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Nintendo's first 2024 Direct has just arrived, and even though it's a Partner Showcase and not 1st party, it comes with it's own set of reveals and announcements.

Let's begin with the Direct:

• Grounded, a game where a bunch of characters are reduced to a minuscule size and must work together to survive in day-to-day stages, like backyards. Coming April 16th
• Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist, players take control of a character named Lilac, in a world that has come to a demise when the world's magic became corrupted, battling creatures known as homunculus, which upon defeat can join the player. Coming 2024
• Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure, a puzzle game where the player moves in grids to traverse the world and dungeons.Coming this summer.
• Unicorn Overlord, a strategy game that sees a young prince fights alongside five nations to liberate the world from an Empire's dominion. Coming March 8th, with a demo available today.
• Monster Hunter Stories, originally released on the Nintendo 3DS returns in a fully fledged HD remaster, with full voice acting, to re-experience this 3DS turn-based RPG with brand new graphics. Coming this summer.
• Epic Mickey Rebrushed, a remake of the original Epic Mickey released back in the Wii days, which sees Mickey using a magic paintbrush to escape from a magical wasteland of rejected and forgotten characters. Coming 2024.
• Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, a "definitive edition" for the 5th installment beloved RPG series, with a brand new storyline, new demons and locations. Coming June 21st, 2024.
• Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection, a package that includes the original 2000s Battlefront and Battlefront II games from the Star Wars franchise, with the ability to play with up to 64 players online, with brand new playable characters like Kit Fisto and new maps. Coming March 14th, with preorders starting today. This collection will come to other platforms as well, like Steam and Xbox.
• South Park: Snow Day!, an action game from the South Park franchise, with options to customize your character to join the main cast, and play online co-op in the snow-filled streets of the town. Coming March 26th.
• Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream, a new entry in the Sword Art Online series, where the virtual world has gone haywire and past and present collided. Save the world in a single player story or battle online with up to 20 players. Coming 2024.
• Gundam Breaker 4, choose from over 250+ base kits to customize your own mobile suit known as Gunpla, to then use in a variety of combat missions against enemies and acquire new parts to create the ultimate Gunpla. Coming 2024.
• Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, a brand new entry in the Super Monkey Ball series after a decade, with over 200 stages and optional motion controls, being able to blast through obstacles or make your own shortcuts to get to the goal, with 4 player local coop or up 16 players online in either Race Mode, Banana Hunt, Robot Smash and more. Coming June 25th, 2024, exclusively on Switch at the moment.
• World of Goo 2, a sequel to the physics-based puzzle cult classic indie title released more than 15 years ago on the Wii. Coming May 23rd as console exclusive to the Switch.
• Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, a new entry in the Fantasy Life series, travel to the past to restore an isolated and wasteland island into its former glory, and choose between different "lives" to make certain tasks, and up to 4 players can play online. Coming October 10th, 2024.
• Another Crab's Treasure, travel the depths of a polluted sea in a "souls-like" adventure, taking control of a crab that can use a whole variety of things as protection, like cups and cans, to survive and use shells that grant special abilities. Coming April 25th, 2024.
• Penny's Big Breakaway, play as Penny and her yo-yo in this exciting 3D platformer, from the creators of Sonic Mania. Perform tricks and transformations to get through the different ordeals you stumble upon. Coming out today.
• Suika Game Multi-player mode Expansion Pack, a paid DLC for Suika, where players can choose between the original gameplay, Time Limit or Attack modes. The DLC is available today, as well as the original game with the DLC in a bundle.
• Pepper Grinder, an action platformer where you can dig and travel through terrain, pulverizing enemies in the way. Coming March 28th, with a demo available today.
• Pocket Card Jockey: Ride On!, a remastered version of the Pocket Card Jockey, where you breed horses and use cards to power up the horses in races. Coming out today.
• A quick glimpse of other titles coming to the Switch is shown:
  • Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley (March 7th)
  • Tales of Kenzera: ZAU (April 23rd)
  • Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- Sweep the Board! (April 26th)
  • Kingdom Come Deliverance – Royal Edition (March 15th)
  • Contra: Operation Galuga, a remake of the original NES Contra coming March 12th
  • Pentiment (February 22nd).
• More titles are coming for Nintendo Switch Online based on Rare's IPs:
  • Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (SNES)
  • Killer Instinct (SNES)
  • Blast Corps (N64)
  • Snake Rattle N' Roll (NES)
  • R.C. Pro-Am
• Endless Ocean Luminous, explore incredible undersea regions with up to 30 players online to plunge into the depths together, with over 500 species of marine life to encounter, including near-extinct and mythical creatures. Coming May 2nd, pre-orders available now.

And that's a wrap! What did you think of this Partner Direct?
Share your thoughts in the comments, while we look forward to the next main Nintendo Direct and Metroid Prime 4's proper announcement.

PS: Additionally, it seems like Nintendo Switch Online for Japan will be getting Mother 3, but as always, only exclusive to Japan.

 

[Azael_inf]

Alright, won't lie. Seeing Pocket Card Jockey does excite me.

 

[eyeliner]

Nothing from Shin'en... Bummer.

 

[chrisrlink]

yay more games to pirate er... buy

 

[Spectremint]

Nothing from Shin'en... Bummer.

Shin'en... that's a name I haven't heard in a while. I played demo versions of Art of Balance and Jett Rocket on my Wii as a kid... good times.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

I actually leaped out of my chair when I saw Gundam Breaker 4!

Holy shit. Has a non SRW or SD Gundam game ever came to Nintendo before? Those games exclusively skip Nintendo. This could be a whole new era if it does well enough.

