So About That September Direct

Well, Nintendo just dropped a new Nintendo Direct which means it’s time for me to talk about it. And I'm overdue for an analysis like this considering I didn’t cover the PlayStation event that happened a few weeks ago. Sorry about that, to be honest I couldn’t be bothered to do one about that since nothing but the Marvel stuff interested me.

There was a lot announced in this direct so I’m just going to quickly try to go over everything while highlighting some of the bigger announcements or things that just caught my eye. Let's just get right into this shall we.

The Direct started with the announcement of a new expansion for Monster Hunter Rise called Sunbreak. No word on what will be included, but you can expect new monsters, equipment and areas like most of the other Monster Hunter expansions. It's due out in summer of 2022.

Next we got some headlines. Mario Party Superstars got a new trailer showing off all the boards and some of the new modes. I can’t wait for this. I love playing Mario Party with my Niece, Nephew and little cousins and this looks like a great return to form for the series. Still want some boards from the GameCube era but at least we got some minigames from it. It comes out October 29th.

Then we got a new game from Nier creator Yoko Taro. It's called Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars and looks like a classic JRPG mixed with a tabletop card game. Yup, it definitely looks like a Yoko Taro game alright. It could be an interesting game at the very least. It comes out October 28th.

Disco Elysium Final Cut got an announcement for the Switch. Never played it myself though I have heard a lot of good things about it. I don’t think it’s for me personally, but I am glad to see it on the Switch. It comes out October 12th.

Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity is getting some new DLC. Not much to say on this one other than it’s getting some new characters and new story chapters. It's coming October 29th.

This next game surprised me, it’s Chocobo GP. Remember that weird Final Fantasy kart racer on PlayStation 1? They’re bringing it back! I don’t know if it’s a remake or a reboot, but whatever it is it looks like fun. It's nice to see some more kart racing action on the Switch and the Final Fantasy elements should help it stand out. Plus, we get more adorable Chocobo’s and I'm down for that. No solid release date, but it comes out in 2022.

We then got an announcement, for an announcement. The final Smash Ultimate presentation is happening on October 5th and will show off the final DLC character. I kind of wish we had gotten a trailer for them here, but at least we know when it’s getting revealed.

Alright, this next game was the big highlight of the Direct for me. It's Kirby and the Forgotten Land. I’m a big Kirby fan so I would have been excited for a Kirby game in general, but this made me so happy. Because it’s not just any kind of Kirby game, it’s the first fully 3D Kirby game.

Keep in mind that Kirby is the only major Nintendo franchise that hasn’t gone 3D yet. Hell, Wario had a 3D game before Kirby did and he isn’t anywhere near as popular. This is a big deal for the series and given how played out the classic formula was getting with Star Allies it’s just the shot in the arm the pink puff ball desperately needed.

But more than anything I just love the setting for this game. I’m getting post-apocalyptic vibes with the city covered in plant life and I just love it. It's kind of like The Last of Us only actually fun. We didn’t see any new copy abilities, but we did see some returning classics like the Sword, Cutter, Fire, Ice and Needle powers. Needle looks a bit different since you can now roll around in a big spiky ball with it, so it’s already way better.

I’m pretty excited for this one. It's coming out in Spring of 2022, just in time for the series 30th anniversary. I hope this isn’t all we get, I would love a new compilation of the classic games, but even if this is it I'll still be happy.

Animal Crossing was up next, until it wasn’t. It was just them announcing an October Direct going over some of the new updates. Another announcement for an announcement? Nintendo what are you doing? Oh well at least that was the last one.

Speaking of updates, Mario Golf Super Rush is getting some new content. Koopa Troopa and Ninji are being added to the roster and we’re getting some new courses to boot. And by getting, I mean got because they’re already out. I actually like this game, so this was nice to see, it’s also cool we get a playable Ninji for the first time in, well, ever.

Disney’s Magical World 2 is getting ported to the Switch. I'm sure fans of it will like it but it doesn’t look great. It still looks like a 3DS game for god's sake. It comes out this holiday season.

Speaking of ports and Disney properties, Knights of the Old republic is being ported to the Switch. This confounds me. They just announced a remake for it at the PlayStation event not long ago, but they’re re-releasing the original too? I mean I'm glad because the stuff surrounding the remake does not give me hope for its quality, but it’s still an odd decision. It comes out November 11.

Dying Light 2 is coming to Switch, in Cloud form. Ok, yeah, no thank you.

Triangle Strategy got a new trailer. It didn’t show much new stuff, but it did show some of the improvements they made based on feedback from the demo. I’m glad Square Enix is doing stuff like this, it’s almost like being a beta tester, it’s pretty cool. I really enjoyed the demo for this so I'm definitely going to be checking this out at some point. It come out March 4th.

Next, more Metroid Dread! I'm not a fan of Metroid but I am glad to see it’s finally back, especially for the fans who’ve waited so long for a new entry. Metroid Dread does look dope though. It's got a bit of a survival horror vibe to it while keeping the action fans have come to know and love. Not long left to wait Metroid fans, October 8th is right around the corner.

We then got some updates regarding the Nintendo Switch Online Service. It's getting a brand-new expansion pass that will include Nintendo 64 and Sega Mega Drive games. Now we don’t know much on the expansion itself, what it will cost or anything like that, so I'm going to reserve judgement until we get more concrete information.

