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Beginning in just ten minutes is a long-awaited Nintendo Direct. This is a major event, as the last main Nintendo Direct, without Partner Showcase or single-game focused labels occurred last on September 4, 2019. Be sure to catch this one live, or if you can't, keep an eye on this thread, because even though it's been over 500 days since the last one, as always, GBAtemp is here to cover them live and round up all the best announcements in one place.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2's Pyra joins Super Smash Bros. Along with a transformation into Mithra. Rex appears in her final smash attack.

Nintendo talks about not having been able to have a real Nintendo Direct for quite some time, but the company is excited for today's announcements.

The latest Smash DLC will release in March.

Fall Guys is coming to the Switch. Summer 2021.

Outer Wilds is also getting a Switch port. You get 22 minutes to explore a solar system before it gets destroyed. You then repeat your journey and find mysteries and a way to save the universe. Available this Summer.

Two Famicom Detective Club games make their way to the west for the first time in a remake. You'll need to figure out cases and culprits in these games. May 14th launch.

Samurai Warriors 5 announced. It focuses on Nobunaga and features a new art style. Summer launch.

Legend of Mana is getting a remake. June 24. Comes with a remastered soundtrack and new features.

A spider-like creature and other foes are shown off in a teaser for Monster Hunter: Rise. March 26. A limited edition console and Pro Controller will be available in the west.

A new Mario Golf. There are several modes, including speed golf. You race through the course to be the first to finish. There's also a story mode, and you can level up your custom character with stats. Mario Golf: Super Rush arrives June 25.

Tales from the Borderlands arrives on the Switch. March 24.

Capcom Arcade Stadium. Classic games like 1943, Ghosts 'N Goblins, Street Fighter II and Strider will be available. Releases today.

Play as a zombie trying to take over in Rebel Without a Pulse.

No More Heroes 3 has aliens. You'll need to do menial tasks to have the chance to fight bosses. Lots of new skills. August 27.

Neon White has you assassinate demons in heaven. It's a first person game. You have cards that dictate your attacks. Winter 2021.

DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power announced. June 4.

Plants Vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville Complete Edition releases March 19. Has an offline mode, or online multiplayer.

3DS game Miitopia is getting a port to the Switch. May 21.

Super Mario items will be in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Clothes and furniture can be bought with Nook Points. You can use Warp Pipes to teleport on your island, even. Feb 25.

Octopath Traveler-styled "HD 2D" RPG Project Triangle Strategy. It's a grid-based strategy RPG similar to Fire Emblem. You'll have points in the story that will change the outcome based on utility, morality, and liberty. Your playable characters will change based on that as well. 2022. A demo is available now.

Star Wars Hunters will be a third-person shooter that's free to play. Zynga is developing.

Knockout City is an online battle royale where you throw giant bombs at your enemies and pass between your teammates. May 21. Velan Studios is developing.

World's End Club is made by both the Zero Escape and Danganronpa writers. May 28.

Hades is getting a physical release. Comes with an artbook, OST, and the game cart itself. March 19.

Ninja Gaiden Sigma, 2, and 3 are all going to be bundled in Ninja Gaiden Master Collection. Comes with all DLC. June 10.

Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity is getting an Expansion Pass.

Bravely Default 2 launches Feb 26. New demo available.

Ghosts 'N Goblins Resurrection is releasing this month, Feb 25.

SaGa Frontier Remastered comes with new gameplay tweaks and graphics. April 15.

Apex Legends hits March 9.

Breath of the Wild 2 gets NO news.

However, Skyward Sword is coming to Switch. Skyward Sword released 10 years ago. The motion controls have been improved with the Joy-Cons. Button controls also exist. Tilt the right control stick to swing the sword in specific ways. July 16.

Skyward Sword Joy-Cons will be sold.

We end on a final game.

Splatoon 3 announced. 2022.