 

[BaamAlex]

The only interesting things for me are monster hunter stories (I have it installed on my 3ds, but never played it) and smt5. Is this now a full fledged game or just a dlc?

 

[Spectremint]

The only interesting things for me are monster hunter stories (I have it installed on my 3ds, but never played it) and smt5. Is this now a full fledged game or just a dlc?

If you're asking about the latter, Vengeance similar to Atlus' other SMT-Persona definitive editions (e.g. Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal); it's the entire original game, but adds a new extra story line, new demons, and new story choices. The difference between this and the Persona definitive versions is that Vengeance appears to have an entirely seperate, brand new story line, instead of the Persona games appending new story onto the end of the initial game.

 

[BlueFox gui]

oh man what an amazing stream for penny's big breakaway release announcement, since no other good game was shown, only penny, god blets

 

[Ligeia]

BLAST CORPS !!!!!

 

[17hitcombooo]

There is a great video explaining the problem. But a simplified explanation is due to parody laws. The soundtrack of the game would need to be overhauled to be legally released.

copyright dont be absolutely evil challenge (impossible)

 

[fvig2001]

Sad part is that I was excited about the Japan only stuff, which will probably not reach the west

1. Reynatis
2. Fit Boxing Vocaloid
3. That guitar game

 

[Jayro]

The best looking game here was Pepper Grinder, and it looks great... But that's kind of sad over-all. And they usually save the best stuff for last, but they put Endless Ocean? Literally a big fat nothing burger for a Direct. At least they try to put all the trash into one large Direct.

 

[hobbledehoy899]

My mom has been waiting for a third Endless Ocean for so long that she actually cried tears of joy at Luminous's reveal.

 

[MadMakuFuuma]

epic mickey is a good game. yes, buggy as h3ll, but fun. i hope the switch version fixes those bugs, and for a better framerate than wii version. sadly, first game was a Nintendo (wii) exclusive, but the sequel was released on multi systems, so why not make a "collection" instead of one game?

 

[Spectremint]

epic mickey is a good game. yes, buggy as h3ll, but fun. i hope the switch version fixes those bugs, and for a better framerate than wii version. sadly, first game was a Nintendo (wii) exclusive, but the sequel was released on multi systems, so why not make a "collection" instead of one game?

My best guess is that they're doing the first one because it's the best regarded of the three and to possibly test the waters of remastering/remaking the other two games and how much people might want such a thing.

 

[Ryab]

copyright dont be absolutely evil challenge (impossible)

You think any major company with billions of dollars isnt going to get every cent out of anyone they can?

 

[console]

I know Nintendo is slower roll out new games. Still no Metroid Prime 4. That's sad. Nintendo eShop online store is not good for everyone. Remember Nintendo did kill support off eShop on Nintendo Wii, Wii U, DSi and 3DS/2DS/XL before.

I still have my own legal game bought Blast Corps (N64) for my Nintendo 64 system. It's my old favorite crazy game! Destroy the cities! Destroy New York cities! Destroy power grid stations! We love to destroy any cities! Blast out cities are fun! It's fine only in game period.

Never do in real life on world due to skyrocket crimes that everyone know. That's would put a lot danger to us, people and also affect biggest problems like food and drink supply chains to destroyed then give us and people to grave death after food & drink supply chain shortages to empty! Bury our dead bodies in graveyard where near to church in near future anytime. RIP

Our life are very short. We don't live longer. Have everyone check all people on news and newspapers are dying to death due to aging, sick, accident, etc in many different ways. That's fact story.


Reason why I love Rural so much and it's best ever than all cities. Because I hate cities due to gangsters, drugs, robbery, etc where crime rate are high. Rural area is very beautiful place than ugly cities.

 

[wiiAdventurer]

There goes another Wii exclusive. I'm not too surprised about Epic Mickey (it is a good game!), though I am surprised about Nordiq doing it given the source. Though Nordiq seems to do a ton of ports.. I fully expect them to get to Deadly Creatures at some point.

Another thing that surprised me was that an Endless Ocean was shown given that this was a partner direct. Not played a lot of the series but it looks pretty nice in the trailer.

I've never played Fantasy Life but always wanted to do so, very curious how 2 will turn out.

 

[LightBeam]

If I'm not mistaken, that Mickey Brushy game was a glitchy mess in the Wii, no?

It's been a very long time but I have no memories of that, neither in my own playthroughs or reviews/talks etc ... And I'm pretty sure they wouldn't consider remaking the bugs too lol

Contra: Operation Galuga, a remake of the original NES Contra coming March 12th

Damn, I thought it was original and I wish it was. Like a sequel to Contra 4 (I do remember the sublime pixelart on the DS)

Star Wars Battlefront Classic Collection, a package that includes the original 2000s Battlefront and Battlefront II games from the Star Wars franchise, with the ability to play with up to 64 players online, with brand new playable characters like Kit Fisto and new maps. Coming March 14th, with preorders starting today. This collection will come to other platforms as well, like Steam and Xbox.

Pretty cool announcement but I hope it has gyro control unlike Republic Commando. It was a real bummer to realize it's not there. I mean, who tf thought it was a good idea to release an FPS on switch without gyro support ???? (and no aim assist either, it's painful)

The 64 online players also made me giggle. It's an old game so it should work properly but I find this pretty funny nonetheless

Endless Ocean Luminous, explore incredible undersea regions with up to 30 players online

It's supposed to be a beautiful game so I guess we'll see how it goes. I guess it's not being hosted on Nintendo's infrastructure given the usual multiplayer quality

 

[Bladexdsl]

If I'm not mistaken, that Mickey Brushy game was a glitchy mess in the Wii, no?

it wasn't buggy it was just badly designed. the 2nd was a lot better