Nintendo Direct
March 8, 2018
Yesterday, Yoshiaki Koizumi, Nintendo’s Deputy General Manager of the Entertainment Planning & Development division, dropped a massive Nintendo Direct on the Nintendo chock full of important news and updates for 3DS but mostly for the Switch. Below are our summaries of all of the headlines with video accompanying the more important items … Enjoy!
The entire video can be seen here though we have summarized all of it for you below so you don’t need to sit through the 34 minutes.
Nintendo Spotlight Games:
Mario Tennis Aces. Will feature more than 15 playable characters with 4 players able to play at once. Using the Switch Motion Controls, you can pinpoint where your shot will go before you actually hit the ball using the “Zone Shot.” If your racket takes 3 hits from these forceful shots, it’ll break (the “Racket Break”) and you forfeit the game it its your last racket. BUT, if you have perfect timing, you can return a Zone Shot using “Block” which will not cause any damage to your racket. Using “Zone Speed,” you can slow down time around you, allowing you to make shots that would otherwise be impossible. Your ability to use these trick shots depends on how filled your Energy Gauge is. Your Gauge fills up the longer you keep a rally going and depletes when you do Zone Speed and Zone Shot. A shortcut to filling your Energy Gauge is “Trick Shot” which has you basically lunging for the ball and if you make it, you get a big boost; if you don’t, well, you’ll probably miss the shot entirely and lose the point. Once your Energy Gauge is absolutely full and looks like its on Blue Fire, you can do the “Special Shot” which is essentially a massive shot – capable of destroying your opponents racket in 1 hit BUT it can also be returned by a perfectly done Block by your opponent. Special Shot takes a big chunk out of your energy gauge.
Mario Tennis Aces will have online multiplayer and there will be online tournaments wherein you can earn participation rewards for merch and in game characters. Recalling the early novelty of the Wii days, you can use the Joy Con in Swing Mode where you play the game reenacting actual tennis swing movements. The Game Releases on June 22, 2018. To entice you, there will be a pre-launch online tournament, details to come.
Splatoon 2. The game will be updated with Version 3.0 in late April. The update will include, 100+ new pieces of gear; new stages including “Piranha Pit,” “Camp Triggerfish,” and “Wahoo World”; and a new rank higher than S+, Rank X. Also announced for Splatoon 2, the first paid DLC, “The Octo Expansion,” a single player campaign mode where you play as a new character, Agent 8. She’s a badass Octoling amnesiac. The Octo Expansion will release this Summer! The DLC is available for pre-purchase in the eShop ($19.99). Upon pre-purchase, you will get in game gear themed to the expansion but available for use immediately.
Here is the Octo Expansion Trailer (music video really):
Super Smash Bros. At the very end of the 34 minute Nintendo Direct, we got a quick video from Splatoon 2 leading into some stills showing Link and Mario and then a title screen announcing Super Smash Bros. coming sometime in 2018.
Nintendo Switch Headlines:
- Kirby Star Allies. The game will allow you to play with “fan favorite” legacy characters including King Dedede, Meta Knight, Bandana Waddle Dee as “Dream Friends.” Additional dream friends will be added via update post-launch. The first update will include Rick, Kine & Coo (from Kirby’s Dream Land 2); Marx (from Kirby Super Star); and Gooey (from Kirby’s Dream Land 3). Kirby Star Allies releases March 16 with the First Free Update Available on March 28. A Free Demo is Available Now in the eShop.
- Okami HD. Okami HD (Capcom) will feature new artistic touches. Touch screen controls will be in play, in handheld mode, to make brush stroke actions. In TV or Table Top Modes, you will use the Joy Cons Motion Controls. This is being called an “intuitive way to solve puzzles.” Launches in the eShop for Switch this Summer.
- Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido. “Conveyor Belt, sushi action.” “The gameplay is deep but the basics are simple.” Basically, eat as much sushi as possible in order to pile up plates of matching colors which you then hurl back at the baddies in order to wage sushi war in a post-apocalyptic sushi world where sushi is forbidden? That’s a lot of sushi … which begins to sound funny if you say it often enough. Game launches on Switch and 3DS on June 8.
