While Nintendo had shown many shorter or more specific presentations throughout 2020 (often to support third parties), this was the company’s first full-size, “traditional” Direct since 2019. And quite possibly their very longest; this was fifty minutes! Fifty minutes! It was fairly big, with a number of games, some of them surprising. New announcements for Switch are noted, though new pre-orders are not.
News:
- Announcement: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters #79 and #80: Pyra and Mythra, from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The two can be freely switched, with each using their respective Arts. Stage is Azurda, Rex’s “Gramps.” Rex himself – having been snubbed as a possible fighter during development – appears as part of Pyra’s moveset in a role not dissimilar to Chrom from Smash For. Releases in March
- Announcement: Fall Guys, the massively popular battle royale platformer, will release on Switch as Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. Releases this “summer”
- Announcement: Outer Wilds, the 2019 space exploration game about discovering the mysteries of a destructive solar system, releases on Switch “this summer”
- Announcement: Remakes of Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir and Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind, two of Nintendo’s 1988 Japan-exclusive Famicom Disk System thriller mysteries, are coming to Switch. This is the first time these will have been released worldwide and, though not mentioned in the Direct, players can choose between arranged or original music. Release as separate games May 14
- Announcement: Samurai Warriors 5, the 2020 entry in the second main Musou series, releases on Switch “this summer”
- Announcement: an HD remaster of Legend of Mana, with new arrangements for the score (and the option to use the original music), mini-games, and the ability to turn off random encounters. Releases June 24
- Monster Hunter Rise will feature classic monsters like Volvidon and Almudron, as well as more energetic movement. Releases March 26
- Announcement: Mario Golf: Super Rush, the latest Mario Golf outing, features a new mode in which you play golf against opponents with real time movement. It also features a story mode starring a Mii and optional motion controls. Releases June 25
- Announcement: a compilation pack of Tales from the Borderlands, previously leaked a few days ago. Releases March 24
- Announcement: 32 Capcom arcade games are coming to Switch as Capcom Arcade Stadium. 1943: the Battle for Midway is free. Releases today!
- Games include: Forgotten Worlds, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Strider, Dynasty Wars, Mega Twins, 1941: Counter Attack, 19XX: The War Against Destiny, 1943, Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Street Fighter II, Commando,
- Announcement: Rebel without a Pulse puts players in the role as a zombie attempting to eat and convert humans. Releases March 13
- No More Heroes 3 features the triumphant return of pre-boss odd jobs, along with an extensive JRPG system. Releases August 27
- Announcement: Neon White, the latest Annapurna Interactive game, involves killing demons in heaven, using a card system for combat, Steve Blum, and divine urban platforming. Releases “winter 2021”
- Announcement: DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power, an adaptation of the kid-oriented DC Comics spinoff, is an action / school hybrid in which you juggle schoolwork and superheroing. Releases
- Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville: Complete Edition, the 2019 sequel in Plants vs Zombies’ Garden Warfare spin-off, features a more direct action gameplay than the original game’s standard. Releases March 19
- Announcement: Miitopia, Nintendo’s quirky 2016 social messaging / JRPG adventure for 3DS, is coming to Switch with a wider array of cosmetic options. Releases May 21
- The next update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be releasing Mario themed items, including blocks, Mushrooms, Thwomps, and working Warp Pipes. Update releases February 25
- Announcement: Project Triangle Strategy, the similarly “HD / 2D” sequel to Octopath Traveler. The game takes place in a continental war between three nations. The characters and plots you get are based on the political decisions and ideals you make, as it influences other characters. Releases in 2022, with a demo (whose response will influence development) available to download today!
