DEATH STRANDING

This was probably the most obvious choice for a list such as this one. Death Stranding is built all around the idea of players’ actions and their cooperation having a significant impact on the game’s world. What was once a barren wasteland might look entirely different based on what players were doing. A once-deserted landscape might have a long highway stretched over it now. Mountains that were once desolate and almost impassable might have networks of ziplines scattered across peaks and valleys. It’s very effectively done, and adds so much to the gameplay experience.

Animal Crossing has been an absolute revelation for Nintendo. Not only has it been the recipient of incredibly positive reception from critics and fans alike, the game has also enjoyed massive commercial success, having sold over 22 million units within under four months of launch. Not only is it the most successful Animal Crossing to date, it is also one of Nintendo’s most successful games ever.

But its developers feel that if the series is to remain relevant and even grow as time passes, it will need to keep evolving and changing with the times to ensure that it doesn’t become too comfortable with its formula and hence become stagnant. 

During an online talk for Japan’s Computer Entertainment Developers Conference (via VGC), Animal Crossing: New Horizons director Aya Kyogoku remarked that while the game’s success has been “a real pleasure”, it is also “the most difficult point”, in that such growth and success “cannot be sustained without change.”

“Protecting IP is not synonymous with protecting product specifications from manuals. Games are entertainment, so you will definitely get tired of making the same things,” Kyogoku said. “In order for the series to continue to exist as an IP and for many people to enjoy it for a long time, it is important to continue to challenge and change with the times.”

Animal Crossing: New Horizons in itself introduced several major changes to the franchise. Though it stuck to the same larger formula and framework as other games in the series, mechanics such as Nook Miles and the ability to terraform were crucial new gameplay additions. While it’s going to be a while before another Animal Crossing game releases, it’ll be interesting to see what sort of changes it brings to the table.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available on the Nintendo Switch. You can read our review of the game through here. 

Bomb-Master Cannon – The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Upon arriving at Windfall Island’s Bomb Shop, you’ll be shocked to learn just what kind of prices are on offer. For 10 bombs, you need to pay a whopping 10,000 rupees. Sure he’s the last bomb-maker left but that’s enough to crowd-fund ten of Ganon’s deaths. Thankfully, once Tetra and her crew give him the ol’ rundown, Bomb-Master Cannon sees fit to lower his prices.

Even in the absence of the recently delayed Metroid Prime 4, Nintendo’s lineup for exclusives on the Switch in 2019 is looking very, very healthy. The likes of Pokemon, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Animal Crossing, and many more are all scheduled for releases this year. A large sum of these games, however, don’t have any release dates (some don’t even have actual names)- we know that they’re coming this year, but beyond that, we can’t say anything for sure.

However, if these listings on the site of UK retailer Base (via Nintendo Life) are to be believed, the exact release dates for three of Switch’s 2019 exclusives might have been locked in. These are Animal Crossing, Luigi’s Mansion 3, and Daemon X Machina. According to the release dates mentioned for the pages of these games on UK-based digital-only retailer Base.com, Daemon X Machina launches on May 24, Luigi’s Mansion 3 comes out less than two months later on July 19, and Animal Crossing releases on September 13. All three are supposedly primed for 2019 itself.

You can view screenshots for these listings below, in case the release dates mentioned above are removed from the listings (which they probably will). It’s worth noting that these aren’t official confirmations from Nintendo (obviously), and though retailers do often know at least rough estimates of when to expect releases, and though those dates look like they might actually be feasible, it’s still best, at least for now, to take these with a grain of salt. Nothing official here.

That said, given the fact that two of those games still only have working titles, and that we have seen nothing (or very little) of them, we should probably be hearing more about them from Nintendo soon. Perhaps a Nintendo Direct isn’t far away, where release dates might finally be confirmed.

In related news, it looks like Nintendo has eleven more unannounced Switch titles planned for this year, so it definitely looks like 2019 is going to be a healthy year for the console-handheld hybrid. Read more on that through here.

CAMP CHORES (RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2)

The van der Linde gang’s camp, for a large part of Red Dead Redemption 2, is an excellent place to just hang out. From picking up quests and side quests, to playing some mini-games, to picking up various side quests and acivities, to just chatting with your fellow gang-members, there’s a lot to do in the camp. One other thing you can do is… chores. Picking up a loft of hay and slowly walking across the camp to to it back down in the horses’ feeding spot. Filling up a bucket and water and bringing it to Pearson’s table. Chopping a bunch of firewood. It’s all the very definition of mundane, and really, doesn’t require much activity on your part as a player- but for some reason, every now and again, it feels oddly fun to just do a bunch of chores around the camp. Of course, the Dead Eye bonuses – for whatever reason – are an obvious boost.

