Nintendo’s latest video news dump ended with a very big, very inevitable announcement: Yes, Super Smash Bros. is coming to the Switch in some form or another, and it’s currently scheduled to hit Nintendo’s newest console sometime this year. The confirmation came courtesy of a teaser trailer starring the Inklings from Splatoon, characters who’ve yet to appear in the Smash Bros. series and would be making a much deserved debut should they show up in the Switch version. What the trailer didn’t mention was whether this would be an all-new Smash Bros. entry, or an expanded re-release of Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, as Nintendo has already done for Mario Kart 8 and Pokken Tournament.
This Nintendo Direct also brought plenty of other news that everyone pretty much forgot as soon as the Smash Bros. logo appeared on the screen. On the Switch front, the publisher announced a new singleplayer expansion for Splatoon 2’s story mode, which lets you play as an amnesiac Octoling agent, that will be released this summer. That’s also when Capcom’s Ukiyo-e-inspired classic Okami, and the adorable Wii U puzzler Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker will be making the jump to Switch. In April, the system gets the most recent South Park game, The Fractured But Whole, and May 18 sees the launch of the creepy-cute adventure Little Nightmares, as well as the updated re-release of Hyrule Warriors. Later that month, the original Dark Souls comes to the Switch (and other current platforms), alongside an amiibo figure of Solaire, everyone’s favorite sun-worshiping meme knight. And although it didn’t get any sort of release date, Undertale, 2016’s subversive RPG hit, will make its Switch debut at some point. Nintendo also confirmed a handful of release dates for its next exclusives, including Mario Tennis Aces, which is launching June 22, and Square’s promising throwback RPG Octopath Traveler, coming July 13.
And we continued to see the 3DS drawing its last gasps. The most exciting announcement for the handheld was WarioWare Gold, a “new” entry in the brilliant, frenetic series that collects 300 microgames. That’ll be released on August 3. Also revealed for this year was a sequel to the 2012 3DS oddity Dillon’s Rolling Western and a re-release of the original Luigi’s Mansion from the GameCube. And sometime in 2019, which is a very odd thing to be saying about a 3DS game, Nintendo will continue padding the handheld’s final days by dipping into the Mario & Luigi series, with a re-released Bowser’s Inside Story.