- Announcement: The free to play Star Wars Hunters, by loathsome developer Zynga, releases 2021
- Announcement: Knockout City, an EA Original dodgeball / shooter battle royale with an exhaustingly aggressive comic attitude, releases May 21
- Announcement: World’s End Club, a spiritual successor to Danganronpa and Zero Escape (complete with kids attempting to avoid brutal murders), combines several genres. Releases May 28
- Announcement: Hades, my favorite game of 2020, is getting a physical release. The release comes with a download code for the original PC soundtrack and a compendium of the game’s character art. Releases March 19
- Announcement: Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge – the trilogy by former Koei Tecmo director Tomonubo Itagaki – are being released in a collection titled Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection. Releases June 10
- Announcement: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will be getting a two wave Expansion Pass. Both feature additions to the roster; Wave 1 focuses more on new enemies and challenges, while Wave 2 focuses on new stories. The Expansion can be purchased May 28, while the waves are planned for release in June and November
- Bravely Default 2, releasing February 26, will be getting an updated demo and a final trailer released after the Direct (and included below)
- Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection will feature local co-op, in which a second player provides a Super Mario Galaxy-esque help
- Announcement: SaGa Frontier Remastered, a game whose title largely explains itself, launches April 15
- Apex Legends, one of 2019’s stronger battle royales, releases March 9 (after suffering delays last year), with a special Switch exclusive skin
- Announcement: A remaster of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the somewhat contentious Wii game, is coming to Switch as Skyward Sword HD (appropriately, it was a 25th anniversary game coming out in Zelda’s 35th anniversary). According to Eiji Aonuma, who announced it, the remaster will feature smoother motion controls than the original release – along with button-only controls (in which, for instance, tilting the right control stick replicates moving your hand). Will release on July 16, in conjunction with a Zelda themed JoyCon set
- Announcement: Splatoon 3, set partially in a bizarre desert (with a destroyed Eiffel Tower) as well as a city that is probably Inkopolis. New things include a Salmonid sidekick, an apparent train system not unlike the one used in Splatoon 2’s Octo Expansion, a compound bow, and a greater focus on aerial combat. Releases 2022
Additionally, Nintendo General Manager Shinya Takahashi noted that it was difficult for the company to put together a traditional Direct in 2020. According to Aonuma, news of the untitled sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is expected to come out later in 2021. He also discussed the way Skyward Sword made early stabs at conventions that became central to Breath of the Wild.
Videos:
Wolfman’s Soapbox: Enjoyed the Direct well enough. Pyra’s cool, happy about the greater control options for Skyward Sword, really dislike the whole vibe of Knockout City. Insert jokes about the Switch having two tactical JRPGs about three kingdoms fighting in a grand, three sided political war. I’m into whatever Mario Golf is selling. Whatever. I wanna talk about Famicom Detective Club.
There are these huge swaths of Nintendo’s history that’s just completely isolated in Japan. As much as the company’s tried (especially in recent years) to make sure their stuff is available worldwide, there are a lot of things that fell through the cracks or just never managed to make the jump. Hell, a 2010 remake of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem wasn’t localized, even if that was part of a general set of financial issues Fire Emblem was having. And one of the biggest fields of this was the Famicom Disk System.
It made sense why Nintendo wouldn’t bother to remake a peripheral like the FDS for another version of their home console – especially because of the games that got on it. A lot of the new, not upgraded releases were inscrutable or comic adventures that weren’t unknown in the West – certainly Sierra was doing its thing – but that was different. Those were weirder, tied to PC gaming, and not near the more tactile, direct expectations of gaming. So we in the West never got Shin Onigashima, or Time Twist (the game where you see Civil War atrocities and shoot the baby Jesus with lightning to cast a demon from him), or Nintendo’s Journey to the West adaptation.
And to me, at least, the biggest loss of that was of the Famicom Detective Club series, two FDS games from 1998 and a Satellaview game – remember that? – from ’97. Ever since one of the games’ heroes got a trophy in Smash Bros., I’d been fascinated by the concept. A Nintendo made murder mystery game, one with death and ghosts and psychological trauma? I had to have it! Ultimately, I never played any of the games (as original or via ROM hack), but I was always interested in the prospect of them returning. But it was never a deep hope. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light made sense; it was on more similar hardware, and it was the game that starred “that guy from Smash Bros.” Something as quirky as Detective Club seemed kind of implausible.
