Nintendo Direct March 27, 2025: Information and Reactions

Edit: 12:40 PM Eastern: added a note about Patapon that highlighted its publisher.

“The last Switch 1-focused Nintendo Direct.” The term and others to that effect spent the past two years bandied about by people across the internet, us included. The existence of Nintendo Switch 2 has been out there for years through leaks and rumors, and even if you didn’t, some incarnation of it was inevitable and more likely by the year. The console that threw out so many conventions has eight years behind it; that’s long by the standards of this industry. The leaks only emphasized an unmistakable reality. Through no fault or act of Nintendo’s—though their years avoiding the topic didn’t help—this gave their much-loved Nintendo Direct presentations an air of finality. In 2023, Tears of the Kingdom had to be the swan song. Then Super Mario Bros. Wonder had to be, and then Echoes of Wisdom in 2024. Perhaps it’s Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Perhaps it was fans wanting the Switch to go out on a high note, or them ignoring that Nintendo was clearly amassing its resources into bolstering the new system.

However, this is the last one, at least the last one solely dedicated to the first Nintendo Switch. And this is a fair assumption to make because this came out six days before the presentation on Nintendo Switch 2, which airs on April 2. We have no information on the latter, but it was announced in the beginning of February and is expected to dive into the new console, give it a release date, and show off the major releases it’ll enjoy.. So now we have a situation of a decently-sized Nintendo Direct airing six days before the presentation that will outline the company’s new hardware and trajectory for the next few years. Two shows in less than a week? It’s unheard of, mind-boggling, absolutely a product of scheduling issues whose intricacies we’ll never know, and just one example of how covering Nintendo is so beautifully strange.

Of course, this presentation was not the most exciting thing in the world. Such as it is. Here’s thirty minutes of something quiet, mild, and full of things that needed a venue for advertisement:

Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, which got announced last year, was shown off. No release date beyond “2025,” but it features a new character.
No Sleep for Kanade Date – From AI: The Somnium Files, the latest entry in the AI: The Somnium Files franchise, involves rescuing an internet idol trapped in an “escape game” through investigations and reading dreams. Releases July 25.
Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army, a re-release of the PS2 Megami Tensei action-RPG spinoff Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army, announced. Its gameplay mixture of brawling with Megami Tensei demons and solving mysteries has been “enhanced” in an undefined way. Releases June 19, with pre-orders open later today.
Shadow Labyrinth, the bizarre edgy Pac-Man spinoff from Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada that was advertised on the not great sounding Amazon Prime anthology Secret Level, was shown off. A major focus is on consuming enemies like Pac-Man as a way to gain powers. Releases July 18.
Remasters of PSP cult games Patapon and Patapon 2 are being released as the compilation Patapon 1+2 Replay. These rhythm games use combos to direct your various cartoon soldiers. New features include an accessibility mode to ease up on the timing. Releases July 11. Notable here is that this is the latest game from rival console manufacturer Sony to appear on Nintendo Switch, continuing an ongoing theme in the games industry of the longstanding “console war” contracting and ebbing.
2008 Nintendo DS game Harvest Moon DS: Grand Bizarre is being remade as Story of Seasons: Grand Bizarre. One of the things that distinguishes it is wind mechanics that aid transversal. Releases August 27.
Last seen at the June 2024 Direct, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was shown off with slightly more attention. Set on the lust planet Viewros, Samus’ prerequisite upgrades now include psychic abilities that let her interact with puzzles or control her Charge Beam shots with her mind. One boss-like creature, the floral Carlex, also appeared. No release date shown, but there’s either a new evil Samus or an imposing costume for her.
Disney Villains Cursed Café lets you live out the exciting fantasy of playing an anodyne take on Coffee Talk with Ursula, Gaston, and Yzma from The Emperor’s New Groove. Releases today!
Witchbrook, a life simulator set in a witch school, was shown off for the first time since its announcement in 2017. It features tremendous pixel graphics and a large setting. Releases “this holiday.”
Previously announced in 2024, The Eternal Life of Goldman is a Duck Tales-esque platformer with an animated art style reminiscent of Cuphead. Releases” this holiday.”
A 40th Anniversary compilation for the Gradius franchise, Gradius Origins features several classic games, some with alternate versions released later or in other territories, and an all new game in Salamander III. Releases August 7, with preorders available today.
- The full list: Gradius, Salamander, Life Force, Gradius 2, Gradius 3, Salamander II, and Salamander III.
Rift of the NecroDancer features a paid DLC pack with content from Celeste, with additional DLC—including a crossover with Pizza Tower—planned for the future. Releases today!
Tamagotchi Plaza, a “brand new entry” in the Tamagotchi franchise, announced. A life simulator, it offers twelve different shops to work in and a city that grows off your work. Releases June 27.
Last shown at the Pokémon Presents show, Pokémon Legends: Z-A was shown off. It covered how Trainer battles will work, namely that Lumiose City goes from being a more chill space for catching Pokémon in the day to a hectic nighttime free for all “Z-A Royale.” Releases “late 2025,” in accordance with most mainline Pokémon games.
The latest entry in the Rhythm Heaven series since 2016, Rhythm Heaven Groove, was announced. It looks very good. Releases sometime in 2026.
Nintendo has introduced the Virtual Game Card, a way to move digital games from one Switch to another over local wireless play. You can lend one game at a time for up to two weeks, though the process seems more geared to families with multiple Switches. This feature is planned to be added via a system update in late April and will carry over to Nintendo Switch 2.
The sizzle real showed the following games: High on Life (May 6), Star Overdrive (April 10), The Wandering Village (July 17), King of Meat (“2025”), Lou’s Lagoon (“summer 2025”), Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time (May 21).
SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered, a reissue SaGa Frontier 2 from 1999, announced. Features more events and updates to the gameplay; you can partner with more characters, transfer skills, and fight additional bonus bosses. Releases today!
The acclaimed Monument Valley and Monument Valley II are (finally!) coming to Switch. These gorgeous, Escherian puzzle games come with all expansions and DLC. Releases April 15, with pre-orders now open.
In addition, the previously announced Monument Valley III is coming to Switch and releases “this summer.”
Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots, a brand new entry in the Everybody’s Golf series, announced. Releases “this year.”
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is an all new Marvel arcade fighter in the vein of the genre’s resurgence, with the classic pixel art and a bevy of playable characters . Releases “this holiday.”
Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream announced, with a 2026 release window. This latest installment in the surreal Mii life simulator series includes some form of dream mechanic and a cel shading art style.
Shigeru Miyamoto was on hand to announce a new app, Nintendo Today!; this is a daily calendar that gives news and vaguely defined fun facts about Nintendo products and characters. Releases today!, though it’s a rather strange system when social media channels exist.

