After weeks of anticipation, rumors, and false predictions, the longest drought between Nintendo Directs won’t last much longer. The last full Nintendo Direct (not game-based or Indie reel) was on September 13, 2018, but Nintendo announced early on Tuesday that they would be broadcasting the following day.

The presentation will take place on February 13, 2019 at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET, and focus on upcoming titles for the Nintendo Switch. Fire Emblem: Three Houses was also confirmed to be featured.

Nintendo announced the Direct on Twitter.

Besides the next Fire Emblem title, some possible and rumored titles include:

  • Yoshi’s Crafted World may be a shoo-in, as Nintendo’s next major announced first party release. The game will be available on March 29th. However, a trailer did drop in 2019, so it’s inclusion in the Direct could be brief but still warranted.
  • Luigi’s Mansion 3 has been quiet since it was announced, and more information could come in this Direct. The game is currently slated for a 2019 release.
  • We start getting a little more speculative when we expect new Animal Crossing news and/or footage to be shown. The game is also scheduled for a 2019 release, and since we haven’t seen anything yet, this Direct could be the perfect showcase. But is it almost too perfect of a prediction? If Animal Crossing Switch is formally shown off, expect it to be the headliner of the Direct. I’d say there’s a solid 30-50% chance we get it.
  • Unannounced third party games coming to Switch
  • Ports of current generation and/or Wii U titles
  • SNES Online: Nintendo’s next logical step after the nifty but somewhat shallow NES Online would be to expand the service to SNES Online. Don’t get me wrong, the NES Classics are great, but they’ve been presented to us in so many ways since the Wii generation. SNES Online is rumored to bring classics like A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Kirby Superstar, Yoshi’s Island and F-Zero into the fray, making the service much more robust and servicable. But while a dataminer basically confirmed SNES Online for us, I think Nintendo may still want to trickle out more NES games first. I hope I’m wrong and SNES Online starts by this Summer.
  • Smash Characters: Joker gamepplay footage shown off with release date. Would bet on that. If they’re spoiling us with a great Direct, a new character tease, possibly tied in with a newly announced title for Switch.
  • The confirmed Fire Emblem: Three Houses feature. Probably some gameplay footage and a release date.

That wraps up what I expect to see from the Direct. Some bets seem like shoo-ins, but Nintendo is known for throwing us curve balls. I should include a point to include at least one thing we never even thought of.

Next, my wishlist, for a personally earth-shattering Nintendo Direct that could fit in the 35 minute time frame.

  • Animal Crossing Switch as the headliner. Extended trailer showing new and old gameplay aspects. New multiplayer hub that’s nothing like City/Island locations of the past. Game launches September-November 2019.
  • Luigi’s Mansion 3 new trailer. Portrait ghosts or something new in a similar vein is shown. While I enjoyed Dark Moon, the cartoony ghosts somewhat took away from the eerie atmosphere of the first game. It seems they’re back for the third title, but maybe the environment or another element can change the gameplay once again. Summer 2019 release.
  • Joker footage, available March 5th. I’ll go further and say another new character tease, but I would have no idea who it would be.
  • Super Mario Maker Switch enhanced port. More items, more themes (SMB2), less restrictions. Improved level sharing and community aspects. Releases Fall 2019.
  • New game from an existing franchise announced. Some candidates: Star Fox, F-Zero, Donkey Kong.
  • Pikmin 4 confirmed to still exist, at least. The 4th proper Pikmin title was announced in 2015, presumably as a Wii U game at the time. While the game was re-confirmed in 2016 and as of 2017 was in development for Switch, there hasn’t been any word since. It would be a nice surprise addition to the Switch lineup.
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Could the long-awaited Pikmin 4 be mentioned in this February Direct?
  • We’re talking pipe dreams right? For me, it would be a crazy third-party port announcement like Kingdom Hearts 3. Even if it was a delayed release, that game specifically would be huge for the Switch. Again, this would be way out there and is probably something that won’t happen.
  • SNES Online coming very soon.

What do you think we’ll realistically see? What are your pipe dreams and wild predictions? To join the conversation, follow Nintendo Plaza on Twitter.

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Free-to-Play Dr. Mario World Coming to Mobile Devices Summer 2019

 

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