- Octopath Traveler. Masashi Takahashi from Square Enix intro this headline for Octopath Traveler. 3 news items: (i) 2 new characters: Tressa (Merchant) – her path item is “purchase” which means she can obtain special items from townsfolk and Alfyn (Apothecary) – his path item is “inquire” which means he can get more information out of standard conversations than other characters; (ii) Jobs in Battle: characters start out with base job but can gain a second job to help them in battle (Merchant, Apothecary, Dancer, Warrior are the 4 jobs which are combinable into all possible combinations). The battle scenes look very much like that in the mobile game, Monster Legend; and (iii) the Release Date is July 13, 2018. In addition, a special edition of the game will be available with a pop-up book included detailing the 8 characters as well as a map, sound CD and a replica coin based on the in game currency. The SE will release on the same day as the normal game release. A Free Demo is Available NOW in the eShop.
- Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes. In Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (Grasshopper Manufacturer Inc.), Travis Touchdown returns and he’s sucked into a console game system where he has to battle through 7 in game games including an action game, a racing game, and puzzle games. He’ll have his katana and basic movies together with skill moves. There is a boss at the end of each in-game, game. There is a co-op multiplayer mode where your friend will play as the “Bad Man”. There is an Adventure Mode which tells a “new story.” Exclusive Switch Title and Will Release Sometime in 2018.
- Dark Souls: Remastered. Dark Souls: Remastered (Bandai NAMCO Entertainment America Inc) will feature a network test before launch- details to be released. The Game releases on May 25. An amiibo of Solaire of Astora will be released on the same day.
- Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. Sandbox style gameplay mixed with rotating 2D/3D puzzle levels (box garden boards). Also, it will include some Super Mario Odyssey levels as well (including New Donk City). You can split the Joy Cons so your friend can help you in levels. A 3DS version will be released as well. The game releases on July 13.
- Undertale. 2 heavily pixelated skeleton creatures have an adventure? Google tells me this must be a port because the game originally released on PS4 and PC back in 2015. Whatevs. Next.
- Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy. The trilogy of games which PS4 released last year is coming to Switch on July 10.
- Little Nightmares: Complete Edition. This is a puzzle-platformer horror adventure game, developed by Tarsier Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Its a repackaging of the game which was originally released last year featuring the two complete stories (including all previous DLC), “Six’s Story” and the “Kid’s Story.” The Complete Edition releases on May 18.
- South Park: The Fractured But Whole. South Park: The Fractured But Whole (Ubisoft) is a port of the 2017 game. I’m super interested to see if Nintendo lets this game port in it entirety and uncensored? All of the DLC will be available individually or part of a Season Pass option. The Game releases on April 24. The first two DLC packs (“Danger Deck” (Pack 1) and “From Dusk Till Casa Bonita” (Pack 2)) also release on April 24 (This Pack2 DLC will release for other systems on March 20). DLC Pack 3, “Bring the Crunch,” will release later in the year.
- Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition. Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition launches on May 18, exclusive on Switch.
- ARMS. The ARMS US & Canada Online Open is happening online from March 8-18. The Online Finals will happen on March 31. On March 31, you can download and play the game FREE for 3 days as part of their Global Testpunch.
Nintendo 3DS Headlines:
- WarioWare Gold: The WarioWare Series is coming to 3DS and will feature over 300 microgrames. It’ll be the biggest entry in the series and will use all of the functionality of the 3DS.
- Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers. Pulse-Pounding Post-Apocalyptic Races and Battles Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers is coming to Nintendo 3DS. “Action meets tower defense” in this new entry in the series. Dillon will team up your “Animalized” Mii Character. Game will your friends’ Mii Characters to join the game as gunners. Demo Version Available for Download May 10, 2018. Full game in the eShop on May 24.
- Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story. So, Mario & Luigi, while looking for a cure that threatens to wipe out everything in their world, are ingested by Bowser? So, they spend the entire game inside his stomach, I guess? While Bowser goes on a mission to find the cure? An add on game will come with it, Bowser Jr’s Journey. Available 2019
- Detective Pikachu. So, Detective Pikachu is not your child’s Pikachu. He wears a Sherlock Holmes-style detectives hat while speaking perfect American English in the voice of a 19040’s era pulp fiction, dime store detective novel. He’s also fat and out of shape. Him and a boy named Tim need to figure out why the usually peaceful Pokemon have begun to act out. Game is Currently Available for Pre-Order and Releases on March 23. A supersized “Detective Pikachu” amiibo figure launches on the same day!
- Luigi’s Mansion. Luigi’s Mansion has been remade for the 3DS and comes out sometime this year. The remake will feature a map feature on the bottom screen and a “Boss Rush Mode.”