Zippo's 2023 Gaming Predictions.

Hi, I've returned. Happy Belated New Year! First article of the year, and my one hundredth one, no less! 

Just a bit of a personal aside before anything else.

Papa Zippo had a stomach ulcer, I was quite sick for a bit, so the blog had to take a backseat.

I'm feeling much better now. Thank you to all of you in the background who were supportive and wishing me well. You guys are the best. 

Now, 2023 is looking like a pretty fuckin' stacked year for video games. There's already dozens of big games announced, and that's all merely just what they've announced for this year so far. Here's some of my predictions for the year.

Power Stone Announcement:

Most people have forgotten this, but a brand new Power Stone game was leaked in Capcom's gigantic leak from a few years back. It was set for a 2024 release and I still believe that's the plan. I'll go ahead and predict that this will be announced at this year's evo. The entire cast of the first two games will return, alongside new ones. I believe it will still release in 2024.

Pokemon Gold and Silver Remakes:

Yup. We're going back to Johto this November.

I strongly believe this is happening and will be announced in about a month. I'm still undecided if this will be a Let's Go or BDSP style remake, but I'm leaning towards LG at the moment. Umbreon and Espeon? November release, obviously.

Dragon Quest 1&2 HD2D:

It sure has been quite awhile since we had an update on that new Dragon Quest III remake, hasn't it? My next prediction is that HD2D remakes of the first two installments will come ahead of the third one, and that they'll be packaged for 60 bucks.

Pikmin 4 Release:

Pikmin fans have been hungry, and it's finally just about their time to eat. I predict Pikmin 4 will get it's first actual gameplay in February, with a release in July to follow. I think this promotional cycle for Pikmin will be rather quick this go-round, which is a very good thing, considering how long people have had to wait.

Mario And Sonic Head To Paris:

Yup. That's right. Yet another Mario and Sonic game. Second verse, same as the first. I expect very little to be different from the last installment here. Some new events. New characters. New story mode. Yadda yadda. Let's just all hope that this is the last one and that they do something entirely new next time. 

Kingdom Hearts IV Information:

This one is a bit more general. I believe KHIV is actually a lot closer to release than we think and that we'll see a more constant, less sporadic reveal cycle this time around. I don't think the team wants to mess around. Square want this out as soon as possible.

Some worlds I predict that we'll see are:

-Tatooine, Endor and the Death Star (Star Wars)

-Zootopia

-New York (Avengers) 

-Motunui (Moana) 

-Metroville And Syndro's Island (The Incredibles) 

Nintendo Remasters:

I'm sure by now many of you have heard of the many rumors of remasters of older Nintendo games. I believe they're all true. And I believe in addition to the rumored Metroid Prime, F-Zero GX, Kid Icarus, and Baiten Kaitos remasters that we'll see a few more, I predict that we will see:

Nah, I don't think so. I believe these will happen. I have a hunch. Call it intuition.

Ace Attorney 7 Will Be Announced This Year:

We Ace Attorney diehards have been wait oh so patiently for the next installment of the beloved franchise to hit, while the remastered collection from last year definitely eased the wait, we're all definitely ready for the next main installment. I predict that it will be announced this year, with Shu Takumi returning to direct and write this nes installment. Phoenix will remain the protagonist and Capcom will affirm this multiple times. I also predict there will be a time skip and due to that the main characters will be noticably aged up a bit. Waiting on pins and needles for this one.

Mortal Kombat 12:

I think given Ed's endless teasing ang vague statements on Twitter, that the actual answer is right under noses. We're getting another Mortal Kombat. But I believe this one will be something of a "greatest hits", and it'll feature every single last character from the last three installments. That's right. Every. Single. Last. One. Ed is a madman. I believe he can, and will do it.

Ghost of Tsushima 2 Announcement:

Ghost of Tsushima was a huge success. It's pretty obvious a sequel is happening. Whenever Sony finally has a big event again, I think it will be announced there and that it will look absolutely insane. Sucker Punch is an extremely competent developer, I'm psyched to see what they're working on. 

Tears Of The Kingdom Blowout:

Pretty obvious, but I believe the TOTK info dump is right around the corner. We're about three months from release now. It's about time, Nintendo has waited long enough, it's time to start showing the game. I predict the next direct will be the kickoff and that there will be regular updates from then on out until launch.