I will say that I'm glad that Nntendo 64 games are finally being added to the service, especially since we’re getting Sin and Punishment and Dr Mario 64 from the start, and Banjo-Kazooie is getting added later on. The Mega Drive games though, not sure why they bothered. I'm glad games like Musha and Strider are there, but I already own most of these on the Sega Mega Drive Collection. Also, between this, the Mega Drive Collection, the Sega Ages re-release and the upcoming Sonic Origins, there are 4 ways to play Sonic 2 on the Switch. I love Sonic 2, but this is ridiculous.

They also showed off new controllers to go with the Nintendo 64 and Mega Drive games. I'm not going to get them but I'm sure collectors will eat them up. Though for some reason the 6-button Mega-Drive pad is exclusive to Japan. Why do that when it’s the better controller?

The next 2 announcements were both collections. Shadowrun Trilogy was first. I've never played anything Shadowrun related before, but this did look dope. Looks like a fun cyber-punk strategy game, and it’s 3 games in 1 so it should be good value for money. No release date but it’s coming 2022.

We then got Castlevania Advanced Collection. It's a compilation featuring all the Gameboy Advance games and Dracula X, because why not. I'm still gutted we never got the collection with Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night on Switch, but this is good too.

It looks like a good collection overall. Nice selection of games, plenty of extra content, rewind and save features for new players, it’s what you want from a collection like this. I hope Konami does more collections like this. Give me a Rocket Knight or Mystical Ninja Collection already Konami! Best thing about this collection is you don’t have to wait for it, it’s out right now. Personally I would have waited until October since, I mean come on, but whatever.

Square Enix surprised me again with Actraiser Renaissance, a remake of the classic SNES title. I’m shocked Square Enix remembered Actraiser exists, I thought they dropped it in the same memory hole they put Brave Fencer Musashi and Parasite Eve. Not that I'm complaining, I'm glad it’s back.

For those that haven’t heard of it, Actraiser is a unique fusion of action-platformer and city builder. It was a unique game for its time and it’s become a bit of a cult classic. This new Renaissance version adds in some new content as well as a new art style. I like how it looks, kind of looks like they’re going with a pre-rendered style a bit. And like the last game, you don’t have to wait, it’s out right now on Switch and other platforms. Way to just drop it on us with no hype Square Enix.

Deltarune Chapter 2 is also out now on Switch. Which isn’t too surprising given it’s been out on PC for a few weeks now, but it is nice to see it regardless.

After a sizzle reel of some other games, Shigeru Miyamoto came out to give us some news on the Illumination Super Mario Bros movie. We got a release date for Holiday 2022 and the cast list. Chris Pratt is playing Mario, Charlie Day is playing Luigi, Jack Black is Bowser, Keegan-Michael Peele is Toad, and Seth Rogan is Donkey Kong.

I don’t know how I feel about this. It's Illumination so I expected a celebrity voice cast, but this is just weird. You know when you watch a movie or a TV show and there’s a fake movie trailer in them with celebrity casts, this feels like that. I can’t lie and say I'm not curious, Jack Black as Bowser sounds like it would be awesome, but it’s the same curiosity I felt for the original Sonic movie trailer. I'm curious for the wrong reasons. And why is Charles Martinet in the movie and not voicing Mario? Why taunt me like this, come on.

Splatoon 3 got a new trailer, and yep, it looks like more Splatoon. Not that that’s a bad thing, I like Splatoon and a lot of the new weapons they showed off looked very creative and fun. I like the giant ball mech in particular. We also got a look at the single player which hints that the mammalians are coming back.

I am looking forward to this. I liked the first Splatoon, but I never got into the second one. I don’t know why, it just never grabbed me the same way the first one did. Hopefully this one will get me back into the series proper. No release window for this, but it’s still early on so I don’t suspect we’ll get one until later.

The last announcement was a big one, we finally saw more on Bayonetta 3. it actually exists! It's been 4 years since the initial announcement so I thought it was dead, but nope it’s alive and well. It looks like they’re putting more emphasis on the summons now, since you can actually control them this time.

I don’t have much to say on this, it’s Bayonetta. It has all the same frantic over the top action you know and love just with giant monster fights thrown in. It should be a fun time.

I do have 2, very minor complaints though. I'm not a fan of the UI, it’s a bit too simple for my tastes but that’s the direction the industry is heading so I ‘ll just have to get used to it. Second, and I know people will hate me for this, I don’t like Bayonetta’s design. It gives me gothic Lolita vibes and I'm just not a huge fan of it personally.

And that was the September Direct. Overall, it was really good. Sure, the Mario casting was weird, and they should have showed the final Smash character instead of teasing us with an announcement for an announcement, but it was a solid showcase.

It had a lot of great smaller announcements, gave us updates on upcoming games and had a few big surprises. The highlight for me was Kirby and the Forgotten Land, but Bayonetta 3 was awesome, Chocobo GP was a pleasant surprise and Actraiser Renaissance is something I'll have to check out later, it was a great show.

It was nice to see a Direct like this. We haven’t had one this good in a while. Hopefully we won’t have to wait another year for the next one. And now I wait for the Smash reveal... this wait is going to kill me.