 Well, folks, this morning we need to talk about a rumor or a batch of rumors coming out that specifically pertain primarily to Nintendo Switch 2 and deal with Nintendo first party games. We're talking about new potential details. Again, this is a rumor about the next 3D Mario game, which is a supposed launch title according to Andy Robinson from Video Game Chronicle. Also, some other games that are now going to be switched to games as well, and a little bit of scant details on some stuff happening on Switch today. Again, these are just rumors, so you're not meant to take them as facts. You're supposed to come in with your skepticism, but I am thinking that, you know what, there might be something to some of this, and I actually think some of this is correct. We'll get into that in a moment. Before we dive in though, I just want to remind you that we are on a road to 150,000 subscribers, so I would really appreciate if you were subscribed to the channel if you're enjoying the content. Drop a like on this video, and you know what? Go ahead and hit that bell icon so you can be notified of all future videos, live streams, etc. Alright, so we are talking about Zippo, and I know for some of you that automatically means you're going to run away from this video. Look, I don't know who Zippo is. I don't know anything about him, but what I do know is, over the last couple Nintendo Directs, a lot of things he said over the last two years have actually come true. So when you consider that, combined with the fact that he was one of the only people telling us that we were about to get a bunch of Mario Wonder information, and then we got it, and I know you can be nitpicky and point out he didn't say it was going to be a Direct, but the point is he did point it out and he was the only person saying it was about to happen, and then it did. So, again, I don't know who this guy is, and I'm not here to pass judgment on him. What I am here to do, though, is cover what he said, because honestly, I don't think he's that far off base on most of it, except maybe one thing. There's one thing in particular I'm not sold on yet, but still could be true, and we'll find out in due time. So we're over on this thing here, we says Report 2024 is the year of Nintendo EPD Tokyo. He posted this back on September 23rd, so a few days ago. And he goes, Hello, again, I've been working on this report for a good while now, getting things sourced, making sure everything lined up and all, given the last two Directs have finally given us clear answers, I think I can finally do this now. And again, of course, he's going to mention the last two Directs because they actually helped confirm some things that he's been saying for years. Now, without further ado, let's get into my mini report on Nintendo EPD 8, better known as EPD Tokyo. A small primer for those who don't know, Nintendo EPD is a mix of 10 smaller studios fused into one much larger one internally at Nintendo. Nine of them are based at Nintendo's headquarters in Kyoto, while one is based in Japan's modern capital, Tokyo. Then he goes into a history fact, don't really care about that. Anyways, he goes and says starting in 2004, EPD Tokyo started to release their own games, the first being the beloved GameCube classic Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. Then they went out to develop 2007's critically acclaimed Super Mario Galaxy, and it's even more critically acclaimed sequel in 2010. These are all just facts, so it's nice to have a refresher. They've been in charge of every single 3D Mario game since then, and of course we had our last full, serving a 3D Mario with 2017's modern masterpiece, Super Mario Odyssey. Now I'm sure you're wondering, where have they been the last 6 years? Well, they've been doing nothing by making games. There's been no real issues or anything of that sort. Games take a long time to make. That, and they have been gifted with something you may have heard recently. Remember when Super Mario World Wonders director said Nintendo didn't give them any deadlines during development? Well, same thing goes for the studio. They've been sitting back, taking it easy and letting their games cook. They have a big, big year coming up, and it's time to talk about it. Let's get into some projects, shall we? Firstly, Princess Peach Showtime. And this is the one game that he mentions EPD Tokyo, making that I'm not 100% convinced is made by them. But again, we don't actually know which of Nintendo's studios or third party studios running is making this game yet. Nintendo hasn't provided those details. Anyways, he goes on to say, this game seems like a surprise, but it actually shouldn't be. Nintendo EPD Tokyo and 3D Mario Head Yoshiaki Koizumi has apparently long pushed for Peach's star in her own game once again, and he's finally gotten his wish. Not only that, but Peach has finally has her own arch nemesis. Oh, if you're still skeptical about this being EPD Tokyo, developed, here's some more evidence. And this evidence to me is a little strange, but it's okay. There's Peach's Castle from the opening cutscene, and here's the one from Mario Odyssey. They're exactly the same. You actually glance at them, they're not exactly the same, but there's a lot of similarities. I could argue the model of the castle from Odyssey was reused, absolutely, but you could share those models between teams. There are actually a few differences, but it's alright. He says notice the grass on the structure that something only Odyssey's rendition does, except the grass is entirely different between both structures. The flags are also different. Anyways, I digress. If this game is a big success, expect to see more elements of it show up in the greater Mario franchise exciting stuff. Now, this is where we get into some updates. So next, Donkey Kong. Man, we haven't talked about the Donkey Kong game in a long time. So here we go again. I know a lot of people have been speculating that I and other sources have gotten wires crossed, and are thinking that the remake was actually Mario vs Donkey Kong, and that that was the rumored 2D Donkey Kong game, but I'm here to assure you that is definitely not the case. I've gone and gotten this double checked with every possible source there is, and I can safely say, EPD Tokyo's Donkey Kong game is still very much a thing. I'm going to apologize, because to be frank, I talked about this game way too early. The only other thing I can say about this