.
this isn't true. I only touched Miitopia's new crap once before going back to basics

you really thought it had a hundred slots for profile pics???
 
I wouldn't call Tomodachi a casual game. It's one of Sakamoto's weird ass games like WarioWare or Kiki Trick. He said he had some new ideas for the future of the series, I expect them to be even weirder than before. But the lack of system level mii maker on Switch could mean a whole new direction for the series, similar to Switch Sports.
The problem is probably that "causal" moniker is used for different aspects.

Causal as in simple,
causal as in easy,
Causal as in approachable,
causal as in mass market,
causal as in cutesy/comic/non realistic/non gritty,
causal as in bad. (and maybe some more)

Tomadachi i would say falls in the approachable section, its not an simple easy game (well its also not hard), but its not lik a mobile match 3 game in that regard. but it using miis (a lot of people still know them from the wii days), and that it has a rather simple graphic style makes it ease to parse for one that not so used to games.
 
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Yeah I meant a Wii or 3DS like Mii maker. The one Switch has is just for profile pic, games cannot use it. That's why we got Sportsmates in Switch Sports and Miitopia got its own weird Mii Maker.

... You know you can use miis in switch sports, right?

nintendo-switch-sports-mii.webp


And plenty of other games use the mii maker designs. Tomodachi, Smash, Mario kart, Mario golf, NSMBU, off the top of my head.
 
This year is lacking a big casual game and Tomodachi Life seems like the perfect fit if you ask me....
TotK is that game. BotW crossed through to the mainstream casual crowd also. I know relatives who had a Switch and played that game and never played a Zelda game before in their lives.
 
TotK is that game. BotW crossed through to the mainstream casual crowd also. I know relatives who had a Switch and played that game and never played a Zelda game before in their lives.
TOTK is not a casual game.

I could see a HD Tomofachi Life appear, got sure, but equally it might not.
 
Iirc correctly the Tomodachi head honchos have been MIA since Miitomo? Either they fell into the shitpost abyss or they've been working on something.

New Tomodachi would absolutely qualify as part of a light software slate even if it's a huge hit because it's a weird casual game and not one of Nintendo's more conventional games.* Part of me wonders if that gets the 'big family title' October slot instead of either a Mario game or an Animal Crossing spin off. It'd also be a good title to get out in June or July, after Zelda and before summer holidays, because of how different it is in emphasis.

*Fwiw I thought Tomodachi Life had powerful and excellent vibes but absolutely needed more meaningful gameplay.
 
Eiji Aonuma : I would like to introduce a new character who will join Link in his new adventure in Tears of the Kingdom.
Voice over : YOU'RE TEARING ME APART, ZELDA !
Eiji : That's right. Tommy WIseau is in the game and will play a major role with the tears. Wiseau-san directed and voiced all the male characters of the game for the US and French releases. We hope you appreciate this !
 
I was going to do an epic, eloquent, full-of-gags fake Direct script, but I'm on sick leave and pretty knackered. Plus, every potential leak eats into my brain, so I'll go ahead and do a quicker predictions post.

Let's start with what's not happening today:

  • No Metroid Prime 4 or Metroid Prime HD; I think they'll appear in a summer presentation
  • No Detective Pikachu, no Pokemon patch, no Pokemon DLC; I think this comes in a Pokemon Presents later this month
  • No Pikmin 4; saved for the summer presentation
  • No new N64 roadmap (summer)
  • No Nintendo software that's coming any later than July; Nintendo are saving the late summer/autumn titles for a later presentation and concentrating their current marketing efforts on the Mario Movie and Zelda (this is why they aren't spending on an E3 exhibition)
  • No new titles from Good-Feel, Grezzo, or NdCube (these are summer/September announcements and part of Nintendo's late 2023/early 2024 line up)
  • No 2D Mario - it's announced in June for a November release

