It’s hard to believe the last full Nintendo Direct we had was way back in September 2019! Since then, there have been Indie World Directs, Mini Directs, a Mario 35th Anniversary Direct, but no major Nintendo Directs, leading many to believe Nintendo were moving to scrap them altogether. It’s fair to say the February 17th Nintendo Direct was met with excitement, anticipation, predictions… and of course leaks. But still warmly received by Switch owners, that’s for sure.
Still no Metroid Prime 4 news, sadly… We Metroid fans are a patient lot. We can only hope this means when they are ready to show Samus off, it’ll be well worth the wait. Hopefully.
With a return to form, last night’s Nintendo Direct highlighted some surprise announcements, from Miitopia to Project Triangle Strategy, and some big game releases, from Splatoon 3 and Skyward Sword HD. And of course, who could forget DC Super Hero Girls…? In some ways there wasn’t a great deal of super exciting announcements, but there was a balance of more niche interest and a few more prominent titles, though perhaps certain less significant titles were afforded more time than they really should have been, such as DC Super Hero Girls or Knockout City, fun as it may look, while the Age of Calamity DLC feature was noticeably short. Overall, it was a pretty solid Direct where some in the past have been a little more underwhelming. With some 29 titles shown off, we’ll take a look at a few personal highlights to add to the cart throughout the year…
1 – Pyra & Mythra Join the Fight!
Smashing their way into, well… Smash, Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s Pyra and Mythra kick-started the Direct with footage that looked like a whole new DLC story for Monolith Soft’s hefty RPG, introducing the duo as the latest fighters to join Sakurai’s increasingly insane roster. More anime sword fighters: just what Super Smash Bros. Ultimate needs. That being said, it looks like they’ll add a unique style of fighting, with the ability to switch between the two characters on the fly, like Zelda and Sheik. Given that I personally sunk some 180+ hours into Xenoblade Chronicles 2… maybe I’m a little biased.
Here’s hoping Xenoblade Chronicles X will get a WiiU-to-Switch port sometime soon…
2 – Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout falls onto Switch
Fall Guys has been a raving success since its launch on PC and PlayStation 4 last year, and now the insane jellybean platformer battle royale will stumble its way to Switch around summertime. Better late than never! A little like a cross between Takeshi’s Castle and Wipeout, Fall Guys is a massive multiplayer title where 60 players participate in knockout matches ranging from running and jumping across platforms while bopping other players out of the way, to surging forward in a chaotic horde of jellybean humanoids in a mad rush to get to the end of the stage without being squished or sent flying off the course. Its core design mantra seems to hinge on creating infuriatingly hilarious feats of insanity that are maddeningly endearing, yet demand you refrain from hurling your controller through the screen to power waddle, flop, and drop your way throughout each course until you’re the last bean-person standing.
Just imagine this beautiful chaos in handheld mode!
3 – Famicom Detective Club
Previously never released outside of Japan, originally created for the elusive Famicom Disc System, later ported to GBA, and Wii and WiiU Virtual Console, 2021 will finally see the Western localisation of Famicom Tantei Club: The Missing Heir and its prequel for the first time. It’s a visual novel experience, presenting a deep narrative where player choices effect each scenario. The first game, The Missing Heir, explores a murder mystery case involving a wealthy family while your character suffers from amnesia, while its prequel – The Girl Who Stands Behind – introduces a supernatural case revolving around a mysterious death where you’ll have to interrogate suspects and piece together the story, making your way through chilling episodes to uncover the truth.
Visual novel experiences like these are a great fit for the Switch and suit its handheld style. It’s just a shame there aren’t more quality titles of note; even the PSVita had some excellent titles that would suit the Switch. Hopefully Zero Escape: The Nonary Games collection will make its way over in due time.