Biggest Reveals

• Skyward Sword HD announced, now has button controls. Launches July 16th.
• Pyra/Mithra join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
• Breath of the Wild 2 has no new information to discuss.
• Legend of Mana is getting a remake.
• Mario Golf: Super Rush announced.
• Project Triangle Strategy is the Octopath Traveler development team's latest game.
• No More Heroes 3 launches this August.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

Its like nintendo almost knows what their fans don't want.. but giving it anyway.
Seemed like a very apologetic direct to me.

 

[linuxares]

Excuse me Nintendo. For the Ultimate Smash.... WHY ON EARTH didn't you use Pneuma?!

 

[bjaxx87]

So... Would it actually kill Nintendo to show some early beta footage of games nowadays? It's okay if BOTW2 and MP4 are still taking a while but come on - show us SOMETHING to keep the hype up. I really miss those E3 shows where we got glimpses of versions that completely differed from the final product (like e.g. Ocarina of Time).

 

[Deleted User]

not gonna lie, excited for Miitopia and Splatoon 3.

 

[spotanjo3]

For me:

Skyward Sword HD
Ninja Gaiden Series
Monster Hunter Rise
Ghosts 'N Goblins Resurrection
Breath of the Wild 2

 

[Ajlr]

I mean, there was that fanmade "Wii U remake" that was released years ago, that looked bloody glorious; I'd have preferred Nintendo do something like that than port a frustrating piece of Wii-exclusive, gimmicky garbage over.

Gimmicky, eh? Did you hear Aonuma (or the translator) say that there will be button controls.

Im worried about how they thought mapping Skyward Sword Controls to the right stick was revolutionary lmfao

Well Sony did that years ago on Ape Escape, and it's still fine.

 

[Fyrus]

Excuse me Nintendo. For the Ultimate Smash.... WHY ON EARTH didn't you use Pneuma?!

I really expected Pneuma to be their Final Smash, but I guess it makes it more in line with Shulk's

 

[Andy2001]

Told yall plebs them indies gon be lit!

 

[Bladexdsl]

yet another absolute joke of a direct

 

[The_Hulkster]

Feels like an early EOL announcement for the Switch if this is their big direct for the year.
Not to say these aren't great games but it's very much in line with older game announcements.

Just like Zelda TP, BOTW2 will probably see a dual release for current and next-gen consoles.
Splatoon 3 will see a re-release for next-gen.
Metroid will be a next-gen system seller.

Going by the release trends of Nintendo I'm calling it for March-May 2022 for next-gen to be announced
And September-November 2022 for the next gen to be released.

 

[Deleted User]

I'm not going to buy any new console unless it's hackable.

Also, I thought this direct was pretty good, don't know what you all expected.

 

[spotanjo3]

I did enjoy Tales from the Borderlands, but it came out in 2014.

Well, some people dont have PS3. They deserved to play those games. Just like Ninja Gaiden series are finally coming to Switch. I loved those games on PS3.. For Nintendo Switch, I dont mind to replay it because I finished Ninja Gaiden 2, I think. Never finished 1st and third. They are too hard.

 

[FAST6191]

So more Portendo Switch and sequels to games only rabid fanboys care about.

"Nintendo talks about not having been able to have a real Nintendo Direct for quite some time, but the company is excited for today's announcements."
Only reason for that is laziness or nothing to show.

 

[Doran754]

I was appalled by everything. I wasn't excited for a single announcement.

Inside N headquarters: "Ha, they thought we were gonna port another Wii U game, we sure showed them by going to the Wii!. Hahahaha those morons."

 

[Lacius]

I would have had to wait 10 or so more hours to watch it and I find cutting 45 minutes from a 50 minute task to be a good ratio. For me alone that's a lot. Consider that amount of time saved to be compounded for every other person who prefers this format. Thanks.

I was making a joke about how awful this Direct was. I wish I had just read the cliff notes like you had.

