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Nintendo of America held their Partner Showcase Direct on Wednesday and these were the biggest reveals and a look at some upcoming releases.
Nintendo of America held its annual February Direct on Wednesday, this time in the form of a Partner Showcase.
Instead of their usual live stream, Nintendo opted for a pre-recorded 23-minute montage featuring several upcoming releases, remakes, and additions to the Nintendo Switch Online service.
Here are some of the biggest reveals from the Partner Showcase, coming to Switch in the next few months.
If you’re hoping the next Zelda game is a return to the old days of eight dungeons and a linear path, well, you probably shouldn’t
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If you’re hoping the next Zelda game is a return to the old days of eight dungeons and a linear path through them, well, you probably shouldn’t. IGN spoke with series producer Eiji Aonuma during The Game Awards 2023, after Tears of the Kingdom won best action game, and he suggested there’s an element of “the grass is greener” when people look back fondly on older Zelda games.
“I do think we as people have a tendency to want the thing that we don’t currently have, and there’s a bit of a grass is greener mentality,” Aonuma said. “But I also think that with the freedom players have in the more recent games in the series…there still is a set path, it just happens to be the path that they chose. So I think that that is one thing I kind of like to remind myself about the current games that we’re making.”
“But also, it’s interesting when I hear people say those things because I am wondering, “Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you’re more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?” But I do understand that desire that we have for nostalgia, and so I can also understand it from that aspect.”
Which doesn’t sound too promising for fans of traditional Zelda style. Aonuma said his goal is creating more ways for players to chart their own path, so it seems pretty likely the next Zelda – whatever it might be – will follow the same open-world style as Tears of the Kingdom.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though. Aonuma and his team grew quite a bit between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, as the sequel’s open world felt more alive, with new people, more secrets, and a more complex series of dungeons that took advantage of the open-world, non-linear design in ways that Breath of the Wild couldn’t.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
The Zelda movie director Wes Ball wants to make Nintendo’s next movie like a “live-action Miyazaki” movie
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The Zelda movie director Wes Ball wants to make Nintendo’s next movie like a “live-action Miyazaki” movie. That’s a pretty broad statement, as the Studio Ghibli founder’s works run the gamut from cozy comedy to wartime tragedy, but Ball narrowed down what he meant a little in an interview with EW.
What Ball has in mind is “this awesome fantasy-adventure movie that isn’t like Lord of the Rings, it’s its own thing,” he said. “I’ve always said, I would love to see a live-action Miyazaki. That wonder and whimsy that he brings to things, I would love to see something like that.”
That vision is just a vision for now, though. Ball is finishing post-production on Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes and plans on taking a rest before diving into the Zelda movie script.
“It’s going to be awesome,” Ball said. “My whole life has led up to this moment. I grew up on Zelda and it is the most important property, I think, that’s untapped IP, if you will. So we very much are working hard to do something. We’re not just trying to do it because we can. We want to make something really special.”
Zelda and Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto is co-producing the film with Avi Arad (Into the Spiderverse) and Arad’s production company Arad Productions. Nintendo will finance more than half of the film, while Sony Pictures Entertainment will also finance the film and distribute it film theatrically worldwide.
“By producing visual contents of Nintendo IP by itself, Nintendo is creating new opportunities to have people from around the world to access the world of entertainment which Nintendo has built, through different means apart from its dedicated game consoles,” Nintendo said in the original press release. “By getting deeply involved in production with the aim to put smiles on everyone’s faces through entertainment, Nintendo will continue its efforts to produce unique entertainment and deliver it to as many people as possible.”
Written by Josh BRoadwell on behalf of GLHF
We’ve rounded up the best Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals on Amazon so far, including Persona, Mario, Digimon, and more
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Deals season is here, and Amazon is celebrating early with some Black Friday Nintendo Switch deals on a broad variety of games. While Nintendo itself isn’t getting in on the action yet, we’ve got deals from Square Enix, Bandai, Ubisoft, and Sega on everything from Persona and Digimon to Mario + Rabbids, musical Final Fantasy, and more. All of these are physical copies, so if you’re looking for digital deals, you’ll have to wait a little while longer.
We’ll update this piece as more Black Friday deals roll out.
The November Nintendo Indie World showcase has come and gone, announcing plenty of promising indie games to the Switch
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The November Nintendo Indie World showcase has come and gone, and while there’s still no news of Hollow Knight Silksong, Nintendo and its publishing partners highlighted plenty of promising indie games to the Switch. Wayforward is bringing back a long-lost Game Boy Advance game, there’s a circus murder mystery, a life-sim with furry characters, hiking games, geckoes, and a whole lot more. Most of the games shown are coming to Switch in the next six months, with a few demos available now, so you won’t have to wait long if you see something you like.
Nintendo is making a live-action Legend of Zelda film with Into the Spider-Verse producer Avi Arad and Maze Runner director Wes Ball
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Nintendo announced out of the blue that it’s making a live-action Legend of Zelda movie. Zelda and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto will co-produce with Into the Spider-Verse producer Avi Arad, and Wes Ball will direct.
The Big N made the announcement in a surprise press release following its quarterly earnings and said that while Nintendo and Arad have worked on the film behind the scenes for years to get the vision for it right, the Zelda movie is finally entering production now.
Arad has an extensive – and checkered – resume. He produced the hit Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the 2000 X-Men movie, but though he was also responsible for Morbius, the film so bad that it became an internet meme.
Ball is known for the Maze Runner film trilogy, and he’s directing 2024’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
This is Miyamoto. I have been working on the live-action film of The Legend of Zelda for many years now with Avi Arad-san, who has produced many mega hit films. [1]
— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) November 7, 2023
Miyamoto is co-producing the film with Avi Arad and Arad’s production company Arad Productions. Nintendo will finance more than half of the film, while Sony Pictures Entertainment will also finance the film and distribute it film theatrically worldwide.