What does happen today:
  • Zelda gets a bombastic trailer to close the Direct
  • NSO GB and GBA do happen; Nintendo confirm Pokemon games will come to NSO and utilise transfer pak functionality with N64 NSO. GB and GBA go into the Expansion Pack; GBA games will launch once per month at first, with N64 dropping down to once every other month. GB/GBC updates will come at random intervals in random quantities, because Nintendo are filled with spite and ROMs. 15 GB/GBC & 10 GBA titles on day one.
  • Mario games do happen, but they're smaller titles: Dr Mario 99 will be available later today & Mario's Mediocre Sports Mix launches mid June
  • the other new first-party game reveal is Tomodachi World: launches mid July
  • Advance Wars gets a new release date: April 21st, 2023
  • Bayonetta Origins gets a new trailer and a demo
  • Kirby gets new content confirmed
  • Splatoon 3 Season 3 reveal
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 wave 3 launches this week; first look at the story DLC which is confirmed for summer 2023
  • Fire Emblem DLC is also detailed
  • Sparks of Hope DLC is also detailed
  • Mario Kart next wave gets a release date
  • F ZERO GX HD is a first-party release, late June
  • Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings & the Lost Ocean HD, supervised by Monolith Soft, and published by Bandai-Namco, comes to the eShop this summer. Baten Kaitos Origins HD gets a vague 2023 confirmation.

So to sum up: it's high on content (DLC! games! NSO!), low on reveals (Dr Mario 99, Mario sports, Tomodachi World). No fucking clue what third parties bring to the table, but I'm hoping for Oxenfree 2, Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, and Sea of Stars.

Jan 20th: Fire Emblem Engage
Feb 9th: Dr Mario 99 (NSO)
Feb 24th: Kirby's Return to Dreamland DX
March 17th: Bayonetta Origins
April 21st: Advance Wars Reboot Camp
May 12th: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
June 9th: Mario's Mediocre Sports Mix
June 30th: F ZERO GX HD
July 14th: Tomodachi World
 
I was going to do an epic, eloquent, full-of-gags fake Direct script, but I'm on sick leave and pretty knackered. Plus, every potential leak eats into my brain, so I'll go ahead and do a quicker predictions post.

Let's start with what's not happening today:

  • No Metroid Prime 4 or Metroid Prime HD; I think they'll appear in a summer presentation
  • No Detective Pikachu, no Pokemon patch, no Pokemon DLC; I think this comes in a Pokemon Presents later this month
  • No Pikmin 4; saved for the summer presentation
  • No new N64 roadmap (summer)
  • No Nintendo software that's coming any later than July; Nintendo are saving the late summer/autumn titles for a later presentation and concentrating their current marketing efforts on the Mario Movie and Zelda (this is why they aren't spending on an E3 exhibition)
  • No new titles from Good-Feel, Grezzo, or NdCube (these are summer/September announcements and part of Nintendo's late 2023/early 2024 line up)
  • No 2D Mario - it's announced in June for a November release

What does happen today:
  • Zelda gets a bombastic trailer to close the Direct
  • NSO GB and GBA do happen; Nintendo confirm Pokemon games will come to NSO and utilise transfer pak functionality with N64 NSO. GB and GBA go into the Expansion Pack; GBA games will launch once per month at first, with N64 dropping down to once every other month. GB/GBC updates will come at random intervals in random quantities, because Nintendo are filled with spite and ROMs. 15 GB/GBC & 10 GBA titles on day one.
  • Mario games do happen, but they're smaller titles: Dr Mario 99 will be available later today & Mario's Mediocre Sports Mix launches mid June
  • the other new first-party game reveal is Tomodachi World: launches mid July
  • Advance Wars gets a new release date: April 21st, 2023
  • Bayonetta Origins gets a new trailer and a demo
  • Kirby gets new content confirmed
  • Splatoon 3 Season 3 reveal
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 wave 3 launches this week; first look at the story DLC which is confirmed for summer 2023
  • Fire Emblem DLC is also detailed
  • Sparks of Hope DLC is also detailed
  • Mario Kart next wave gets a release date
  • F ZERO GX HD is a first-party release, late June
  • Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings & the Lost Ocean HD, supervised by Monolith Soft, and published by Bandai-Namco, comes to the eShop this summer. Baten Kaitos Origins HD gets a vague 2023 confirmation.

So to sum up: it's high on content (DLC! games! NSO!), low on reveals (Dr Mario 99, Mario sports, Tomodachi World). No fucking clue what third parties bring to the table, but I'm hoping for Oxenfree 2, Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, and Sea of Stars.

