Familiar Faces at the Nintendo Direct
To kick things off, a remake of Mario vs. Donkey Kong is happening. The sequel to the classic Donkey Kong ’94 is getting a new release, with co-op added.
Splatoon 3‘s Wave 2 expansion, Side Order, launches next Spring. This single player mode has you climb a tower, defeating enemies and upgrading your Inkling or Octoling to your liking, with different stat changes available depending on your current run.
The final wave of Mario Kart 8 DLC is out this holiday season. This expansion includes the return of playable racers Diddy Kong, Funky Kong, Pauline, and Peachette along with the Mario Kart Wii track Daisy Circuit.
Remakes of the Another Code/Trace Memory games, Another Code: Recollection, were announced as a single package. These will be pretty substantial remakes, and will be the first time Another Code R is available in the States.
The most oomfie game to ever oomfie, SPYxANYA: Operation Memories, was announced. In it, you play as Anya Forger from SPYxFAMILY as she travels about with her parents and works on a photo diary for school.
Remasters of the first three Tomb Raider games were announced, with the ability to swap between new and classic graphics at will. They’re also coming to pretty much every other platform.
WarioWare: Move It! got a new trailer showcasing some of the forms you’ll have to take for each of the 200 microgames.
Some solid indie ports were announced for Switch, including Trombone Champ (out now), Dave the Diver (out October 26th, with a demo available now), and Horizon Chase 2 (also out now).
We’re So Back
Eiyuden Chronicle has a release date, April 23rd, 2024. The Suikoden successor has been a long time coming, being Kickstarted in 2020.
Vanillaware’s latest game has the sickest title ever: UNICORN OVERLORD. It seems to be a Fire Emblem-style tactical RPG, and the art is as gorgeous as ever.
F-ZERO is back as a 99-player battle royale. In the style of the SNES original, F-ZERO 99 has you race against 98 other players, letting you customize your car and otherwise rev it up.
The Princess Peach game previously announced last Direct has a title, Princess Peach: Showtime! Peach travels through a massive theater and dons costumes to gain new abilities. Rose described it as a “direct to DVD Barbie movie” and that’s such a high compliment.
And finally, holy crap they’re remaking Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door.
There were a few other trailers, including a new Among Us map, a Contra remake, and some League of Legends games. Check the full Direct out below.
A few other tidbits did drop from the Japanese Direct. Demos for Star Ocean 2‘s remake and Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince released (worldwide, even!), and the newest game from Onion Games, Stray Children, was announced for worldwide release. An RPG in the style of the legendary game moon, Stray Children will also most likely be co-director Yoshiro Kimura’s final RPG.
Roundup of the Absolute State of Play
Bennett Foddy wanted to make sure this show got off on the right foot. Baby Steps is big budget QWOP with a dash of comedic writing on top.
Ghostbusters Rise of the Ghost Lord is a PlayStation VR2 game that seemingly features a multiplayer component. The game includes an all original cast and plot, implying the Ghostbusters branding is only cosmetic.
Resident Evil 4 Remake has revealed a DLC remake of the popular Separate Ways segments following Ada Wong. They also announced Wesker and Ada coming to the evergreen Mercenaries mode and a VR component of RE4 though details on it were sparse.
James Cameron’s Avatar is coming to gaming with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. This open world FPS allows you to explore Pandora as one of its blue inhabitants, complete with mating via hair braids.
Sony Sends Us Supplemental Sequels
Ghostrunner, one of the coolest and most visually attractive games of the last few years, is getting a complete sequel with the inspired name of Ghostrunner II.
Helldivers 2 brought us one of those horrifyingly uncanny trailers with paid actors mimicking in-game commentary, and alongside it the news that Helldivers has gone third person.
Insomniac’s Marvel’s Spiderman is back for the third time in Marvel’s Spiderman 2. The open world map has been greatly expanded with inclusion of Brooklyn and Queens. However, the prominent feature shown is the ability to switch between controlling Peter Parker and Miles Morales with little break of in-game flow. This mechanic will also apparently be used for narrative purpose as each hero can only take on certain missions.
Tales of Arise showed off a cinematic trailer for its DLC Beyond the Dawn though no word was given on whether it will add any of the missing features from previous games.
Dispatches From
Hoyoverse continues its partnership with Sony by bringing Star Rail to the PS5 with a trailer that shows of highlights from the most recent version of the game.
Foamstars is Sony’s answer to Nintendo’s Splatoon and it continues to have just the strangest aesthetic and tone of any game that was shown. It’s also having an open beta from September 29th to October 1st so you can check it out if Splatoon was just too normal for you.
Finally We’ll Know Sephiroth
Finally, Square Enix continues to show they have the best cinematics team in the business by pulling all the stops on their new trailer for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. This one shows the return of classic party members like Vincent and Red XIII, the latter finally being given the playable treatment he was snubbed off in the previous entry. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth releases February 24th 2024 on two discs for physical release.
