The SG Staff is here to provide their thoughts on the newest Nintendo Direct! Let us know what you thought in the comments below!
At least they moved quickly, for the most part. Rapid-fire announcements of the small stuff is probably the best way to go for these things, and I appreciated that pacing. More Kirby is nice. More BoxBoy is nice. Third party ports of games that came out 4+ years ago are nice. I went in with no expectations, and while I wasn’t really pleasantly surprised by anything, it had an appropriate amount of content, and gave us two more in-depth looks at some first-party exclusives that are coming this summer, in ARMS and Splatoon 2. For what’s definitely an “in-between” Direct that’s meant to flesh out the coming months before E3 hits, it did its job. And finally some long-gestating confirmations on Minecraft for the Switch, the final six Smash amiibos, and additional accessories should be well-appreciated. ARMS and Splatoon 2 will slot in nicely during the summer in June and July respectively. They had a low bar to meet, and they did just that. You don’t have to a hit home run every game– going 1 for 4 with a single isn’t the worst thing in the world.
As soon as I saw the new format of the direct with the column of headlines, I was immediately interested. I wasn’t expecting much out of this direct, as I anticipated a lot of big-hitters to be saved for E3…and yet, despite this, there were some big surprises! Three Kirby games, even if they’re on the smaller side, and the two actually shown look pretty neat! I was fond of both of the modes in Kirby: Planet Robobot. I had a feeling we’d be seeing the third BOXBOY game, but I was surprised we didn’t see his amiibo that Japan got. Speaking of amiibo…I was entirely expecting the remaining Zelda amiibo to be announced, so it’s nice to see those. I’m not really liking the Twilight Princess Link, but the other two look pretty good. The real highlight for amiibo though are the Smash amiibo. I’m genuinely surprised that we not only got them revealed, not only did we get a release date for them, but we’re also getting alternate costumes of each of them! To an amiibo collector like me, that’s…a big hitter on my wallet. Otherwise, the ARMS coverage got me rather excited for the game, and other surprises such as PAYDAY 2 seem to hype folks up, so that’s good! Overall I thought this a decent direct, knocking out most of the titles that won’t be at E3.
Granted, I thought it would simply be okay, and it was. The Direct reinforced my desire for Splatoon 2 already, as I loved the Testfire. The ARMS section dragged for a bit but it’s got a good concept. As for the new stuff, I’m not hugely interested in most of it, but they look like nice additions. Top priority for me amongst the new stuff amounts to Rayman Legends, PAYDAY 2(seriously, who the hell thought this would come to Switch of all things) and NAMCO Museum(incidentally the first anyone’s heard of Splatterhouse in ages).
With a newer, more quick paced take on the old Nintendo Direct formula, the headlines and games come in rapid fire! I enjoyed the announcement of features in the two major games, ARMS and Splatoon 2. I always had a feeling the original Splatoon was missing something… Zombie fish! Taking cues from the Left 4 Dead series, Salmon Run makes a strong statement for both the Switch and the freshest sequel coming this summer.
As I stated on Twitter, the direct was pretty good, but not amazing. Koizumi delivered rapid fire announcements, and the new “headlines” format meant I was actively even when it was something I wasn’t too interested in. A lot of new stuff is coming — 6 Smash amiibo (Seriously?!), Pay Day 2, and boob physics. Nintendo had a variety of information in the stream, which meant there should have been something for everyone. ARMS demo went on for a bit too long, but I love Min Min’s design. Overall, it was a solid 8/10. Enough to hold us over until E3, but not enough to blow everyone’s mind away.
This Nintendo Direct did what it needed to do. While it wasn’t as content-heavy unlike some past directs, it firmly confirmed the release dates of some of the less-important titles and covered the games that are clearly being released near E3’s timespan. It was nice knowing some of the release dates and it definitely makes it seems there’s A LOT of more things to play this year. The final Smash Amiibo being announced was nice too. Overall, it was solid and really does tide me over ‘till E3 of this year.
It was fine. To be honest, it had a lot more content than I was expecting (and Namco Museum looks pretty rad), and that was only because of the most interesting thing about this presentation: its rapid fire format. While game-specific Directs or ones that take a deeper look into a few upcoming releases are good, a lot of these games are, to be honest, not so exciting as to demand a great deal of focus. This gives smaller games a nice little bit of time to shine and makes the amount of them more exciting than giving five to ten minutes for, say, another 3D Sonic game or Payday 2.
Also, Nintendo really needs to put this guy into ARMS:
I liked the fast format. Giving the right amount of time to present new games, and give snippets of new information about games that we already knew about. Now I’m more interested on ARMS, as you can play it even with 3 more people to increase its “party power”. At this point, the Switch is accomplishing its function as a party console, one that you can bring to a friends house and use in groups, which is really neat. One thing that I didn’t like that much was the slow pace of the Splatoon 2 presentation. I get that the Squid Research Lab has its charms, but it kinda stopped the pace of the presentation, however, Salmon Run looks really fun.
And one last thing… Those Smash amiibo look great, specially the Bayonetta Alt one.
I don’t have any profound comments to add that my peers haven’t already made. So I’ll say that I thought this Direct was solid and adequately helped fill in the gaps between now and E3. There weren’t any mindblowing reveals, of course, but I expect those are being saved for July. Also, I enjoyed the new format, too.
