Topic: What will Nintendo release in 2025?

[Order.RSS]

Welcome to the 2025 predictions thread, where points are worth even less than Platinum eShop coins!
How it works: please post 1-10 Nintendo related things you think will occur this year, that's it!
Previous threads: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024.



I will try to update this thread with all the major Nintendo releases of the year.
Here's what we know so far:

2025 Games/Software
- Donkey Kong Country Returns HD January 16th. Switch 1+2.
- Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition March 20th. Switch 1+2.
- Mario Kart World June 5th. Switch 2.
- Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour June 5th. Switch 2.
- Donkey Kong Bananza July 17th. Switch 2.
- Pokémon Friends July 22nd. Switch 1+2 & Mobile. (The Pokémon Company publishing).
- Drag X Drive August 14th. Switch 2.
- Hello, Mario! August 26th. Switch 1+2 & Mobile.
- Pokémon Legends: Z-A October 16th. Switch 1+2.
- Kirby Air Riders November 20th. Switch 2.
- Metroid Prime 4: Beyond 2025. Switch 1+2.
- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment Winter 2025. Switch 2.
 
2025 Hardware/Major merch
- Nintendo Switch 2 June 5th.
- Nintendo Classics: GameCube Controller June 5th.
- Nintendo Switch 2 Camera June 5th.
- Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller June 5th.
- amiibo: Riju - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom June 5th.
- amiibo: Sidon - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom June 5th.
- amiibo: Tulin - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom June 5th.
- amiibo: Yunobo - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom June 5th.
- amiibo: Jamie - Street Fighter 6 June 5th.
- amiibo: Kimberly - Street Fighter 6 June 5th.
- amiibo: Luke - Street Fighter 6 June 5th.
- amiibo cards: Street Fighter 6 22 individual cards. June 5th.
- amiibo: Donkey Kong & Pauline - Donkey Kong Bananza July 17th.
- My Mario product line for young children. August 26th.
- amiibo: Mineru's Construct - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom TBD.

2025 notable DLC (paid/free)
- Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV July 24th. Switch 2.
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World August 28th. Switch 2.

2025 enhanced Switch 1 games
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition June 5th.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition June 5th.
- Splatoon 3 - v.10.0.0 June 12th. Switch 1+2.
- Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition July 24th.
- Kirby and the Forgotten Land + Star-Crossed World - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition August 28th.
- Pokemon Legends: Z-A - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition October 16th.
- Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition 2025.

2025 Nintendo Switch Online / Services / Mobile
- Nintendo Today! mobile app, March 27th.
- Virtual Game Cards & family digital game sharing, April 30th.
- Nintendo GameCube Classics June 5th. Switch 2.
- GameChat June 5th. Switch 2.
- GameShare June 5th.
- Drag X Drive - Global Jam August 9th & 10th. Switch 2.
- Games added to Nintendo Classics apps:

• Fatal Fury 2 January 24th. SNES.
• Super Ninja Boy January 24th. SNES.
• Sutte Hakkun January 24th. SNES.
• Ridge Racer 64 January 30th. N64.
• Wario Land 4 February 14th. GBA.
• Donkey Kong (1994) March 7th. GB.
• Mario's Picross March 7th. GB.
• Nobunaga's Ambition March 28th. SNES.
• Nobunaga's Ambition: Lord of Darkness March 28th. SNES.
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV: Wall of Fire March 28th. SNES.
• Uncharted Waters: New Horizons March 28th. SNES.
• ESWAT: City Under Siege April 11th. Genesis.
• Streets of Rage April 11th. Genesis.
• Super Thunder Blade April 11th. Genesis.
• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones April 22nd. GBA.
• Killer Instinct Gold May 15th. N64.
• The Sword of Hope May 23rd. GB.
• Kirby's Star Stacker May 23rd. GB.
• Gradius: The Interstellar Assault May 23rd. GB.
• Survival Kids (1999) May 23rd. GBC.
• F-Zero GX June 5th. GCN.
• The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker June 5th. GCN.
• SoulCalibur 2 June 5th. GCN.
• Super Mario Strikers July 3rd. GCN.
• Mario Paint July 28th. SNES.
• Chibi-Robo August 21st. GCN.
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance TBD. GCN.
• Luigi's Mansion TBD. GCN.
• PokĂ©mon Colosseum TBD. GCN.
• PokĂ©mon XD: Gale of Darkness TBD. GCN.
• Super Mario Sunshine TBD. GCN.

