It ain’t easy to lock down a Switch 2 pre-order, even if you’re closely tied with Nintendo. Folks like Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai and Nintendo Direct narrator Yuichi Nakamura have to jump in the pre-order lottery for Nintendo Switch 2 just like everybody else, and as their numbers come up so has some friendly beef that can only be settled by an IRL meetup to recreate the most iconic image of the 1997 cinematic classic Men in Black.
It’s probably selling Nakamura a bit short to simply call him the “Nintendo Direct narrator,” as he’s a prolific voice actor who’s appeared in everything from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure to Final Fantasy, but the fact that he’s the de facto voice of Nintendo marketing in Japan means that his struggles to secure the new console feel downright tragic.
Last week, Nakamura joked on Twitter that he’d be cutting ties with anybody who successfully secured a spot in the Switch 2 pre-order lottery, as noted by Automaton. When Sakurai announced that he’d grabbed a pre-order, Nakamura responded questioningly, prompting the Smash Bros. director to say (via Google Translate) “We need to quickly shine the light that will erase his memories…!”
That is, of course, a reference to Men in Black’s Neuralyzer – or “flashy thing,” as you may recall Will Smith’s Agent J calling it – a small gadget that erases memories with a bright light. Convenient both for explaining away alien encounters and preserving friendships that might otherwise be jeopardized by video game console jealousy.
当たりましたよ？ https://t.co/h8OcKNHTa3 pic.twitter.com/bNBk54PsLNApril 24, 2025
Nakamura then posted a profoundly sad image of a standard Nintendo Switch with a “2” scrawled on the back in yellow marker. Clearly, Sakurai was going to have to make good on the Neuralization promise. And so he did, meeting up with Nakamura in real life to Neuralyze him with what looks like a karaoke microphone. I guess that counts as a happy ending to this goofy little saga.
Joy and despair as game devs fight for a Switch 2 of their own, with Smash Bros’ Masahiro Sakurai lucking into one while Balatro’s LocalThunk still hunting.