Yay Koizumi-san is back. I was hoping he would take over the new Nintendo Directs. And how new they are. I quite enjoy this new format of rapid-fire announcements. I think it’s the best way to cover as much as possible without wasting any time. As for those announcements I was pleasantly surprised, at least on 3DS. Hey! Pikmin looks much better than its initial reveal and is coming out a lot earlier than I expected. Ever Oasis as well. The new Kirby stuff was exciting and the 3rd party love was there. Also I was shocked to see Miitopia and Devilish Brain Training. What sorcery is this?!?
The Smash amiibo are finally coming and they are all getting alts. I don’t think I will be buying alts for them except Corrin (I cursed myself into getting all the Fire Emblem amiibo) but that is cool for those who liked the other style and bodes well for future alts like Robin. Briefly on the Switch stuff nothing major but it feels good to see the third party supports and even some more ‘mature’ games like Payday 2 coming to Switch. It’s not new but i’m sure many Nintendo fans never played it. Nintendo’s new IP, Project Mekuru seems interesting. Will need to see more.
Finally we have ARMS and Splatoon 2. I liked what I saw of both but I must say I was a little disappointed at the lack of content shown off. When Nintendo said it would be the focus I was expecting a lot more. Still what they showed was exciting and the new character for ARMS will certainly be a fan favourite. Splatoon 2 now gets Gears of Wars horde mode which is pretty much required in most shooters nowadays. As for the release dates ARMS is launching just a bit later than I was expecting, like right after E3, and Splatoon 2 is much earlier only be a month later. Gonna have to start saving up some money I think.
What did you think of the direct? Let us know in the comments below!
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As for my review…it’s gonna be so long. I’ve warned you…(lol)
First of all, it was surprising that they’ve changed the entire Direct to a new way of presenting. Although I’ve missed the “直接！(chokusetsu/Directly!)” pose, its good that they made the whole presentation faster than before, giving the minor ones a quick introduction with a release date, while the major one giving more time to introduce. However, I’ve been watching the Japanese version only, but the narration wasn’t something I liked about. But ignoring that, let’s get going to the games we’ve seen so far…
For the minor ones that was quickly introduced, most of that weren’t that impressing as I had no interest with. Game that was originated from a late night anime, never had an interest as I ain’t those hardcore otakus. Game that’s very famous of being a Rule 34 stuff, never had an interest either (and I must say, the way they dropped a pudding on the plate really sucked). Atlus games, Neo Geo games, Minecraft,…weren’t my favorite at all. Pay Day 2…never interested with those GTA craps. Furthermore, as I wasn’t expecting anything from this Direct, none of these titles ever surprised me. But other than those, I was really focused on something I really wanted to know a lot. Ever Oasis may not have much introduction, but I was looking forward for that game for a whole time since then, as glad it wasn’t cancelled. As I’m glad they provided the release date, I’m definitely getting it. Sonic Force at least introduced the Classic Sonic’s gameplay, but the unknown new character is something I’ve quite felt disappointed about. Well, not that it was confirmed that Boom Sonic’s not gonna join the game, which I’m not complaining about, but many viewers suspect its gotta be Bubsy, and I’d be so pissed if it was him. Sega did say the new character will be the “unexpected” one, and I would be disappointed for bringing a character that has no connection with Sonic. But so far, I need to wait for the answer ’til E3. Finally, Kirby’s 25th Anniversary was quite impressive. Not only they’d provide the upgraded versions of the mini-games from Planet Robobot, but even explained they’re planning to bring out a new fighting game for Kirby. One of my friend in Japan told me not to expect it for some reason, but I would like to see it, which probably might be introduced at E3.
For the amiibos, I wasn’t surprised with the Zelda amiibos, since they were mostly spoiled through leaked infos. But for the Smash amiibo…I’ll explain that in the different article.
Now for the major ones, although I still don’t have the Switch yet, its a good thing ARMS FINALLY brought a new character to the game, which five characters were never enough. MinMin is another unique character who uses kicks and noodles, and speaking of it the game still didn’t have a Chinese martial artists yet, so her inclusion was great. However, other than that, it wasn’t impressive as many others are something they’ve already introduced long ago, so there was nothing more new other than MinMin. However, many viewers have found out that there might be four more new characters in the game, as they found out their facial pictures hidden in the video, thus shown differently between the Japanese and Western vids. It’s a good thing they are bringing in more characters, but I don’t know whether I should get the game or not.
Finally, Splatoon 2’s new mode is another surprising thing to see. A new horde mode that looks like Dead Rising…that is something I’ve never seen it coming. I mean, I think this is the real game mode where teamwork really come to work. While the actual turf war doesn’t seem to involve teamwork so much as everybody would go independently on fighting each other only than accomplishing a certain goal, as there are possibilities that many would blame someone in the team for their failure (trust me, I’ve seen those). But for this horde mode, I guess teamwork will improve by helping each other accomplishing certain goals and even saving the defeated ones. But sadly, that was the only thing they’ve introduced. I was hoping for Callie’s whereabouts and what the Octarians are up to, which might be introduced at E3 as well. But seriously, I just don’t seem to like about this Inkling research team thing as their introduction is slow and lame, which is entirely meaningless.
So far…although there weren’t much of a surprise happened in this Direct, it was still good to see several things that I really wanted to know. But the biggest is kept for E3, so I’ll be looking forward for that one then. Furthermore, the Direct wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad either. I’d give 7/10 rating as result.