4 – Legend of Mana Remaster
Secret of Mana is regarded as an action-RPG classic from Square and while its follow-up, Seiken Densetsu 3/ Trials of Mana, didn’t make its way to the West until the release of Collection of Mana in 2019, Trials of Mana is seen as an improvement over Secret of Mana. As the fourth entry in the Mana series, the PlayStation Legend of Mana originally released in 1999 in Japan and North America, incorporating familiar core gameplay mechanics from previous entries – including real-time battles and an angled top-down perspective. However, it brings its own distinct visual style, with a non-linear quest structure, and ability to shape the world thanks to the Land Make system. This means that the blank open world map you are initially presented with can be customised according to how you place each region, making each gameplay experience somewhat unique to each player. In some ways it’s akin to a mechanic used in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, where location symbols are placed on the world map after the completion of story missions. The remastered visuals for this release look stunning and it’s always exciting to see some true retro RPGs we never got in the PAL region release with a few enhancements. To say nothing of the gorgeous re-orchestrated soundtrack!
5 – Neon White
Hand-picked from hell to deal with an outbreak of demons in Heaven – because of course – and make Doomguy proud, Neon White is a crisp FPS card game in which you compete with other demon slayers and collect Soul Cards to attack foes or discard for unique movement abilities. The gameplay footage shown off looked unique, with fast paced action and a unique visual style. A card-based shooter is quite an unusual concept in itself, but that only makes it more interesting.
6 – Animal Crossing: New Horizons Mario items update (free)
Two words: warp pipes.
It could have just been a few simple Mario themed items, maybe a mushroom, maybe a themed costume. But no. Functional warp pipes that allow you to warp from one point of your island to another. That’s enough to win me over at least, but with this free update, Animal Crossing players can also place coin blocks, coins and Whomps, all while dressing up as their favourite Mario characters! It would be insane if they did something similar with the Donkey Kong, Metroid and Zelda anniversaries as well. They tease the idea of recreating the Mushroom Kingdom with this update but imagine Brinstar in Animal Crossing or Animal Crossing: Hyrule Kingdom Edition. Of course, Bokoblins would have to become residents and Tingle would visit on certain days of the week with maps for treasure hunts on special islands.
7 – Project Triangle Strategy
Blending Octopath Traveler’s gorgeous HD-2D pixel art with the classic tactical gameplay of Final Fantasy Tactics, a temporary working title that should absolutely be the final title, and a massive story where your decisions change the outcome of each chapter, comes Square Enix’s Project Triangle Strategy. Coming off the success of the oh so beautiful Octopath Traveler, Square Enix continue to offer classic RPG lovers a throwback to SNES/ PS1-era RPGs with the classic feeling gameplay that made Octopath Traveler at once modern and fresh, yet nostalgic and familiar. Though whereas Octopath featured a unique turn-based battle system with an explorable over world and a customisable party of up to four switchable characters, Project Triangle Strategy is about waring kingdoms, tactical unit placement, and mesmerising visuals. As if the visuals haven’t been commented on enough. Plus, a demo was made available after the Direct, which is great for Octopath fans (myself included) who desperately want more HD-2D goodness right now.
8 – Star Wars: Hunters
We know there are plans for a massive open-world Star Wars title in development at the moment, and there’s plenty of excitement at the potential for future game titles now EA won’t be the sole developer for Star Wars games. Star Wars: Hunters certainly isn’t it, but it was something of a surprise, to be released on Switch as well as mobile platforms. From the beginning of the trailer, we saw a few possible playable characters including a badass looking, red-lightsaber wielding Nightsister, an Imperial Stormtrooper, a Mandalorian, and a loveable Wookie, albeit wielding two very heavy battle axes, and a hazy battle scene towards the end, with blaster fire and a lightsaber.
