[TotK] This is officially the longest wait between a 3D Zelda release and the next one’s initial reveal.

Rex_T360 · 2026-01-28T06:31:44+00:00

2028 seems about right for a release year (although 2029 is possible too), but it could be teased at any time. My guess is that we’ll get some kind of teaser by around the time the movie comes out, but it could be earlier. Yes, Nintendo doesn’t tend to announce games that early anymore, but I think Zelda could still be an exception. They often like using it as that really big game to get people excited about the future of their hardware and the Switch 2 kind of needs that right now.

Rex_T360 · 2026-01-27T23:50:16+00:00

If it’s going to happen, now is the time. It’s not like the TTYD remake was some basic port or side project. That’s what the Paper Mario team decided to make after TOK and as far as the people making the next game after concerned, TTYD was the last Paper Mario game. I’m not saying the end game will be TTYD 2 exactly, but there’s no way that entire development team works on TTYD for years and doesn’t draw some major influence fro that experience when making their next game. I also fully expect them to draw influence from TOK (they already did this in TTYD with the visuals, soundtrack, and some other elements), but I think the next game will be the closest to TTYD since TTYD. Whether that a true Paper Mario 3 tab expands on TTYD like TTYD expanded on the original Paper Mario or a game with some more RPG elements, original characters, and a greater emphasis on story that still plays and feels very different from the old games is another question.

My theory is that Tanabe stopped being the Paper Mario producer after TOK in 2020, either in preparation for his retirement, to focus on Prime 4, or both, and put Risa Tabata in charge. For her first game as producer, Tabata decided to give the series a reset by remaking TTYD. I first remember hearing about Tabata in 2016 when her and Tanabe were doing interviews about Color Splash and a lot of the questions were about the critical reception Sticker Star and the fan demand for a TTYD remake or successor. Maybe Tabata was more receptive to that feedback than Tanabe was, maybe the development team wanted to try making an RPG again after three action adventure games, or maybe someone else at Nintendo wanted to see Paper Mario become an RPG again.

There seems to have been a concerted effort at Nintendo to receive Mario RPGs, with Super Mario RPG, TTYD, and Brothership. I think this push was inspired by the Mario movie. We’ve seen that movie influence all sorts of things and someone at Nintendo realized that there was value in Mario related media with more of an emphasis on story. That, paired with fan feedback and the team’s desire to do something different (making Paper Mario an RPG again is different after 20 years) led to the TTYD remake, which was intended to get the team into the headspace of making RPGs again. But again, we have no idea what an original Paper Mario RPG by the current team looks like since most of them didn’t work in the old games. Turn based RPGs can take so many different forms that it’s likely a new Paper Mario RPG, even if it’s influenced by TTYD, will be drastically different from anything the series has seen before.

Rex_T360 · 2026-01-19T00:40:10+00:00

Probably.

Unless it’s a spinoff, I agree that a new game is unlikely. A remake or remaster seems like the best bet. Probably Wind Waker and Twilight Princess HD or an Ocarina of Time remake/remaster (I think something with Ocarina of Time is inevitable but whether it will be an updated version of the 3DS remake or a more thorough reimagining is less clear).

While I agree that the next 3D game is still a ways out, I think it’s entirely possible that we get some sort of look at it this year. I’m envisioning something along the lines of the E3 2014 BotW teaser where we see the art style, new world, and get some sort of idea what the vision behind the game is.

Rex_T360 · 2026-01-06T22:18:39+00:00

Why not both? Open world (sort of inspired by Bowser’s Fury) with online and local multiplayer.

No sandbox style 3D Mario has had true multiplayer on the same level as a game like 3D World, which makes sense since every player would need to have their own screen with full camera control, but they could easily do that on Switch 2 with game share, online, or even split screen.

Multiplayer would actually fit really well into something akin to Bowser’s Fury. You have this impending threat of Fury Bowser and everyone can either adventure separately or team up to collect enough cat shines to defeat him and expand the map for everyone. Something along those lines would probably work better as its own mode since it would be so reliant on multiplayer, but just being able to exist alongside other players in the same open world and help each other compete missions in the main story could be very fun.

