The most recent Nintendo direct took place on September 13^th, 2022 and it announced news regarding updates, remasters of old games, and even news regarding the “Super Mario” animated movie, and theme park in Japan. 

More Nintendo 64 games are coming to the Switch along with a couple remasters of older games. Some of the N64 games that will be coming to the Switch gradually this year and next include: “Mario Party” one, two and three, “Pokémon Stadium” one and two, “Pilotwings 64”, “Excitebike 64” and “1080 Snowboarding”.  

Two remasters were also announced. “Crisis Core” and “Final Fantasy Seven Reunion” will be coming to the Switch with an updated soundtrack and combat system, this will be available December 13^th, 2022. “Kirby Return to Dream Land” will also be remastered for the Switch for the franchises 30^th anniversary. The game will include a new copy ability called mecha, as well as old mini games from former games and some new ones as well. This will be available to play on February 24^th, 2023. 

Several non-Nintendo games are coming to the console as well, some of these include “It Takes Two”, “Resident Evil Villages Cloud Edition”, “Resident Evil” one, two and three Cloud Edition, “Tunic”, “Oddballers”, “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake”, “Feafarm” and many more will be available this year and next. 

Several sequel games were shown in this direct, some of these franchises are extremely popular within the Nintendo community and fans are very excited for these games. The first big announcement was the return of “Splattfest” and “Splatoon 3”. “Splatoon 3” was released on September 9^th and fans have already fallen in love with the new characters. Another popular sequel that was announced was “Bayonetta 3”, since the last Bayonetta game was released eight years ago this was a delightful surprise for fans.  

There were two other very big sequel announcements in this direct, one of them being the announcement of “Pikman 4”. There was no gameplay trailer like the others in this direct, but fans were given a peak into the graphics and general style of the game. This is exciting to many people because the last “Pikman” game to come out was “Pikman 3” back in 2013. The other huge announcement was for “Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom”, this was shocking to fans because not only was the title revealed but a short gameplay trailer and a release date as well.  

There were also a couple of non-game related announcements included in this direct. One of them being an update on the “Super Mario” movie that Nintendo is working on in collaboration with Illumination studios. Shigeru Miyamoto announced that the movie will be released next spring, he also revealed that there will be a Super Nintendo World theme park opening in Universal Studios in Hollywood California.  

It looks like the rest of this year is going to be great for Nintendo fans, especially those who are fans of the older titles. Many fans are looking forward to these new and remastered games and how they will translate onto a new platform and to see what else this company may have in store as more trailers are released.  

Article by Sophia Meek