Nintendo Direct 13/02 10pm (UK time)

[killthenet]

I'll be happy just to see more of Luigi's Mansion and Animal Crossing but I expect there'll be a couple of surprises in there. They'll probably show off gameplay footage of Joker in Smash and tell us the date he'll be available so Persona 5 port announcement seems like a good bet.

The rest of it will likely be devoted to the myriad Fire Emblem spin offs that you guys have already mentioned, but they might shadow drop Super Marthio Kart.

[Ronnie]

Maybe some Shovel Knight: King of Cards gameplay? I think it's coming out in the next few months.

As for surprise announcements. I would LOVE a 2D Zelda game announced, unlikely and I'm not getting my hopes up but that would be amazing. I think it was around this time of year A Link Between Worlds was revealed, and Aonuma said a while back that he wasn't merging his handheld and home console teams for Switch, so....

[Tim B]

I don't think a 2D Zelda announcement is that unrealistic. Something has to be come in between Breath of the Wild (which is two years old next month) and its big 3D sequel on Switch.

[Tim B]

I predict some kind of multiplayer sports game announcement. Mario Golf, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games, Switch Sports, something like that. Could be released in June perhaps.

[Julius]

17 minutes ago, Tim B said:

I predict some kind of multiplayer sports game announcement. Mario Golf, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games...

The Olympics are next year, and in Tokyo, no less, so I would have to think that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is almost a foregone conclusion for next year?

Quote

Switch Sports, something like that.

Let's Go, Swiitch Sports Deluxe!

[Tim B]

35 minutes ago, Julius said:

The Olympics are next year, and in Tokyo, no less, so I would have to think that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games is almost a foregone conclusion for next year?

Didn't the original Mario & Sonic come out ridiculously earlier than the Olympics? Yep, just checked and it came out in November 2007 on Wii and January 2008 on DS, ahead of the summer games in 2008. I think it's a good possibility, but perhaps this Direct is a bit early.

[Fused King]

Sweet. Time for another quick prayer for F-Zero: Resurrection 

[Mandalore]

Is that series still alive? Last years Winter Olympics didn't get a game.

The Rugby World Cup is coming up this year in Japan, maybe they're doing something for that?

[bob]

Is that series still alive? Last years Winter Olympics didn't get a game.
The Rugby World Cup is coming up this year in Japan, maybe they're doing something for that?

Jonah Lomu Rugby Remaster feat. Mario + Rabbids

[Ronnie]

12 minutes ago, Mandalore said:

The Rugby World Cup is coming up this year in Japan, maybe they're doing something for that?

As (probably) the biggest rugby fan on the board, I would love that more than a new Zelda

[MindFreak]

Mario Rugby Strikers? 

[Ronnie]

No such thing as a striker in rugby. Mario and Wario Props maybe

[Aneres11]

Here for anything but Fire Emblem. That can just fuck off now. 

[Ashley]

Haha

 

[Hogge]

2 hours ago, Tim B said:

I predict some kind of multiplayer sports game announcement. Mario Golf, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic games, Switch Sports, something like that. Could be released in June perhaps.

I'm more hoping to see Wave Race, 1080 Snowboarding or Excitebike. Getting a modern online sequel to any of those would be brilliant.

In fact, I've been speculating that Ubi might've reworked their canned Steep port into specifically a new 1080.

[Jonnas]

About bloody time we got some Fire Emblem news. Between me replaying Awakening, getting back into Heroes, playing Lucina/Ike/Roy in Smash Bros., and having an FE avatar and signature, I feared I wasn't consuming that franchise nearly enough!

But seriously, I'm excited to see more about Three Heroes Houses. What's the main theme of the plot? Will it have good writing? Are they dialing back on the marriage stuff? Who's doing the character design? New classes? Will the narrator pronounce "Leicester" correctly? Will they even attempt to say "Hresvelgr"? Will the entire game be renamed "Mole Mania: Three Holes"? The possibilities are truly endless.

BTW, for those of you expecting megatons... remember that Fire Emblem is likely to be the biggest feature on display. Don't expect any announcement bigger than that game's showing. You know how these things are.

9 hours ago, S.C.G said:

Take control of Samus as she commands the 100 character strong horde that is the Fire Emblem cast now (that's got to be accurate?) as you lead them, Pikmin style!

Not at all. More like roughly 550 characters, if you're counting the entire series. I expect 3H to bump that number to 600.

[Hero-of-Time]

15 hours ago, Dcubed said:

... either way, we should have plenty of new 1st party announcements here.  I predict 4 myself  

It's not really a prediction if you actually know.  

A new 2D Zelda has been rumoured for a while now and it's one of the rumours I hope comes true. If true, it will be interesting to see what form it takes. I know people don't want a multiplayer Zelda but Four Swords has its fans and Nintendo could use this as another game to help push their online service, which is something they really need to do. Either way, i'll be happy with a new 2D Zelda, no matter how they go about it.

If Emily Rogers is to be believed, then another Labo kit could be on the way pretty soon and it's a good shout that it will be shown at this Direct.

