Nintendo Direct + “Mario Kart World 🌏🏎️” and “Donkey Kong Bananza 🍌”

(This is a wallpaper showing the Nintendo Switch 2 and the logo for the Nintendo Switch 2.)

Normally, I wouldn’t write about things like this (I used to back on DeviantART with the Apple Events where Apple unveils their new products, but not anymore), but there was enough interesting stuff announced at today’s Nintendo Direct that I’m willing to write about it, and dedicate an entire post to it instead of just relegating it to the foreword of a repost. I need another video game related post after the post I wrote about my ideas for a Lucy Loud video game back in January. Which was actually my first post for January and for 2025 as a whole BTW. Or yesterday, depending on when this actually comes out. Today is Wednesday April 2, 2025, and tomorrow is Thursday April 3, 2025. But, I probably won’t be able to write anything tomorrow because I’ll be busy in Albuquerque going with my grandma to take my dad to his doctor appointment. So, I’ll have to write today, and then write as much as I can, and then continue writing the day after tomorrow just in case this ends up being super long and I can’t finish it in a day. 

 

Another thing I normally don’t do is write a new post immediately after writing one before. I just posted my Venom: The Last Dance review yesterday (Tuesday April 1, 2025), it took me longer to finish it than I thought it would. You can go read it if you want by clicking the link, the more eyes 👀 on it, the better. Usually what I like to do after I blog post, especially a long one that takes more than one day to complete, is take a break for a day or two, having fun, watching YouTube videos or playing the mobile games on my phone 📱. 

 

Then, when my batteries 🔋 are sufficiently recharged, then I’ll write another post, or repost something from my DeviantART and write a foreword for it if I feel like it that particular day or week. I’m usually in the mood for writing, there’s something that I want to write about, something new that grabs my attention and I have jot down on a piece of paper 📄. I know that I’m what I’m writing on now is not a piece of paper 📄, but you know what I mean, I have no other way to articulate that point in a way that makes sense to you, and you could always print these out and then they’d actually be on paper 📄. 

 

The only time I’m not in the mood to write is when I’m in Albuquerque doing something, or the day after posting a really long post that took me days to write, or when I’m sick 🤧. That’s why I didn’t write for that entire week that St. Patrick’s Day ☘️ landed on last month, I got sick 🤧 and I didn’t have the energy or drive to write. When you’re really sick 🤧, you’re not in the mood to do much of anything, all you want to do is just sit around, watch TV, watch YouTube videos, sleep 😴, do some really passive things until you get better. My entire schedule for March was completely thrown off by that cold 🦠 that I got, I wasn’t able to get my Venom: The Last Dance review out by the end of March, it ended up being posted the first day of April, and I didn’t get a chance at all to write my Man of Steel review. 

 

My repost of my French Dispatch 🇫🇷/Moonfall 🌕 review was supposed to be my first post for April, or my repost of my Godzilla vs. Kong review would’ve been my first post for April. Either way, my sickness 🤧 completely ruined my plans and I had to improvise and change my plans to fit the current situation. But, other than that, I’m usually in a mood to write, and I like to be fairly consistent with my posts even if I am only doing this as a hobby and not as a job. For now at least. I even like to see how many posts I can post in a single month, I like to top myself in terms of how many posts I can put out each month. I’m always a little bit disappointed in myself if I only manage to post only 3 or 4 posts in any given month. But, if it’s 6 or more posts in any given month, then it’s an accomplishment. 

But, I made an exception with this post because I do have things to say about things that were announced in today’s Nintendo Direct, that it can’t wait a day or two. I have to write about it now. So, let’s talk about it. Now, I didn’t watch the entire Nintendo Direct, I didn’t watch it while it was live and I didn’t it even after it was all done. I didn’t want to watch that whole hour long livestream. I just watched the videos they put out after the livestream, all of the trailers and overview videos. But, the comments of each of those videos are filled with people who did see the whole livestream and watched it while it was livestream. Apparently there was some kind of technical error during the livestream, like the whole thing froze 🥶 for a certain period of time and the technicians running the livestreams had to come in and fix it. I don’t know how long the freeze 🥶 lasted because none of comments I saw said, but each and every one of the trailers and overview videos that Nintendo of America 🇺🇸 released after the livestream has at least one comment mentioning the freeze 🥶, and usually it’s in the top comments. 