The trailer really doesn’t give much of an impression as to what Hunters actually is, though StarWars.com describes it as being set after the fall of the Galactic Empire, featuring real time battle mechanics with familiar Star Wars locations acting as arenas. Chances are this could be a free-to-play battle royale game, akin to Fortnite, which means it’ll probably include purchasable upgrades and characters. Whenever a Switch title says it’s also launching on mobile platforms, it usually doesn’t bode well: we don’t need to be reminded of The Elder Scrolls: Blades. So little is known about Star Wars: Hunters at this point, but interestingly it could be the first non-EA Star Wars game to launch since they acquired the exclusive rights to the intergalactic franchise. Here’s hoping it offers more than the basic free-to-play formula mobile games usually pursue and offers something more significant, else it be fed to a raging Rancor, digested for 1,000 years in a Sarlacc pit, or smote like a Padawan before Anakin’s lightsaber…
9 – World’s End Club
With creators from the teams behind the Zero Escape games and Danganronpa, Tookyo Games offers fans of the brutal teen-murdering visual novels membership to World’s End Club. Combining action-puzzle gameplay and adventure, with voice acting, a 20-hour long story, and another reason to justify the rampant coulrophobia that has made itself increasingly potent in recent years no thanks to Bill Skarsgård, in World’s End Club a group of children, as part of the Go-Getters Club, are challenged to participate in a “Game of Fate” by a creepy clown. However, the game abruptly ends and you are forced to travel across Japan, where a suspenseful thriller narrative weaves into side-scrolling gameplay, alternating between working through puzzles solo or teaming up with the group to make your way back to Tokyo and overcome the challenges and monsters that are thrown at you. Uniquely, for a game that follows the darker more sadistic designs of Danganronpa and Zero Escape, the visuals are bright and colourful, almost evoking a Pokémon or Yokai Watch aesthetic – especially in its character designs. It’s certainly going to be an interesting one to keep an eye on and yet another reason to raise the question: why isn’t the Zero Escape series on Switch already…?
10 – Zelda updates: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity to receive expansion packs, and no Breath of the Wild 2 news until the end of the year but Skyward Sword HD was confirmed with themed Joy-Cons!
With The Legend of Zelda franchise turning 35, a lot of Switch fans have been clamouring for a Zelda bundle like the Super Mario 3D All-Stars that released in time to celebrate the plumbers 35th last year. There has also been a lot of confident speculation that now would be the time for Twilight Princess and Wind Waker HD to finally be ported from the ill-fated WiiU to the ever-popular Switch, as well as receive news about the highly anticipated Breath of the Wild 2.
We didn’t get any of that. But we were told that Breath of the Wild news will be coming later in the year, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will be receiving new DLC to expand upon the base game, though there wasn’t a great deal of information on what that includes, and Skyward Sword HD was officially announced alongside some very swanky themed Joy-Cons! It’s very probable Breath of the Wild 2 will be due out next year, with Skyward Sword HD acting as a hold over, but even still Skyward Sword released on Wii in celebration of Zelda’s 25th anniversary and was the immediate console predecessor to Breath of the Wild.
Playing back over it, you can see a lot of ideas in Breath of the Wild that were established in Skyward Sword, from stamina wheels, crafting for better equipment, and a few hidden locales to discover when you’re not chasing down those pesky Korok seeds: the less said about those the better. It also happens to be the first chronological game in the series, with Breath of the Wild taking place at the far end. The story and characters, music and captivating art style are unquestionably charming and give Skyward Sword a solid reputation. However, many players also criticised the motion controls for being cumbersome and problematic, unhappy that it didn’t offer the option for traditional button controls as an alternative. The Switch HD version seems to address this issue, stating that it will feature more accurate motion technology as well as optional button and thumbstick control options. Personally, Skyward Sword is a favourite of mine – ranking as a top five from the franchise – and with the rather attractive looking Joy-Con, this will be an absolute must play.
11 – Splatoon 3
As always, hope was held back at a cautionary distance for Metroid Prime 4 and, no surprise, the final announcement was not Metroid Prime 4. Maybe one day…
Instead, the final announcement for this Direct was a trailer for Splatoon 3, which admittedly does look pretty fun. This will no doubt be a love it or hate it title, appeasing fans of Splatoon 2, also on Switch. For those who had and/ or have little interest in the series, it’s easy to see why Nintendo’s final announcement might be perceived as disappointing or underwhelming. It’s also curious that Splatoon 3 will be out on Switch, though, given the massive fanbase Splatoon 2 still has, with a strong, competitive online community: in this sense, Splatoon 3 might have made more sense on Nintendo’s next system. The trailer didn’t really show too much to differentiate it from previous Splatoon titles either, but it’s encouraging to see support for such a new IP given Nintendo hasn’t dabbled too much in creating new first-party IPs in recent years. Besides, the Inklings scream Nintendo charm and the ink-splatter shooter gameplay creatively reimagines the popular shooter genre in such an interesting way it would be a shame to see Splatoon as a franchise neglected in anyway. Like Metroid.
Now maybe Metroid Prime 4, Bayonetta 3, and Pikmin 4 might have better chances whenever the next Direct is…?