So we didn’t get a port and translation. Instead, we just got a remake – two, in fact! That’s so odd, seeing Nintendo throw its hat back in the ring of visual novels, a field that’s clearly gotten a lot of success on Switch! This was the kind of release that really blindsided me. In general, I’m less invested in seeing all the “big” games coming out, so the inevitable lack of Bayonetta, Metroid Prime, and Breath of the Wild news wasn’t really that “big” to me. But a lot of the news fell short not in terms of quality (there’s a bunch of neat games here), but tangible size and surprise after getting this reveal. It almost puts things into an odd perspective, that apparently the company’s comfortable enough to pull this from their back catalogue. And that’s really neat, perhaps more so than a Mario Golf game exciting me for the first time.
…Though obviously, this doesn’t mean we’re getting a remake of Time Twist. For the best, really.
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Finaly! A proper full ND presentation! Its been like what, 300+ days since the last one?
Nintendo must love having people yell at them for “yet another sword fighter!” in SB, lol. All jokes aside, I may not be the biggest XC fan but I’m honestly fine with Pyra/Mythra in Ultimate, as it proves that a Fighters Pass is not always about 3rd-parties. I really didn’t believe we would get another Nintendo character after Min-Min so this is good. Though as far as XC characters goes I would have personally taken Elma (Xenoblade Chronicles X) instead if it were up to me, oh well. Also, pretty interesting that two ‘hero’ protagonists from Nintendo games Arms and XC2 (Spring Man and Rex) missed out on the base roster (as Sakurai mentioned before) but two arguably supporting characters (albiet a major one in Pyra’s case) are now getting in instead.
Not surprised seeing Fall Guys on Switch.
I might try Outer Wilds one day, heard good things.
YEEEESSSS! Western release of Famicom Detective Club remakes confirmed!! I’m so getting these games. Btw, anyone else happy that they will still be called “Famicom Detective Club” in the west? I was certain they would remove atleast Famicom and rename it to something generic like “Mystery Detective Club” or whatever. Keeping the JP name was a good move. This was the highlight for me personally of this presentation.
When SW5 showed up I thought at first it was a new Sengoku Basara game, maybe because of the different artstyle (which looks nice btw).
Didn’t expect Legend of Mana remaster, cool. Might dip on it sometime in the future.
I haven’t been keeping up with news on the latest Monster Hunter game. I like the “fantasy ancient Japan settning” Capcom got here.
Its been awhile since we had a Mario Golf game, I’m not much of a golf game player (though I liked Golf Story) so I probably won’t get Super Rush but I am glad for all the Mario Golf fans, game looks good (and Bowser and Wario’s golf outfits makes me laugh ^^).
The human designs in World’s End Club reminds me of Pokemon. Keeping a eye on it, being a spiritual successor to Danganronpa and Zero Escape I expect a lot of crazy dark plot twists.
I like to think the new stories in the Hyrule Warriors AoC Expansion Pass leads to a proper true ending for the game but I know I should stay realistic. XD
I sorta get what Capcom was trying to go for with the artstyle in the new GnG, but the animations are just weird. I will check out the game anyway though.
Splatoon 3!? Holy crap! I knew we were getting a third game one day but I did not expect it to confirmed at this Direct presentation. Then again its been like five years or so I think since Splatoon 2 was released so it makes sense. The desert settning looks interesting, I really hope the game improves in a lot of areas from the previous game.
Everything else I’m pretty indifferent for, not impressed by (Knockout City made me sleepy) or think looks very rough (sorry, I don’t usually judge a game by its graphics but Rebel without a Pulse looks like an early PS2 game).
All and all, a good ‘full’ Direct presentation, looking forward to hopefully more during this year.
Just learned that Rebel without a Pulse originally launched on the original Xbox in 2005 which explains the graphics. Gotta admit I never heard of the game until now, and I was pretty into a lot of Xbox games back during its release, heh. 😛