 

 

 

(This is the logo for the Nintendo Switch 2.) 

The main topic of today’s Nintendo Direct, the main star of the show was the Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo’s upcoming console and successor to the Nintendo Switch. They already announced it back in January when they put out a trailer, but this time, they gave a more detailed overview of the console to show us what features it has and how different exactly it is from the original Nintendo Switch. Which I guess we can now call the Nintendo Switch 1. It figures, just when I finally got my own Switch, they come out with the Switch 2, which is bigger and better than the Switch 1. I didn’t even think the Switch 2 was real until they actually announced. I thought it was just some rumor that got out of hand, and these Nintendo fans fell for it, and I thought that it would be too plain and pedestrian for Nintendo to just release a new version of the Switch. Surely, they’d have something more creative than that. 

 

But, I was wrong, the Nintendo Switch 2 is real, and it’s coming out pretty soon, in June. I’ve heard somewhere (in a YouTube video) that it’s going to Nintendo’s last console ever, like they’re going to leave the console making business after this. I don’t really believe that, I think Nintendo will still continue making consoles, and they’ll just do what Sony and Microsoft are doing by just releasing new iterations of the same console that was already a proven success every decade or so. I haven’t even gotten all of the games that I wanted on the Switch yet. At least, the Switch 2 seems to be backwards compatible with at least most games on the Switch 1. But I am still going to keep my Switch 1 just in case one of my games isn’t compatible with the Switch 2. 

 

I don’t even know if I’ll even be able to get a Switch 2 anytime soon. Because I just barely got a PS5 and I haven’t even started playing it yet because I don’t have a 4K TV, and I intend on mostly using it as 4K player. It’d be way too soon to get a Switch 2, it’s just not in my family’s budget. Maybe in my aunt’s budget, but I don’t want her spend however much this console ends up costing, especially she and her fiancé spent so much money 💵 getting my Switch 1. There are more important things to spend that kind of money 💵 than a new console. Like a new desktop 🖥️ and a new laptop 💻, I’m desperate need of those, especially a desktop 🖥️. Plus, they already said they were going to get me a 4K TV for my PS5, that’s more than enough. 

 

Maybe later down the line when the console drops in price (if it drops in price), or they release a new version that’s a different color besides black or has an OLED screen, I’ll get one. But, for the time being, I would say, probably not. I’ll have to just settle with my Switch 1 and PS5 for now. But, since there’s a Switch 2 now and the Switch 1 will probably be phased out entirely pretty soon, at least this will mean that all the games that were on the Switch 1 will drop in price (hopefully) and will be sold at more affordable prices as all retailers try to get rid of all the Switch 1 stock. 

 

I say hopefully because what’s going on with inflation and all those tariffs that Trump keeps implementing and then pausing (he just announced more tariffs today, and it doesn’t seem like he’ll pause these ones, but who knows?), I don’t actually know if any of the games that were originally released on Switch 1 will drop in price and become more affordable for people like me. But I hope they do, because that’s usually what happens when a console is phased out and a new console takes its place, right? 

 

 

 

(This is a wallpaper image for Mario Kart World 🌏🏎️.) 

But, besides the Nintendo Switch 2, they also announced a bunch of new video games at today’s Nintendo Direct, all of which are going to be released on the Switch 2, and probably be Switch 2 exclusives; meaning they will not be released for the Switch 1. Though I’m a couple of them will be. I mean, when the PS5 first came out, they still released some games on the PS4 simultaneously as they were released with the PS5. There was a sports game called Drag x Drive where you play basketball 🏀 as these wheelchair bound characters which are either robots or humans wearing futuristic suits with helmets🦽. 

 

There was a Legend of Zelda game called Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, which is a prequel of sorts to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the latest Legend of Zelda game that came out last year, and you play as Zelda as she travels back in time to face off against Ganon during a conflict called the Imprisoning War. It’s actually apart of an already existing series, the first Hyrule Warriors game came out in 2014, and the second one, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity came out in 2020, and they are hack and slash games as oppose to open world action-adventure games like the main series Legend of Zelda games are. So I guess, Legend of Zelda fans, you’ll have something to chew on until the next mainline Legend of Zelda game comes out. They’re also porting The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom onto the Switch 2, so I guess those could tide you over too. 