Jan 20th: Fire Emblem Engage
Feb 9th: Dr Mario 99 (NSO)
Feb 24th: Kirby's Return to Dreamland DX
March 17th: Bayonetta Origins
April 21st: Advance Wars Reboot Camp
May 12th: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
June 9th: Mario's Mediocre Sports Mix
June 30th: F ZERO GX HD
July 14th: Tomodachi World
This would be such a subpar Direct it’s not even funny.
 
Pretty confident EPD Tokyo have been working on a Donkey Kong game since around 2019, when Nintendo moved MP4 from Bandai to Retro.

I don't think they'd get anyone else to do a 2D DK after the triumph of Returns and Tropical Freeze, so essentially Nintendo chose MP4 for Retro over a third 2D Donkey Kong (the one with K.Rool and more animal helpers that makes so much sense...!)

It suggests that whatever Donkey Kong is in development is in the category of being something more experimental or innovative in 3D... or it suggests a Kirby Forgotten/Mario 3D World approach. Both of which are pretty high risk you'd have to say. Let's not forget SEGA have yet to find a truly successful formula for 3D Sonic and I'd suggest Donkey Kong presents similar challenges.

In terms of predictions for this Direct... Donkey Kong feels like a genuine possibility. I'm expecting it to be here.
 
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even a spectacular lineup won't do it. they need to either reach new people or get droves of people to upgrade to an OLED (price cuts, incidentally, could accomplish both)

or....they turn Miyamoto into a Pikmin then put him in a random Switch box and hold a Willy Wonka style contest to find him and win a tour of Nintendo's factory and a meeting with Donkey Kong
 
I also think DK this year is likelier than Mario.

For Mario movie “tie ins” for Switch newcomers from the movie, I feel they’re just gonna be like “hey look at all this Mario stuff you can get on Switch.” Maybe a smaller thing or a spin-off, though.
 
Feels like it's the last chance to see DLC for Superstars (yes I'm still on copium that we'll get gamecube boards).

If not then it feels like it's about time we see a new project from NDcube. Would love another surprise like Clubhouse Games -- it's really underappreciated in the Switch library.
 
I also think DK this year is likelier than Mario.

For Mario movie “tie ins” for Switch newcomers from the movie, I feel they’re just gonna be like “hey look at all this Mario stuff you can get on Switch.” Maybe a smaller thing or a spin-off, though.
A re-release of 3D All-Stars, but with Galaxy 2 included
 
even a spectacular lineup won't do it. they need to either reach new people or get droves of people to upgrade to an OLED (price cuts, incidentally, could accomplish both)
I agree, prices cuts are necessary to achieve that, and the Mario movie needs to be a huge success too. Having a great lineup is the bare minimum and the starting point, but I don't know, I still feel 20M+ is too optimistic for 2023, I think the number is going to be closer to 15M even doing all those things.
 
I also think DK this year is likelier than Mario.

For Mario movie “tie ins” for Switch newcomers from the movie, I feel they’re just gonna be like “hey look at all this Mario stuff you can get on Switch.” Maybe a smaller thing or a spin-off, though.
My biggest concern is Nintendo do something with Mario and Donkey Kong together. Like a remake of the original Donkey Kong or a Mario vs Donkey Kong.

That's not to say those wouldn't/couldn't be great. It's more that we're in a really weird point in time where we haven't had a new 2D Mario or a new Donkey Kong game for just over and just under a decade respectively. I don't want a spin off style of game... I want full fat Donkey Kong and 2D Mario.
 
My guess:
  • New 2D Mario coming later this year, it's not a 'New' game, and will just be called Super Mario Bros.
  • Pikmin is dropping in April
  • Zelda gets a longer gameplay trailer
  • Dr Mario 99 available after the Direct. I think GB/GBA NSO is coming in September, not here.
  • Metroid Prime Trilogy shown, releasing in late March. No mention of 4 (and it's not coming till the Switch 2 does)
  • Advance Wars remake releasing 24 February
  • New 3D Donkey Kong is coming later this year, gets a first look trailer
 
I was going to do an epic, eloquent, full-of-gags fake Direct script, but I'm on sick leave and pretty knackered. Plus, every potential leak eats into my brain, so I'll go ahead and do a quicker predictions post.