Announced projects without dates/beyond 2025
- Cruis'n Blast - Online Multiplayer & DLC TBA. (Announced December 2021, Nintendo owned IP).
- The Duskbloods 2026. (Nintendo co-publishing). Switch 2.
- Pokémon Champions 2026. (Announced March 2025).
- Rhythm Heaven Groove 2026. Switch 1+2
- Splatoon Raiders TBA. (Announced June 2025).
- Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream 2026. Switch 1+2
- Untitled live-action Zelda movie May 7th, 2027.
- Untitled Super Mario Bros. Movie sequel April 3rd 2026.

2025 Directs
- Pokémon Presents February 27th.
- Nintendo Direct March 27th.
- Nintendo Switch 2 Direct April 2nd.
- Mario Kart World Direct April 17th.
- Donkey Kong Bananza Direct June 18th.
- Pokémon Presents July 22nd.
- Nintendo Direct: Partner Showcase July 31st.
- Indie World August 7th.
- Kirby Air Riders Direct August 19th.

[Order.RSS]

Rules/suggestions:

• You may submit between 1 and 10 predictions for the year.
• If you write your predictions in numbered list/bullet point format that’d be helpful, but it's not required.
• You get 1 point for being right, half a point for being half-right.
• You have until the first Direct (or major press release) of the year to submit predictions. It might be earlier this year than last year's February Direct. Obviously we can continue speculation afterwards, but it won't net you any tasty points.
• No points for guessing stuff we already know! See what we already know… in the post above!
• Non-predictions or super safe ones (e.g.: "Nintendo will not suddenly start selling alarm clocks orbital satellites") may be awarded no or negative points at the jury's discretion.

Look at all these stats! That means we must be legit!

2024 Leaderboard:
Bold Khushrenada: 5½ points [WINNER]
Dinar87: 4 points [RUNNER-UP]
Mop It Up: 4 points [RUNNER-UP]
Evan_B: 3½ points
Safe Khushrenada: 3½ points
Luigi Dude: 3 points
M.K. Ultra: 2½ points
Adrock: 1½ points
Madness Khushrenada: 1½
Nickmitch: 1½ points
Stratos: 1½ points
Khushrenada: 1 point
Mr. GlubGlub: 1 point
Order.RSS: ½ point

Lifetime achievements ranking:
M.K. Ultra: 22½ points
Mop It Up: 19 points
Nickmitch: 19 points
Luigi Dude: 15 points
Safe Khushrenada: 12½ points
Stratos: 11½ points
Adrock: 9½ points
Bold Khushrenada: 9 points
MASB: 6 points
Khushrenada: 6½ points
Order.RSS: 6 points
Madness Khushrenada: 5 points
TopHatAnt: 5 points
Dinar87: 4 points
Evan_B: 4 points
Insanolord: 4 points
Lemonade: 3½ points
Pokepal: 3½ points
Mr. GlubGlub: 3 points
Oedo: 2 points
Fawful: 1 point
Broodwars: ½ point
Kairon: ½ point
Shaymin: ½ point
NotKhushrenada: -8 points

[Stratos]

Half tempted to copy most of my 2024 since a lot of it was tied to Switch 2...

[Luigi Dude]

Half tempted to copy most of my 2024 since a lot of it was tied to Switch 2...

Yeah since I thought the Switch 2 would release at the end of 2024, I'll just reuse much of my prediction last year.

1.  The Switch 2 will launch with a new 3D Mario
2.  The new 3D Mario will be a fully open world game.
3.  The next Mario Kart will be revealed
4.  The next Smash Bros will be revealed
5.  A new IP will be announced for the Switch 2
6.  Nintendo will still support the original Switch with remasters and remakes.  I predict at least 3 more remakes or remasters will be announced for the Switch 1.
7.  A sequel to Astral Chain will be announced for Switch 2
8.  TurboGrafx/PC Engine games will be added to NSO Expansion pack.
9.  A new Animal Crossing will be revealed
10.  Metroid Prime 4 will not be a cross platform release.  Now last year I thought Nintendo had moved it to the Switch 2, but since we saw it was indeed still a Switch 1 release, it will stay just a Switch 1 release.  Best case scenario is if the game is played on the Switch 2, there might be some added benefits like faster loads times and a smoother frame rate, but there's not going to be a separate SKU for the Switch 2 that will look noticeably better like many seems to think.

