What to expect (and hope for) from this week’s Nintendo Direct

There’s a Nintendo Direct presentation airing tomorrow, March 8, which is understandably a huge deal. Not only is the stream going to focus on upcoming Nintendo Switch and 3DS games, but it’s also expected to run 30 minutes — making it the first full-length Nintendo Direct of 2018.

Nintendo has only mentioned one title that will be among the highlights tomorrow: Mario Tennis Aces. The plumber’s return to the tennis courts launches this spring. But there are several other marquee names from the company that we haven’t heard about in some time; below, we list out the ones we hope to get updates on during the Nintendo Direct.

Follow along for our predictions of what’s to come from March’s Nintendo Direct.

Definitely

Nintendo

A Mario Tennis Aces release date

I’m an on-the-record Mario Tennis lover, albeit only the Nintendo 64 version. I’m curious about Mario Tennis Aces, however, because Nintendo revealed in January that the game will have a story mode. Yes, I’m very excited about a tennis-themed story mode.

Highly likely

Fire Emblem for Switch

Nintendo has been quiet about the full-fledged Fire Emblem role-playing game that’s due for Switch since its reveal last January. Now that Fire Emblem Warriors is out, it’s time to move onto the real deal, please and thank you; we’re dying for any information about Fire Emblem’s return to a home console (well, hybrid, anyway). It’s supposed to be out this year, so ...

Yoshi’s Switch debut

Yoshi is set to headline another adorable game of his, and it’s expected to arrive some time this year. Nintendo briefly showed some footage during last year’s E3 presentation, but we’d appreciate more from Yoshi. It’s time.

A final tease of Detective Pikachu

Detective Pikachu is perhaps the first big Nintendo 3DS game of the year. And it’s finally out in two weeks, launching March 23. The Japanese eShop is expected to receive a demo of the bizarro Pokémon adventure game ahead of launch, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see a similar thing drop here in the West tomorrow.

Samit Sarkar/Polygon

Don’t forget Nintendo Labo

This isn’t to suggest that we’d ever be able to forget Nintendo Labo, of course. We’re pumped for the Switch’s cardboard activity platform, and since it’s out in April, it’s a good time for Nintendo to tease out some of the other cool things it can do. We played with Labo last month and got to see what it’s capable of in action, but we’d be happy to see as much more as possible.

A launch date for Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition ...

Remember when Nintendo announced this enhanced Switch port during January’s Nintendo Direct Mini? That was a thing that happened. Now would be a good time to give us an update on when Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition will actually be available.

... and The World Ends With You Final Remix too

A Nintendo Switch version of this fan-favorite Square Enix role-playing game was one of the January Nintendo Direct Mini’s most surprising announcements. Nintendo and Square Enix have stayed mum on when we’ll be able to pick up this Final Remix, so it would be nice to find out its launch date.

Maybe

Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

More Super Mario Odyssey DLC

Dataminers recently found several unreleased costumes for Super Mario Odyssey within the game’s files. Although Nintendo only recently put out a free update for the game, but we’d be neither surprised nor upset to see some new costumes for Mario during the Nintendo Direct.

Shin Megami Tensei gets a longer look

Back in October, Atlus revealed that its Shin Megami Tensei game for Switch is the next mainline entry in the role-playing game series. A franchise-appropriate, mysterious teaser accompanied that announcement, but we have yet to get any context or information since. We’d be down to hear or see more from Shin Megami Tensei 5 tomorrow.

Longshots

A first look at Pokémon for Switch?

We know a Pokémon RPG is coming to Nintendo Switch, but that’s it. It seems unlikely that Nintendo would throw in a gameplay reveal or literally any info at all into a broad Nintendo Direct as opposed to a Pokémon-specific one. But I would never complain about seeing some more Pokémon-related anything, obviously.

The return of Super Smash Bros.?

I mean, it’s going to happen at some point. Is 2018 the time for our favorite crossover fighting franchise to come back? Who knows. But we can always dream.

Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 3 and Blizzard’s return to a Nintendo platform

There were rumors last week that Diablo 3 is coming to Nintendo Switch — rumors that Blizzard Entertainment set off itself. The developer told Polygon that it has “nothing to announce at this time” regarding a Diablo 3 port, and Eurogamer reported that an announcement could be months away. But neither Nintendo nor Blizzard are that predictable, so maybe we’ll see Diablo 3 tomorrow.

Animal Crossing, please

I got back into Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on mobile recently. It’s ... fine, and a passable salve for the Animal Crossing pain in my heart. But Pocket Camp just isn’t a true Animal Crossing game; it’s but a painful reminder that we still don’t have one on Switch. I’m not saying this has any chance of showing up tomorrow (again, I’d expect Nintendo to give the series its own themed Direct for this kind of announcement), but oh god, please, Nintendo, give us Animal Crossing on Switch.