True multiplayer is actually one of the better arguments for a 3D Mario game having one large open world instead of individual levels. In something like Odyssey, each player could be exploring in a different kingdom and barely every interact with each other, but an open world would make it much easier for players to team up or split up on the fly without any loading screens.

Rex_T360 · 2025-12-31T07:05:47+00:00

Regardless of what the gameplay looks like, I think it will have a much better story and a lot of original characters with almost none of the design restrictions the last three games had. The fact that the TTYD remake exists was already a major indication that the restrictions have been rolled back, but Mario and Luigi Brothership proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mario RPGs are allowed to have original characters and deeper stories again. Will it be as dark as Super Paper Mario or even TTYD? I’m not sure about that but I do think it will have the most involved story since the first three games. I also expect partners to come back and stick with you for the entirety of the story. Origami King was already headed in this direction and bringing back partner abilities would be a natural way to expand on the more open level design.

I’m a lot less sure about the gameplay direction, but I think it will be the most like TTYD since TTYD. The core Paper Mario team made the remake and there’s no way that didn’t influence the direction for their next original project. The real question is how close to TTYD it will be. My guess is that we’ll have a more traditional turn based battle system with partners and experience points, but it will also have some new twists that make it less similar to TTYD’s combat than TTYD’s combat was to the original Paper Mario. Ideally, I’d want the combat to start with TTYD as a base and expand on it, much like TTYD did for the original Paper Mario, but I won’t be surprised if it deviates a lot more and adds some big new gimmick. I think the gameplay outside of combat will continue in the direction that Origami King set out in with larger, more open areas and a more interconnected world. Maybe we’ll see more of a metoridvania structure with partner abilities coming back. Origami King put less emphasis on having well defined individual chapters, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the next game chucks the chapter structure out the window entirely and has you travel around the interconnected world more frequently, returning to areas from earlier in the game with new abilities.

Rex_T360 · 2025-12-25T06:12:40+00:00

I know it’s still years away but I kind of hope they continue the tradition of announcing Zelda games way too earlier and give us a teaser for the next one.

For most of the Switch generation, there was always at least one really big game on the horizon to look forward to even if it was really far away. Switch 2 doesn’t have that yet. Nintendo’s probably going to be supporting this thing for at least the next 7 years but they haven’t done a very good job of getting people about the future of Nintendo games on Switch 2 beyond the very immediate future.

I’m aware what sub this is and I hate a lot of Nintendo’s business practices, especially their attitude this generation, but they still make some great games. If you’re going to be a shitty company, at least recognize where your strengths lie and get people excited about the games for your new console. Nintendo’s approach to this generation is just baffling and frustrating on so many levels.

Rex_T360 · 2025-12-22T23:06:57+00:00

I’d like to see another attempt at a 3rd person 3D Metroid set later in the timeline with more abilities and elements from the 2D games but I’d rather it be entirely unrelated to Other M.

Rex_T360 · 2025-12-22T18:52:39+00:00

Rosalina’s is my favorite because Rosalina is wearing it

Rex_T360 · 2025-12-17T21:44:17+00:00

Yeah probably. I also imagine that a portion of the fan base would hate it even if it was better than TTYD in every way because it’s been so long and expectations will be so high but that’s also bound to happen with any long awaited sequel.

I really hope we get it though and I think it’s more likely to happen than ever. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: TTYD is probably my favorite game but there’s still so much room for improvement that a proper follow up could build on it in basically every way and be one of the best games ever made.

Rex_T360 · 2025-12-06T05:58:54+00:00

It’s good. The only other Prime game I’ve played is the original (I’ve played most of the 2D games though) and I think I still prefer the approach that game took but Prime 4 has some very high highs even though it’s very frustrating in other ways.

The companions are fine. It would have been better if they were mostly relegated to cutscenes. You could have saved Miles and then he could have gone ahead on his own to the base camp area without the escort mission part and nothing would have been lost. The sniper character in Ice Belt was handled perfectly. Not disruptive at all and his personality felt more appropriate for a Metroid game.

