Nintendo Direct Thread (Do NOT post here unless one is announced)

Hey a Direct was announced I can post here now
 
Wow this Direct is one of the best I've ever seen. I put the September Direct as the best one last year but still like only a lower 6/10, but this one is like a 9/10. Especially since EarthBound will be on the Switch now!
 
Good to see that Mario Strikers is coming back, but it does feel kind of mixed, seeing as the Kritters are now surpassed by Boom Booms.

As for the track expansion packs for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, that probably should've been saved for the next Mario Kart installment.
 
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I take it Mario Strikers was the only announced Mario game? I understand there would be lots of people excited for that, but it's not the sort of game I buy.
 
I'm more puzzled about the idea of adding more tracks onto a game that's almost 5 years old. My time with Mario Kart 8 has been over for a long time now, and I would've more preferred the announcement of a new Mario Kart installment.

Anyway, on another subject, the idea of adding new difficulty modes for Metroid Dread does seems rather genius if you're trying to make it accessible to more players. The newbies can get to experience the game on an easier setting, while the hardcore gamers can make things harder by being killed by a single hit.
 
Overall I think the direct was pretty good. I wasn't super excited about the first party reveals, but some of the third party stuff caught me off guard.

The new FE warriors game looks cool, I hope it runs better than Age of Calamity. I'm glad Salmon Run is coming back in Splatoon 3, but I wish we got a solid release date. The new stuff for Metroid Dread is neat. Hopefully casual gamers will buy it now that there's an easy mode. Since Earthbound is on NSO I might give it a second shot (Still hoping Super Mario RPG gets added someday).

The Portal collection was surprising, especially since those will be playable on the Steam Deck soon. I really hope they add gyro support, and maybe some way to access the Steam Workshop in Portal 2. A physical release would be nice.

I'm very mixed on the Mario Kart 8 DLC. I'm happy they're making more content, but I'm not a fan of paid DLC for what's supposed to be a "complete" version of an old game. It's nice than Mario Kart Tour tracks are being added, because now I can play them on something that isn't my phone. I'd be more excited if they were making actual NEW tracks, and not just remastering old ones. Also I'm like 99% sure now that Mario Kart 9 isn't happening for a while. MK8 will be Nintendo's GTAV.
 
Overall I think the direct was pretty good. I wasn't super excited about the first party reveals, but some of the third party stuff caught me off guard.

The new FE warriors game looks cool, I hope it runs better than Age of Calamity. I'm glad Salmon Run is coming back in Splatoon 3, but I wish we got a solid release date. The new stuff for Metroid Dread is neat. Hopefully casual gamers will buy it now that there's an easy mode. Since Earthbound is on NSO I might give it a second shot (Still hoping Super Mario RPG gets added someday).

The Portal collection was surprising, especially since those will be playable on the Steam Deck soon. I really hope they add gyro support, and maybe some way to access the Steam Workshop in Portal 2. A physical release would be nice.

I'm very mixed on the Mario Kart 8 DLC. I'm happy they're making more content, but I'm not a fan of paid DLC for what's supposed to be a "complete" version of an old game. It's nice than Mario Kart Tour tracks are being added, because now I can play them on something that isn't my phone. I'd be more excited if they were making actual NEW tracks, and not just remastering old ones. Also I'm like 99% sure now that Mario Kart 9 isn't happening for a while. MK8 will be Nintendo's GTAV.
Kinda like how Pikmin 4 is their Half Life 3.
 
The new Mario Strikers looks cool, but I feel that it should've been announced a lot earlier. Better late than never I guess…

Mario Kart 8 didn't need additional courses, especially considering how old it is. Just give us a new Mario Kart that isn't Tour already, Nintendo! I know 8's a bestseller on the Switch, but it didn't need more dlc than it had on the Wii U.

I'm glad Klonoa's getting revived. It's a very forgotten series and I hope it sells well.

I like that we get to upgrade the copy abilities in the new Kirby game (This system looks similar to how they did it in the Kirby Clash games.) However, I dislike Mouthful Mode. It looks like an opposite to Hypernova from Triple Deluxe. And while I liked Hypernova because of its mechanics and how Kirby can turn his suction into a literal black hole, Mouthful Mode looks very weird and uncanny.

So the direct was okay in my opinion.
 
My thoughts (and confusing breakdown) on the Direct:

Advance Wars Reboot Camp seems cool, but I won't touch on as it had already been announced a while ago.

Mario Strikers Battle League was the winner of the Direct for me, as a player of the original, that was something that got me excited.

I was expecting a bit more on Splatoon 3, but nevertheless, Salmon Run: Next Wave seems interesting.

A new Kirby game is always fun to see, looking forward to see how the new gameplay turns out.

The most unexpected announcement was to me, the Portal Companion Collection, also the best of the remakes announced in the Direct.

Disney also announced another Kart game which I'm sure will end up in bargain bins in a the near future.

Nintendo Switch Sports is a step forward for the series after Wii Sports Club, with a wider variety of sports (though still less than Resort by a decent amount). Of course you can't have Wii Sports without Tennis or Bowling, so that's cool to see back. Swordplay is an odd choice to add as a returning sport, but I'm not complaining as it was one of the sports I played the most. Soccer's a good addition to the sports list, Volleyball and Badminton are alright choices, but I don't think I will play them much. I would rather have Golf released on launch, but it isn't the worst decision they've done. This earned it 2nd place in best new games.

