February Nintendo Direct
Rammo | Jenz (I’ll be adding my 2 cents to the posts rather than repeating the line up and such)
Alright I’m going to go over all the big announcements from this mornings Direct that I am most excited about. I won’t cover EVERYTHING just because we’ll be here for a while, but lets get to it:
No Mans Sky - sometime in 2022:
I have no idea how they managed to squeeze NMS onto the Switch, because that game is huge. But props to Hello Games (nice name) because they figured out a way to do it. NMS is actually a really fun (although quite repetitive) space exploration game that I have put a good handful of hours into on the PS4 + PC. I won’t personally be picking this one up because I already own it on two devices, but if you’re a fan of exploring new environments and flying cool ships through space, I would say to pick this one up (but maybe wait until some people get their hands on it first to see how it performs because thats what worries me the most)
Pretty impressive they are porting over NMS to the Switch. Very exciting as I think NMS can be a great portable game, although you would want 1440p resolution on this too but still, a great game to bring over and maybe will make me give this one a shot!
Mario Strikers Battle League - June 10th:
Damn this looks like fun. I’ve recently been playing a fair bit of FIFA 22, so I am primed and ready for this (the kids aren’t going to know whats hit ‘em). We’ve had a handful of entries into the Mario Strikers collection, and I’m glad they’re bringing it back to us on the Switch.
So FIFA meets Mario, I can see the appeal of this and am curious on how it goes!
KIRBY FULLY LOADED - March 25th:
It’s no surprise that we got another trailer for Kirby and the Forgotten Land, because its release is just around the corner (March 25th), and they’re giving us just that fiiiiinal lil kick in the butt to get those pre-orders flying out the door. The more I see of this game the more I want to throw that cartridge in my Switch and sit on the couch for hours playing it. Because it looks incredible.
The trailer that we got from todays Direct makes it look more and more like Super Mario Odyssey: Kirby Edition. The enemies look adorable. The environments look beautiful. Mouthful Mode looks like the best blend of stupid and eye wateringly cute.
I AM BEYOND EXCITED FOR THIS!
Mouthful Mode, yes. I think I have connected to Kirby in a new way. Kirby just eats EVERYTHING. My spirit animal. I am beyond excited for this game as it’s sort of the next line in Mario Odyssey which was a spectacular game. I love that there are different ‘mouth modes’ to traverse the lands - kind of like Link with his abilities. Kirby ALSO has costumes with copy abilities AHHHHHHH! Yes, give it to me now Nintendo.
Nintendo Switch Sports - April 29, 2022:
The one game that I NEVER expected to be announced from the Direct today, was NINTENDO SWITCH SPORTS. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Arguably one of Nintendos best releases, Wii Sports (and Wii Sports Resort) is getting a new brother/sister in the form of Nintendo Switch Sports.
The fan favourite sports of Bowling, Tennis, and Chambara (Swordplay from Wii Sports Resort) are BACK, and they’ve got some shiny new graphics to boot. My girlfriend was a little disappointed that they are no longer arm-less Mii’s from the Wii era, but I think they look just fine with their newly added limbs.
Sports fans will also get some new additions that we’ve never seen before, as we now have some Volleyball, Football (soccer), and Badminton! Oh, and we’ll be getting FREE (thankfully) DLC in the months after release to add in a new mode for Football, and Golf will be making its return with some BEAUTIFUL looking courses.
These all look great, and I’ll definitely be picking this one up day one to relive that feeling of opening your Wii for the first time and sweating out HOURS of Wii Sports with your family.
We were just talking about how great Wii sports was and here we have the Switch version! There seems to be an addition of Soccer (football), badminton and volleyball! There is also online play for Switch Sports with randoms or friends as well as local mode. Time to smash balls into random’s faces. Nice.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC - March 18 + throughout 2022:
Now there have been some rumours floating around for the past couple of months that Nintendo are secretly working on the next addition to the Mario Kart franchise, with some “totally new elements that we’ve never seen in a Mario Kart game before”. I don’t think fans were expecting to get some DLC this late into the games life cycle but I guess its not that surprising seeing that Mario Kart will always have a decent player-base.
Nintendo is adding a whopping 48 courses from past Mario Kart games to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in paid (booo) DLC that will be coming in 6 waves. Wave 1 will be releasing on March 18 2022. Each wave will include 8 maps, and the maps that we’re getting in Wave 1 include:
Coconut Mall (Mario Kart Wii)
Sky Garden (Mario Kart GBA)
Choco Mountain (Mario Kart N64)
Toad Circuit (Mario Kart 3DS)
Shroom Ridge (Mario Kart 3DS)
Paris Promenade (Mario Kart Tour)
Ninja Hideaway (Mario Kart Tour)
Tokyo Blur (Mario Kart Tour)
The DLC Pack will cost $24.99 USD (about $35 AUD at the time of writing), which isn’t all too bad considering we’re getting 48 remade tracks which is a pretty decent deal in my eyes. If it was anymore than $35 I would have tossed up whether it was worth it, but I think its a pretty reasonable price point.