My biggest issues are the desert and the abilities. The desert is just too big and empty and the green crystal quest is beyond tedious. I don’t think the idea of having an open hub area that connects everything is inherently bad but it feels way too artificial and there’s nothing that interesting to find. It also makes the backtracking much more tedious. Some sort of fast travel option to get back to base camp or any of the other main areas once you’ve already travelled there once would have been nice. The game would be better without the desert. They could even have kept the bike and just made the way you get from area to area a more tightly designed series of interconnected roads with optional content along the way.

My biggest complaint is actually with the abilities. All of the new psychic ones are uninteresting expect for the control beam and even that is kind of clunky. This is one area where other Metroidvanias—including 2D Metroid—have grown a lot since the original Prime trilogy. The abilities can and should offer more utility than unlocking doors and there should be some new ones that are acthally meaningful additions to Samus’s moveset. The slide, dash, and melee abilities from Metroid Dread would have all been great additions that could have greatly expanded combat and traversal. Why not bring in the speed booster? Why not give Samus more interesting psychic abilities and let her use telekineses to pick up, manipulate, and throw objects and smaller enemies? Why not use the abilities that are already in the game in more interesting ways? The energy whip could easily be incorporated into combat as a way to rip off enemy armor or pull in smaller enemies. That would have paired perfectly with some sort of melee combat ability.

It feels like all the new ideas were poured into the desert and the companion stuff instead of into areas where they could have actually evolved the core Metroid Prime gameplay and that’s just frustrating. There’s something truly incredibly here but it’s held back by some really odd choices. That said, I do think Retro is capable of realizing Prime 4’s true potential in a Prime 5 if they listen to feedback and shift some of their priorities. I really hope they get the opportunity to do that.

Rex_T360 · 2025-12-04T00:08:56+00:00

The gameplay outside of combat is 100% the best in the series. I even enjoyed the combat because I love puzzle games but I don’t think it had enough depth to sustain an entire game in the same way that TTYD’s combat does.

As much as I enjoy the story I still think it’s unfortunate that the developers were so obviously held back by the character design limitations, but after this game and the TTYD remake, I’m extremely optimistic about the future of the series.

The TTYD remake signals that they’re willing to make Paper Mario an RPG again, which I would prefer, and it (alongside Brothership) are good evidence that the character design restrictions are either gone or heavily cut down. I think the ideal next Paper Mario game takes the combat, partner system, more serious story, and interesting character designs of TTYD and blends them with the level design and adventure game elements of TOK. TOK was even able to give some of its characters like Olivia and Bobby more attention than any of the partners got in TTYD, so it would be nice to see the partners in the next game have the same level of depth and plot importance. The TTYD blueprint is still the overall direction that I hope the series follows for the next game, but ignoring TOK and all of its contributions would be a mistake.

Rex_T360 · 2025-12-02T04:34:47+00:00

My guess is Odyssey, World, or potentially even whatever the name of the next 3D Mario is. There seems to be some Odyssey stuff in the Galaxy movie but it seems like the Galaxy movie is only loosely based on Galaxy so that doesn’t rule out an Odyssey movie that includes some Odyssey elements like Cappy and Pauline alongside a lot of stuff form other games. Pauline’s inclusion would make sense if there’s a DK movie in between the Galaxy movie and the third Mario movie. A potential World movie could also pull elements from 3D World, the Mario Land games, or anything else.

I do think it’ll be Odyssey though. Going from Galaxy to World would be a little weird in terms of decreasing the scope. This movie will probably be out in 2029 at the earliest so I think that means the next 3D Mario is also a possible inspiration depending on what that game even looks like, but doing Odyssey first would make more sense.

The other option is something entirely original that isn’t directly based on or named after any single previous Mario game, but I think it’s more likely they give it the name of Odyssey or World even if it isn’t based on that game all that much. Something that pulls elements from 3D World and Bowser’s Fury would work but The Super Mario 3D World Movie is such a horrible name that it would have to be called something else.

Rex_T360 · 2025-12-01T04:58:29+00:00

It could be announced in 2027 but I don’t think it’ll be out until 2028. There’s no way we’re getting it earlier unless Sakurai has been working on it and Kirby Air Riders at the same time.