[Order.RSS]

Following today's announcement of Switch 2 and what looks to be a new Mario Kart, you can no longer score points by predicting a Switch 2 release window or the release of a new Mario Kart.

Obviously Luigi Dude will receive a point, since their predictions predate today's announcement.

Submissions will close at the first Direct or major press conference of the year. I expect one in February based on their usual patterns.

[M.K.Ultra]

Well so much for my Mario Kart 9 prediction 
At least I managed to snag that one in the Fantasy Critic game. Here are my purrdictions for 2025:

• New 3D Mario releases for Switch 2
• New game from Next Level Games releases for Switch 2
• Capcom announces a Monster Hunter game for Switch 2
• Nintendo announces Splatoon 4 for Switch 2
• Square Enix announces an HD2D remake of Chrono Trigger
• Yoshi’s Wooly World re-release
• Kirby Planet Robobot re-release
• Re-release of an older Zelda game
• Switch finally gets a line of reduced priced games (like “Nintendo Selects” but may have different name)
• Mysterious C button related to the audio functions of Switch 2

Keep the hype for Switch 2 going!

[Mop it up]

Whoof, a year with a new system launch is always a real wild card! Y'know, even moreso than usual. A launch opens up a lot more possibilities that a middle year wouldn't have. I have no clue what to even guess, but might as well just toss stuff out and see what sticks!

-A new 3D Mario will be announced this year.
It may not release this year, that'll depend on when the Switch 2 itself will be launched. The team seems due for a new game and having a new 3D Mario during the first year of a system is always a good way to build hype. Perhaps they'll go even bigger this time with a 4D Mario...!

-Re-release of a previous Zelda game.
I saw someone else predict this and yeah, I'll go with it. They're not gonna have a new one ready, so if they want Zelda content for the first year, something like HD Wind Waker or Twilight Princess is the best bet. And who knows maybe we'll get Tingle's Rupee Land 99...

-A new Fire Emblem announced.
Iunno, feels like it's been a while. Plus the Smash port will need some more anime swordsman DLC.

-The next generation of Pokémon games will be announced.
And everyone will be ticked that they're for Switch 1 and not 2.

-Another new sort of Pokémon app announced.
Pokémon Bathroom Break, anyone?

-A new IP of some sort will be introduced.
Something in the same vein as first-year Switch releases like 1-2-Switch, Snipperclips, or ARMS.

-A new Kirby game will be announced.
Might be a bit of a wild card here, but it feels long enough from the last one, and it seemed to perform well.

-Smash Ultimate Deluxe to be announced.
They're gonna want Smash of some kind on this thang, and they probably feel there's no way to top the last one. So my guess is they're just gonna do some sort of deluxe version with an awful title that retains all of the characters plus the DLC in one package. Though even this could be tough to do because of licencing.

-Another HD Wii Port
What it will be? No clue! But it feels like they're running out of Wii U stuff...

-Khushrenada will earn the most points in this.
What? That guy knows things! This is a safe bet, don't worry.

[Order.RSS]

Gonna throw out some suggestions of my own:

• Within a week of the Switch 2 launch, some website will run a "taste test comparison" article, to determine whether Switch 2 cartridges have improved anti-lick technology.
• The mysterious new C-button seen on some Switch 2 renders is a shortcut to various bluetooth features, like instantly swapping headsets/controllers.
• Not all 3rd party Switch controllers will work with Switch 2 out of the box, resulting in a minefield of firmware updates and obsolete plastic.
• Xenoblade X Definitive Edition adds a new cliffhanger ending, infuriating fans.
• EA will publish Madden on Switch 2, but not College Football or NHL.
• Wario Land: Shake Dimension gets a port, releases on both Switch 1 and 2.
• Alarmo will quietly be discontinued.
• Konami adds TurboGrafx-16 as an NSO platform, but only for Switch 1 somehow.
• Recycling this prediction: Nintendo will co-publish Mina the Hollower to have it as a time-limited console exclusive in the Switch 2 launch window
• Shin'en will release a sequel to FAST RMX around the Switch 2 launch.

[Khushrenada]

Does the upcoming Pokemon Direct count as the first direct and thus the deadline or is it still an official Direct that we are waiting for?

[Order.RSS]

Does the upcoming Pokemon Direct count as the first direct and thus the deadline or is it still an official Direct that we are waiting for?