As the final announcement for their Nintendo Direct stream last month, Nintendo announced a brand new Animal Crossing game will be coming to the Switch in 2019. Like a lot of their Switch game announcements, this one was basically a logo of the series, with a very rough release window plastered to it. In other words, we don’t actually have any information on the game, nor a single screenshot.

However, it looks like some information is beginning to circulate on when we can expect the game to be out. According to LootPots, who have previously been correct on information about Nintendo games, including getting some information right about the upcoming Pokemon Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Eevee!, the next game in the Animal Crossing franchise is due out for the Switch in March or April of 2019. That’s… super close by.

Assuming that this rumor is true, then the game could well launch in March, and cap off Nintendo’s financial year— if nothing else, it would help them meet the lofty 20 million units of Switch sold for the year target that they have set for themselves. Of course, regardless of the relative trustworthiness of the source, this is still a rumor, and it’s best to not just run with it.

The madmen at Nintendo have finally done it. As the final, one last announcement that they made during their Nintendo Direct stream today, they confirmed that Animal Crossing will be coming to the Switch. The announcement was actually very reminiscent of the one that they made for Super Smash Bros. earlier this year- it piggybacked off of an update for an already announced game, and then gave a quick tease, with the series name and a release year, without giving a full name or date.

That’s all we really know at this point about the game- what features it will have, and how it will follow up to the world shattering success of the 3DS game New Leaf, which sold over 12 million copies worldwide, remains to be seen. That said, Animal Crossing has been one of the most requested Nintendo series to jump over to the Switch, and now, at last, it is happening.

That wasn’t all, though! We also got confirmation that Isabelle, your assistant in New Leaf, will be joining the fight in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (that was the announcement that the Animal Crossing teaser piggybacked off of). You can check out the trailers for both below.

But after a bit of a middling E3 performance- Nintendo did exactly what they had promised at E3, focusing on the immediate short term lineup for the end of the year, with special emphasis on the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate– perhaps Nintendo understood that some fans’ confidence was shaken, which was why Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo, took to announcing that Nintendo had several more unannounced Switch games in the works, which it would announce in the coming weeks and months.

Several more Switch games in the works- like I said, not a shock to anyone. Nevertheless, official acknowledgement made it tangible and “real” (just like how, in 2015, I am sure everyone had known that Nintendo was working on a successor console to Wii U, but Nintendo’s official acknowledgement of the system then codenamed NX made it “real” and worth speculating on for everyone around the world). So, all of a sudden, we find Nintendo’s lineup the subject of possible speculation- we know Nintendo has more games in the work, but what can we expect, exactly?

"All of a sudden, we find Nintendo’s lineup the subject of possible speculation- we know Nintendo has more games in the work, but what can we expect, exactly?"

We ran a similar article for Sony and PlayStation last week, but the Nintendo piece will have to be different by definition. You see, Nintendo’s first party model is significantly different than Sony’s- rather than multiple discrete studios around the world, most of Nintendo’s first party talent is housed in one location in Japan, with team divisions there made as and when necessary. There are some exceptions, of course- Monolith Soft is in Kyoto, Retro Studios is in Austin, NERD is in Europe, and, of course, Nintendo has several partners such as Next Level Games- but there are no studios to keep track of, to try and trace their output and guess at what they might be doing next.

Which also fits with the fact that Nintendo’s model is franchise based- while the company experiments with new IP a fair bit, with games like ARMS, Splatoon, Xenoblade Chronicles, The Wonderful 101, and so on, being the results of that experimentation, its greatest hits are all from proven IP that the company relies on every generation. You can expect a new Zelda, Mario, Smash Bros., Kirby, Mario Kart, Pokemon, and Donkey Kong game from Nintendo on all of their hardware- you don’t know what form those new games might take, of course, because Nintendo so substantially reinvents its franchises routinely, but you have a framework of what to start out with.

So let’s take that framework and dive deep into Nintendo’s lineup. First, let’s look at the major franchises that have shown up on the Switch already- we have received a Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart, Kirby, Xenoblade, Splatoon, and Donkey Kong game. Of these, Mario Kart was technically a port of the Wii U game, which would imply a new one might be incoming soon- but the Mario Kart team also delivered ARMS last year, which they continued to support until early this year. If they have already started work on a new title, which, presumably, is a new Mario Kart game, then we’re probably a few years away from seeing it. At which point, it might also be reasonable to expect that it may just be withheld for the Switch’s successor- Nintendo usually likes only one Mario Kart game per system to begin with, and having Mario Kart available near the Switch 2’s launch would help that system greatly.

"First, let’s look at the major franchises that have shown up on the Switch already- we have received a Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart, Kirby, Xenoblade, Splatoon, and Donkey Kong game."