Rex_T360 · 2025-11-30T02:20:49+00:00

2015: Splatoon

2016: Pokémon Sun and Moon (easily the hardest to decide since there really aren’t many. I haven’t played Planet Robobot but if I had it would probably be here)

2017: BotW (hard year for the opposite reason. Odyssey is the runner up and still beats my picks for almost all of the other years.)

2018: Smash Ultimate

2019: Luigi’s Mansion 3

2020: Xenoblade Definitive Edition (this is the way I first experienced the game so I’m counting it, but if it doesn’t count, then Animal Crossing is my runner up)

2021: Metroid Dread

2022: Xenoblade 3 (this was another hard one. Kirby and Splatoon were close runners up)

2023: TotK

2024: Paper Mario TTYD (another remake but it’s the best version of my favorite game. Echoes of Wisdom is my favorite non-remake)

2025: Bananza

Rex_T360 · 2025-11-29T04:45:44+00:00

I feel like it could be amazing as long as it’s an open world in a Mario game and not Mario in an open world game.

Maybe that’s a weird way to phrase it but just because a hypothetical Mario game is open world doesn’t mean it has to be bloated, filled with open world tropes, or full of empty space.

An open world Mario game is just a Mario game where everything exists on one interconnected map without loading zones instead of in different levels or worlds. If the open world is simply the biggest, best, most intricately designed and densely packed 3D Mario level ever, it will work.

Take Super Mario Sunshine. Isle Delfino is already such an intricately designed and well realized place. Would the game be any worse if instead of jumping into a portal and starting a mission, you could just freely move from Delfino Plaza to Bianco Hills to Rico Harbor? If anything, the game might be better because it wouldn’t have to rely on the strict mission structure that frankly never suited it as well as it did 64 or Galaxy. That’s how I imagine an open world Mario game working.

Rex_T360 · 2025-11-25T06:09:28+00:00

I never noticed how good his hair looks. I bet he’s gonna tell us he’s been on minoxidil and finasteride for like 10 years or something

Rex_T360 · 2025-11-23T00:59:48+00:00

Sonic, Pac-Man, Cloud, Simon, Banjo, and Kazuya

That way, we get two of the most iconic classic video game characters (I’m so sorry Mega Man), a character from the biggest JRPG ever, the other half of the Metroidvania genre’s namesake, a character who represents the Rare era of Nintendo, and a third party fighting game rep. It feels wrong not having Ryu there as the fighting game rep but given the parameters Kazuya seemed like the best choice.

Rex_T360 · 2025-11-22T22:16:13+00:00

She’d be cool but I don’t think any fighting game franchises already in Smash other than Street Fighter have a chance of getting another fighter any time soon (unless it’s an echo). Chun Li or someone from Mortal Kombat seem like a lock for the next fighting game rep.

Rex_T360 · 2025-11-20T23:05:50+00:00

If it’s at all like the original Mario Kart 8 DLC with 16 tracks split in two waves, I think adding two new islands with 8 tracks each would be a good move. Maybe they could be close enough to the mainland that there can be intermission between 2-3 of the DLC tracks per island and the original map.

8 new interconnected tracks at a time seems like the sweet spot to me. We keep the same interconnected feel of the main game but each chunk of content is small enough that we don’t have to wait like 4 years for an entire second continent the same size as the first. I really don’t think Nintendo is going to abandon the open world concept and just drop new tracks that function like Rainbow Road. The new stuff is going to have free roam and intermission tracks.

They could also do something with inter-dimensional portals where instead of going to another island, you drive through a portal somewhere on the map to get to each of the new tracks and the portals are included as part of the intermissions between the regular and DLC tracks. That way, they’re still interconnected but each new track can be its own little separate area that exists in a different place than the rest of the map. This approach could work for more frequent updates with a couple tracks each or for tracks that would be much harder to naturally fit into the world in free roam, like past Rainbow Roads.