Since we only have 4 submissions so far I guess we'll accept predictions throughout March, unless some bigger set of announcements suddenly drops. Obviously anything announced until now is off the table.

I suppose it puts late submissions at an advantage, since now it seems less likely for something like Pokémon Back In Black or whatever to get announced. If people feel strongly about it, I guess we could limit March predictions to 8 or 9 max.

[M.K.Ultra]

I guess we could limit March predictions to 8 or 9 max.

But that is only about one prediction per Khushrenada. They might rise up and revolt.

[Khushrenada]

If a Khushrenada makes a prediction but Order.RSS isn't around to accept it, does anybody care...? Really makes one think.....

Man, in about one week, it is the big Switch 2 Direct. Really got to get some predictions together but the February quick reveal really took some wind out of the sails by showing things about it and a Mario Kart ruining some of Safe Khushrenada's longtime safe bets that never paid off and finally could have. C'est la vie.

-Khushrenada will earn the most points in this.
What? That guy knows things! This is a safe bet, don't worry.

So, if Khushrenada purposefully gets stuff wrong then this prediction will be incorrect but then Khushrenada can't win because he'll have the least points so he'll have to get more points but then Mop it up will be correct and she might win but if she wins then she'll have more points than Khushrenada making the prediction incorrect which might mean Khushrenada will then have more points and a;aodfijvgoai 'pe' prgvaprm 'pr ERROR! ERROR! CAN NOT COMPUTE!! ERROR!

[Adrock]

Gotta sneak this in before the Nintendo Direct in like five hours:

• Switch 2 will launch in the first half of 2025.
• New 3D Mario for Switch 2.
• At least one game that revolves around or at least significantly uses the rumored mouse-mode functionality dealie on the Switch 2 JoyCon.
• A new IP exclusive to Switch 2. I guess this could be the same game as the one above, but it’s 5:45 AM EST and my one brain cell isn’t brain cell-ing.
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild will get a resolution/frame rate bump on Switch 2, not a dedicated remaster.
• Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack will coincide with a teaser for the new Super Smash Bros. on Switch 2.
• Native party chat on Switch 2. I keep hedging my bets on this one. A girl can dream.
• Nintendo will publish a third party game (not its own IP outsourced to a third party to develop).
• At least one of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD or The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. I will predict this every year until I get it right.
• Need something outlandish: Miiverse successor, Miiverse 2: The Reckoning (name not final), just some kind of social network or social network adjacent thing that hopefully, mercifully Nintendo does a much better job of moderating.

See y’all in the winner’s circle next year when cruise to victory with my hot and fresh takes (ignore that half of them were recycled from 2024).

Narrator: It was a historic loss.

Alright, I’m outta here.

[Khushrenada]

Aw shoot! I was going to do this last night and now it's too late. Hoo-ray for me.

[Order.RSS]

Following this morning's Direct, submissions for new predictions are now closed. Feel free to speculate or discuss of course, but those sought-after points are off the board now.

Last year's predictions from Stratos getting recycled:

Oh! Forgot about this! Gotta get my predictions in!

1. Switch 2 releases 2024 with Backwards compatibility
2. Switch 2 adds things for their Online/VC library, but it is still underwhelming and limited from what it coudl and should be
3. Switch 2 includes some form of achievements/trophies
4. A new Fire Emblem is announced this year, but doesn't necessarily release yet.
5. Smash Ultimate gets a refresh/new DLC for Switch 2
6. We don't get Mario Kart 9, its just a refresh/update to 8 with a graphical overhaul, even more new and retro tracks, and some new modes and expansion to battle modes
7. Switch/Switch 2 finally gets a new Star Wars game that isn't Lego-based
8. Monster Hunter Wilds isn't coming to Switch, but Capcom throws something else MH related to the system.
9. Tears of the Kingdom gets new content, and it is tied to some new features of the Switch 2, either locking it to the new system or changing in some way that could be as simple as the Color Dungeon from the GBC Links Awakening dungeon
10. We get a new Animal Crossing, either a mainline one, a spinoff, or a massive new expansion/update for New Horizons

[Stratos]

Any chance you could just copy my 2024 list since I said I may as well do that and then promptly forgot to post a new list? 

[Order.RSS]

Any chance you could just copy my 2024 list since I said I may as well do that and then promptly forgot to post a new list? 

Done!