Nintendo had this week pretty much all to themselves, but there’s a few other things to mention.
Directly to You, The Mario Section
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is being remade. It’s unknown what exactly will be changed (besides the graphics, which are quite divisive) in this version, but there seem to be fully animated cutscenes! We can all see Mallow and Geno again on November 17th 2023.
Princess Peach will be starring in her own game next year. Nothing besides a teaser was shown, but it seems to take place on a stage? Hopefully this one isn’t as sexist as the last time Peach was the star of the show.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe‘s next wave will include three new racers and some new tracks. The racers are Kamek, Petey Piranha, and Wiggler, and the tracks include a brand new course set in The Bathroom called Squeaky Clean Spring.
Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, the most mid Luigi’s Mansion game, is getting ported to Switch next year. (Please put the first Luigi’s Mansion on something that isn’t 3DS thank you!)
The final Mario announcement was the series’ return to 2D with Super Mario Bros. Wonder. With a gorgeous art style, playable Daisy, and an elephant power up, Wonder seems like the kick in the pants 2D Mario has needed for many years. It’s due out October 20th.
The Rest of the Direct
It’s related to Mario but not fully so it’s not in the section above: We’re getting a new Warioware game that’s specifically a sequel to Smooth Moves on the Wii, which was arguably the best in the series. Warioware: Move It! will release November 6th and promises over 200 new microgames.
Pikmin 4 got a new trailer, showcasing new modes such as Dandori Battle, in which you fight plant based foes to show off your Pikmin prowess. There’s also nighttime missions, which task you with gathering resources from glowing mounds and teaming up with new Glow Pikmin. Pikmin 4 sprouts July 21st.
Pikmin 1 and 2 are also now released on Switch digitally. Physical copies will release September 22nd.
We got a new look at Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s DLCs. Not too much new info but there’s a handful of returning Pokemon confirmed for each set. Game Freak claims “The Teal Mask” will be out in the fall and “The Indigo Disk” will release in winter.
Detective Pikachu Returns sees our favorite Ryan Reynolds character not played by Ryan Reynolds solving new mysteries with his…are they going to have the same twist as the movie in this? Like, we all saw the movie already, it’ll be pretty deflated if they’re just building up to the same thing, right? Whatever, new game on October 6th.
The Rocksteady Batman trilogy is coming to Switch in the Fall.
A new Dragon Quest Monsters game, The Dark Prince, has been announced. It seems to take place around the events of Dragon Quest IV, since Solo shows up at the end of the trailer.
Star Ocean: The Second Story is getting a remake too. This will be yet another 2DHD Square Enix game, and will be releasing on PS5, PS4, and Steam as well.
The Switch version of the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol 1 will include the NES version of Metal Gear as well as the non-canon second NES game Snake’s Revenge.
Penny’s Big Breakaway is a new 3D platformer by the folks at Evening Star, who previously worked on Sonic Mania. You play as a girl named Penny who uses a yo-yo to traverse a colorful and bouncy world.
An adaptation of tabletop roleplaying game Gloomhaven is coming to Switch September 18th. (Let’s hope they fix the frame rate by then though—because yeesh.)
Vampire Survivors is dropping on Switch August 17th with a new four player couch co-op mode.
Mythforce is a new melee-focused roguelike that’s stylized after He-Man era cartoons. It’s due later this year.
Splatoon 3‘s next splatfest will have you choosing between vanilla, strawberry, or mint chocolate chip ice cream. I know my allegiance.
Palia will allow you to build a “cozy life” in its free to play multiplayer adventuring world. It releases this winter.
Don’t worry folks, there’s another farm RPG. Fae Farm is that. September 8th. Have at it.
Silent Hope is a new XSEED RPG set in the same universe as Rune Factory. Seven silent heroes are tasked with reclaiming the power of speech through dungeon crawling. It’s due out October 3rd.
There’s a few more things in the Direct, so if you want to peruse at your leisure, here’s the full video:
What Else Do We Got?
Following up on the previously discussed Metal Gear Solid Master Collection, at least some of the contents of the next volume seem to have surfaced. Twitter user Nitroid found some evidence on the website for the collection pointing towards Metal Gear Solid 4, 5, and Peace Walker being included in the future release, with IGN later corroborating this. Let’s all hope we get Metal Gear Ac!d, Portable Ops, Revengence, and Ghost Babel in there to truly complete the series.
Final Fantasy racing game Chocobo GP has been re-released as a $50 game that allows for access to all the previous microtransaction content. All content can now be unlocked in game without paying extra. If you downloaded the demo version, Chocobo GP Lite, you can buy an upgrade DLC so you can keep your progress.
The original version of Call of Duty: Warzone, “Caldera“, is going offline on September 21st. This version lasted three years, with the current 2.0 version attached to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.
And finally, according to information pulled from a recent meeting report of the Los Angeles Tourism Board of Commissioners, E3 is possibly canceled in 2024 and 2025 as well. Long may Keighley reign.
