Nintendo Direct · September 2026
We did not get a new Super Smash Bros. announcement today.
And honestly? That is fine.
Nintendo's September 9 Direct was still very good—packed with the kind of announcements that make you start reorganizing your 2027 calendar before the presentation is even over.
Metroid Ravenous looked hungry. Mega Man: Dual Override looked energized. Kirby and the World Beyond looked like pure joy. Nintendo did not need Smash to put on a show full of bangers.
But the longer I sat with the showcase, the more the lack of Smash started to feel less like bad news and more like an interesting absence.
Samus came to eat
Metroid Ravenous was the announcement that made me sit forward.
Nintendo is calling it an all-new 2D adventure, but this does not look like Nintendo simply dusting off the Metroid Dread playbook. Samus is stranded on an unfamiliar moon, the game is built around an “eat or be eaten” idea, and her new Metroid instincts let her devour enemies and turn their energy into power.
That is a wild direction for Samus. She is no longer only hunting the monster. Part of the monster is now in her.
Metroid Ravenous looks like the moment the series stops asking what Samus survived—and starts asking what surviving changed her into.
The new Metroid Suit also gives Nintendo a fresh version of Samus to put on the box, on an amiibo, and—yes—in a future crossover roster.
Ravenous launches January 28, 2027. That date is already circled.
The Blue Bomber finally has momentum
I called it “Mega Man Overdrive” in the immediate post-Direct excitement, but the real title is Mega Man: Dual Override—and the important part is that Mega Man looks alive again.
Proto Man is playable with a shield-focused style, Mega Man still brings the ranged firepower, Custom Chips let players mix and match abilities, and both heroes can activate powerful Override forms.
That sounds like Capcom understands the assignment: protect the rhythm that makes classic Mega Man work, then add enough flexibility to make this entry feel like more than a museum piece.
The game is coming in spring 2027, and seeing it inside a Nintendo Direct felt right. Mega Man has always belonged in that space between Nintendo history and third-party legend.
Kirby keeps getting bigger
Kirby and the World Beyond may have been the purest crowd-pleaser of the Direct.
It is a new 3D adventure built around freely exploring an expansive world and using Copy Abilities in creative ways. It arrives in spring 2027, right as Kirby celebrates his 35th anniversary.
That timing matters. Kirby Air Riders put Masahiro Sakurai back in the director's chair for a Nintendo release in 2025. Now Nintendo is following it with another major Kirby game that pushes the character into a broader 3D space.
To be clear: Sakurai has not been announced as the director of The World Beyond. But Nintendo has spent a short stretch rebuilding Kirby as a character, a world, and a cast—not simply selling nostalgia for the pink puffball we already know.
For Smash-watchers, that is interesting.
04 · The Smash theory
The next roster may already be loading
Here is my theory—not a leak, not a report, and definitely not a promise from Nintendo.
What if Sakurai's recent work on Kirby Air Riders was not evidence that Smash had been abandoned? What if it was simply the project he could complete while Nintendo's next generation of characters took shape?
Look at the board.
Ocarina of Time has been rebuilt for Switch 2, giving Young Link a modern design and a new generation of players. Donkey Kong Bananza established a completely refreshed base design for DK. Kirby Air Riders expanded Kirby's playable cast, and The World Beyond is pushing that universe forward again. Now Metroid Ravenous gives Samus a new suit, new instincts, and a much darker edge.
Young Link. Donkey Kong. Kirby. Samus.
Those are not random mascots. Those are foundational Smash characters, all receiving fresh designs or major new showcases around the same hardware generation.
Nintendo may not have announced the next Smash roster today. It may be quietly designing it in public.
Again, none of this proves Sakurai is working on a new Smash Bros. Nintendo and Sakurai have announced no such game. Character redesigns can exist because their own franchises deserve to evolve.
But if Nintendo eventually asks Sakurai to bring everyone back together, the pieces will not look stuck in 2018. They will arrive with new silhouettes, new moves, new worlds, and new reasons to fight.
That makes today's missing Smash reveal feel a lot less worrying to me.
After Hours Arcade verdict
No Smash was not a loss
This Direct had range. Nintendo brought first-party confidence with Metroid and Kirby, gave third-party legends like Mega Man a major spotlight, and filled the rest of the show with enough surprises to keep the group chat moving.
Would a Smash announcement have broken the internet? Of course.
But Nintendo did not need to press that button. The company showed that Switch 2 has an identity beyond a single crossover event—and, maybe, that it is still assembling the pieces for one.
If this is what Nintendo can do while Smash stays offscreen, I am more excited, not less.
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