Guest Characters For Tekken 8: 

Tekken usually has some pretty strange, crazy guest characters. I think this time, Akuma and Geese Howard will return, in addition to that, I will predict that the next guest character is...

Billy. Butcher. 

He's, quite frankly, a fantastic character, he's got a great potential moveset and his antihero nature fits well with Kazuya's antihero to villainous nature.

Metroid Prime 4 At E3:

I think this is the time. Once June hits, Prime 4 will have been in development for a little over four and a half years. I strongly believe that we will finally see this damn game in June's E3 Direct. We have waited long enough. It's time to put up or shut up, Nintendo.

Spider-Man 2 Will Blow Minds:

This one is a bit of an easy one, but I believe this wholeheartedly. Sony and Insomniac have been holding back on revealing the game for very good reason, I believe. They want to make sure the game looks it's absolute best when we see it. And when we do, I think people are going to be astounded by how good it actually looks. This will absolutely be a game of the year contender. No doubt in my mind. 

Donkey Kong Film Announcement:

Yes, once again, a DK film starring Seth Rogan is indeed happening and is already in production. The Super Mario Bros. Movie is getting tons of positive buzz, and Universal/Nintendo are definitely noticing this. I would not be surprised if this ends up getting announced officially before Mario actually comes out. There's a lot of confidence in these big screen adaptations, and I'm elated to see more.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Reveal: 

Final Fantasy 7 Remake's second installment is well on it's way. We've seen a couple seconds of gameplay already, and if it's launching early next year as it's been slated, then we'll start seeing more soon. I predict we'll get our first major gameplay in the Spring, with news and trailers being constant from then on out.

MegaMan Returns:

Capcom has remained silent about the blue bomber for quite a while, but I don't think that'll last much longer. They have a huge game to announce, after all. I predict 'MegaMan Taisen' will be a large crossover of the many Megamen in a character action game. Think of it as "MegaMan No Way Home".

Golden Sun Returns: 

When did I first mention Golden Sun? God. It's been a spell, hasn't it? Well, I think this is the year we finally see it.  Camelot is not the developer they used to be, but I want to have some faith that they can pull this off. I believe this will be a remake of the first game. I also believe that there's another developer involved.

Please please please be good. 

Sonic Adventure Remaster: 

AW YEAH! THIS IS HAPPENIN'! This year marks the 25th anniversary of Sonic Adventure. I suspect that a remaster is in the works. The game is currently unavailable on most modern platforms, and the currently available version is quite frankly, a piece of shit. A much better remaster of the game is needed and this is the time to do it. There's already been a lot of talk about SEGA doing more with the Adventure series, or at the very least, the gameplay. This is the time to strike.

Here's a tiny scoop.

From what I understand. SEGA has a five year plan for Sonic as a whole that goes from 2021 all of the way to 2026. Every single game in that time span has been planned out, and was done so very long in advance. I very much think that this is part of the plan. The 35th anniversary is being masterminded as we speak. 

Banjo-Kazooie Returns:

Falling in line with last year's rumors, I do believe that this is indeed happening. I predict that the game will function as a soft reboot, where the game retells the the story of the first game in a brand new way. This will a regular, no frills, honest to God Banjo game. 

I'll throw out a developer, if I had to guess who is developing, I'll say...

Sumo Digital. I don't know. That just sounds "right" to me.

I predict that it'll be announced at Microsoft's E3 conference in June.

Last one for me, let's-a-go.

New 2D Mario:

As I've said very recently, a brand new 2D Mario is indeed in the last stages of development.

I predict that this will be a big change for the franchise moving forward. I predict that it will feature a completely 3D art style, similar to Tropical Freeze, but with added crayon-styled levels in some sections, similar to Yoshi's Story. 

The characters will all have their specific abilities and attributes from Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3D World. 

Additionally, i predict that the game will feature new worlds that we haven't seen in a traditional 2D Mario styled game, I think a metropolitan city world and a toy world will be featured this time around. This is going to be a big change for Mario in terms of the 2D games, and I think it's going to be a welcome one. I predict that it's going to launch in October of this year.

So, those are my predictions. What do you think? I did a pretty okay job on my predictions last year, right? 

Thanks for reading. That being said, we're not done quite yet. I'll be dropping a scoop in a few hours.

Stay tuned.