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Recapping The February 13th Nintendo Direct!

The Nintendo Direct has arrived! With it has come a huge bundle of announcements! Let’s dive right in!

I will start off with the biggest announcement, we are getting a remake of The Legend Of Zelda: Link’s  Awakening! I love many of the Zelda games, although I have never finished one. The closest I have ever gotten is the Oracle of Seasons on the Gameboy Color. It may sound like blasphemy but I did not get into Breath Of The Wild like some did, but man does this remake look incredible! The almost top down view, the cutesy graphics… pardon, I’m swooning.

Super Mario Maker 2 was also pretty big news, although we did not expect anything more than a port. This required plenty of reworking due to the lack of a stylus and touch screen controls on the Switch, so I assume Nintendo figured “what the hey”, and just made a new one. I also like the additions of Mario World style assets and sloped/angled designs.

We knew Fire Emblem: Three Houses was getting a lot of info, and we were not disappointed. A new story trailer filled us in a bit more, a special edition was announced, and got a good look at the combat. While it is technically a delay, the game will be releasing July 26th. Just in time for our most likely dull summer.

Nintendo had one last surprise announcement up its sleeve. Platinum Games is working on an action RPG known as Astral Chain. It will be exclusive to the Switch and looks weird as all get out. Its set in a sci-fi ‘ish’ world where you use chains to bind demons (sounds like a Nintendo/Platinum team up) and will launch August 30th.

  • The Third Party

Getting a summer release for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order was huge. I am also excited for the Defenders being included as well as knowing local and online drop-in drop-out co-op. Assassin’s Creed III Remaster was one of the worst kept secrets of last week, and it makes sense that when you remaster the game on PS4 and Xbox One you would throw it on the Switch. Money money money.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice continues its journey around the universe, seemingly completing its trek. Unless of course they decide to throw the game on 3DS or something. Final Fantasy IX surprise dropped on the eShop today with Final Fantasy VII to come March 26th. I’m just waiting to see when we get the smart washing machine of it.

  • The Indies

It is a given we will see plenty of indie games on Directs. Deltarune, the next game in the Undertale series, hits at the end of the month. BoxBoy is arriving with a special guest, BoxGirl in a new game for the first time on the Switch. Tetris 99 is a “battle royale” Tetris game where 99 people compete to see who the best at dropping blocks. We also found out that Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night should be arriving in the summer.

In any case, we are packed out with “Nindies”.

  • Demos and updates for daysssssssssss

There are a few demos and updates hitting as well. Captain Toad’s: Treasure Tracker will be adding real co-op and paid DLC, Yoshi’s Crafted World has a demo available now, Super Smash Bros Ultimate will see some fixes and Joker from Persona 5 arriving before the end of April. Daemon X Machina also had a demo that went up today, and we found Platinum is still hard at work on Bayonetta 3.

Nintendo had a super busy day during this Direct. There might have been a few things we would have liked to have seen, like the Metroid Prime Trilogy added to the eShop or an update on Animal Crossing Switch. But Nintendo managed to assure us we will not lack for content on our Nintendo Switches this Spring and Summer.

What did you think about the Nintendo Direct? Is there one particular announcement that draws your interest? Tell us all about it in the comments below!