According to insider NateTheHate, as early as this month, through Nintendo Today or Twitter. He even reaffirmed that he meant April, although you shouldn’t expect a purported timing anytime soon. Which is all well and good – the surprise will just be much sweeter if it’s actually true.

The last title in the franchise was Star Fox Zero, launched in 2016 for Nintendo Wii U and co-developed by PlatinumGames. It would receive mixed reviews with complaints commonly centering around the controls (especially the use of the GamePad). There wouldn’t be a new mainline title ever since, but with Fox McCloud’s cinematic debut, that streak may be ending sooner than later.

Of course, Nintendo hasn’t officially confirmed whether a new Star Fox is in development. The last major update was the addition of the unreleased Star Fox 2 to the Super NES Classic Edition. And while details are sparse on what the new title could offer, it’s apparently “really funny.” As always, stay tuned for more updates.

While details are sparse, it seems Nintendo may be leaning more into humor for the writing. In a recent podcast by VGC, Alex Donaldson said he had heard that “Oh, the game’s really funny.” He believes this means a greater focus on the writing and potentially a “different vision” from previous outings.

It wouldn’t be the worst thing, even though the concept of anthropomorphic animals fighting in space wars can be humorous enough at times. However, considering Nintendo’s last run of injecting humor into a long-running franchise, i.e. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, courtesy of its NPC companions, we’ll have to wait and see how this pans out.

Of course, that’s not all that Switch 2 fans have to look forward to. A new Nintendo Direct is apparently set for June, featuring release dates for Splatoon Raiders, Rhythm Heaven Groove, and Switch Sports. A remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is also reportedly in the works, with a rumored release near the Holidays, while the next 3D Mario is allegedly coming in 2027. And if that’s not enough, you may see FromSoftware’s The Duskbloods launch late this year.

With an alleged remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time seemingly coming near the Holiday season for Switch 2, one has to wonder about the next 3D Mario. Apparently, it’s slated for 2027 – a decade after the release of Super Mario Odyssey on the original Switch.

Not that Mario hasn’t kept busy, though – Super Mario Bros. Wonder launched in October 2023 to stellar critical acclaim, after all. The development team has also been working on Donkey Kong Bananza, which launched last July for the Nintendo Switch 2 to rave reviews and over four million sales.

While it’s unlikely to be announced in the next Nintendo Direct, the reveal of Ocarina of Time Remake could solidify the former’s status as a 2027 title. As always, time will tell, but if Nintendo is pushing it to next year, it may simply be to space out its big releases.

STAR FOX

Star Fox was once one of Nintendo’s most promising franchises- though certainly not on the same level as something like Zelda or Mario, it was consistently received well by critics and audiences, and definitely sold well enough to warrant several sequels and new instalments. As time went on though, it sort of faded into the background. We did get Star Fox Zero for the Wii U in 2016, but that game was a huge disappointment, to say the very least. As such, we’re now at a point where the future looks pretty dim for this beloved series.

Darklurker – Dark Souls 2

Dark Souls 2 inarguably has the most divisive assortment of bosses in the entire trilogy, although there are still a fair number of bosses that can give players the fair challenge they so wish for. The Darklurker is one such boss that can only be found after joining Pilgrims of the Dark covenant through Darkdriver Grandahl who can be found in the Black Gulch area. After this, players will have to complete their quest line and light all the fires in the three Dark Old Zones – which will ultimately unlock this one hell of a boss fight.

Argonaut closed its doors in 2004, but that doesn’t mean the people who worked on the original Star Fox games have forgotten about them. In an interview with GameXplain, Giles Goddard – one of the programmers at Argonaut who worked on Star Fox – admitted he wouldn’t mind working on the series again when asked what Nintendo IPs he would be interested in working on.

“It would be interesting to do a Star Fox, I think,” Goddard replied. “But not how the other ones were done.” When asked what he meant, Goddard explained: “I think I would just dial it back a lot and not in gimmicks like, you know, the stuff Star Fox Zero had, and maybe not even put in the free roaming aspects and stuff like that. I would just bring it back, pull it back into what made the original Star Fox fun, and just make one based on that. I don’t know how popular it would be, but it would be cool to try.” Goddard did say, however, that he isn’t interested in bringing back the game’s retro visual style.

As fun as a classic Star Fox sounds, it seems something Nintendo would be unlikely to go for. Fans mostly just want a proper sequel to Star Fox 64, but Nintendo seemed more content to add gimmick after gimmick than just make a similar game. The end result was Star Fox Zero, which is pretty bad. Hopefully, Star Fox will get another chance one day, and maybe Goddard will even get to work on it.

https://youtu.be/22Ipwp7DxRw

BANJO-KAZOOIE

Once one of the premier 3D platforming properties in the industry, Banjo-Kazooie is often considered one of Rare’s greatest accomplishments, and has more time has passed since the series went away, demands for a return have kept on growing fiercer. The fact that 2008’s Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts wasn’t at all what fans wanted it to be has only made those demands louder. Whether or not Microsoft will see the value in bringing it back, or whether or not the Rare of today will be able to recreate the magic of the Rare of the late 90s are both big question marks, of course, but it’s definitely a series that deserves another shot.

MARIO

The most obvious choice there is. Mainline Mario games are, of course, platformers, but there’s just so much Nintendo has done with this series. From kart racing with Mario Kart to RPGs with Paper Mario and Mario and Luigi, to puzzle games with Dr. Mario, to part games with Mario Party, to sports titles with Mario Tennis, and so, so much more, Mario has tried its hand at an impossible number of things, and proved to be successful in most of its attempts.

In a rather surprising twist, Nintendo confirmed in its recent Direct presentation yesterday that Starlink: Battle for Atlas would be receiving new content. This will be in the form of additional Star Fox characters and missions with a focus on Star Wolf. That’s right – Pigma, Leon, and Andrew are all here, and players will battle against them.

What’s also interesting is that Star Fox characters like Falco, Slippy, and Peppy Hare will be made playable along with Fox McCloud as well. Each has their own missions and abilities, along with dedicated skill trees. On top of all that, they can also be used to replay Fox’s missions.

Starlink: Battle of Atlas will receive all of this content in April. Non-Switch players will also receive new content in the form of new faction missions, starship races, and more. Check it out in the Nintendo Direct presentation below- the video’s timestamped, so just hit play.

We already know that the Switch version of Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Ubisoft’s space action game with a unique (and avoidable) toys-to-life hook, will have Star Fox content. It seems like the integration of this Star Fox content will be deeper than is usually the case for platform exclusive content in multiplatform games.

A new video of the Switch version of the game, courtesy of GameXplain, which you can see for yourself below, shows off the opening cutscene— and it includes Star Fox characters Slippy, Peppy, and Falco, with gorgeously detailed HD models bringing them to life like never before. The cutscene also suggests that fan favorite character Wolf will be showing up in the story at some point— like I said, this seems to be some pretty deep and extensive integration of the Star Fox universe with Starlink’s. With the next Star Fox game rumoured to be a racing game (seriously), for many series fans, this might be the traditional experience they crave.

Starlink: Battle for Atlas launches on October 16 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.