As for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, I used to really enjoy the Fire Emblem games. I loved the Gamecube and Wii versions but the series kinda died for me once they went full on anime and started concentrating on pandering to a certain audience. For Three Houses I'm hoping that they get back to a more down to earth look, much like PoR, RD and Echoes, and they leave the anime/waifu rubbish over on the mobile game. 

I am intrigued to see whether or not the 3DS will see anymore support from Nintendo, even if it is just ports of older games. The sales of hardware and software have started to drop off really fast and if there aren't any games on show here then that may be it for the brave little handheld.

During the recent investors briefing it was mentioned how Nintendo would like to strengthen their online service and get those who opted in for the short term to jump in for a longer subscription. Recently a bunch of SNES games were datamined from the NES Online strings, so you have to imagine this addition to the service must be ready and waiting for release. It's not really what I personally want from their online service ( give me things like messaging ) but it would help their service look a little better in the eyes of the consumer.

As for other stuff? I'm not big on Animal Crossing ( I get bored very quickly with those games ) and just knowing Luigi's Mansion 3 is coming is enough for me and i'm not fussed about seeing more of it. I suppose a surprise release of something would be a welcome addition to the Direct. I know Final Fantasy VII recently appeared on a Switch advert over in the US so maybe a surprise release of that is on the cards? I already have that on multiple devices but it would be kinda cool to snap it up again just to play it on Nintendo hardware.  

Roll on 10pm. 

 

[Dcubed]

30 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

It's not really a prediction if you actually know.  

A new 2D Zelda has been rumoured for a while now and it's one of the rumours I hope comes true. If true, it will be interesting to see what form it takes. I know people don't want a multiplayer Zelda but Four Swords has its fans and Nintendo could use this as another game to help push their online service, which is something they really need to do. Either way, i'll be happy with a new 2D Zelda, no matter how they go about it.

If Emily Rogers is to be believed, then another Labo kit could be on the way pretty soon and it's a good shout that it will be shown at this Direct.

As for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, I used to really enjoy the Fire Emblem games. I loved the Gamecube and Wii versions but the series kinda died for me once they went full on anime and started concentrating on pandering to a certain audience. For Three Houses I'm hoping that they get back to a more down to earth look, much like PoR, RD and Echoes, and they leave the anime/waifu rubbish over on the mobile game. 

I am intrigued to see whether or not the 3DS will see anymore support from Nintendo, even if it is just ports of older games. The sales of hardware and software have started to drop off really fast and if there aren't any games on show here then that may be it for the brave little handheld.

During the recent investors briefing it was mentioned how Nintendo would like to strengthen their online service and get those who opted in for the short term to jump in for a longer subscription. Recently a bunch of SNES games were datamined from the NES Online strings, so you have to imagine this addition to the service must be ready and waiting for release. It's not really what I personally want from their online service ( give me things like messaging ) but it would help their service look a little better in the eyes of the consumer.

As for other stuff? I'm not big on Animal Crossing ( I get bored very quickly with those games ) and just knowing Luigi's Mansion 3 is coming is enough for me and i'm not fussed about seeing more of it. I suppose a surprise release of something would be a welcome addition to the Direct. I know Final Fantasy VII recently appeared on a Switch advert over in the US so maybe a surprise release of that is on the cards? I already have that on multiple devices but it would be kinda cool to snap it up again just to play it on Nintendo hardware.  

Roll on 10pm. 

 

Have you tried Shadow's of Valentia? It's a pretty faithful remake of the original Fire Emblem Gaiden, no anime/waifu BS! And it's brill!  

 

The fact that Three Houses is based on Shadows of Valentia/Gaiden has me very excited for it! I've always wanted to see a new game that revived its ideas and built on them with new and similarily out-there mechanics (as the cancelled FE Wii game was originally going to do - which this is looking like a sort of revival of!); so this looks right up my alley!

 

As for the rest? Honestly? You've heard pretty much everything I have! I'm expecting a new 2D Zelda and Labo 4 (supposedly called the "Gun Kit" from everything I've seen floating around), along with Mario Maker 2 and a new IP or two at some point; but probably not now.  Probably won't see them until E3 I reckon.  I've not recently heard anything really outlandish or unexpected really  

 

Might see a Pikmin 3 port here, but I'm not sure if they'll show it now or later.

 

SNES Online will probably happen too.  Hopefully here! But it could be a little later, I honestly don't know.

 

As for Metroid Prime Trilogy? It was supposed to already be out by now, but I reckon that Nintendo are sitting on it now because Prime 4 got cancelled, rebooted and pushed back for another 3-4 years.  So they could literally announce and release it whenever they feel like it... so Godonlyknows!

 

And no, I don't know what Retro are up to anymore! But surely they must've finished whatever it is they were working on if they're now working on Prime 4!? Only stands to reason right? RIGHT!?

