As you now know, a new Nintendo Direct is airing tomorrow at 10pm UK time. This Direct will focus on upcoming games for the Switch in the first half of 2023, and have nearly 40 minutes of footage of said games in action.

It’s exciting news, and something that makes us feel we’re going to get a ton of amazing announcements this time around.

But what will those be? What games will actually show up in the Nintendo Direct tomorrow?

Could any unexpected Nintendo franchises see a comeback?

Well, let’s try and work it out, in our February 2023 Nintendo Direct predictions list! Are you ready folks? Let’s do this!

Existing Games

The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom

We’re getting something for this game. It’s too big of a release for Nintendo to put off marketing it any longer, and it feels like this time of year is perfect for a major blow out trailer, similar to the one Breath of the Wild got in 2017’s Nintendo Switch Presentation:

But will we get it in the Direct? Well, there are two possibilities.

Possibility 1 is that we get a major trailer during the presentation, which reveals a ton more about the story, world and gameplay structure in the same sense as the Switch Presentation one did for Breath of the Wild. In our opinion, this is the more likely option. It’d take up 3-4 minutes of the Direct, and (given the thing is 40 minutes long), provide Nintendo a nice big reveal to open or close the entire thing.

But while that’s the most likely setup, it’s not the only possibility. No, possibility 2 is that we’ll get a short trailer here, with talk of a big Tears of the Kingdom specific Direct further down the line, maybe in March or something. And that could happen, especially if Nintendo had some interesting mechanics they wanted to explore in depth, or some other things they wanted to explain about the game that couldn’t fit into a normal Direct format.

So it could go either way here.

Regardless, we’re gonna see something Tears of the Kingdom related, and it’s going to be one of the big focus points for the presentation overall.

Pikmin 4

Similarly, it seems likely that Pikmin 4 will make an appearance here as well. After all, we’ve only seen the following teaser for the game so far, and that doesn’t say anything about how the game’s mechanics work or how the story plays out:

So again, it seems almost inevitable that Nintendo’s going to reveal more of the game here, especially given it’s likely due to be released in May this year.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass

This DLC is another shoe in too. Remember, we’re getting three waves of DLC for the game this year, just like we did back in 2022.

And if last year is any indication, it seems highly likely that wave 4 will be released in early Spring too, with the most probable release being March 2023. Hence a new trailer for this DLC makes perfect sense here, especially if it reveals the first two or three tracks and promises a trailer for the other 5-6 later in the month.

Kirby Return to Dream Land Deluxe

Similarly, this Kirby remake is another obvious inclusion here. Due to be released on February 24th this year (yes, just over two weeks away from the Direct’s date), the game is almost certainly going to be included in the Direct too, with a new trailer focused on the Magolor specific epilogue that has seemingly been leaked online.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp

And that brings us to Advance Wars. Aka the game that got screwed over by world events, due to Nintendo thinking a cartoony game about war would be in poor taste after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But with the game only delayed rather than axed, and retailer information indicating its coming out soon, it’s pretty likely it’ll appear in the new Nintendo Direct too. After all, it’s gotta get a release date at some point, right?

Metroid Prime 4

Sadly, that’s not true of the next game on the list. Why? Since as much as we’d like to hope otherwise, Metroid Prime 4 probably isn’t going to be getting a release date (or other major trailer) in the Direct tomorrow.

But, we do believe there’s a possibility we’ll see something here nonetheless. This could be either a small teaser to show that the game’s actually in development and exists in some form, or a statement saying it’s ‘in development and we’ll provide more details soon’. Either possibility would at least be something, right?

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope DLC

Finally, there’s a high chance we’ll see something of the Mario + Rabbids DLC at the Direct too. That’s because the game’s DLC packs have already been announced, with the first 1 or 2 being due out in the first half of the year. As a result, it feels incredibly likely that Ubisoft will want to show these off in the Direct, along with any other Mario + Rabbids related info they might have in store.

So those are the existing games and DLC we see being included here. But it’s not just those that’ll likely be present in tomorrow’s Direct…

Possible New Games

Since any good Direct needs at least a couple of new reveals and announcements too. And based on the rumours going around, there are quite a few good options to be had here too…

A New Mario Baseball Game

With the first being a new title in the Mario Baseball series. That’s because every other Mario sports game of note has already been released on the Switch by now, and various insiders are already hinting at this one being in development as well.

So a new Mario Baseball title in the vein of Mario Superstar Baseball or Mario Super Sluggers seems like an obvious inclusion here. Let’s just hope its roster and stadium design lives up to the original ones in terms of variety though!

Kid Icarus Uprising Switch

We also believe there’s a decent chance we’ll get a remake or remaster of Kid Icarus Uprising for Switch too. Like with Mario Baseball, that too has been mentioned by insiders online, and even supported by Sakurai in a video on his YouTube channel too.

So it could certainly happen, especially if Nintendo also feels like the original was let down by the control scheme limitations imposed by the original 3DS hardware.

A New 2D Mario Platformer

Another game that often comes up online, and one we believe could appear in this Direct is a 2D Mario platformer of some sort. This would make a great tie in for the upcoming Mario movie, especially if the team behind Mario Odyssey is working on a 3D title for later in the year instead.

Mario & Luigi Returns

There’s also the possibility of a new Mario & Luigi game appearing too. Yeah, we know what you’re gonna say here. AlphaDream went bankrupt and the series is dead.

But we don’t believe that that’s necessarily true. Oh sure, AlphaDream is gone. That’s an undeniable fact.

Yet that doesn’t mean the series itself is, especially if Nintendo believes the choice of console was a bigger factor in the later games’ failures than the quality or appeal of the series in general. Hence there’s the possibility one last new game is in development for Switch, and that the company will probably judge the fate of the series based on said titles’ performance. This would provide another B tier game for the Direct tomorrow.

Wario Land Switch

Okay, we’ve said this one for years now. We’ve clamoured for it on 3DS, Wii U and Switch non stop since 2011, and have always held out hope that this time, it’d show up in a Direct.

But we believe this could be its lucky year, and (with games like Pizza Tower and AntonBlast getting lots of hype online), could be the time Nintendo decides to give Wario’s platforming adventures another shot. If so, it’d be Direct material for sure!

So those are the new game predictions we have. Nothing too crazy (since rumour has it that major stuff is being saved for a Switch successor in 2024 instead), but there are a decent amount of neat spinoffs and new installments nonetheless.

However, what do you think? Which of these possible games do you feel are gonna show up in the Nintendo Direct tomorrow? Are there any other obvious choices we should have included on the list here?

Leave your thoughts on the matter in the comments below, on social media, or on our Discord server today!