Let's start with what's not happening today:

  • No Metroid Prime 4 or Metroid Prime HD; I think they'll appear in a summer presentation
  • No Detective Pikachu, no Pokemon patch, no Pokemon DLC; I think this comes in a Pokemon Presents later this month
  • No Pikmin 4; saved for the summer presentation
  • No new N64 roadmap (summer)
  • No Nintendo software that's coming any later than July; Nintendo are saving the late summer/autumn titles for a later presentation and concentrating their current marketing efforts on the Mario Movie and Zelda (this is why they aren't spending on an E3 exhibition)
  • No new titles from Good-Feel, Grezzo, or NdCube (these are summer/September announcements and part of Nintendo's late 2023/early 2024 line up)
  • No 2D Mario - it's announced in June for a November release

What does happen today:
  • Zelda gets a bombastic trailer to close the Direct
  • NSO GB and GBA do happen; Nintendo confirm Pokemon games will come to NSO and utilise transfer pak functionality with N64 NSO. GB and GBA go into the Expansion Pack; GBA games will launch once per month at first, with N64 dropping down to once every other month. GB/GBC updates will come at random intervals in random quantities, because Nintendo are filled with spite and ROMs. 15 GB/GBC & 10 GBA titles on day one.
  • Mario games do happen, but they're smaller titles: Dr Mario 99 will be available later today & Mario's Mediocre Sports Mix launches mid June
  • the other new first-party game reveal is Tomodachi World: launches mid July
  • Advance Wars gets a new release date: April 21st, 2023
  • Bayonetta Origins gets a new trailer and a demo
  • Kirby gets new content confirmed
  • Splatoon 3 Season 3 reveal
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3 wave 3 launches this week; first look at the story DLC which is confirmed for summer 2023
  • Fire Emblem DLC is also detailed
  • Sparks of Hope DLC is also detailed
  • Mario Kart next wave gets a release date
  • F ZERO GX HD is a first-party release, late June
  • Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings & the Lost Ocean HD, supervised by Monolith Soft, and published by Bandai-Namco, comes to the eShop this summer. Baten Kaitos Origins HD gets a vague 2023 confirmation.

So to sum up: it's high on content (DLC! games! NSO!), low on reveals (Dr Mario 99, Mario sports, Tomodachi World). No fucking clue what third parties bring to the table, but I'm hoping for Oxenfree 2, Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters, and Sea of Stars.

Jan 20th: Fire Emblem Engage
Feb 9th: Dr Mario 99 (NSO)
Feb 24th: Kirby's Return to Dreamland DX
March 17th: Bayonetta Origins
April 21st: Advance Wars Reboot Camp
May 12th: Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
June 9th: Mario's Mediocre Sports Mix
June 30th: F ZERO GX HD
July 14th: Tomodachi World
I’m rolling different than you. I feel like the big point of this Direct should be to get us past Zelda TK through July, but to also show the system has a future beyond Zelda. For that I do think they’ll show the next Mario platformer and we’ll even see our first look at Metroid Prime 4 which is the big game left after Zelda.

I wrote this up earlier today for the giveaway thread and while maybe we won’t get both Mario and DK, I’m otherwise feeling pretty good about it. I forgot to include a new Tomodachi game, I agree that has a great shot.
My predictions are:

Zelda, Bayonetta Origins, Kirby, and Advance Wars are definitely there. No Pikmin 4.

Mario Kart Wave 4 is teased with Waluigi Stadium and the new Yoshi’s Island track. Also teases new characters! Xenoblade Wave 3 DLC is detailed, Wave 4 gets a poster and a release month.

We’ll see both Metroid Prime Remake and Metroid Prime 4 as either the second to last or final segments.

New Mario Platformer announced and one more spinoff game. Donkey Kong announced.

New HAL eshop game. (Box Boy 5?)

F-Zero GX HD is there, Kid Icarus is not.
 
My biggest concern is Nintendo do something with Mario and Donkey Kong together. Like a remake of the original Donkey Kong or a Mario vs Donkey Kong.

That's not to say those wouldn't/couldn't be great. It's more that we're in a really weird point in time where we haven't had a new 2D Mario or a new Donkey Kong game for just over and just under a decade respectively. I don't want a spin off style of game... I want full fat Donkey Kong and 2D Mario.
Yeah, it’s a tough one to get the finger in the pulse of.
 
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