Clocking in at a hair over 50 minutes long, Nintendo’s latest Direct was no brief affair. There was a lot covered during the presentation, and there’s a good reason for that, as this was the first traditional Direct Nintendo has hosted in quite some time. In case you missed it, we’ll be briefly recapping all of the announcements here, along with embedding the VOD of Direct so you can watch it from start to finish if you wish.
The Direct opened with the reveal of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s next DLC fighters: Pyra and Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. We know next to nothing about Pyra and Mythra at the moment, though it seems that they aren’t separate characters. Instead, it appears that Pyra can transform into Mythra during battle (like old school Zelda and Sheik), though we’ll have to wait for Masahiro Sakurai’s inevitable deep dive to learn more.
After the announcement that Pyra and Mythra are heading to Smash, we received some rapid-fire announcements. Fall Guys is heading to Switch later this summer, as is critically-acclaimed indie gem Outer Wilds. Murder mystery fans will want to check out the Switch remakes of Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir and Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind on May 14th, while those who enjoy Koei Tecmo’s Samurai Warriors series will be getting Samurai Warriors 5 this summer.
Then came the news that Legend of Mana is getting a remake that will be available on June 24th. Of course, these days it isn’t really a Nintendo Direct if we don’t see anything from the Monster Hunter franchise, and during yesterday’s Direct, we got just that with a new trailer for Monster Hunter Rise, which you can see embedded above.
Following that Monster Hunter Rise trailer, we got what was maybe the biggest surprise of the Direct for a lot of people: Mario Golf Super Rush, which will feature Speed Golf and Story modes when it releases on June 25th. After the reveal of Mario Golf Super Rush, it was time for another flurry of game announcements that included Tales from the Borderlands (March 24th), Capcom Arcade Stadium (available now), Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse (March 16th), No More Heroes 3 (August 27th), Neon White (Winter 2021), DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power (June 4th), Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville Complete Edition (March 19th), and Miitopia (May 21st).
After that flood of game announcements, Nintendo slowed things down a bit to show off some Mario-themed items that are heading to Animal Crossing: New Horizons later this month. Then we got to see the first trailer for Square Enix’s Project Triangle Strategy, which is the next game in the HD-2D series that was kicked off with Octopath Traveler. Instead of traditional JRPG combat, this is a tactical RPG, so fans of games like Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre will probably want to check this out when it launches in 2022.
We also received word that Zynga is working on a competitive Star Wars multiplayer game called Star Wars Hunters, but unfortunately, we didn’t get to see any gameplay from it. That was followed by the announcement of EA’s Knockout City, which is arriving on May 21st. NIS America is also bringing us a new game called World’s End Club on May 28th, while Hades – which was one of the best games to come out in 2020 – will be getting a physical release on Switch on March 19th.
Switch owners who want to be challenged will probably want to pick up the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection on June 10th, which includes Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3. We then got word that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will be getting an expansion pass that will add new weapons, characters, stages, costumes, and challenges to the game in two waves later this year.
Given that the release of Bravely Default 2 is just a few days away, we expected to see a new trailer for the game, which you can see above. We also got a look at Ghosts n’ Goblins Resurrected, which is out on February 25th. That quick peek was followed by new trailers for SaGa Frontier Remastered (April 15th) and Apex Legends (March 9th), the latter of which will have a double XP bonus running for the first two weeks after launch.
As the show closed out, The Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma came on screen and said that while he didn’t have anything to share about the sequel to Breath of the Wild, we will learn more about it later this year. In lieu of new information about the next Breath of the Wild game, Aonuma announced The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD for Nintendo Switch. Motion controls are hanging around in the Switch release, though players will also have the option of using button controls for the first time ever.
While you might think that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD was the final announcement of the show, there was one more announcement to go. Nintendo closed out the Direct by revealing that Splatoon 3 is in the works, though we’re going to have to wait until 2022 for that one. That was all from the latest Nintendo Direct, but if you want to watch the presentation in its entirety, you can find it embedded above.
Keyword: Nintendo Direct 2021 round-up: The biggest game news just confirmed