As virtually any Zelda fan likely knows, the Champion’s Ballad was the last DLC expansion for the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Featuring the Master Cycle Zero, a new dungeon and various other additions, it certainly went out with a bang, but it also marked the end of the game’s development, with the developers mentioning that future expansions weren’t being planned after that point.
However, it seems like that may now be about to change. Why? Because in a recent investor QA, Nintendo mentioned that said games were ‘hardware drivers’, and that’d they’d be doing everything possible to keep them selling. Here’s the original comment about it from the QA:
Titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Mario Odyssey are what we call “hardware drivers “in that consumers are very often interested in buying these titles when making a new hardware purchase. Titles released already in the previous fiscal years remain capable of driving hardware sales. The key is to figure out what makes these titles appealing, and how we can get consumers to understand that appeal. Going forward, we plan to incorporate add-on content and other factors that will keep these titles in the spotlight, so they will continue to sell alongside the hardware.
As you can see, it clearly mentions ‘add on content’ as a way to keep these titles in a spotlight, albeit alongside other factors. That’s a pretty good hint that Nintendo plans to keep adding DLC right there.
And it’s one that’s backed up pretty well by the recent DLC they’ve already released for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Remember how they integrated Nintendo Labo in the game recently? Or how the Master Cycle Zero, Paraglider and Champion’s Tunic version of Link were added to the game in a recent update?
Yeah, that’s unexpected DLC right there. No one expected new karts and characters to be added to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but they were added anyway.
So the chances of other games getting the same deal are pretty good. Still, what exactly would Nintendo add to these titles? What kind of ‘add-on content’ or ‘other factors’ are they hinting at here?
Well, it’s hard to be sure really. On the one hand, part of us thinks it’s likely said updates would be smaller than full blown expansion packs, since creating whole new dungeons and items for a game like Breath of the Wild or Mario Odyssey would likely take a fair few resources away from the actual sequels that said games are inevitably getting. Because of that, we believe something along the lines of the Salvager Set or the ‘News from the Wild’ channel are the sort of thing Nintendo would release here. Little extras to keep people playing that don’t require too much in the way of resources to develop.
But who knows. Nintendo’s always a company that’s full of surprises, and a massive expansion along the lines of the Champion’s Ballad would certainly rekindle interest in that game or Odyssey. Never say never here, especially after Mario Odyssey, Mario + Rabbids and Team Rainbow Rocket in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
Caption: If this happened, literally anything is on the table where Nintendo is concerned
Still, what do you think is going to happen here?
Could we really see more DLC for games like Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey? What sort of DLC would it be anyway?
Have your say on the matter (and other things besides) here in the comments or on social media sites today!
Ever since the Switch launched, people have wondered when non-gaming apps and services would become available for it. After all, the Wii and Wii U both had Netflix and YouTube on them, and virtually every other Nintendo console from the DSi onwards had a browser of some sort as well.
But the Switch didn’t. In fact, in keeping with its focus on games above all else, the operating system was stripped back to the core, and non-essential apps mostly done away with. No browser, no Miiverse, no messenger like communication system… heck, even the online stuff was turned into a separate app rather than bundled with the console itself.
Which was one of the reasons this service became so despised
However, that may now be slowly changing again. Why? Because just yesterday, the official YouTube app was released for the Switch. Downloadable from the eShop, this app lets users view videos, sign into their accounts and do almost everything else that may want to do on the service right there on their Nintendo system.
And for the most part, it works… decently enough. It’s not perfect by any means and the UI does seem to have a nasty tendency of providing buttons too small to be convenient for the console’s touch screen (when in handheld mode), but it does what it needs to none the less.
So download it if you’re interested. It’s free, and there’s no real reason not to install it at this point anyway.
Earlier today, Nintendo aired a new Nintendo Direct presentation for Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Clocking it at 40 minutes in length or so, this presentation included information on every last member of the roster, plus all manner of modes, extras and side stories available in the title.
And as per usual with these things, we’ve decided to give our thoughts on the whole affair. So here’s the presentation in its entirely in case you missed anything:
As well as our thoughts on the entire thing, in recap form. Sitting back comfortably? Good, it’s time to delve into Super Smash Bros Ultimate’s final presentation, piece by piece… our thoughts on the presentation, or just read a quick recap of everything announced in it.
Starting with the last two playable characters. Yep, as made clearly very shortly into the presentation, this Direct was going to be last time Nintendo announced new fighters for Super Smash Bros Ultimate, at least outside of the DLC.
But there are no surprises in this line up, since the final two fighters were two characters predicted by almost half the internet. Namely, Ken from Street Fighter and Incineroar from Pokémon Sun and Moon:
They’re about what you’d expect really, and in our own opinions, pretty decent choices for newcomers overall. After all, Ken is almost always present alongside Ryu in crossover games, so having him as an echo fighter seems like a logical move.
Meanwhile, despite Incineroar not really being the most popular Pokémon in the world (or heck, one with any previous spin off appearances under that belt), he makes a lot of sense in Super Smash Bros regardless. I mean, he’s a wrestling heel. His whole gimmick and moveset revolves around using wrestling moves with fire themes.
