What's Nintendo Cooking?

Hey, it's that time of year again. Direct Watch Season has begun.

Nintendo has been pretty damn quiet since the release of Tears of The Kingdom. Given how big that game has been, they've let people have plenty of time to let the game sink in. Now that the game has been finished by a majority of people, it's time to start hearing about what's next.  Nintendo has to have something for the holidays, and they're also showing up at Gamescom in August.

Let's go through a summation of rumored and confirmed games at the moment and then we can try to figure out what could be slotted for the  rest of the year. We'll see some of these soon, but not all of them, keep that in mind.

Pikmin 4: 

Obviously, this is currently, our one and only announced upcoming release for this year, and it's coming out in about a month. This sequel has taken 8 years to come out since it was first announced in 2015, so I hope it's genuinely worth the wait for you Pikmin fans. 

F-Zero GX HD:

This has been rumored for about a year, and from all accounts it's ready and still slated for release this year. Hopefully this is announced soon. I am fiending for this, you have no idea. The Captain's return will soon be upon us. 

Thousand Year Door HD:

Once again, this is real, and it's already been talked about plenty, so I won't go over all of that details again, but if I had to guess, this is the most likely announcement to be made next. I would bet that this is the next game to release after Pikmin 4, as bold as that sounds.

Mario Baseball:

I've covered this one quite a bit, so I won't reiterate many of those details here, but people have pointed a possible release date to me, in theory. October is the month that the end of the baseball season traditionally ends in America, that being the World Series. It would make the most sense to release the game around that time, to emphasize hype and visibility. Celebrity endorsements would also make sense. The Astros and Angels are huge right now, might I suggest an ad campaign with one of their players?

Kid Icarus Uprising HD: 

Where does time go? I talked about this a year ago, and that feels like yesterday. This one blew up so much to the point that even Sakurai teased during a video on his YouTube channel. That said, I don't think it's time quite yet to see this one. "Let them cook" as the kids say.

Fire Emblem Genealogy Remake:

I talked about this a looooonnng time ago, and while a lot has happened since then, the situation has not. From all accounts, Nintendo has been sitting on this remake of the beloved Super Famicom title for at least a year and a half. That said, I wouldn't expect it this year, given that Fire Emblem Engage released not even six months ago. I think 2024 for this one is very, very likely.

Zelda Ports:

Forgot all about these, didn't you? Don't worry, I have too, lmao. Regardless, I still think these will happen at some point, as for when? Who knows. Nintendo might just shadow drop them during a direct or something. They're weird like that. 

A New Mario Party: 

In other "no shit" news. ND Cube is currently developing a new installment in the Mario Party series. Mario Party Superstars received no DLC at all, so it seems like they just moved development to the next game quickly after that.  Given how these are relatively cheap to make, and knowing how good ND Cube's turnaround is with their games, don't be surprised if Nintendo just sneaks this into their schedule this holiday. 

Mario Party is unironically a heavy hitter for Nintendo now. Watch the hell out. 

DLC:

I think Nintendo will definitely be talking about more DLC soon. Pokemon will do their thing as they always do. Splatoon is marketed separately now for the most part as well. I would also be shocked if Tears of the Kingdom doesn't have DLC of some sort. I think the next big DLC to look forward to is the fifth pack of the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course pack. 

Another tiny scoop from me. I'm hearing that in one of these two remaining packs, a new Donkey Kong themed course will debut, alongside Diddy Kong as a playable driver. Very excited for that. 

Speaking of...

2D Donkey Kong Game:

I'm asking the same question as you fine folks, "where is it?!" I literally ask myself this same question every week, the wait has honestly driven me a bit bananas, pun (mostly) intended. 

From all accounts, the game is completely finished, and EPD Tokyo is currently working on their other projects. If I had to make a guess, given the DK theme park expansion is coming to Japan next year, I would say the game will release around that time. In my personal opinion, the stars don't seem quite aligned quite yet. 

Metroid Prime 4: 

It's a tale as a old as time, it's been a question we've been asking since 2018. Will Metroid Prime 4 gameplay actually be shown off this summer? 

Hmm. Ya know...

Yeah. I think the chances of that are pretty damn good. It's not a certainty, of course, but given the game has been in development for four and a half years, we're due. Nintendo can't be silent for much longer. Retro Studios has not put out a game in nearly a decade. It's time to put up or shut up. 

As for when it'll releases, I'll air on the side of caution and say next year is the time. 

If I had to make a pure, hard read on what will be the holiday game, though, I'll go with...

The New 2D Mario:

I've talked about this to death so please bare with me here for minute. We pretty much know at this point that this absolutely exists. We've known that for awhile now. The Mario movie has well over a billion dollars and it's looking like it's far and away going to be the highest grossing movie of 2023. The game was obviously going to be a huge hit regardless of the movie, but now it's primed to be an even bigger juggernaut now. This makes the most sense to me to be  Nintendo's big November release, doubly so given Pokemon is taking a year off in terms of annual releases this year. Mario Mania is everywhere and it's not stopping anytime soon. 

Nintendo's actually cooking a lot more than people think they are, despite the age clearly showing in the Switch, this thing still has some fight left in it. 

Speaking of which...

Indeed. I'm hearing that Nintendo is planning a Direct to air before the end of the month.

Sources are leaning towards this being a Direct Mini, rather than a general, but Nintendo can go either way with the branding. What has been ruled out here is a partner showcase, so that eliminates that. 

Nintendo might (Keyword: MIGHT) shadow drop this on a random day, or they might announce it 24 hours ahead of time, hard to say, we don't know how that'll go. 

Regardless, exciting times are ahead for Nintendo fans. Stay tuned.