is it has indeed moved to Nintendo's next console. That's it. When I have more, you guys will be the first to know. So, just saying, the new Donkey Kong game that's been rumored for years, no surprise has been moved to the new console. Not too shocking. Now, Mario vs Donkey Kong. These are some things that I don't necessarily agree with, but it's okay. I talked about this a little bit in my previous article, but I get into some more details now. While this remake of Mario vs Donkey Kong is being primarily developed by Nintendo's software technology in America, EPD Tokyo is indeed assisting in development, apparently in the art direction and other technical aspects. If this sounds weird, it shouldn't. NST were the primary developers of 2021's Bowser's Fury. They also did the amazing 3DS part of Treasure Tracker. Now, this is the part that I have a hard time with. Now, why does this game look so good? You ask. I don't believe this is a popularly held opinion that this game looks fantastic. It just looks fine. It looks like you would expect it to look. There's not a lot of geometry stuff going on, a lot of physics stuff going on, but it is what it is. It looks fine, right? You don't really expect it to look worse than what it does or better. It looks solid. Anyways, because the game is running on a highly upgraded version of the 3D Mario engine, made in mind primarily for the next gen 3D Mario. FYI, same goes for Peach Showtime as well. So his claim is that an upgraded 3D Mario engine that's meant for the next Mario game is being used for this game and also Princess Peach Showtime. Again, not sure I believe any of that, but hey, I don't have anything to disprove him so it's entirely possible. He's correct and we'll find out once these games come out. Anyways, you're getting a small taste of what the next 3D Mario is going to look like, which I don't agree with that either. I'm just pointing out that unless he's actually seen the next 3D Mario, yeah, I don't really think that this is a small taste of anything because I don't think it's going to be this exact art direction. Moving on though, he does actually talk about the next 3D Mario game and I actually agree with everything he has to say about it. So the next 3D Mario, here we go. I know only a few things at this moment in time. Firstly, it's going to be our very first open world 3D Mario game given Zelda and Pokemon have taken the plunge. It was only a matter of time before the portly plumber did as well. Completely agree with him here. This game will not be a sequel to Odyssey, so if you were expecting that, don't. This is going to be an entirely different direction. Again, completely agree with him that this isn't going to be a sequel to Odyssey. I know a lot of people want a Mario Odyssey 2 and I know sort of teased it in the thumbnail a bit. That's because I don't really know how to represent a brand new 3D Mario game without it just looking like other games. So the point is, yeah, it's not going to be a sequel. I don't expect it to be a sequel. I've been told the game looks absolutely jaw dropping. These are quotes. If you thought Mario versus Donkey Kong looked good, and again, I don't know that many of us are salivating over how good that game looks anyways, then you haven't seen anything yet. Which is funny, because he literally just said that that was a small taste of what we could expect from the next Mario game and now he's saying we haven't seen anything yet. So he's contradicted himself a bit. I think he's just highly impressed with the Mario versus Donkey Kong stuff. I don't know anyone else that really is. Anyways, EPD Tokyo are about to blow people's effing minds yet again. And yeah, look, I do think that whenever they show this 3D Mario game, our jaws will be on the floor. We will be drooling a little bit. It is going to be sort of an unbelievable moment because Mario has never been on this powerful of hardware and what Nintendo's internal teams can do with that level of power is going to look impressive even by modern game standards. Now lastly, this game will be the game for Nintendo next year. Mario will be a day one switch to game, which again, Andy Robinson sort of hinted at and I agree. And I would bet serious amounts of money. It'll be the very first game we will see running on their shiny new system. Again, I agree. Why wouldn't they kick off showing it with that new Mario game? It would be very weird. Now, this will be the first 3D Mario game to be a launch title since 1996 is Super Mario 64, which means this is a big freaking deal. I expect a very long launch lineup from Nintendo and third parties like, well, yeah, I mean, look, they launched the Wii U with Mario, but that was new Super Mario Bros U, Twilight Princess was the launch for Wii. We obviously know Luigi's Mansion Launch Gamecube and yeah, we know Breath of the Wild Launch Switch. They always use Zelda or Mario to launch their systems. They're two franchises they believe can help move units at launch. So it makes a lot of sense and he obviously ends with saying next gen is almost here. Get ready. Look guys, I don't know if any of this is true and I already mentioned some of my skepticisms while reading the stuff off, but I also can't say that it's not. Again, a lot of his stuff came true over the last two directs that he's been talking about for years. And so all we can really do at this point is sit back and think about this stuff and ponder on the future of Nintendo because look, these last couple of directs have been really awesome and amazing and sweet, but also not teasing much for 2024 that's actually brand new. Princess Peach Showtime is pretty much it. And then we have that pending TBA Metroid Prime 4. And what the heck is going on with that? So I'm just going to end this video by saying thank you so much for being here. I want to know your thoughts on these rumors down below. Are you team real? Are you team fake? And are you excited for 3D Mario? Because remember, we do have rumors on 3D Mario from a reputable, you know, person in Andy Robinson who said, hey, I don't know this like for a fact, but I have heard Nintendo's, you know, thinking of launching the system with it. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. They, you know, the new Zelda game came out this year, you're going to launch it with Mario, right? They always launch with Mario or Zelda. Anyways, guys, let me know what you're thinking and I'll catch you in the next video.