“By producing visual contents of Nintendo IP by itself, Nintendo is creating new opportunities to have people from around the world to access the world of entertainment which Nintendo has built, through different means apart from its dedicated game consoles,” Nintendo said in the press release. “By getting deeply involved in the movie production with the aim to put smiles on everyone’s faces through entertainment, Nintendo will continue its efforts to produce unique entertainment and deliver it to as many people as possible.”
I have asked Avi-san to produce this film with me, and we have now officially started the development of the film with Nintendo itself heavily involved in the production. It will take time until its completion, but I hope you look forward to seeing it. [2]https://t.co/2H9lzzS5Pv
— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) November 7, 2023
The live-action Zelda movie comes after Nintendo broke its own sales records with 2023’s Tears of the Kingdom and broke box office records around the world with the Super Mario Bros. movie. The latter released in April 2023 and has grossed over $1 billion as of November 2023.
Miyamoto said on Twitter that since production has only just begun, it will be a while before the film is ready for release. Nintendo didn’t say if the Zelda movie will follow a new storyline or adapt one of the series’ many games.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
Our Super Mario power ups ranked list holds the Nintendo mascot’s abilities to the light to see which ones are worth their salt
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Putting the best Super Mario power ups in ranked order is a trip through the long-running franchise’s history, a tale of failed experiments and surprisingly creative endeavors. Any series that’s been knocking around for over 30 years inevitably puts out some duds, and Mario is no different. Tempting as it may be to lay the blame on the (rightly) maligned New Super series, some of the classic Super Mario games have their fair share of stinkers.
We put our favorite Mario power ups in order here, though since Super Mario Wonder wasn’t available at the time of publication, we didn’t include those yet.
If you’re after more Mario fun, check out our 2D Mario cover art ranking and the best Charles Martinet voice lines.
The 2D Super Mario Bros. box art quality has had its fair share of ups and downs over the decades, and we’ve sorted out the best of the best
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The 2D Super Mario Bros. box art quality has had its fair share of ups and downs over the decades since the first NES game launched, much like the games themselves. The olden days of pared down, brutally minimalistic art for international releases thankfully gave way to something more colorful and fun, though even some of the more recent Mario art leaves something to be desired. There’s only so many times you can create something cover art for Super Mario Bros. U before it gets a little stale, after all.
We’ve sifted through and put them all in order in our 2D Super Mario Bros. box art list, but if you’re looking for something more game-flavored, check out our Super Mario game rankings as well.
No Mario game is bad, but the best Super Mario games are the ones where Nintendo’s creativity and genius for level design are on display
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The caveat when talking about the best Super Mario games is that there really is no bad Super Mario game. Over the course of three decades and more, Nintendo’s flagship series has seen its ups and downs, but even the blandest, most uninspired of the New Super Mario games still has the power to delight and excite. When the series is at its best, however, is when Nintendo’s knack for clever stage design and creative worlds shines through.
Our list of the best Super Mario games focuses on the series’ mainline entries, so there’s no Mario Maker or Super Mario RPG here.
Some Super Mario Bros. fans think they figured out who the new Mario voice actor is, and it could be one of Genshin Impact’s voices
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Update: Oct. 13, 2023
It turns out a Genshin Impact voice actor is Mario’s new voice after all – but not the one we first thought. Kevin Afghani, who voiced Arnold the raven guide from the 2022 Summertime Odyssey event in Genshin Impact. Afghani is comparatively new in acting circles. His first credit was in 2020 as Spike in Anime Penguin: Red Snow, and he also voiced the Detective in two Cuphead shorts.
Incredibly proud to have voiced Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Thanks to Nintendo for inviting me into the Flower Kingdom!
— Kevin Afghani (@KevinAfghani) October 13, 2023
Original story: Oct. 12, 2023
Some Super Mario Bros. fans think they figured out who the new Mario voice actor is, and it could be one of Genshin Impact’s voices – maybe. The news comes from a set of data mined from the Super Mario Bros. Wonder retail demo that’s currently running in some stores across the U.S., and by process of elimination, fans narrowed the candidates down to two actors (thanks, VGC).
The list includes several actor names and roles, but some of the role sections are blocked off. Assuming Nintendo didn’t cast a woman as Mario, that leaves two male voice actor candidates for the role: Mick Wingert and Kevin Afghani. Afghani sounds quite a bit like one of the talking flowers, and some of the dataminers credited him in that role as well. That leaves Mick Wingert, voice of Dottore in Genshin Impact, Koslow in Attack on Titan, and dozens of other roles in anime and video games.
Possible Mario Wonder cast leak datamined from the demo! Thanks to @/Mondo_Mega for compiling this information and posting it on Famiboards. pic.twitter.com/30oW0NYEcW
— Skipper93653 (@Skipp93653) October 12, 2023
There’s a slight catch, though. IGN’s Rebekah Valentine reached out to Wingert’s representatives, and they said “he can confirm that he is NOT voicing Mario.” Half a dozen loopholes or more exist for ways that statement could be true while Winget still voiced Mario for Wonder. Then again, Afghani could be doubling up as a flower and as the red-capped hero, or Nintendo could’ve anticipated something like this happening and intentionally left Mario’s voice actor out of the data.
Sharp fans noticed slight differences in Mario’s voice lines during the first Wonder trailer. Nintendo later announced Charles Martinet was retiring as Mario’s voice and moving into a Mario Ambassador role – a new position whose duties remain largely unknown – but the Big N didn’t say who replaced him for Wonder recording.
We won’t have long to wait until we know for sure, though. Super Mario Bros. Wonder launches on Oct. 20, 2023, for Nintendo Switch.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
