A Mario game for the holidays of the same year they launched the Mario movie was always a given, I've been saying it for months on this board, even right down to them not wanting to show it before the Mario movie because you don't want kids doing the whole "I saw the new Mario game has Elephant Mario! Why isn't Elephant Mario in the movie?" type thing, they wanted the movie to have all the Mario spotlight to itself for the first half of the year. Of course you have to have a new Mario game in a year you have the first (real) Mario movie, it's a monumental event for Nintendo.
The rest of the line up is actually a lot of remasters and C-tier franchise installments. Wario Ware? The last one didn't even hit 2 million in sales. The Detective Pikachu series that no one really cares that much about but somehow was turned into a Ryan Reynolds movie? The first game has to be one of the lowest selling Pokemon branded games ever at sub 1 million sales. Luigi's Mansion 2 3DS Remaster? Feels like the 3DS getting a Luigi's Mansion 1 port late in its life cycle. More Pikmin remasters? Mario RPG Remaster is cool for nostalgia but a 1 for 1 remake of an ancient game that is likely outsourced. A Princess Peach spin-off platformer for 2024, Nintendo did a Peach platformer for DS that sold like 1.3 million copies ... not exactly in development terms the cream of Nintendo's crop. Even Pikmin 4 while cool, this is not a big ticket franchise for Nintendo, its sales peak is like 2.3 million copies.
It looks like basically like a lineup you'd expect for a last year Nintendo console transitioning to a new one next year when there's no handheld/home console split.
Last edited by Soundwave - on 21 June 2023
