I’m well aware that the big sites already have some poor dude doing play-by-play of the Directs as they go on, but since I’m not getting paid jack for this AND since I was up until 3AM last night, I’ll make this easy on you and me by writing down what I liked and disliked about the latest Nintendo Direct without much guff. Okay there’s some guff. I’m posting the trailers too.
There’s a new Fire Emblem on the way! No name in the US, but it seems to have a different style compared to past games. It’s the Awakening team, however, so I’m sure it’ll be awesome. Plus, if that dancing lady from the trailer is one of the main characters, having a Dancer class MC would be pretty wild. Plus, the game’s called “Fire Emblem: If” in Japan, which reminds me of an old Shin Megami Tensei game…hmmmm.
I’m not very interested in Puzzle and Dragons, even if they slap a Mario skin on it. But for those who are, hey, they’re bundling P&DZ and the Mario version on one cart. I was expecting Nintendo to shove these out onto the eShop, so seeing a physical cartridge is a pleasant surprise. Other than that WHATEVER.
Nintendo’s making a new F2P Pokemon Trozei game and it looks like crap. I don’t even think they put a trailer up on their Youtube. I’m not going to look very hard though, because forget that mess.
Old Wii games are being ported to Wii U in full, so you don’t need discs to play them. They boot straight from the Wii U menu! It’s honestly pretty cool, and the games confirmed so far are classics. Mario Galaxy 2, Punch Out!!, and Metroid Prime Trilogy will be coming soon, but god damn, Nintendo needs to get these games out faster. I’m still REALLY SICK of how Nintendo’s handling Virtual Console, and this isn’t helping.
Amiibo support is coming to Smash Bros and Codename Steam. We already knew about Smash, but Steam’s support is pretty cute. Since Steam is made by Intelligent Systems, Fire Emblem Amiibos will allow you to add Marth, Ike, Robin, or Lucina to your squad for a mission. This came with the news that Marth Amiibos, and potentially all other Amiibos, will be restocked in the future. Take that, scalpers!
Nintendo’s actually doing Cross-buy with the new Mario vs Donkey Kong game, which is releasing on Wii U and 3DS. Now if only anyone cared at all about those boring ass games.
And finally, Nintendo confirmed the New 3DS for the US….and it’s only the XL version. As a poor unemployed gamesm’n, this kills me, since I was planning on trading in my original 3DS and making off like a bandit. The New 3DS XL will launch February 13th for 199$, alongside Monster Hunter 4 and Majora’s Mask 3D, which are also improved by the New 3DS hardware. There will also be New 3DS consoles for each of those games, with the Monster Hunter model exclusive to Gamestop. Also just an FYI, there’s no charger in the New 3DS’ box, so don’t sell your original 3DS’. If you need another reason to buy one of these, Xenoblade Chronicles 3D will be coming out on New 3DS in April.
And here’s the full Direct. There’s new Splatoon footage (which I’m EXTREMELY excited for. I want my squid girl to be stylish and deadly when the game launches in May), a weird non-announcment from Tekken’s Harada (who needs to focus on Pokken, for goodness’ sake), and some indie games, such as a foul-looking 3rd person shooter called “IRONFALL”.
Overall it was a fine Direct. Nothing huge, but I’m glad we’re getting the New 3DS over here at last. Amiibo is ramping up to actually be interesting, and Splatoon’s gonna be killer. This is just the start of Nintendo’s year, however, with Star Fox and Zelda on the horizon. AND MEWTWO. THERE WAS NO MEWTWO ON THIS DIRECT. WHERE IS HE?
I just wanted my switchable faceplates 🙁