In case you haven’t heard, Nintendo just announced today (March 7) that there will be a Nintendo Direct tomorrow that will focus on Switch and 3DS titles releasing this year. About two months ago, Nintendo presented a Nintendo Direct Mini, in which a number of new games, ports and DLC were announced. Looking at what’s already been announced, what hasn’t and what projects fans deserve an update on, here are some predictions for what Nintendo might announce during tomorrow’s presentation.
Updates on Previously Announced Games
It has already been confirmed that we’ll be learning more about Mario Tennis Aces during tomorrow’s stream, but there are also a number of games that we all know are coming to the Switch, but that we don’t know all that much about. For example, we saw some gameplay from the upcoming Yoshi Switch game at last year’s E3, but haven’t heard much about the game since. Hell, we don’t even know the game’s official title yet. Seeing as how this game is expected to release this year, it wouldn’t be surprising if we got some new info about it during tomorrow’s stream, including an official title, some more gameplay and a release window.
Other games that we know are coming but that we know very little about include Metroid Prime 4, the Fire Emblem Switch game, Bayonetta 3 and the Pokémon Switch game. It probably isn’t too much of a stretch to expect a new trailer for at least one of these games, or even just an official title for the Fire Emblem game. However, Nintendo did state that tomorrow’s presentation will focus on games coming out this year, so games like the Pokémon Switch game, which is probably more likely to release in 2019, might be left out of the presentation.
Entirely New Games
This is obvious, but we should probably expect some announcements for entirely new games during tomorrow’s presentation as well. It’s hard to guess what these could be, aside from random speculation, but it’s clear that there’s huge demand for an Animal Crossing Switch game, especially after the release of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp last year. Another GameCube-era Nintendo franchise that could possibly receive a new installment on the Switch is Pikmin, with fans of the series hungry for a new entry in the main series after being largely disappointed with last year’s Hey! Pikmin for the 3DS. Star Fox and F-Zero are among other Nintendo properties that I’m sure fans would be happy to see Switch games for.
I also wouldn’t be surprised to see a number of Mario spin-offs eventually come to the Switch over the console’s lifetime. I obviously don’t know how many will be coming this year specifically, but I would think that the Mario Golf, Mario Party and Paper Mario series could all potentially get Switch games in the next few years. Fans are also clamoring for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo Switch, but it might be too early to think about that since it’s only been three and a half years since the last Super Smash Bros. games and gaps between installments tend to be bigger than that (seven years between Melee and Brawl, six years between Brawl and for Wii U and for 3DS).
More Wii U Ports
The Switch already has a ton of Wii U ports, with even more on the way. We’ll probably get some new information about previously announced ones, like maybe a release date for Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some new ports were announced as well. In particular, fans seem pretty eager to get a Switch version of Super Mario Maker. Some suggest that a sequel could be on its way, but how do you make a sequel for a game like Super Mario Maker? It’s not like the developers would be making new levels for it or anything. Personally, I think it makes more sense for the game to simply be ported to the Switch with something like, I don’t know, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Lost Levels assets added as exclusives to the Switch version to make people who already own the Wii U version want to buy it again.
There are also plenty of Wii U games, such as Super Mario 3D World or New Super Mario Bros. U, that would probably get sequels on the Switch rather than ports. That being said, we did get a port of Mario Kart 8 instead of a Mario Kart 9, so who knows?
More 3rd Party Ports
Due to the Wii U’s unusual design, it was hard for 3rd Party companies to create Wii U versions of games that were intended for consoles that utilized one screen. The Wii U therefore lacked much 3rd party support, but the Switch is back with a vengeance, receiving 3rd party support from games like Skyrim, Wolfenstein II and Dark Souls Remastered. In fact, Nintendo’s current 3rd party support base is so broad, it kind of makes it hard to predict what could be coming to the Switch next, since it could really be anything. There’s been a rumor floating around lately about a Diablo III Switch port, but it is still just a rumor, so we’ll just have to wait and see which games do make the transition to the Switch, but it’s almost certain that some more 3rd party ports will be announced during tomorrow’s presentation.
3DS Games
So this was kind of surprising, given that I predicted earlier this year that 2018 will likely be the last year the 3DS will be relevant, but when Nintendo announced tomorrow’s Nintendo Direct, they made sure to state that they will be announcing news on 3DS games as well as Switch games. At the time that I wrote my article about the 3DS’ growing irrelevance, the 3DS’ 2018 lineup didn’t look particularly impressive, and two months later, not a whole lot has changed, other than the announcement of Detective Pikachu. That being said, if 2018 is in fact the 3DS’ last year, it would make sense for Nintendo to put everything they can into it while it’s still alive for this last year. Maybe the 3DS Virtual Console is finally getting Game Boy Advance games. Maybe there are some great 3DS games that have yet to be announced that will be revealed tomorrow. There was a rumor going around not long ago about a remake of Link’s Awakening coming to the 3DS, so if that’s true, maybe that will be announced tomorrow. Pretty much all of Nintendo’s biggest franchises have begun the move to the Switch, including Nintendo’s biggest handheld series, Pokémon, so it’s hard to say what else might be announced tomorrow, so I guess we’ll see.
