Nintendo Direct Recap: All The Big Announcements & Trailers

February 9, 2022

And the first Direct of the year is done and dusted! And what a show it was – it was staggeringly good especially if you’re and RPG fan!

Of course, we were expecting Kirby and Advance Wars but we got some huge surprises including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC (!!!), a new Mario Strikers game entitled Battle League plus announcements for a new Fire Emblem Warriors (Three Hopes) game and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. And if that wasn’t enough Portal 1 + 2, Klonoa, a Chrono Cross remaster, A Wii (Switch) Sports game, Earthbound… I could go on… But instead here’s a list of all the big announcements (plus a few comments) and provided release dates

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes – 24 June 2022

Set in the same universe as Fire Emblem Three Houses.

Advance Wars 1+2 – 8 April 2022

Commanding officers now voiced. Ability to eeset turns and fast forward gameplay. Additional modes including a design and a high score mode. Local and online multiplayer.

No Man’s Sky – This Winter

Hello Games ‘living and breathing universe’ is coming to the Switch.

Mario Strikers Battle League – 10 June 2022

Surprise announcement!!! 5-on-5 soccer featuring shooting, tackling, items, special shots. Gear changes will affect stats, Hyper Strike shots will count for 2 goals. Some amazing artwork on show! 8-players on one switch, online play with a worldwide club mode worldwide June 10

Splatoon 3 – Winter 2022

Gameplay footage of Salmon Run Next Wave! (Co-op mode) New giant Salmonid enemy. officially launches.

Front Mission 1 (and later 2) – This Winter

Tactical RPG remakes from Square Enix

Disney Speedstorm – This Winter

Disney + Pixar battle racer. Mulan, Sully, Mickey, free to play, new seasons cross-platform play and split-screen

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed – 20 April 2022

Button motion controls updated from Wii. Will you choose the Dark side or the Light?

Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection – 17 February 2022

Three games, 2 short films, and the DLC. Plus, additional features for the Switch including touch screen and HD rumble.

SD Gundam Battle Alliance – This Year

Gundam battling fun. Online co-op multiplayer (this year)

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition – 7 April 2022

Remaster of the acclaimed RPG. Option to turn off enemy encounters. Plus new music. Includes Radical Dreamers text-based adventure

Kirby And The Forgotten Land – 25 March 2022

This game simply looks fantastic. Kirby ate a car!! More gameplay showing off the new mouthful mode – Kirby can now take control of a car, vending machine, traffic cone and more. This new move is different to the basic copy abilities. Also, copy abilities can now be evolved and become more powerful. Who is the beast pack?

MLB The Show 2022 – 5 April 2022

Japanese star Shohei Ohtani showed off why this game is going to be a big deal in Japan!

Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series – 8 July 2022

Oh so fun looking platformer including an array of side-scrolling levels. Both games (1 and 2)

Portal Companion Collection – This year

A surprise announcement. Portal 1 & 2 are coming to the Switch. I’m super excited as (seemingly) the only person that hasn’t played these games. Something about cake, right?

Live A Live – 22 July 2022

Remake in HD-2D style Previously only released in Japan. Square Enix again!

Nintendo Switch Sports – 29 April 2022

Calling all Wii Sports Fans! Tennis, Bowling, Chambara are back and will be joined by Soccer (giant ball), Badminton and VolleyBall. Local and online play. Friends or Random Matchmaking. We also got to see some Volleyball gameplay featuring Koizumi and Takahashi – oh, so wonderfully dorky! Updates later will include Golf. Online Play Test Feb 18-20.

Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival – This year

Taiko drum masters – drum to 76 Songs. New modes. With a paid in-game subscriptions service that will open up a library of 500 songs).

Triangle Strategy – 4 March 2022

New demo going up to chapter 3 is available today. Save data will transfer to full game.

Cuphead DLC: The Delicious Last Course – 30 June 2022

Ms Chalice is now playable – and she brings double-jumps!

Metroid Dread Update – Later Today!

What?! A free update with two new difficulty modes. A one-hit-death Dread Mode difficulty and for those that are looking for an easier experience a Rookie mode. April will add Boss Rush mode

Earthbound + Earthbound Beginnings – Later Today!

It finally happened! These 2 are coming to Nintendo Switch Online later today.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC!!!! – 1st Wave 18 March 2022

The moment Tim died! Paid DLC with new tracks. Remastering courses from across Mario Kart’s history. Booster Course Pass will feature new tracks released in six waves. Each wave will have 8 courses meaning we will have 48 new tracks by end of 2023! Tracks revealed include Coconut Mall, Choco Mountain and Tokyo Blur. Pricing will be R450.00 for all the DLC and the first wave will launch next month. Plus, Nintendo Online Expansion Pack subscribers get it free!