The latest Nintendo Direct announcement video ended with a monstrous bang, as Nintendo finally confirmed what fighting-game fans have been hoping to hear: the Super Smash Bros. series is coming to the Nintendo Switch. Even better, fans won’t have long to wait, as the new game’s trailer ended with a promise of “2018.”
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Those silhouettes in the distance look like a plethora of familiar Nintendo characters.
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The video began with a Splatoon inkling goofing off, until the world went dark…
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…and this dramatic Smash Bros. logo appeared.
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Yes, it’ll have Mario.
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Yes, it’ll have Link.
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That’s as much info as we have about the game’s potential name…
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…along with a “2018” assurance, and a Nintendo Switch logo.
The trailer showed Splatoon characters, known as “inklings,” running, jumping, and trying to shoot each other with ink until the screen turned to black and a massive Smash Bros. logo appeared. Standing in front of the burning logo were a bunch of apparent Nintendo characters, including clear shots of Mario and Link and silhouettes of Donkey Kong and Samus Aran. This was followed by a flash of “2018” and a Nintendo Switch logo. No other information, including a specific title or details about how the upcoming game may differ from the previous Wii U and 3DS versions were confirmed, but it’s easy to assume that this means the next game in the series will include inkling fighters.
This exciting news was a sharp detour from an otherwise pedestrian Nintendo Direct that was otherwise notable for emphasizing the company’s continued 3DS support. Nintendo announced five first-party games coming to the aging portable system both this year and next, and it’s doing the bare minimum to keep that promise of continuing 3DS support. That’s because the five games in question are all sequels or remakes of existing games.
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Time to go all Wario Ware on the 3DS.
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How many mini-games? This many!
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Wario regularly invades old-school games in the Wario Ware series.
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Boogers and farts: yep, it’s a Wario Ware game.
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The most notable of these may be Wario Ware Gold, if only because the 3DS has existed for this long without a Wario Ware game yet. The “gold” in the title refers to the game’s dip into series history. Wario Ware games typically serve a frantic series of three-second mini-games to players, and Wario Ware Gold will combine old mini-games with new ones—though the ratio of old-to-new wasn’t clarified just yet. Wario Ware Gold will launch for the 3DS this August.
The rest of the upcoming 3DS content newly announced today includes Bowser’s Inside Story (a 3D-ized port of the DS game with a new chapter), Luigi’s Mansion (an apparently straight port of the GameCube original with a new “boss rush” mode), Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers (a tower-defense tweak to the portable-exclusive Dillon series), and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (a Wii U port, now with new Super Mario Odyssey-themed levels and a new two-player mode).
The latter is perhaps the most exciting because Captain Toad will launch simultaneously on Nintendo Switch on July 13.
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Dark Souls amiibo? Sure, why not.
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And, hey, a free multiplayer online beta test ahead of launch!
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Undertale is coming to Nintendo Switch… “eventually,” according to this silly trailer.
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One of the perks in this Wii U port of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker: a new two-player mode, in which the second player uses a spare Joy-Con to aim weapons at your puzzle worlds.
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Additionally, new Odyssey-themed levels will appear in this port.
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Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, unsurprisingly, has a ton of cool, weird concept art attached.
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Top-down brawling, Travis Touchdown-style.
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More TSA:NMH shots of its in-game action.
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Mario Tennis Aces will have the usual cast of Mario friends playing tennis, along with… a freaking Chain Chomp? I laughed.
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A wholly optional Joy-Con motion mode will come with Mario Tennis Aces. This is just a facsimile of the motion-control effect, not a new peripheral.
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Octopath Traveler will launch in July, and this handsome collector’s edition will be made available on its launch day, as well.
Speaking of ports on Nintendo Switch: gosh, are we getting a lot of those this year. Third parties are jumping on board en masse to cash in on Switch hysteria, including unlikely entries like Crash Bandicoot: N’Sane Trilogy (marking the first time Crash’s original trilogy has ever appeared on a Nintendo platform), South Park: The Fractured But Whole (which was hilarious to hear the family-friendly Nintendo announcer say out loud), and Undertale (the indie RPG darling that owes a huge debt to Nintendo’s underappreciated Earthbound series).
We also learned more about previously announced Switch games like Dark Souls Remastered, which will get its own “praise the sun” Amiibo figurine on the same day as the game’s May 25 release date, and Travis Srikes Again: No More Heroes, which finally has real gameplay footage. TSA:NMH will work as a top-down brawler in which series hero Travis Touchdown kicks, punches, and slashes through a variety of fake video game worlds. If the game includes cameos from existing indie games, as its developers previously hinted, Nintendo didn’t leak those twists just yet, but it did confirm a two-player mode and a pretty sexy aesthetic. However, the game still doesn’t have a release date beyond “this year.”
Previously announced games like Mario Tennis Aces and Project Octopath (now named Octopath Traveler) received release dates (June 22 and July 13, respectively) and lengthy descriptions of gameplay, while Nintendo announced the first paid-DLC expansion for Splatoon 2, launching “this summer.” Splatoon 2‘s “Octo” expansion, which will cost $19.99, will send players into a new single-player level campaign with a new “octoling” character as a hero.
Listing image by Nintendo
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