USUAL DISCLAIMER: Rumor posts are for discussion and should not be interpreted as confirmed news.
A rumor was posted recently which included Nintendo’s major reveals at this year’s E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), held June 12th-14th in Los Angeles, but we held off about posting it because there was no reason to believe it – until earlier today when details for the Nintendo Switch’s online services were revealed. Because those details have been announced, we’re going ahead and posting the rumor here! Be warned: just because it was right about one thing doesn’t mean you should put absolute faith in the rest of it. As always, we recommend taking it with a grain or three of salt!
There are two “versions” of this information essentially, one which was posted to 4chan (archive) and one which was posted to GameFAQs. We’ll be covering the 4chan post since it appears that the latter thread used information from it.
- “First up, Nintendo Switch Online. This one was what he was mainly stressed over, as a lot of the plans have changed for it. Current date for info dump is May 7th. With it comes pricing (even though that’s publicly available), info about the service and a release date on September 24th. For the price you get dedicated voice chat on the console through a partnership Nintendo is currently finalizing with several candidates (Discord is the big one), exclusive discounts on eShop stuff (having a My Nintendo account also adds additional discounts in some areas), online play of course and the Virtual Console stuff, which has also been changed so now like Playstation Plus and such, you get access to a select amount of games per month and you keep them as long as your membership is renewed.
- Speaking of Virtual Console: General idea behind that has been changed around too. New branding is “Nintendo Classics”, and thanks to some new software Nintendo can start pumping these out way more often, and at a way cheaper cost. If your highest NES game cost like $6 on the Wii U for example, expect that cost to be around the $2.50 range now. They expect these to start coming out in August, with NES and GB being available at the start, and then SNES and 64 stuff being added by the end of 2018/early 2019. Gamecube/Wii is still up in the air.
- Speaking of Mario, Odyssey DLC. Saw the rough version of this and here’s a description: Trailer plays out a lot like the E3 2017 trailer, where it begins with a T-Rex roaring until the change comes with the Luigi hat replacing Mario’s. Camera makes notice of this too, and zooms in while a confused music cue plays. Luigi bursts out and lands in the white space area that he was in the Balloon World trailer. The surprise then comes when things go dark, and a spotlight appears on Wario and Waluigi. That’s the big reveal I guess, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi will all be playable in Odyssey through paid DLC. It’s announced though that Luigi is gonna be available right after the presentation, with Wario and Waluigi being playable at E3. Each adds about 70 new moons to the game that are exclusive to those characters.
- Third-Party time. Activision comes on and announces some stuff. There will be a Crash Bandicoot amiibo that adds some new extra hard time trials to the game, and that will be releasing in the Summer. Next, Spyro is coming to the Switch too. Releasing in October. They tease compatibility with the Crash amiibo (but I just get really bad Crash Purple/Spyro Orange flashbacks from hearing that) Finally, Black Ops 4 Battle Royale is coming to the Switch in November, and it’ll have cross-platform play with the PC and Xbox versions. No base Black Ops, unfortunately. However, remember Activision for later. Because it’s ridci [sic]
- Sega. They’re unveiling the Sega Ages line officially in the US at E3, and also announce Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are releasing on the Switch in the Summer. Finally, Super Sonic Racing is coming to the Switch in the Holiday season. Saw some gameplay of this, and it seems as if it’s more Sonic R esque then Racing Transformed thanks to some characters being out of their cars. There’s apparently a tease of a Nintendo crossover for that one too.
- Metroid Prime 4 trailer. Shows off some gameplay, and there’s a Ridley tease. 2019.
- Pokemon. Holiday 2018, shows off the graphics with the game taking on a more realistic art style though with a lot of that Pokemon style in there (reminds me a bit of a watered down Pokken).
- Five Nights at Freddy’s is coming to the Switch. Don’t know a lot about the game but I guess this is a big deal for some people? Either way it’s coming out in the Fall.
- Reggie comes back in for a last thing. Talks some stuff about what you saw today and then leads into the big one.
- Super Smash Bros for Nintendo Switch. Yes, that is the name. Saw this trailer too. Graphics mix the art styles of Wii U and Melee it seems, with a lot of colors but still has some highly realistic details like cloth details and such. From my experience with 3D it seems as if they’re using PBR mats, which look really nice. Characters include Mario, Inklings, BOTW Link, Kirby, Pikachu, Bowser, Zelda (also BOTW), Ness, Fox, Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong (remember him) and three newcomers. One is revealed similar to how Villager was. Trailer starts out with Captain Toad quickly solving a level and getting the star, and then it starts to transition out, but then Toad gets caught off guard by something. It transitions back into it, and then the camera swings round to show the Sun being replaced by the Flaming Smash Bros logo. To kinda show how this plays out, I made a really shitty thing in Blender to kinda show it looks, so ignore the quality of it.
- Second newcomer isss Crash. Uses his N-Sane Trilogy design. Trailer reveals him like this: Bit of CG showing off a sort of Donkey Kong jungle stage where Donkey Kong and Mario are fighting. Mario punches DK hard and the blow knocks him into a tree. It rustles the leaves, a Wumpa fruit lands in Donkey Kong’s lap, and then Crash bursts out the shadows to fight him for it. Gameplay shown is pretty standard afair. Until its revealed that Activision really musta sucked Nintendo’s cock hard because Spyro is playable too. Then you get the logo, and the release date which is September to coincide with the Switch Online.
- As well as these, Ice Climbers are being revealed at some point too. It’s either during the Treehouse Live gameplay or the tournament. My money’s on tournament though.”
While the entire rumor is pretty interesting (and rather safe), I’ve highlighted the bit about Pokémon! The GameFAQs rumor mentions it as being a “new take” on the original Pokémon Red & Blue as well. This lines up with several other rumors and supposed “leaked” information we’ve heard from multiple sources, although the description of the graphics is intriguing. That being said, there are some notable, detailed discrepancies between the original post and the info we got about Nintendo Switch Online. Not to mention by the time of the original posting we knew of the general “early May” timeframe for the Online service info dump – so accurately predicting May 7th may have just been pure luck.
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see if this actually comes true next month! What do you think? Fake or nah?