Nintendo recap: Minecraft amiibo delayed, Majora’s Mask on Switch, and more

Plus, it turns out the Wii U server is shutting down, so redownloads won’t be possible in a year or two.

Hello, hello and welcome to another Nintendo recap! This week flew by, probably because so much happened in the Nintendo world and the world of video games in general. For one thing, we finally got The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask on Nintendo Switch. In other news, more information was revealed about the 3DS and Wii U eShops shutting down, which has us worried. Plus, there’s going to be a Pokémon Presents broadcast on Sunday and we can’t wait to see what gets revealed. There’s even more to discuss, so let’s dive in.

Pokémon Presents on Sunday

The Pokémon Company is hosting a 14-minute broadcast on Sunday, Feb. 28 at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET/11 p.m. JST. Sunday is kind of a strange day for news like this to drop. Historically, the yearly Pokémon Presents takes place on or around Pokémon Day, the anniversary of when the first Pokémon games, Red and Green, dropped in Japan back in 1996. However, past broadcasts have been on Fridays or during the week even when the actual Pokémon Day was on the weekend.

No information on what the show will actually cover has been revealed as of yet. However, there are a few previously announced projects that the Pokémon Company hasn’t updated us on in a while, such as Pokémon Sleep and the Detective Pikachu video game sequel following the successful first game on 3DS and the movie starring Ryan Reynolds. Maybe we’ll finally learn something about them.

Of course, Game Freak is undoubtedly working on another core Pokémon RPG, but whether or not we’ll actually see anything for Gen 9 during the broadcast is debatable. It’s always good to keep expectations low, but the first Pokémon Presents of the year often announces brand new titles and prepares fans for what’s to come throughout the rest of the year, so anything is possible. For example, last year’s February Pokémon Presents, announced the Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl remakes along with the brand new Legends: Arceus. So be prepared for anything and I’ll cover whatever gets announced.

Full server shutdowns of Wii U and 3DS eShops will prevent redownloads

Last week, we learned that the 3DS and Wii U eShops are closing in 2023. with the ability to add funds to your accounts cutting off in just a few months from now. It turns out that Nintendo has been waiting to close down the Wii U eShop since 2014, according to a Nintendo of America employee.

As reported by, NintendoLife, “Nintendo looks at the first 2 years as the indicator of when to start packing it in with a console” and consideering how poorly the Wii U sold, Nintendo has been eager to close down its services but have refrained from doing so until now to avoid a ‘class action.'” According to the employee, “Nintendo knows it has to support a product for a minimum of 10 years” or it can find itself in legal trouble.

Turns out that as part of this, Nintendo could be shutting down the servers for the Wii U as early as 2023. This means that even if you download all of the games you’ve purchased before the Wii U eShop closes, if something happens to your console after the servers have gone down, you’ll be unable to redownload your purchased games or their updates. This being the case, any games currently only available on Wii U will eventually make any Wii U that has them valuable.

Min Min amiibo release date announced and Minecraft amiibo delayed

We’re still waiting on a handful of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate amiibo to release now that all of the DLC fighters have been revealed, ending with a bang on Sora from Kingdom Hearts. But this week, Nintendo finally revealed that the Min Min amiibo is set to release on April 29. Unfortunately, we also learned that the Steve and Alex amiibo, which were previously announced for spring 2022, have been delayed to some time later this year due to “a logistics and production delay.”

While it’s sad that we’re going to have to wait a while longer, it’s good to finally have a better timeline for upcoming releases. Four additional amiibo will eventually release after the Steve and Alex amiibo: an amiibo for Sephiroth from Final Fantasy, Pyra/Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Kazuya from Tekken, and Sora from Kingdom Hearts. After that, the Smash line is over. However, given how slowly release dates and production has been going, they probably won’t all release until another year or two.

Wonder Boy Collection announced for Switch

Last week I mentioned that something called the Wonder Boy Collection had been given an ESRB rating for Nintendo Switch and PS4. Well this week, the collection was officially announced!

It contains four retro games: Wonder Boy (arcade), Wonder Boy in Monster Land (arcade), Wonder in Monster World (Sega Genesis), and Monster World IV (Sega Genesis). So if you haven’t played these hits or haven’t played them in a long time, you can pick them up. No official date has been given, but the Amazon UK page says it releases on June 3.

According to the Wonder Boy Collection page on Amazon, the games will include “modern features such as the ability to rewind your game at any moment,” which will make performing some of those tricky platforming manuevers easier. A few Wonder Boy games have recently been remastered for current-gen consoles including my two favorites: Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom and Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap. If you haven’t played these yet I highly recommend you check them out as well.

Majora’s Mask came to Switch

The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask is the latest N64 game to drop onto the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. Majora’s Mask was a direct sequel to the extremely popular Ocarina of Time, but didn’t sell as well as the first game. However, it has become a cult classic among Nintendo fans.

This adventure introduces young Link to the very dark world of Termina, doomed by the ever growing presence of the falling moon. The end goal is to stop the Majora’s Mask from causing mischief and destruction. Throughout the story, Link learns to transform into a Deku Shrub, Zora, and Goron using masks, which gives him special powers like the ability to hover, swim fast, and roll quickly.

The reason Majora’s Mask stands out from other N64 games is that it offers complicated time-travel mechanics that were way before their time. NPCs go to specific locations at specific times throughout the game’s three-day period, so in order to complete some sidequests you need to follow up with an NPC at the right moments. Special songs played on the Ocarina allow you to effect the flow of time. There’s plenty to uncover and explore as you set domino effects in motion. I highly recommend playing it if you haven’t done so before or if it’s been a long time.

Luigi’s Mansion developer working on Mario Strikers: Battle League

With the latest Nintendo Direct, we learned that Mario Strikers: Battle League is coming to Nintendo Switch on June 10. This super-charged soccer-ish game will be the third entry in the series. This week, we got confirmation that Next Level Games, the developers who worked on the first two games and the Luigi’s Mansion series, are once more behind it’s creation. As such, we can likely expect great things from Battle League.

Have a great weekend!

In the words of the esteemed pig, “that’s all folks,” for now anyway. We’re drawing closer and closer to the launch of the highly anticipated Triangle Strategy as well as Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which both release in March. So I’ll be certain to cover those games as they release.

But before then, I hope you have a restful weekend filled with some fun video games.

Until next time.

- Rebecca Spear