 

[DannX]

Well, not exactly what I was expecting (no SMT or Ace Attorney news), but I'm excited nonetheless...
I did NOT see Pyra coming to Smash. Trailer was cool. Shulk was like "Mithra, you here too?!" and Rex was like "But I thought it would be ME in Smash!" ROFL
Really excited about Skyward Sword, I never got to play it on the Wii, and making motion controls not mandatory is the best decision they could do.
Other games that caught my interest: No More Heroes 3, Bravely Default, Tri Strategy, Legend of Mana and Saga Frontier Remaster, Samurai Warriors 5, Ninja Gaiden Collection (never played one of those, as good time as any), Monster Hunter Rise... heck, I might even try Splatoon 3!
I'm gonna be broke this year, but I'm happy.

 

[lordelan]

My two cents...

Smash:
Never played any Xenoblade. Always wanted to but time is an expensive good, u know?
I don't know how to feel about that announcement. She's cute and all but another anime style sword (kind of) character. Also she's wasting one of the few left spaces for Ultimate characters. On the other hand her playstyle seem to be different enough and looks quite interesting. Still hoping for Rayman though.

Fall Guys:
Cool I guess? Never played it but saw the hype on YouTube back then. Heard and saw much about cheaters and shitty netcode though. I hope they somehow addressed those issues.

Outer Wilds:
While this game always looked good, I never knew about that 22 minute time limit thing. Dunno if that's my cup of tea.

Famicom Detective Club:
Never played any games like that but they look interesting too. Funny that Ninty is doing a west release with something that has "Famicom" in the name.

Samurai Warriors 5:
Meh. Apart from Hyrule Warriors which I played for the Zelda chars and art style, I never really enjoyed any of those warrior games. Stupid gameplay and a waste of time. However there seem to be a fanbase for those games so ... enjoy it.

Legend of Mana Remake:
Nice one. Looks really good tbh. Since this is an absolute RPG classic I'm surprised it didn't gain that much attention/mentioning sinc the Direct.

Mario Golf:
Finally a new Mario sports game. I would have prefered a new Strikers by ages (as anyone else) but still better than nothing I guess?
The biggest news (even of the whole Direct) for me is something else though:
Nintendo didn't give up on the Miis which is something I'm really happy of. I don't care for Miitopia but adding Miis to Golf is something I was hopelessly wishing for while I watched the first few seconds of the Gold trailer. When it got to the point where Miis are really going to be in the game I couldn't believe my eyes. Nice one. Why didn't Nintendo add them to Mario Tennis Aces?!
(yes, I'm a big fan of Miis)

Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville:
Don't really care. The old TD game would've been nice.

Miitopia:
As I said I don't care. The gameplay is not for me. Still another evidence that Nintendo isn't letting go of the Miis at least for now so ... cool.

Star Wars Hunter:
Big Star Wars fan so that got me hyped. Don't have a clue what it's all about though. Hope they show more gameplay soon.

Skyward Sword HD:
Taking all those rumors into account it took Nintendo ages to finally put this thing out on the Switch.
I take every Zelda game they throw at me and am really glad they included a (somewhat) classic control option in as well.
The textures are poor as f*ck though for something that has "HD" in its name.
Twilight Princess HD on the Wii U looked way better than this is technically the older one of those games.
Also I still hope for OoT + MM + WW + TP for the Switch.

Splatoon 3:
Don't care. This goes for all other unmentioned games as well.

All in all a good Direct since I didn't expect much.

 

[godreborn]

told ya skyward sword was coming. I was just reminded of that either article or thread where skyward sword was placed on some website selling games, then quickly removed over a year ago. then, there's another article where Nintendo denied it was coming.

 

[Valwinz]

it was trash for something we waited 500+ days

 

[Espen84]

Was it just me who got really disappointed in this Nintendo Direct ?? I feel Nintendo have forsaken me the last couple years I want donkey Kong, Metroid game, more super Mario, Zelda Bayonetta. or at least something other then ports and remakes of 30 year old games. That are good yes but still.