Nintendo announced yesterday that they were going to stream a Nintendo Direct today at 5pm ET and 2 pm PT. We got a Nintendo Direct Mini back in January that gave us a few good announcements (TWETY port, Mario Tennis Aces, Dark Souls Remastered, SNK Heroines), but it was a Direct that mostly had a couple of Wii U ports and neat but little updates to already released games. Now with this being a full on Direct, the amount of news and announcements should be much meatier than the Mini we had this January. I'm wondering if anyone has any predictions they're willing to make about this Direct?

One of the safest bets is seeing more information about Mario Tennis Aces. We'll likely see more of that Story Mode with new activities and more bosses to showcase as well as see what kind of multiplayer modes there are in Aces. We'll also likely see more characters show up as the only confirmed characters are Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi and Donkey Kong. Also there are some leaks going on with Aces where there are some pictures and boxart that reveals who else is playable, but I think the Direct will still surprise with 1 playable Odyssey Character. The two most likely being Cappy and/or hopefully Mayor Pauline (she's waited long enough to get into a Mario spinoff sports game). Other than that, here's my predictions:

• The way I see this is that we'll likely see the Direct start with a big new trailer for the Upcoming Fire Emblem game coming to the Switch and it will be announced that its slated to come out this Fall.
• We get new Super Mario Odyssey DLC where there are new kingdoms that are based on other Mario games (Luigi's Mansion kingdom, Isle Delfino, maybe a Donkey Kong Country themed kingdom).
• That upcoming Yoshi game will release sometime in July and will be called Yoshi: Cardboard Carfuffle (ok, probably won't be called that). Also considering the cardboard theme in this game, Nintendo will surprise us and announce this game will have Labo Support.
• Speaking of Labo, we'll likely get more footage of the Labo kits and get an announcement for an established Nintendo IP having a Labo kit (I'm thinking Ryhthm Heaven or Warioware).
• Project Octopath Traveller will get a proper name (probably just be Octopath Traveller) and there will be a new trailer for it and a release date in August.
• We'll likely get a sizzle reel of indies and the indies that will be featured will include the upcoming Toejam and Earl game, Wargroove, Indivisible and last but not least, Fight Crab (a fighting game w/ weaponized crabs)
• For 3rd party games, we'll get footage and a release date for Wolfenstein II: TNC, new footage of Dark Souls Remastered, SNK Heronies will reveal new fighters (thinking King, Bonne Jenet and Zarina), EA will port Burnout Paradise Remastered and Blizzard will announce they are porting Diablo III to the Switch (there are rumors of this happening).
• The Direct will end with a teaser for a brand new Pokemon title that is aiming for a Holiday release.

Theres a rumor going around (started by the person who leaked the direct date) that Fire Emblem will get a CG trailer here with an announced date for the summer, but as with all leaks take that with a grain of salt. I think we'll get an announced date for the Awakening DLC pack for Fire Emblem Warriors as well. Dataminers in heroes found events that line up with the middle of this month that feature the 3 characters released in that pack.

Other than that I don't have many expectations. I don't expect to see Pokemon at all. They said it would take a year or longer and to be patient when they mentioned development on it, so late 2018 would be pushing it to the absolute earliest it could appear. Pokemon isn't well known for back to back release years when switching to a new console either. Along with this, Ultra Sun and Ultra Mookn havent completed their life cycle yet. The mythical is still as of now unannounced and hasn't been featured in a movie yet (although it could show in the new Lugia movie) like they traditionally do. Until that happens we won't see a new generation.

Mother III (That's right, the remake/update of Mother 3 for the Switch).

...that's all I got. We get a Mr. Saturn on stage and they just linger awkwardly for the rest of the stream.

Really hope the Diablo 3 rumors are true.

New Pokemon on 3DS

• More on the mario tennis game
• info on the fire emblem game
• Odyssey kingdom DLC

I want to say Pokemon announcements are usually done separately by the Pokemon Company and have been later in the spring (April/May).

Agent.

Virtual Console finally shows up. Highlighted by Skies of Arcadia: Legends.

Some more Wii U games get ported to the Switch and everyone loses their shit.

@boozak: If smash bros got ported you'd be correct.

Disappointment.

No Animal Crossing because they hate us

At least one or two more Wii U ports to really just twist that knife for people who actually owned that console (and also to save Nintendo from having to make new games.) If they’re not going to just straight up make a new Smash Bros, this is probably one of their last chances to announce a port of Smash 4. I’d actually really like if Tokyo Mirage Sessions got a port, because more people should play that game, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.

Otherwise, I think a new Fire Emblem is a pretty safe bet, and I’m going to throw a dark horse prediction of Namco announcing the next Tales game for the Switch. That seems like something they’d do.

Depending on how long of a direct is it, I think Nintendo might drop some Pokemon Switch info on us. Maybe not more than a "we're still working on it," but its been a few months. Mario tennis update for sure. We'll probably see some more info on Valkyria Chronicles 4, an update on Fire Emblem 16, and some random indies if I had to guess.

More information on that SMT game would be nice.

Dave Lang's Monster Hunter

I want to see what they're doing with Metroid Prime and Shin Megami Tensei and I want a release date and name for Project Octopath Traveler.

Balloon Fight Act Zero.

You monster.

I just want good news about the Virtual Console, especially since the Wii one goes away soon

Mario Party 1-3 Remastered. New coat of paint, new 100 turn option, and first person mode.

Loot boxes for Mario to sport different colored hats.

Seems that way.

Captain Toad too.