Baseball may not be included in the list of sports (Boxing is also excluded, along with the other Wii Sports Resort sports), but at least we have MLB: The Show 2022 which I'm not going to buy for reasons like I'm not interested in it.

Before we get to Mario Kart, I need to mention Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound's inclusion in the NES/SNES library is cool, but what isn't as good is still no Mother 3 ports (most likely it's a Japan only GBA game), and the fact that Nintendo Switch Online is needed. I miss the old days of just using my Nintendo Points to buy games without needing to sign up for anything.

And now we can finally get into Mario Kart 9... Nope, here's retro tracks as DLC. At this point, it's been 5 years since the last mainline Mario Kart entry (8 discounting ports), so I would rather have a new Mario Kart release in the style of Mario Party Superstars (in fact I don't even care if it has near similar gameplay to MK8D, identical character lineup or it not being a major release, for example Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Deluxe) then have new DLC for the game. 48 new tracks is something that I wish I could look forward to, especially Coconut Mall and Choco Mountain, and the inclusion of MKT tracks is pretty awesome as well. Shroom Ridge is a good course for me, but Sky Garden was never a favorite of mine, and Toad Raceway was one of my less enjoyable MK7 courses. They have enough content to make a whole new mainline game, they have the ability to do so, and 8 Deluxe has been out for 5 years this coming April, so I don't see why delaying Mario Kart 9 for another 2 years (at least, to complete the track list) would benefit anybody. New characters would've also been cool, and brand new tracks would be a welcome addition (again, at least we get Tour tracks, which I guess is new to console Mario Kart) but the real question on my mind is will they choose 2 more Rainbow Roads to end the 6th and final set? Only time will tell.

Anyway, I think that's enough rambling for one Direct. Anything else that happened in the Direct isn't of any interest to me (sorry Xenoblade Chronicles 3, you're just not the right game for me). Overall this was a good Direct, still wished for more with Mario Kart, so I'll give it a 8/10.
 
The more I think about it there should have been a Mario Kart 9 instead of dragging out 8 Deluxe so I'm bumping my score down to be an 8/10 as well. But Xenoblade Chronicles 3, a new Fire Emblem: Warriors game based on Three Houses, and EarthBound coming to the Switch more than make up for it.
 
Sooo…they can incorporate voice acting in a small scaled game like Advance Wars, but not Pokémon Legends Arceus? Nintendo's business practices confuse me.
Maybe they just wanted it to feel more traditional in Legends: Arceus.
 
And now we can finally get into Mario Kart 9... Nope, here's retro tracks as DLC. At this point, it's been 5 years since the last mainline Mario Kart entry (8 discounting ports), so I would rather have a new Mario Kart release in the style of Mario Party Superstars (in fact I don't even care if it has near similar gameplay to MK8D, identical character lineup or it not being a major release, for example Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Deluxe) then have new DLC for the game. 48 new tracks is something that I wish I could look forward to, especially Coconut Mall and Choco Mountain, and the inclusion of MKT tracks is pretty awesome as well. Shroom Ridge is a good course for me, but Sky Garden was never a favorite of mine, and Toad Raceway was one of my less enjoyable MK7 courses. They have enough content to make a whole new mainline game, they have the ability to do so, and 8 Deluxe has been out for 5 years this coming April, so I don't see why delaying Mario Kart 9 for another 2 years (at least, to complete the track list) would benefit anybody. New characters would've also been cool, and brand new tracks would be a welcome addition (again, at least we get Tour tracks, which I guess is new to console Mario Kart) but the real question on my mind is will they choose 2 more Rainbow Roads to end the 6th and final set? Only time will tell.
I actually don't really mind that it's just dlc, because they said that the tracks are going to finished be rolled out at least by the end of 2023 and at that point I wouldn't be shocked if they released extra characters too, which are the only things people care about in Mario Kart (other than the karts I suppose).

There's like, a lot of tracks, too.
 
I could never get into Wii Sports. I never saw the appeal for these games. If you take the Miis out and replace them with regular people, they're just basic sports games, which is a shame, because Nintendo takes these sports and does something you couldn't do in real life, these games aren't really different to what you can do in real life, I have more fun with Madden…OLD GEN Madden.
 
I could never get into Wii Sports. I never saw the appeal for these games. If you take the Miis out and replace them with regular people, they're just basic sports games, which is a shame, because Nintendo takes these sports and does something you couldn't do in real life, these games aren't really different to what you can do in real life, I have more fun with Madden…OLD GEN Madden.
I mean technically I think you can use Miis, but yeah the normal person designs are uninspired and bad. And this is coming from someone who doesn't even like as much modes in non-Mii-based games if you can only play as a Mii
 
Mario Kart tracks are like a whole new game for half the price so nice. Would have liked a Double-Dash 2p co-op mode thing but oh well

Mario Strikers hell yeah!
 
My prayers have been answered, Earthbound (and Beginnings) are on the Switch! Sadly it's not letting me download NES .. at least I got SNES

A tad annoying the MK Tracks are going to be released in brackets over 2 years.. makes me want to wait till the end of '23 to download them (I won't wait)
Although I'm super excited to see MKT tracks remastered!
 
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