Nintendo Direct February 9, 2022: Information and Reaction

Today was a big day. There was a Nintendo Direct. We got some games that look pretty promising, and we got a reminder of an embarrassing Star Wars project. But on the whole, I liked it quite a bit! Here’s what got announced:

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, a sequel to Fire Emblem Warriors based around Wolfman Jew’s 2019 Game of the Year Fire Emblem: Three Houses, imagines the Black Eagles, Blue Lions, and Golden Deer seemingly teaming up for some unknown threat. Releases June 24
Advance Wars 1 + 2 Re-Boot Camp has a new release date after its delay: April 8. It also features additions like turn resets and voice acting.
No Man’s Sky, 2016’s controversial and celebrated procedurally generated universe exploration game, releases on Switch “this summer.”
Mario Strikers: Battle League, a fifteen-year sequel to Mario Strikers Charged, retains the game’s hyperactive soccer and exciting fashion. Alongside at least Rosalina as a new character, it has a new mechanic: the charging Hyper Strike that requires the user to be vulnerable. Alongside online play, it features eight-player local multiplayer. Releases June 10
Splatoon 3 features the return of the cooperative mode Salmonid Run, now with elaborate boss fights. Releases “this summer”
Front Mission 1st, a remake of the 1995 tactical mech game Front Mission, announced for Switch. Releases “this summer”
- Additionally, a remake of 1997’s Front Mission 2 was announced, with no release date
Disney Speedstorm, a free-to-play Disney and Pixar battle racing game with cross-platform play, announced. Releases “this summer”
A re-release of STAR WARS: The Force Unleashed, one of the goofier entries in the Star Wars video game canon, has updated motion controls and a non-motion control option. Which is nice. Releases April 20
Another announcement about Assassin’s Creed The Ezio Collection, the trilogy of games and animated movies starring Assassin’s Creed’s most marketable murderer, releases February 17
SG GUNDAM BATTLE ALLIANCE, an oddly Chibi-styled Gundam game, announced for Switch. Releases at some point this year
CHRONO CROSS, a remaster of the 1999 cult classic and Chrono Trigger sequel, announced for Switch. Features new elements, such as the ability to turn off enemy encounters and the 1996 Japan-only Satellaview game Radical Dreamers. Releases April 7
Kirby and the Forgotten Land lets Kirby turn into a car, vending machine, traffic cone, that one water-retaining power Mario has in Superstar Saga, and more in the deeply disquieting “Mouthful Mode.” Also features upgrading Copy Abilities in a more advanced way than the series’ standard. Releases March 25
A trailer confirming earlier news that MLB The Show 22 is coming to Nintendo Switch came in a delightfully awkward announcement
KINGDOM HEARTS INTEGRUM COLLECTION, announced back in October, continues to be a Cloud version. Releases tomorrow (it’s all on Cloud, so it doesn’t get bold text)
Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series, a collection of cult PlayStation platformers Klonoa: Door to Phantomile and Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil, releases July 8.
Portal and Portal 2, the latter now featuring split screen multiplayer, are being sold together in Portal Companion Collection at some point this year
The 1994 Japan-only cult classic Live a Live is getting a Western debut in “HD-2D.” Releases July 22 on the Switch eShop
Nintendo Switch Sports, a reboot of the Wii Sports franchise, features tennis, bowling, chambara, soccer, badminton, volleyball, and a battle royale mode for them. The physical version features a JoyCon strap for your leg to simulate kicking the soccer ball. Releases April 29, with golf being added some point in the summer
- As was the case for previous Switch games, an online play test of Nintendo Switch Sports will be performed from February 18 – 20, only for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers
Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Master features “Megalovania” and an orchestral remix of the Legend of Zelda theme. Releases some point this year, along with a paid subscription that provides access to “over 500” songs
Triangle Strategy will be getting a new demo that, as was the case with the previous demos, can be brought into the final release
As had been reported elsewhere, Cuphead’s long in development Delicious Last Course DLC will, naturally, be coming to the Switch version. Releases June 30
An update to Metroid Dread will add “Dread Mode” (in which every hit is a one-hit kill) and “Rookie Mode” (that will presumably help less skilled players). Releases today! An April update will also add a boss rush mode.
EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings are both coming to Nintendo Switch Online today!
Sizzle reel: Zombie War 4: Dead War (April 26), GetsuFuma Den: Undying Moon (today), Demon Slayer ~Kimetsu no Yaika ~ The Hinokami Chronicles (June 10), LEGO Brawls (June), Two Point Campus (May 17)
Five years after being ported (and eight after the original Mario Kart 8), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe will be getting a paid Booster Course Pass selling 48 courses (!?!) – the same amount of racing courses that are already in the game – for $24.99. Eight courses will be released at a time over six Waves up until the end of 2023. These are all pre-existing courses, some of which come from Mario Kart Tour (which effectively is Mario Kart 9). Wave 1 releases March 18
- It is, however, also free to NSO Online + Expansion Pack members
Xenoblade Chronicles 3, like previous games in the series, features a political tale of war, mammoth open worlds, and (for the versions that use English voice acting) a variety of Anglophone accents. As suggested by rumors, it is set in a world combining Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2. Releases September

Wolfman’s Soapbox: This is something that didn’t come from me – a friend mentioned it while we watched the show online – but this was a very Nintendo-heavy Direct. It’s been so long since the early days of Nintendo Directs (and by “days” I do mean “years”), where you’d be lucky to see more than a few things from other companies. I remember those Wii U shows, and they were fun, but yeah. A bit thin. Now, Nintendo can’t give out enough space for these thick, long, and packed presentations. Dang; we’re getting Live a Live and Chrono Cross and, perhaps insanely, No Man’s Sky – and while those are ports of old games, not new ones, there were a lot of the latter here, too. Live a Live is intriguing me quite a bit.

However, between Fire Emblem and Kirby and Strikers and Sports and Kart and Xenoblade, there was a lot of Nintendo stuff. I guess in some ways, it’s not that much more than other Directs. But it was a lot. The reason for this is that, in all likelihood, many of these are games that would’ve come out sooner had there not been a mammoth, ongoing pandemic. In 2020, Nintendo’s slate was seen as somewhat thinner – one consequence of COVID. And by accounts, it slowed 2021 down, too. I’m not going to even attempt to guess what got delayed and what didn’t (beyond Advance Wars, but that’d be the blank space in our Source Gaming bingo card). But yeah, two years ago, maybe the space would’ve felt a little less thin. Of course, that also means that this year already seems a bit full for Nintendo, and that’s exciting. If history is anything to go by, this also surely won’t be everything new, not this early.

However, that wouldn’t mean jack if the games weren’t good. And to me, cautious optimist I try to be, they mostly do look good. I wasn’t a fan of Fire Emblem Warriors, but combining it with Three Houses might be enough for me. Xenoblade 3 is rather exciting. Doubling the size of Mario Kart 8‘s regular course roster, just as much. And while I’m not necessarily interested in playing Nintendo Switch Sports myself, I’m very glad it exists (and I don’t want this to distract from my interest in a couple of the third party games, though I did think there was a bit less here I liked on that front than usual). There’s stuff from Nintendo – quite a bit of it! It’s exciting, and there’s a good variety of it. And it’ll be nice to see how they pair with whatever the company has planned for E3 the summer games events. Until then, though, I’m happy.