There was a vampire game 🧛‍♂️ called The Duskbloods 🩸 which was made by the same people as Bloodborne 🩸 (many people in the comments underneath the trailer joked about how this is the closest thing to a Bloodborne 2 🩸 that they’re ever going to get) and won’t come out until next year, in 2026, and a new Kirby game called Kirby Air Riders, which is actually a sequel to a Kirby game from the early 2000s (released on the Nintendo GameCube) called Kirby Air Ride. All of the comments in the comment section beneath the trailer for Kirby Air Riders were talking about how the original director of the first game, Masahiro Sakurai came back to direct this one. 

 

Apparently, he had a YouTube channel that he recently ended a few years ago and everyone suspected that it was because he went onto to go work on this game. Well, their suspicions were correct, there were rewarded this day for their dedication and support for Kirby Air Ride and Sakurai. But, the two new games that they at today’s Nintendo Direct and released trailers for that I really want to focus on is Mario Kart World 🌏 🏎️ and Donkey Kong Bananza 🍌 because they’re two games that are apart of franchises that I’m actually familiar with and have any confidence in talking about in an educated way, and I have no stake in those other ones I mentioned. 

 

I’m not Kirby fan, nor am I a Legend of Zelda fan, and Drag x Drive and Duskbloods 🩸 are two new IPs and are therefore unproven. There’s no connection or history there like there is with Mario Kart 🏎️, Donkey Kong, and Legend of Zelda (or Hyrule Warriors to be more precise). All we have to go off about them is the trailers. Which you could also say about Mario Kart World 🏎️🌏, Donkey Kong Bananza 🍌, Kirby Air Riders, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, but more so for Drag x Drive and Duskbloods 🩸. 

I’ll start with Mario Kart World 🏎️🌏, probably the biggest and most highly anticipated upcoming title of this bunch. The launch title that everyone is looking forward to. I actually wrote a post last year where I talked at length about there being a new Mario Kart 🏎️ game. Specifically, I was pondering whether or not it’d be a good idea to include a story mode in a Mario Kart 🏎️ game, and I was making the case that there be should be a story mode in the next Mario Kart 🏎️ game, whatever it’s called. 

 

I even speculated about what it would actually be called because there hasn’t been a mainline Mario Kart 🏎️ game since Mario Kart 8 🏎️ on the Wii U. The Switch 1 didn’t even have a new Mario Kart 🏎️ title, it just had a port of Mario Kart 8 🏎️ called Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 🏎️ (which is the one that I own), which to be fair did become the best selling Mario Kart 🏎️ of all time and one of the best selling games on the Switch 1. So, there was a lot of anticipation for the next new installment of this beloved series, a spinoff series that became an institution in and of itself. 

Well, this new game is not Mario Kart 9 🏎️ or Mario Kart 10 🏎️ (not even with an X), it’s Mario Kart World 🏎️🌏. But, for all intents and purposes, it is essentially Mario Kart 9 🏎️ since it is the ninth installment of the main Mario Kart 🏎️ series, not a small time spinoff game. The reason why they called it Mario Kart World 🏎️🌏 and not Mario Kart 9 🏎️ or even Mario Kart 10 🏎️ (Mario Kart X 🏎️) is that it is very a different game from the other Mario Karts 🏎️. You see, they took Mario Kart 🏎️, they took the Mario Kart 🏎️ formula, and turned it into an open world game. So no story mode still, but it is an open world game now. 

 

The whole game takes place in what looks like a supercontinent (it looks like it’s all one single landmass, no other continents are present in this game’s world), and you basically race in the tracks in each of these different regions and cities. The overview trailer made a big point about how you could drive off the racing track and explore the world. There is no set path like there is in the other Mario Kart 🏎️ games. You don’t even have to race at all, you can just drive around and explore. It’s definitely a unique concept for a Mario Kart 🏎️ game and it definitely sets it apart from the other installments in the series. 

 

It looks awesome, it looks like it’s going to be good. The music, going by what we hear in the trailer, is on point. It looks massive too, like it looks like the biggest Mario Kart 🏎️ game ever. You can tell that they spent a lot of money 💵 on this, this was probably one of, if not, the most expensive Mario Kart 🏎️ game of all time. It is a true AAA title in every sense of the term. Which probably explains why it costs so much. The game is going to be sold for around $80 💵 or $90 💵 at launch, which is just insane 😱 😵. The price is the one thing everyone unanimously has an issue with. I saw at least five comments that were about the $80 💵 price tag 🏷️ that I screenshotted so that I could show them here in this post.

