New Mario Party Game Reportedly In Development For Nintendo Hardware

A brand new Mario Party title is currently in development for Nintendo hardware, based on the latest report.

According to Twitter/X insider Midori, who has previously leaked information on titles in development at Sega and Atlus, an unannounced game codenamed Banquet is currently in development at Nintendo. NDcube and an additional developer known as SmileBoom are working together on the project.

NDcube has previously worked on Mario Party titles, and Smileboom has done support work in both Super Mario Party and Mario Party Superstars. This suggests that both studios are working on a brand new Mario Party game for either the Nintendo Switch or its successor. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa had recently revealed that the company will be holding a Nintendo Direct presentation this June, which will focus on the Switch software lineup for the latter half of 2024. If this unannounced Mario Party game is set for release on the Nintendo Switch, it will undoubtedly revealed during the presentation. Otherwise, it will likely end up being a launch title for the Nintendo Switch successor.

The Twitter/X insider further mentioned that there is another title in development at Nintendo with the codename U-King-O. She explained the the company generally uses prefixes or suffixes in codenames for in-development titles to indicate the console they are being developed for. For example, the codename U-King was used for the Wii U version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Similarly, the letter S is added to codenames for titles that are developed for the Nintendo Switch, and the letter C was used for 3DS titles.

The use of the letter O is new, and the insider believes that it may be the codename for the Nintendo Switch successor, which, according to her, is rumored to be called Ounce. The use of O as a suffix alongside the codename U-King suggests that a port of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is in development for the Switch 2. Previously, YouTuber Nate The Hate had claimed that the console was shown behind closed doors at Gamescom running The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at a resolution of 4K and a frame rate of 60 fps with the help of Nvidia’s AI-based image reconstruction technology, DLSS.