• missingno@fedia.io
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    1 day ago

    Keep in mind that’s all relative to the Gamecube, Air Ride was one of the platform’s more successful titles. But more importantly it also went on to become a cult hit long after its release, one that Kirby fans have been clamoring for a sequel to for a very long time.

    The fact that Masahiro Sakurai himself is directing the sequel, after not having been involved with Kirby since the original Air Ride, is kind of a big deal. And I fully expect marketing to play up his star power and promote the fact that this is A Masahiro Sakurai Game. Anything Sakurai’s name is attached to is automatically going to be big.

    There’s a reason Nintendo saved this one for the end of the Direct with a cinematic teaser trailer. We’ll see more closer to release, but there is no doubt that they are going to market this game very hard as a flagship title, much more heavily than they marketed the original.

    • jacksilver@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      You’re right that for the GameCube, that’s puts it as the 25th best selling game, but it had 1/5th the sales of Double Dash (while being released in the opposite ordering, Kirby in July and Double Dash in November).

      While I agree that Sakurai directing it is a big deal for some, I don’t think the general consumer cares. I suspect that what will make it sell is that there is little competition from the switch 2 perspective.

      But time will tell in this case.

      • missingno@fedia.io
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        22 hours ago

        I would argue that what counts as a “big game” really just comes down to how much Nintendo invests in it. In terms of budget, Sakurai gets a blank check to do whatever he wants, this will be a much bigger game than the original. In terms of marketing, this was a Direct-closer. Nintendo will make consumers care about this game.