Donkey Kong is also a Wii U port, but Retro Studios, the studio that has handled Donkey Kong for the better part of a decade now, is currently working, according to sourced reports, on a Star Fox racing game- so a new Donkey Kong game by them is presumably unlikely, and with the sales of Tropical Freeze on Switch, Nintendo may deem it unnecessary to have a new one out for the system just yet anyway.

Monolith delivered Xenoblade 2 last year with a skeleton crew, and are delivering a full fledged standalone expansion for it in a few months- while they’re talented, and they have expanded greatly, I think even they can’t deliver a brand new game in these circumstances any time soon. The next Monolith game, whether it turns out to be a new IP or a new Xenoblade, is probably at least two, and more likely three, years away from now.

Let’s also look at the stuff we do know is coming- Nintendo has Mario Tennis releasing this week, with a new Mario Party, Super Smash Bros., Fire Emblem, Yoshi, and no fewer than two new Pokemon games announced for the Switch- all of these are due out by the second half of next year. So we don’t need to concern ourselves with these ones either.

Now we start getting to the interesting parts. What’s left? What can we expect? When can we expect it? Let’s get the most obvious one out of the way first- Animal Crossing is coming. Of course it is coming. It has become a tentpole Nintendo franchise in the last few years, and New Leaf was one of the highest selling 3DS games. New Leaf also came out in 2012– while there have been several spin offs for the series since then, we are six years out from the launch of the last Animal Crossing game, the longest we have ever gone between two entries in the franchise. And yet, it’s safe to assume it’s not out this year (if it was, it would have been at E3)- which means we would be reasonable to assume the next quickest possible release period for the game, which is 2019.

By all accounts, Retro is working on a new Star Fox game- this one, we can also assume, would be out next year. Retro’s last major release was Tropical Freeze on Wii U in 2014, which means we are four years out from it now, five by next year. Even accounting for longer development cycles, that’s a ridiculous wait. Whatever they are working on has to be reaching the end of its development by now- which means, yes, we can expect Star Fox Racing (presuming that is what they are working on) to be out some time next year as well.

Metroid Prime 4 was announced by Nintendo last year, but so far we have not seen a single screenshot of the game. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume it’s early in development- and yet, Nintendo is known to not show anything from its games, even when they are far along in development, until they are close to release (see how we were basically totally in the dark regarding Zelda until the huge E3 blowout for Breath of the Wild, following which the game launched less than a year later). We also know that Nintendo definitely does not intend on launching it this year. Rumors have pegged it as being developed by Bandai Namco Singapore, and indications are it was not in development in 2015– meaning the earliest it started development was in 2016. Going by Producer Kensuke Tanabe’s own estimated development cycle of at least three years (estimated for the Wii U, which was in the same ballpark in terms of development resource requirements as the Switch), the earliest we can expect a Metroid Prime 4 would be in 2019- which means we could see the game next year, but it’s not something you should necessarily be banking on. If development on the game started in 2017- which is unlikely, but there is a chance Nintendo waited to see how the Switch would be received before greenlighting the next entry in a niche but expensive series- then the game could be out as late as 2020.

"Animal Crossing is coming. Of course it is coming. It has become a tentpole Nintendo franchise in the last few years, and New Leaf was one of the highest selling 3DS games."

Then there is Bayonetta 3– this was also announced in a similar fashion last year, and has no date attached to it. Now, Platinum has an abnormally quick turnaround time, usually 2 years or less, so there’s every chance that Bayonetta 3 does hit next year. Honestly, I would expect it to hit next year, it’s more likely than not that it does, even if it only got greenlit in mid 2017.

For those who are keeping track, then, as of right now, the 2019 Switch lineup already seems pretty stacked- we are talking, definitively, of Animal Crossing, Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Yoshi, Star Fox Racing, and probably Bayonetta 3, with significant chances of Metroid Prime 4 hitting next year as well. At that point, Nintendo wouldn’t need more major exclusives for the year- they’re already hitting the same pace of major new releases as 2017 for the Switch. That said, there are two more possibilities we could consider.

Let’s talk about those. Nintendo’s two biggest flagship properties are Mario and Zelda. Not counting the spin offs for both series, both series are cleanly split into 2D and 3D branches. The 3D ones are the big, tentpole ambitious entries that usually attract critical acclaim and hysteria- the 2D ones tend to skew more casual in Mario‘s case, and more experimental in Zelda‘s case. Specifically speaking of Mario, a proper new 2D Mario game may not come, since Nintendo views Super Mario Run for smartphones as part of the New Super Mario Bros. series- but let’s assume that that is true. In that case, Super Mario Run came out in 2016, with a smaller development team behind it, meaning we’ll be hitting three years since its launch next year. The time would ideally be ripe for a new Mario game in the 2D branch to hit next year- I don’t know if that would happen, but every Nintendo system since 2004 has received a 2D Mario game, and it seems unlikely Nintendo will stop now. That could be one to add to the books, too.