 

The thing that really stands out to me as odd though is that I've not heard of anything new coming from Intelligent Systems this year outside of FE Three Houses and that doesn't sit right with me... Paper Mario Color Splash came out almost 3 years ago now; while Codename STEAM came out 4 years ago! They must surely have something else ready for release this year if that's the case!

 

That's why I'm thinking that we'll see a new Pullblox game for Switch tonight.  Liam Robertson previously mentioned a cancelled Pullblox World sequel for Wii U; so it wouldn't surprise me if they finished it up and released it on Switch.  But even then, I'd still be surprised if they had nothing else to show this year.  IS are Nintendo's biggest team outside of EPD and usually have 3-4 projects running at once; so it strikes me as odd that they'd have nothing else this year...

 

Otherwise? I'm speculating a HD port of Metroid: Samus Returns.  If Mercury Steam were to pull another Mirror of Fate HD on us, then now would be right on cue...

 

The others? Dunno for sure really.  We'll find out tonight anyway though  

 

As far as third party stuff goes... well...

 

https://mynintendonews.com/2019/02/12/hashimoto-from-square-enix-retweets-nintendo-direct-announcement/

One of Square-Enix's main producers just retweeted the Direct announcement; so expect something coming our way from S-E!

 

Personally, I reckon it's time for this...

 

 

and this...

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2019 by Dcubed

[Hero-of-Time]

28 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Have you tried Shadow's of Valentia? It's a pretty faithful remake of the original Fire Emblem Gaiden, no anime/waifu BS! And it's brill!  

I started it when it first came out but never finished it, which is why I know how it looks and gave it a mention in my post.   It's on my insanely long 3DS backlog.

[Hero-of-Time]

The latest amiibo in the Smash Bros collection has just shipped ( completely forgot I had these ordered ) which gets me thinking that maybe we will see the next wave announced. I can't wait to see the Richter and Simon amiibo. With FE being the main focus of the Direct I wouldn't be surprised to see more amiibo from that franchise being announced.

[Dcubed]

57 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

The latest amiibo in the Smash Bros collection has just shipped ( completely forgot I had these ordered ) which gets me thinking that maybe we will see the next wave announced. I can't wait to see the Richter and Simon amiibo. With FE being the main focus of the Direct I wouldn't be surprised to see more amiibo from that franchise being announced.

Well they’ve gotta get a Smash Bros Amiibo ready for FE:TH’s main protagonist...

Edited February 13, 2019 by Dcubed

[Julius]

4 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I am intrigued to see whether or not the 3DS will see anymore support from Nintendo, even if it is just ports of older games. The sales of hardware and software have started to drop off really fast and if there aren't any games on show here then that may be it for the brave little handheld.

Apparently the Nintendo JP page for the Direct hints that their won't be a 3DS presence in the Direct, so if that's the case, then I guess that is a sure sign that the writing is on the wall  apparently it also mentions that we won't be seeing anything for smartphones here, so we could be buckling up for 35 minutes of Switch goodness 

4 hours ago, Dcubed said:

One of Square-Enix's main producers just retweeted the Direct announcement; so expect something coming our way from S-E!

I was just thinking about this yesterday, and given the phenomenal success of Octopath Traveler, I have to imagine that they've fast tracked development so that we can see a lot more games from them than the already announced Final Fantasy games coming to Switch this year. The pessimist in me thinks that maybe they're just retweeting because we're going to see shadow drops for FFVII and FFIX, etc., but I'm rarely ever that pessimistic, so on the flip side, I think that they could easily just throw the kitchen sink at us 

Ports of classic titles in their catalogue like Final Fantasy I - VI (a collection would be awesome), Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Dragon Quest I - IX, etc., are almost a no-brainer. We've seen the success that the NES and SNES Classics had, and if a key reason for not having Virtual Console on Switch truly is because the games didn't garner the attention that they perhaps deserved, then perhaps the exposure of a Direct would be perfect as a launchpad for those classic titles. I mean, we've already seen them do it with the FF titles that they're bringing to Switch 

And that's not to mention all the sequels we could see! 

I don't see us getting much in this Direct - I don't think they'll want to risk cannibalising sales for the already announced FF ports - but Square Enix have to know that they're sitting on a goldmine, so hopefully they don't take too long! 

Edited February 13, 2019 by Julius

[Hero-of-Time]

Speaking of The Secret of Mana, weren't there some trademarks recently discovered that could be hinting at a localization of the Mana Collection? It would be great if that bundle did indeed make it over here in the West.

[Julius]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Speaking of The Secret of Mana, weren't there some trademarks recently discovered that could be hinting at a localization of the Mana Collection? It would be great if that bundle did indeed make it over here in the West.

I was aware of the Mana Collection in Japan, but hadn't read about the trademarks, but you're right: they trademarked both Final Fantasy Adventure and Secret of Mana, and quite recently at that. Seems like a great idea to bring it West! 

[Hero-of-Time]

I wonder if Resident Evil 0, Remake and 4 will make an appearance tonight in the Direct, with them all being dropped on the eShop soon after. It's been a few months since they were announced and none of them have been released yet.