 

 

 

 

 

 (These are screenshots of those comments that I was talking about.) 

 

 

 

They’re pricing so many people out by selling it at that price. The Switch 2 will already be expensive enough, no need to add the actual games onto that expense. Even if I did own a Switch 2, I probably wouldn’t be able to afford this game because it’s so expensive. I’d have to wait a long until it drops in price for me to even consider buying it. Like $80 💵? That’s like the same amount that it would take to afford to go to eat at seafood night 🦀 at the buffets at any of the casinos. The only way I’d be able to get this game is if my aunt bought for me, either as a gift 🎁 for my birthday 🥳, or on Christmas 🎄, or just cuz 🤷‍♂️. Gaming is becoming a rich person’s hobby once again, in fact, it already kind of is.

 

 

 

(This is wallpaper image of Donkey Kong Bananza 🍌.) 

The next game that was announced at today’s Nintendo Direct that I want to talk about is Donkey Kong Bananza 🍌, the first new installment of the Donkey Kong series since Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze 🌴🥶 (which I still haven’t played) and a launch title for the Switch 2. There hasn’t been a Donkey Kong game in years, unless you count Mario vs. Donkey Kong, which I don’t since that’s a crossover game between Mario and Donkey Kong, and it’s not even a new game. It’s a remake of an older game from 2004 that was previously released on the GameBoy Advance. So, this is the first new Donkey Kong game in years. There isn’t a ton to go off in this trailer about the plot because this is the first trailer, there is no overview narration at all. So, this is just a basic first look, a small little taste of what’s to come before they come out with more trailers that explain more about the gameplay and the plot and really show what the game is actually going to be like. 

It looks like it takes place around a mountain ⛰️, there’s a mine ⛏️, and all these monkeys 🐒 and apes 🦍 are being enslaved and forced to work in this mine ⛏️, including Donkey Kong, and Donkey Kong has to escape and save the day from whatever villain is causing all this. He also has a little rock companion, this purple crystal thing with eyes and little tiny feet, that accompanies him throughout the entire game. It’s a fully 3D game with platforming levels and the camera positioned behind the character most of the time (that immediately sets it apart from the other Donkey Kong games), as well as action-adventure beat ‘em up elements, Donkey Kong punches a lot of things in this game it looks like. His fists 👊 are his main weapon. And the environment is fully destructible, you can pretty break everything that you see to your heart ❤️’s desire. 

 

It looks really cool, this is a game that I would like to play, hopefully after I play Tropical Freeze 🌴🥶. It kind of reminds me a lot of Super Mario Odyssey, like it looks like Donkey Kong’s Super Mario Odyssey. I’m surprised no one made the jokes of calling it Donkey Kong Odyssey. Instead, they made jokes about how it looks like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, even though it looks way more Super Mario Odyssey than either of those two games. Speaking of the comments, there was one comment that I saw that said that it was ballsy for Nintendo to release a Donkey Kong game and have that be the big launch title for the Switch 2 instead of a Super Mario game like they usually do, and I really do agree. 

 

 

 

(These are screenshots of the two comments that stood out to me the most in the comment section underneath the trailer for Donkey Kong Bananza 🍌.) 

 

 

 

This is Donkey Kong’s time in the Sun ☀️ after Mario has had all the spotlight all these years in each new console generation. And I actually think people will accept it this time that a Mario game isn’t the main launch title for Nintendo’s latest console, unlike when the GameCube came out and Luigi’s Mansion was the launch title instead of a Mario game. The next main Super Mario game, Super Mario Sunshine ☀️ didn’t come out until a year after the GameCube was officially launched. But, people have (mostly) matured, and are more willing to accept new things, new ways of doing things that aren’t like how they were done before, and this new Donkey Kong game being the launch title for the Switch 2 is a welcome change. 

 

 

 

(This is a wallpaper image for Super Mario Party Jamboree.) 