@boozak: I don't think it's a port, unless it's a port with new characters added. I don't think Nintendo are that evil though lol

2018 seems too soon for it to not be a port. The reveals for Smash 4 took place over the course of a year and a half or so. New characters being added would be the easiest way to sell the same game to previous owners so I wouldn't rule it out just because of that.

Can I just say, that's a really strong line up of games confirmed for this year/anounced

Mario Tennis seems to be making good following the last one which was bad.

N Sane Trilogy is totally a game I'll play on a portable

ANNNNNND Holy shit a proper fully fleshed out Splatoon 2 single player mode??!?!? Sign me the fuck up.

I don't really understand the internet flipping out over some of these announcements. Anyone super excited for ports have surely had the opportunity to play them elsewhere? I'm starting to regret my decision to pick up a Switch with a lack of original games being announced.

@stinger061: Portability is a HUGE factor. You can play stuff like Okami and Crash on other systems, but being able to play them on a road trip or plane ride or just in bed is a big deal to many people. I know my 3DS has pretty much outstripped every console I own in terms of playtime just because of how much easier it is to pick it up and turn it on.

Plus, no matter what system you have, you're getting a whole bunch of ports. Let's not forget PS4 just had Shadow of the Colossus released for the 3rd time, and that's a 5-year-old system. This is the gen of the remaster, for better or worse.

Seems like a good Direct. I didn't really get to play Captain Toad on WiiU, Mario Tennis is looking pretty good, plenty of Splatoon content, and Smash Bros!

@ktargo: It's been confirmed that Sakurai came back to work on this Smash after his break and by his words has been working day after day on it. It's not a port. You dont need to bring him on for ~2 years just to port a game and make a few new characters. He also said that he can't announce the title yet which would be extremely odd for a "Smash Bros Deluxe".

If you also look at past development cycles they usually last anywhere between 2-3 years aside from the exception of Melee. From what we've heard so far the amount of time that's been put into this game is already around 2 years. They just didn't announce it as early which is a good thing because their prolonged year+ long marketing they did the last couple times is horrible.

@nicksmi56: I get that portability is a great feature and not a lot of people played these Wii U games. But what about the people that did support Nintendo last console generation? They are adding content to games we've played and charging full price. I'd love to play some more Captain Toad, but I'm not paying full price for a couple added levels. Maybe Mario Kart and Smash are big enough for the most hardcore Nintendo fans to double dip, but not me. Nintendo has a record of my digital purchases. They've given discounts for cross platform Virtual Console games and rewarded early adopters to the 3DS. Nothing for Wii U owners.

Mario Odyssey makes the Switch a one game system to me. Hopefully we'll see more original games soon, they threw a lot into their launch year and these ports are just a way to buy time until then.

@tom_omb: Sadly, it looks like Wii U owners are getting shafted for a while. I understand why they're doing it, since they're turning lost profit into profit gained by porting the Wii U gems over onto a system where they're much more likely to be played, but I totally acknowledge that I'd be a bit peeved if I were a Wii U owner that jumped on the Switch.

Still, there are plenty of third-party ports, indies and a surprising amount of JRPGs jumping onto the system at a pretty fast rate, so it's not like there's nothing to play. Those may not be your bag or you may prefer them on other gaming platforms, but I can't exactly abide by the notion that it's a system of Wii U ports unless we're talking strictly first-party software. And even then, we've still got original games in the pipeline. Pokemon Switch, Fire Emblem Switch, Metroid Prime 4, Kirby's coming out next week, Octopath Traveler, Mario Tennis and now a new Smash. And all but 2 of those are coming out this year.

What's more, this isn't a uniquely Nintendo thing. This is simply the problem with being an early adopter in this day and age. The Switch was my first next-gen console because when PS4 and X1 came out, their libraries were basically empty, only filled with, you guessed it, ports or old games with tweaked content. Just about everything besides filler like Knack was either 'Game You Could've Easily Played on Last-Gen: Slightly Prettier Edition' or 'Sequel That Plays And Feels Exactly Like The Previous Game You Just Played, But It's Got A New Number On It.' It wasn't until 2 years after launch that there was finally one game (Witcher 3) that really caught my eye, and even then, I wasn't buying a system for one game.

As I said before, for better or worse, this is the gen of repackaging old games. Would I love if we were getting uniquely new games all the time from launch? Sure, but that's not the world we find ourselves in. Our 5-year-old next-gen systems are still doing it for some odd reason (I know, I know, making money) even though they really don't need to anymore, so I can't really be appalled that a console that's only been out for one is doing the same. At least it's justifiable in this case because that last console collapsed and died.

Heck, I didn't even think about picking up the Switch until I had written out a good list of games that I knew 100% that I'd be getting, because I'd seen how consoles launch these days. So yeah, it stinks and I'm sorry that your investment wasn't the best this time around :( but maybe it'll turn around later on? And if not, at least it's a good cautionary tale for next time, because I doubt this trend is going away anytime soon.

@nicksmi56: Yeah, sure, I was perfectly happy to pick up a Switch for Mario. I got a Switch quicker than I got a Wii U. I'm just eager now to find what I'll play on in it next. It seems bleak looking to the immediate future, but I know with a planned 10 year life cycle we're going to see more Mario and Zelda. I'm very much looking forward to hearing more about Metroid Prime.

It's really just a matter of waiting for the right 3rd party game to pick up. I'm generally pretty tight with my purchases, many I've played on other platforms, a steam sale will trump portability. Can't really say I'm personally too bothered. Mario Kart is the only one that really bugs me, I'd really like to play that new battle mode, but otherwise I've gotten all I need from that game from Wii U.