Nintendo also mentioned the aforementioned April 2nd show, which we’ll obviously cover as well.

Wolfman’s Soapbox: Well, that was certainly strange. It wasn’t without its charms—Metroid still looks very pretty, and it’s wonderful that Rhythm Heaven is coming back—but this was definitely one of the less exciting events. The games were, by and large, less interesting, with the most compelling being fundamentally niche properties whose advertisements are still cool. My assumption is that they simply had to release this stuff at some point before next week’s show. Contractual reasons being the big one, but they are still trying to sell Nintendo Switch for the next few months. They’d like to sell more units, advertise to the huge install base that already exists, and support these games in the first place. Ignoring whatever legal requirements there were, these did deserve a Direct to show them off.

Nintendo Today! flummoxes me a bit. Just a bit. I figure that it’s either to tell investors that Nintendo is making mobile apps or it’s a way for them to distance themselves from social media. Don’t wanna have your silly Mar10 Day facts sullied by Twitter’s collapse and all that. But it’s weird, and it’s especially weird that this is the “one more thing.” I guess there wasn’t a game in here that would work well in that vein, at least made by Nintendo themselves. But it’s hard to figure out who it’s for or how much someone might get out of it. I guess as long as it’s consistent then that’s something. And maybe I should treat it as more of a silly Nintendo diversion than anything else or symbolic of anything more. In that sense, it’s kinda charming.

Anyway, I can’t deny that the show was disappointing, at least by the standards of Nintendo Directs. It wasn’t nothing; I’ve been wanting to play Monument Valley for upwards of a decade, and some of the new and re-released games were genuinely important. But this did nothing to change the fact that the past three months have felt like a calm before a storm. Whatever happens, the Switch 2 show is going to be big in at least some way. This, oddly, almost makes the wait feel slightly harder. There was stuff here, but it wasn’t “big” in the way we sometimes imagine Directs to be from wall to wall. Still, there are things here I’d like to make time for, so it’s nice getting to see them.