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The story
With a Nintendo Direct scheduled for September 9, 2026, a 5ch thread speculating about what title will close out the show — the “tori” (finale slot) — was buzzing. Past Directs have saved big reveals for last: Donkey Kong Bananza in April 2025, a new Fire Emblem that September, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in June 2026, and many users built their predictions on this “pattern.” The sticking point: since the day before is set to cover a Zelda 40th-anniversary retrospective, will they hold back a separate, brand-new Zelda title as the secret finale, or is a new 3D Mario — silent for nearly a decade now — the real favorite? Voices pushing for Pokémon or Smash, and skeptics questioning the leak reports, mixed into the debate as well.
What people said
The fact they're splitting it off separately is the whole point
Finale titles through history
2025.4.2 Donkey Kong Bananza
2025.9.12 Fire Emblem: Banshisenkou
2026.6.9 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
2026.9.9 ???
A Metroid Ravenous reveal is basically guaranteed,
but there's no way that's the finale
It's one of the few core-gamer-focused IPs Nintendo has left
now that EA dropped the license
Wishful thinking: Smash Bros.
Reality: Luigi's Mansion 4 or Mario Maker 3
Even with the price hike, they need something to drive hardware sales
Re: #10
They already announced Pokémon though?
New Zelda
New Smash
New Animal Crossing
Splatoon 4
Has to be one of these
– Bananza and Ocarina of Time both had only about 3 months between reveal and release
– The November 2027 slot is already locked in for Pokémon
– Banshisenkou was the finale of the bonus Direct that followed the Mario 40th-anniversary segment
– ↑ Which, conversely, might mean today's 9/9 Direct touches on Zelda too?
↓
"This is Miyamoto. We've decided to move the worldwide theatrical release date of the live-action Legend of Zelda film from May 7, 2027 to April 30, 2027."
3.26 → 5.7 → 4.30
Showing nothing but the logos for Metroid Prime 4 and Bayonetta 3 was a cheap move, not very Nintendo-like,
but Nintendo was desperate back then —
the Wii U had flopped hard, the 3DS wasn't doing great in the West, and the Switch had no backward compatibility with the previous generation, so they were right on the edge.
Nintendo today, with 160 million Switch 1 units out there generating royalty income basically on autopilot, has a completely different level of breathing room
Buying a game console is also an investment in the satisfying games you'll get to play down the road.
It's been nearly 10 years since Odyssey with still zero word — that's not normal.
Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi, Mario Maker, all that can wait.
Just announce the new 3D Mario already!!!
Contender: an A Link to the Past remake
Dark horse: a new 3D entry
Long shot: Breath of the Wild with DLSS 5.0
Miyamoto + Aonuma
Recap of the previous day's Zelda 40th-anniversary segment, new footage from the movie and Ocarina of Time
↓
"There's one more thing we'd like to show regarding The Legend of Zelda."
↓
A brand-new entry
↓
"We are currently developing an all-new title."
↓
Stays the hot topic all the way through May 2027
I'd guess Namikaze gets its own dedicated Pokémon Direct instead
Smash can't realistically get announced when it hasn't even been a year since Kirby Air Riders came out
Animal Crossing seems about due for a push toward female and mainstream audiences
Or maybe a mainline 3D Mario
Only the hardcore console-war crowd ("gehabu") would be disappointed by that
If even an idiot could've guessed it, that's not a leak
Wish it were a third-party software lineup instead
If you're not interested,
you don't have to come to this thread
Has to be F-Zero
A 3D F-Zero, maybe…? Nah, too much to hope for
9/10: "Last but not least, take a look at this" — footage and title reveal for the new 3D Zelda
Yeah, Nintendo totally pulls stuff like that
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
Nintendo has a track record of saving new-title reveals for the grand finale of its Directs, and the thread pointed to a pattern as evidence: Donkey Kong Bananza in April 2025, a new Fire Emblem in September 2025, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time in June 2026. For the September 9 broadcast, opinion split on one key question — given that the previous day’s segment was set to cover the Zelda 40th anniversary (the movie and Ocarina of Time), what would headline the actual finale, separate from that main lineup? Several lines of reasoning came up: pent-up demand for 3D Mario (frustration that it’s been roughly nine years of silence since Odyssey), the theory that the Pokémon “Namikaze” reveal would get its own dedicated Direct, and the read that Smash Bros. is too soon to announce given how recently Kirby Air Riders launched. Some posts read deeply into the live-action Zelda movie’s release date shifting from March 2027 to May and then to April, tying it to the Direct’s structure — but these are all fan speculation built on circumstantial evidence, not official announcements or confirmed information. The “Mario” leak that surfaced also came with no substantiation, and it’s worth noting that skepticism about it showed up within the thread itself.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, “gehabu”) thread “Nintendo Direct 2026.9.9 Finale Prediction Contest Thread.”
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