Gotten quite a bit into Octopath 0 and yeah it's the best in the series by far, it's somewhat unorthodox in its structure to accommodate the features it has but the execution is great. It incorporates comfort elements like the town building, for anyone who played Fire Emblem fates it's a bit like that as your cast become members of you village as well as a number of NPCs who you can recruit, 8 character party is far better for the combat and it helps that you can change the party at any time.

Carmageddon: Rogue Shift hits Switch 2 on the 6th of Feb:

Gotta go where the money is.

What if it was long after Tears of The Kingdom and a new evil has emerged in Ganon's place?

It's not so much the story as it is open world games in general. Love the story, but as soon as I play a game, open the map, and see this massive map, I let out an audible sigh lol. I think I've probably just played too many open world games in the past few years. Hopefully, by the time the next Zelda game releases, no doubt it will be open world, I'll feel more up to it by then.

I remember New Horizons hype was pretty big for a life sim before it launched in March 2020 (perfect timing).

It will likely be a super smart decision for New Horizons to have a Switch 2 Edition and have us wait until the end of the decade or the start of the next for the newest installment in the series. Nintendo could really build up so much hype that even without another global pandemic the New Horizons successor could sell 15 million plus in its opening week (so probably the end of the week and the first section of the next). And maybe even close to the 10 million Scarlet and Violet sold in 3 days. 

The $4.99 upgrade seems worth it and I'm excited to carry my island over to Switch 2 and play the 3.0 content as well. 

I think a traditional Zelda or new experience could sell just as well next entry. BOTW introduced a lot of people to the franchise but I don't think they necessarily want more of the same, see how TOTK sales dropped comparatively...

BOTW was a perfect storm for it's time but that time has passed. Carrying over some of the inventiveness is essential but everything else I think is up for grabs. I think people also take for granted that BOTW was the first Zelda game that was universally beloved on a technical and artistical front since the 90s. Windwaker was extremely polarising, Twilight Princess  was dated and a bit garish, Skyword Sword was dated and more niche...

The whole Ghibli mood, huge leap in rendering tech, crazy physics, gorgeous art and insanely successful hardware were all key components. I hope Nintendo doesn't just focus on the open world aspect. At the very least it has to be an entire different world from TOTK and i'd hope a slightly new artstyle too.

GOW also suddenly sold 4x it's previous best entry that gen. I think it's just all execution versus any singular gimmick or setting.

Fair points.

Which (already announced) game for 2026 are you most excited for on Switch 2? Specifically first party. I’m leaning everywhere ATM: MTFever looks like it’ll be a very fun time, Yoshi has my interest piqued, Fire Emblem would be my introduction to the franchise, and Splatoon Raiders is likely going to be a grand slam IMO.

Splatoon Raiders is the one I'm most looking forward to currently. I'm not sure how big a release it's going to be, though. Splatoon's biggest draw has always been its multiplayer, with the single-player aspect being more of a glorified tutorial to get you ready for multiplayer. Raiders will be a spin-off, single-player only game. So there's no real telling if it'll be as big as the Switch releases, but I'm still looking forward to it! I've always loved Splatoon's gameplay, whether that be its single-player or multiplayer.

Yoshi would be next, but primarily to play with my daughter. We recently 100% Crafted World on Switch together, so she's excited for a new Yoshi game.

I'm not a huge Fire Emblem fan, so I'll probably pick it up sometime later this year or next.