This is my third attempt at writing my thoughts on the Direct that took place yesterday. At first I was just going to give my thoughts on the most interesting of games that were announced, and I’ll still do that to a degree. But when you look at the run up to this Direct and the actual games revealed in it, it starts to show an interesting picture of where Nintendo are going with the Switch.
For a while, I and along with many others, assumed there’d be no general Direct this month and probably not one until September. A mini Direct or partner showcase was what I expected to be shadow-dropped with Nintendo dropping the odd first party announcement on social media. They did it twice this month already so it’s not unreasonable to assume otherwise. I also looked at everything as the winding down phase for the Switch as new hardware and games are prepared for next year. Yes, that definitely would have likely left a barren year to come with the occasional small game here and there, but we have never been in the position of never having some idea of what’s to come prior to this year.
Well, Nintendo went and did. They announced the Direct on Tuesday and it aired on Wednesday. At first it looks like there’s going to be a lot of first party and third party games to come and perhaps the Switch has a good long while left. But look closer at what was actually revealed and I think it’s more likely Nintendo are winding it down.
What Nintendo have showcased are DLC for games already on the market, remasters/remakes of games from previous consoles and smaller newly developed games. Nothing is screaming big development titles, those I’m sure are where most the resources are being used to launch the next console which I still believe is coming next year. The two new games are a 2D Mario and a 2 D Princess Peach. Smaller budget games that, and I’m not saying they’re knocked out, but definitely don’t require the resources of a fully fledged 3D entry. Again, that’s being saved for the new hardware. Then you get the likes of Super Mario RPG which, I’m assuming, is being developed by Square Enix much like the original SNES game. Again, not a big budget game and it’s outsourced. Next Level, a first party developer, are remastering the second Luigi’s Mansion which initially came out on the 3DS in 2013, for the Switch.
Filling the lineup of the final year on the market until the next system releases with cheaper to produce games is a safe way of both making sure you always have something to keep the sales coming in while also not wasting most of your resources on old hardware when you have something in the works which will need a big launch. Nintendo now has so many games at its disposal, they can easily ride out the next year on nothing but remasters if they really wanted to. And with that said, give me Goddamn Eternal Darkness!!
Well, that’s the initial thoughts out the way. Let’s see what was shown. And by that I mean the announcements I think are of interest. So no, there’ll be nothing DLC related. I have also provided the whole Direct YouTube video because a couple of the games I’m talking about don’t have individual trailers.
SUPER MARIO RPG
Super Mario RPG never originally released in Europe back during the SNES era, which is really bizarre. I’d love to know why Nintendo thought us not good enough to get this game. Well, this time we are definitely getting Super Mario RPG in Europe. Have we evolved as a region? So many questions that need answering.
BATMAN: ARKHAM TRILOGY
Didn’t Rocksteady say the reason Dark Knight could only be released on the PS4 and Xbox One consoles was because the Batmobile required the entirety of the power of an Xbox 360 alone. Or, so I think. I perhaps should Google that and then edit it if wrong before publishing the article.
The first two games are amazing but then you get to Dark Knight and you realise the car segments are too many and too annoying and you think.. how the fuck do you screw this up so badly after the first two games!? And why isn’t Origins never re-released!? Ah damn it! Now I’m mad!
METAL GEAR SOLID: MASTER COLLECTION VOL 1
Konami used to be such big part of the gaming industry. But then they realised that making people get healthy through gym memberships and laughing at idiots as they lose their wages playing pachinko machines was just too irresistible, and so they effectively pulled out the industry. And in doing just that, Konami had a major war with their biggest asset who went to form his own studio and make a game about walking. So everyone ended up happy. No, wait. That’s not right.
Apparently Konami realised Metal Gear Solid as a franchise is actually popular and reusing assets from the final game to create an online multiplayer game isn’t easy or what the fan base wants. So here we are with the first volume in, probably two volumes, of the Metal Gear Solid franchise collections. Looking at the trailer, this definitely has all the hallmarks of cheap and lazily shat out with no actual quality of life improvements. Good stuff.
LUIGI’S MANSION: DARK MOON
Meh. I mean, you know. It’s Luigi’s Mansion but not good. So, meh.
SUPER MARIO BROS: WONDER
Everyone, or most people, seem to be really excited about this new 2D Mario game. And for some baffling reason they all seem to think it’s a totally different art style to that in the New Super Mario Bros series. I’m going to have to ask what the fuck watched yesterday. I’m like, really sure that’s the same art style just slightly more refined.
Well, regardless I don’t understand the excitement. What am I missing!?
UNTITLED PRINCESS PEACH GAME
The very short footage that was shown suggests I really don’t care. It’s a 2D game with Princess Peach instead of Mario.
PIKMIN 1+2
I have never played a Pikmin game before though I have been tempted multiple times. It’s great that as of next month when the forth game releases, all the mainline titles will be officially available to play on one console. Pikmin has never had the greatest sales. In fact if it weren’t for being Miyamoto being the man behind it all, it’ll likely have gone the way of F-Zero. But there does finally seem to be a sign of that changing. Of course, the GameCube didn’t sell well and the Wii only sold because old grandparents loved the free Wii Sports that came packaged. And Just Dance that only recently stopped supporting the system. But the Switch actually has both the huge hardware sales and great first party game sales too. So if there’s ever to be a system to turn sales around on a franchise, it’s this one.
The other side to these two games getting an HD release is that it just goes further to prove that yes, we are going to see a lot of these types of announcements going forward as Nintendo allocates the bulk of resources into the next console.
And that’s all the games that stood out to me during the Nintendo Direct yesterday. So not really anything exciting for me, but also as I said earlier, this seems to be how Nintendo are going to keep games coming to the Switch while they ready up to launch the next console.
