Earlier this week, Nintendo dropped the news that today would feature a Nintendo Direct presentation (which you can watch above at 3PM PT/6PM ET), where the company has lately been announcing new products and more throughout the year, rather than bunching up everything at E3. With the holiday season approaching, the Direct is set to focus on what’s coming to Switch and 3DS in the near future, but details are otherwise scarce.
The only game specified to be shown on the Direct is Mario Odyssey, but with that one fairly thoroughly revealed at this point, the nearly 45-minute presentation has plenty of time for surprises. Through the holidays, the only games on the company’s official release schedule are Metroid: Samus Returns (which we’ve reviewed!), Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions, Super Mario Odyssey, Fire Emblem Warriors, YO-KAI WATCH 2: Psychic Specters, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Some of those games, including Xenoblade, are lacking release dates, so this would be a good time to let people know when they’re coming and show more of the features of those titles. However, it’s not such a packed lineup that totally new game announcements are out of the question, and many fans (myself included) are hoping for a Switch port of Smash Bros. to make its debut.
Smash Bros. Wii U was revealed within 8 months of the Wii U’s debut, and the GameCube and Wii iterations were announced before their consoles were even released, so with the Switch debut already a full six months ago, it’s not unprecedented to think Nintendo would want to confirm the existence of a game that is surely on the way in some form. Still, it’s good to temper expectations. With Mario Odyssey leading the holiday charge and Xenoblade to back it up, there’s no real need to squeeze another Switch title in before the end of the year, the time period this Direct is focused on for pushing sales.
It’s also possible they’ve got something else entirely up their sleeves. While we all ponder just what that might be, they’ve also taken to showing 3rd party games they’re particularly happy to have on their systems, so the strictly Nintendo games above aren’t the only previously-announced games that may be demoed. Likewise, we could also hear about other features of the Switch hardware, including online functionality and 3rd party services you might expect to find there, as well.
(image: Nintendo)
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