They also announced a port of Super Mario Party Jamboree for the Switch 2 called Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV. I guess it’s a good thing that I didn’t buy this on the Switch 1 because they’re re-releasing it on the Switch 2 with all-new features, most of which I don’t really care about or care for. The game hasn’t even been out for a full year, and now they’re releasing a new port of it for the Switch 2? Way to make the Switch 1 players who bought it when it originally came out feel like total suckers. I feel like they should’ve just waited to release this on the Switch 2 fully, instead of releasing on the Switch 1 and then releasing a brand new port of it for the Switch 2 10 months later. It’s seems like a waste to me, but what do I know? I’m not a Nintendo executive nor am I on the Nintendo marketing and distribution team. 

I saw a lot of comment mocking some of the new features that they added to the game for the Switch 2 version like the camera accessory and sound recognition, but mostly the camera feature, saying that it’ll probably get disabled by Nintendo themselves because of people abusing it and being inappropriate with it. Which yeah, that’ll probably happen. Gamers can’t control themselves and be decent human beings for once. There’s always that one bad apple 🍎 (or a few bad apples 🍎) that ruins it for everybody. This is why we can’t have nice things. 

 

 

 

 

 

(These are screenshots of comments from the comment section of the overview trailer for Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV.) 

But, even then, without any of that potential toxicity, I still wouldn’t want to use any of those new features that they showed in that trailer. Like, why would want to see people’s faces in the game while I’m playing it? It seems like that would just be a huge distraction if anything else. I want to be immersed in the world of the game itself, and I feel like that would just take me out of it. It’s the same reason why I don’t play as my Mii whenever I play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 🏎️. So, if I did get this game (assuming that I have a Switch 2 by then), I just play the regular game, I bother any of those features, like the camera feature or the sound recognition or any of those gimmicky motion control modes that they have like Bowser Live which has a section where you control an RC car with your voice, or Carnival Coaster where you control this roller coaster 🎢 type thing with your mouse. Like the JoyCons on the Switch 2 called JoyCon 2 can be used as a mouse like on a computer and a few of the games showcased at Nintendo Direct use that feature (including this one). But, like with many things involving the Switch 2, I’d probably have to wait until it drop in price before I could actually get it, if I even have a Switch 2 to play it on, which there’s no guarantee of that. 

 

 

 

 

(This is the logo for the Nintendo GameCube.)

The last thing that I want to talk about here is that they’re releasing a bunch of Nintendo GameCube games for the Nintendo Classics collection on Nintendo Switch Online, that paid subscription service for Switch players. They didn’t announce a lot of games for the collection, the only ones they’ve announced so far are The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Soulcalibur II, and F-Zero GX. Three games that I’ve either never played or never even heard of in the case of F-Zero GX. I am was vaguely aware of the F-Zero series since they referenced it in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 🏎️ (I don’t know about the original Mario Kart 8 🏎️ on Wii U), but I wasn’t aware of this specific entry. It looks like has a couple Star Fox 🦊 characters in it if I’m not mistaken. It actually looks pretty cool, I wouldn’t mind playing this game if I actually had a Nintendo Switch Online account. But, they did say that more titles will be announced in the future. They showed the covers for Super Mario Sunshine ☀️, Super Mario Strikers, Chibi-Robo! Plug Into Adventure 🔌, and Luigi’s Mansion, as well as Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance 🔥 and a few Pokémon games, so I’m assuming that they’re going to be added to the collection. 

 

I’d really like to play Super Mario Sunshine ☀️, I haven’t played that game myself (I just watched my cousin), and I didn’t get the chance to play it when it was released on the Super Mario 3D All-Stars collection on the Switch 1, since that collection was only for a limited time. Here’s hoping they also add Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem and Geist to the collection as well, I haven’t played either of those games, and it’d be real treat to finally play them. It’d be nice for Nintendo to finally acknowledge those games’ existence, especially Eternal Darkness, since they seem determined to hold onto the rights to that game (or at least the Sanity Effects), and yet are doing nothing with that IP. But, since I don’t have Nintendo Switch Online account and don’t have the money 💵 to afford pay for one every month, none of this matters anyway. I won’t get to play them either way 🤷‍♂️. 

 

 

(These are the cover arts for Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem and Geist.) 

 

 

 

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(This is the overview trailer for the Nintendo Switch 2.)

 

 

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(This is the overview trailer for Mario Kart World 🌏🏎️.)

 

 

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(This is the first trailer for Donkey Kong Bananza 🍌.) 

 

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(This is the overview trailer for Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV.) 

 

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(This is the announcement trailer for the Nintendo GameCube library on the Nintendo Classics collection.)