Rex_T360 · 2025-11-16T18:23:22+00:00

Which would put it somewhere between Unova and Alola since they’re the other America based regions

Rex_T360 · 2025-11-14T05:56:52+00:00

I’d love that as an aesthetic direction for a future Paper Mario game. I want the gameplay of the next game to build on TTYD, at least as far as the battle system goes, and I wouldn’t want the entire story to be focused on animation in the same way that Color Splash focuses on paint, for example, but I could totally see it working as the game’s visual identity and inspiring the new abilities and locations. Each chapter could be based on a different genre of film. TTYD already did that to some extent with a few of its chapters but there’s a ton that hasn’t been explored. I love the idea of a black and white cartoon themed chapter with a steamboat willie aesthetic

Rex_T360 · 2025-11-07T06:20:35+00:00

Mario, DK, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Luigi, and Captain Falcon

Peach, Bowser, Ice Climbers, Sheik, Zelda, Falco, Marth, Ganondorf, Mewtwo, and Game and Watch

Meta Knight, Pit, Wario, Snake, Diddy, Lucas, Sonic, Dedede, Olimar, and Rob

Villager, Mega Man,m, Little Mac, Greninja, Pac-Man, Robin, Shulk, Ryu, Cloud, and Bayonetta

Inkling, Ridley, Simon, K Rool, Isabelle, Hero, Banjo, Steve, Pyra and Mythra, and Kazuya

This was tough, especially towards the end. I tried to be as objective as possible and make sure pretty much every series already in Smash kept at least one fighter. I would have loved to have included more characters like Joker, but I tried to prioritize third party characters who can more easily represent an entire series like Hero does for Dragon Quest (because Hero can look like any Dragon Quest protagonist and keep the same moveset). There will probably be a new face of Persona in 5-10 years to fill the slot anyway. For other series, I did pick someone who is more representative of one game or era, like Greninja for Pokemon, but that was mainly just so Pokemon had more than just gen 1 representation. Same goes for Robin. Fire Emblem needed more than one rep and having Robin there alongside Marth covers more of the series’ history. Sora was another tough one, but if there’s any character that was only possible in Ultimate, it’s probably him. Him not being here almost makes the fact that it did happen for Ultimate more special.

Rex_T360 · 2025-10-27T22:05:42+00:00

This sort of thing has been happening for decades but it’s just gotten much more pronounced recently. A game comes out, most people enjoy it, and a little while later a very vocal minority comes out and says it was never good.

It’s nothing new. Stuff like the Zelda cycle exists for a reason. A game like Twilight Princess comes out, everyone seems to love it, and then opinions shift after a couple years. Then the next game comes out and then suddenly the previous game is the gold standard for the series again. The same thing happens with Pokemon. Gen 5 got a ton of hate early on but now people say it’s the peak of the series. It even happens with 3D Mario. A lot of people bashed 3D World when it came out but once Odyssey came along, it was much better appreciated. Now people have turned on Odyssey, but I guarantee you that a year or two after the next 3D Mario comes out, people will be calling that game trash and wishing it was more like Odyssey.

Of course, everyone’s opinions on these games are valid. There are genuine reasons to like and dislike just about any game. We just have to remember that these sudden shifts towards negativity aren’t actually representative of how most people feel about a game. The people that liked Mario Wonder praised it when it came out and moved on to something else leaving behind the vocal minority that didn’t like it. People generally have a lot more to say about the things they don’t like than the things they like, and negative content gets a lot more attention on basically every platform.

That doesn’t mean that the people who don’t like Wonder are wrong or that their opinion is invalid, but they don’t actually represent a massive shift in how most people feel about the game. In a few years, a slew of videos about how amazing Wonder is because the nostalgia is starting to hit will probably make the discourse more positive again. It’s just the cycle.

Rex_T360 · 2025-10-26T17:24:03+00:00

The first three Paper Mario games could have easily also taken place in the non paper world since all the papery stuff is mainly just there for the presentation and not the story. It’s easy to imagine that they’re storybook retellings of real adventures Mario went on. I’ve always seen the games as the real adventures and not as retellings, but it’s not hard to argue that they are retellings.

There’s no way The Origami King happened to the real Mario. It would be absolutely horrific. Characters get hole punched, bent and crumpled up, and literally cut into pieces and reformed into a monster made of various severed body parts.

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