The long-awaited first party Nintendo Direct has (mostly) not disappointed, with far more games being unveiled beyond just the Zelda remake and the new Xenoblade.
It seems even Nintendo is not immune to rumours and leaks, as not only was today’s Nintendo Direct predicted but so too was it’s most important reveal: a big budget remake of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time. Surprisingly little of the remake was shown, implying that there’ll be a dedicated Direct sometime later this year, but that only left more room for other surprises.
That included a new entry in the Xenoblade series, as well as remasters of the three mainline entries, and the first proper gameplay footage of Kingdom Hearts 4.
There were no completely unexpected new first party games, since a new variant of Wii Sports had been rumoured, but it was still a solid Direct, with plenty of games and some increasingly impressive third party support from other publishers.
The Direct was 55 minutes long, so we’re not going to show every trailer here, but it opened up with a new preview for Rhythm Paradise Groove, which is out on July 2 and, at the moment at least, is the last Switch 1-only game that Nintendo intends to release. Although they did recently hint that they could make more Switch 1 or cross-gen games in the future, given the upcoming price rise for the Switch 2.
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There were a number of previously unannounced third party games for Switch 2, perhaps the most surprising of which was Stellar Blade, which is currently a PlayStation 5 console exclusive, and is due out sometime this year.
Capcom also announced Devil May Cry 5 Devil Hunter Edition for June 23, Onimusha: Way Of The Sword (including optional Joy-Con motion controls) for September 25, and Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen for October 9. Plus, Atlus’ Metaphor: ReFantazio is arriving on November 12 – although there was no mention of any Persona games.
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave
Fortune’s Weave had already been announced but the Nintendo Direct gave it a release date of September 17, as if that month wasn’t already stuffed full of new releases. In fact, we wonder if the reason Zelda and The Duskbloods weren’t given release dates is because Nintendo is looking to use different ones than originally intended, before so many dates were announced at Summer Game Fest and the other showcases last week.
As for Fortune’s Weave, it seems to be channelling Three Houses a lot more than the more recent Fire Emblem Engage, with four different characters to take control of in some sort of gladiatorial competition, that appears to have more serious consequences. There’s also a special edition planned, with maps and other merch, should you be interested.
Nintendo Switch Sports Resort
There’s never been an actual Wii Sports 2 but the legacy has continued across all the subsequent Nintendo consoles and this seems to be an amalgam of all those previous titles, including Wii Sports Resort and Nintendo Switch Sports for the Switch 1. A total of 12 different sports are included, namely Boxing, Table Tennis, Archery, Tennis, Volleyball, Bowling, Basketball, Golf, Thumb Wrestling, Skateboarding (with mouse controls), Power Cruising (aka Wave Race style jet-skiing), and Prop Plane.
You can also do Jump Rope to warm up, with all of the games featuring various kinds of motion controls and online features. It’ll almost certainly never be the phenomenon Wii Sports was, but the Switch 1 was good, casual-friendly fun and this looks to be the same.
Final Fantasy Resonance
We’ve not often been impressed by Square Enix’s HD-2D games but this one looks like it might finally get the balance right between new and old school appeal. It’s the first of the games that’s officially part of the Final Fantasy series, to the point where you can summon characters like Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy 7 to help you out in battle.
The combat is turn-based and everything looks like a souped up SNES game, which makes you wonder whether this might not be the best way to remake Final Fantasy 6 one day. It’s a multiformat release, so not a Switch 2 exclusive, and will be out on October 22.
The Duskbloods
While FromSoftware’s Switch 2 exclusive multiplayer game did make an appearance, it was only for less than a minute and didn’t even come with a release date, which makes us wonder whether it used to be late September as well.
Instead, a closed network test was announced for this summer, although no exact date was given. That timing suggests the full game won’t be out quite very late in the year, assuming it isn’t pushed back into 2027. Although you would’ve thought Nintendo would’ve mentioned that, if it was the case.
Splatoon Raiders
Nintendo spent far more time on Splatoon Raiders, even though that will be getting its own Direct on June 30, when it will go into more depth on what to expect from the spin-off. The game Is due to be released on July 23 and is primarily a single-player game, with no competitive multiplayer.
There is some co-op but it looks increasingly like the game is a sort of single-player version of the (excellent) Salmon Run mode from the mainline games, mixed in with some island exploration and treasure hunting.
The action looks pleasingly intense, with lots of upgrades, called Splatellites, that almost make it look like a 2D shooter, in terms of the amount of bullets (well, paint) flying about. The game’s out on July 23, with new Joy-Con colours being released at the same time.
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