"It is entirely possible that Nintendo holds some of these games back for 2020, if only because having Pokemon, Animal Crossing, 2D Zelda, 2D Mario, Metroid Prime, Bayonetta, Fire Emblem, Yoshi, and Star Fox all in one year is absurd."

More certain is the possibility of us getting a new 2D Zelda game next year. These games have shorter dev cycles, smaller scope, and usually come out between major 3D Zelda games to bridge the gap. Since 2013, Nintendo has also tried to have at least one Zelda release a year- A Link Between Worlds in 2013, Hyrule Warriors in 2014, Majora’s Mask 3D in 2015, Twilight Princess HD in 2016, Breath of the Wild in 2017, Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition in 2018. We can assume they don’t want to break that pattern next year. Either this means a new remaster is coming out next year (which is possible, sure), or a new 2D Zelda game (likelier, since even before Breath of the Wild was out, Nintendo was teasing a 2D Zelda game for the Switch).

I think this would honestly be overloading the 2019 Switch lineup. It is entirely possible that Nintendo holds some of these games back for 2020, if only because having Pokemon, Animal Crossing, 2D Zelda, 2D Mario, Metroid Prime, Bayonetta, Fire Emblem, Yoshi, and Star Fox all in one year is absurd- especially given that Nintendo has to support the Switch mostly by itself, as far as big releases go. Nonetheless, I think that list gives us some idea of what we can expect from the Switch lineup in 2019. 2018’s schedule may not have been the best- it’s fine, but it’s a definite step down from 2017- but 2019 looks set to be another major onslaught of quality releases from Nintendo. Let’s see what they have planned for us.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Nintendo has finally revived Metroid, but that doesn’t mean fan demands for other Nintendo properties on their hot new console have subsided. There is, of course, F-Zero, which we haven’t seen a new game from in over a decade- but undoubtedly, the two most requested franchises for the Switch by fans are Animal Crossing, and Mother– specifically, Mother 3, the superlative final installment in the RPG which launched in Japan on the GBA in 2005, but never came over to the west.

Responding to fan concerns regarding these two games in particular, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said to IGN, “When we have something to announce, we will. Fill in the blank of your favorite franchise. Our mentality will be we’ll announce information close to its launch date versus teasing people for years on end.”

Speaking specifically about Mother 3, Reggie said, “Again, we know, I know there’s a fan base for that title. It’s something that we always think about in terms of where there are opportunities to reintroduce IP to fans, to do it in a way that builds new fans, we’re certainly aware. No promises, no commitments one way or the other, but we’re aware.”

He also talked about Animal Crossing, which we haven’t seen a proper new game in since New Leaf launched on the Nintendo 3DS all the way back in 2012 (though admittedly the localized release followed in 2013), noting that the success of Pocket Camp on smartphones bodes well for the future of the franchise either way.

“I did see a lot of internet memes with sad faces from the Animal Crossing group,” Fils-Aime admitted. “We see tremendous opportunity in using the mobile platform to introduce IP to consumers who may not be as familiar. Animal Crossing is a great example. Tremendous interaction with Pocket Camp. Fans are really enjoying that experience. We’re introducing it to new consumers. That bodes well for whenever the next Animal Crossing might come.”

In the end, at least with Animal Crossing, we should see a major Switch game eventually- New Leaf is one of the most successful games on the 3DS, and it is a tentpole franchise for Nintendo. Presumably, it is being saved up for next year, or the year after. Mother 3 might be a bit dicier, but there is some hope that Nintendo might finally choose to respond to the fan outcry, and bring that game over at last.

One of the Nintendo Switch games that fans are eagerly hoping will be announced soon is Animal Crossing– a brand new installment in Nintendo’s beloved life sim series. The last game in the series was New Leaf, which launched on the 3DS all the way back in 2012- so it’s been some time since we’ve seen a new game in the franchise, though we have seen multiple spin offs since, including a new mobile game.

Now, a new Animal Crossing trademark filing filed by Nintendo in Japan (via Japanese Nintendo) seems to indicate that a Switch version of the game may be incoming- the filing specifies “software for a home video game system, portable system, and smartphone devices”- but there is no current home console Animal Crossing game, and there is no Nintendo home console on the market other than the Switch. Is a Switch announcement incoming?

For now, Animal Crossing fans can check out New Leaf on 3DS, or Pocket Camp on iOS and Android smartphones.