That makes him ideal for a fighting game like this, and makes for a nice contrast to Greninja, another Dark type starter Pokémon introduced in Super Smash Bros for 3DS/Wii U.
Either way, they’re both decent enough characters and both act exactly as you’d expect them to, so let’s move onto something else.
Aka the Spirits mode thing, which is in an interesting beast in of itself. Put simply, it’s what you get if you mix adventure mode (or the Subspace Emissary) into a blender along with classic mode and the trophy collecting from the earlier games.
Or more precisely, it covers two connected modes with the same name. The trophy replacement has you collect characters from throughout Nintendo’s history and use their abilities to power up your fighters in battle. For example, collecting Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey gets you increased throwing power, and Princess Shokora from the Wario Land series gives you the Super Leaf effect in battle. Basically, in that sense it’s kinda like the stickers from Brawl mixed with the upgrades from the last game’s Smash Run mode.
Over the last decade or two, Nintendo hasn’t exactly been willing to loan out their characters to other characters for adaptations. Indeed, after the 80s/90s and the disastrous Super Mario Bros movie, it seems Nintendo’s willingness to allow for adaptations into other media has mostly stopped with Pokémon and the odd animated short, with longer projects on par with the Super Mario Bros Super Show being non-existent.
But things are changing. Not only has Detective Pikachu got a movie in the works, but there’s a Mario movie in development too, with a Nintendo World section at Universal Studios in the pipeline. And now, it seems the Legend of Zelda may well be the next series to get the adaptation treatment.
That’s because Castlevania series producer Adi Shankar is teasing an upcoming project that he’ll be announcing on November 16th. This project is apparently one he’s working on with an iconic Japanese gaming company to adapt one of their iconic franchises into a series, with no more details given beyond that.
However, it seems that series may be the Legend of Zelda. That’s according to The Wrap anyway, whose anonymous sources have supposedly said the series Shankar is adapting is Nintendo’s legendary franchise.
This would line up quite nicely with Shankar’s wording in the original statement, and provide a neat follow up to the (highly acclaimed) Castlevania follow up.
And it’d also likely provide Zelda fans with a decent cartoon too. After all, Castlevania is the best received video game adaptation in history, with both the public and critics loving the serious storylines and fantastic animation of the series. That’s good news for Zelda fans worried about an adaptation, especially given the absolute disasters that were previous attempts at adapting the series in this format (glares at the 80s Zelda cartoon).
Above: Or the CD-I games, which used a similar animation style to the cartoon show
But is it true? How would said series adapt the Legend of Zelda series?
Well to be honest, it’s hard to tell for the first point. Again, The Wrap is going on anonymous sources with this story, and said sources haven’t seemingly talked to other publications about the rumours. Meanwhile, Nintendo’s own response is the usual vague ‘we have no plans to announce at this time’ malarkey, which means they can’t back up or deny the rumour either.
So it’s not really possible to judge the first part. As for the second?
A couple of days ago, we posted about a Super Smash Bros ‘leak’ going around online. Featuring such characters as Banjo-Kazooie, Shadow the Hedgehog and Mach Rider, the leak was based on a ‘promotional image’ posted on Snapchat, and appeared to give away the entire roster for the upcoming game. However, there was no proof either way as to its validity. Oh sure, it looked legitimate enough from a distance, but there was evidence both for and against it found easily online, and the whole thing could just as easily have been a hoax as a legitimate leak. Based on that, we just had no way of knowing the situation. Until now. Because as the title suggests, a new Nintendo Direct for Super Smash Bros Ultimate has been announced for this coming Thursday, and it promises to blow the lid off all manner of Smash Bros Ultimate reveals and inclusions. Here’s the tweet about it from Nintendo of America’s official Twitter account:
As well as similar tweets from their counterparts around the world:
Tune in at 14:00 (UK time) on 01/11 for the last Super #SmashBros Ultimate Direct presentation before the game's launch! It'll last approximately 40 minutes.
As you can see, there’s no denying this is gonna be a big deal. It’s being talked about everywhere, it’s getting a ton of press, and it’s got 40 minutes to fill with Super Smash Bros Ultimate announcements and reveals. That means the likelihood of at least two or more characters being revealed for the game is extremely high, and given the situation (last Direct before launch), even means it’s possible we’ll see every single remaining character announced as well.
And that means it’s judgement day for the ‘grinch leak’. Will Banjo-Kazooie get its protagonists as newcomers? Will Mach Rider make his Smash debut?
If so, then the leak was probably legit, and we can add it to the ‘actual leaks’ list along with the Paper Mario and Pokémon ones of years past. However, if no one like this does get revealed (or worse, they’re revealed as Assist Trophies or background characters), then we consider it dead, and the whole affair a complete waste of time and effort.
It’s all to play for, and it’s this Nintendo Direct that’ll be the deciding factor. Let’s see what Thursday brings!
