Nintendo Direct September 2023: Every Announcement, Game Reveal, Trailer

I am SO looking forward to Funky Kong.

Still sad there wasn't a mention of Metal Slug Tactics tho...

A fair chunk of these aren't really "announcements" as they already have been in previous Directs, but I voted for Warioware regardless because my GOODNESS that game is important to me. I am so ready to act like a moron with all my friends like back on the Wii.

Another Code, I recently started replaying the DS version om my 3DS. But now I can wait for the remake. (Day One)

How's that game going to help you with your tromboning?

I was very happy to see voicework in Warioware.

@theModestMouse I don't think anyone sane would suggest that they'll officially announce it before the holiday season and hurt sales. But I also don't think anyone sane would claim it doesn't exist when it was literally being shown off to developers at Gamescom.

The poll doesn't include F-Zero 99...

I'm really looking forward to Unicorn Overlord. It looks like it's going to be similar to one of my favorite SNES games, Ogre Battle.

I voted for:
Paper Mario Thousand Year Door,
Princess Peach Showtime
and Mario Vs Donkey Kong.

I would have voted for Suepr Mario RPG but we'd already seen a lot of that. Peach was anounced but we knew comparitively little about it. New F-Zero is always welcome, and it looks fun, but I don't really play online only games much.

Other games that I'm excited for:
Luigi's Mansion 2 HD
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Horizon Chase 2
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered
Dave the Diver

Trombone Champ is incredible on PC and has potential to be the best party / icebreaker game ever with motion controls and being on the living room TV rather than the office computer played with a mouse.

Plenty of other games that caught my interest and I'll look out for more info / reviews. Overall, a decent direct. I think if we hadn't already known about Mario RPG, Luigi's Mansion, Prince of Persia and Peach it would have been kinda mindblowing. Really, they could have combined both directs and made the best direct ever - but its ok to split them like this.

It was an okay Direct overall. It was very remaster/remake heavy, and a clear indication that Switch 2 is coming sooner rather than later.

Paper Mario TTYD getting a remake was by far the best announcement.

You must select 3 options at most?

WHYYYYYYYYYYY???

I WAS EXCITED FOR MORE THAN 3 THINGS.

I'm most interested in Unicorn Overlord

Otherwise, the Amiibo were the most exciting part.

Super meh Direct

The Among Us Fungle Map

Paper Mario and The Thousand Year Door

Contra: Operation Galuga

Tomb Raider collection.

Luigi's Mansion 2 HD

and thats pretty much it.

@theModestMouse Yeah, I for one am shocked that Nintendo did not announce new hardware for next year right before the holiday season and collapse their sales momentum.

@samuelvictor Right, and developers will need some time to get titles ready, if they've just started presenting demos to third parties, it would be too early for a public reveal.

Could you all hear the bottom of that barrel, being scraped.

“Mario & Friends Remastered Direct”

Great that Nintendo had all of these Mario games lined up for after the movie came out, I’m a big Mario fan, so big I’ve played half of them already.😂

A lot of Switch games still look like they were meant to be handheld games to me. Like after 6 years on the market what game in this Direct is pushing the Switch hardware to it’s limits? Not every game has to but 1 or 2 maybe?

I need to rewatch some trailers, not the whole 40 minutes again, b/c 1 of those 4 similar looking rpgs appealed to me but I’m not sure which one. [Edit: Eiyuden Chronciles]

Princess Peach being more than just a dress up fashion sim as I expected is a win. Not sure I need it but want to read more.

I voted for Peach b/c it’s actually a new game for a change and Nunu b/c it’s at least 3D, 1 of the only new games to be 3D in this very game filled Direct.

My NO ended a week ago, would have given F-99 a try but no loss, I’m not into competition or racing really.

No F-ZERO on the poll?

That leaker LOL........ new F-zero game, be careful what you wish for, guys.......

I'm all in for Trombone Champ with motion controls, and I'm not kidding.
Really wish people would try it before knocking it, it's a funny game with good rhythm mechanics.

F-Zero 99 should also be on the poll, because it's already a sleeper hit. Very fun and arcadey.

@Orpheus79V Yeah. I'm a Switch game dev and can confirm that little indie guys like me have not heard one peep from Nintendo about the hardware or even things like if our Switch games will run on it - so its early days and only the big boys who need to know about what the top performace of 3d stuff will be that are privvy to this. I would predict (based on little except market experience) that th announcement won't be until at least March, and its most likely it won't be available until at least August, probably later.

The new Prince of Persia game looks pretty sweet and probably the only game announced today that I'd buy. TTYD is one of my favourite games but I don't feel any urge to play it again. The Peach have looks like a lot of fun but but something I'd pay myself.
The rest of the games don't really hold any interest for me, and the one announcement I was hoping for has just left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was so hoping for a proper F Zero game but what they announced is pretty much the exact opposite of what I wanted. It's cool for those who are into it, and it's free if you have NSO, but it's left me wanting an actual new game even more, and disappointed with what's being offered.

Meh.. Fun but not that great

Paper Mario and the Peach game were the highlights for me. Not the strongest Direct for me, but hey...all the more reason to look forward to the successor.

@johnvboy that direct was awful. They scraped so hard they broke the bottom! When they said "let's go over some highlights for you enjoy for the rest of the year"! And they literally just showed the games the just talked about! 🤣 They do realize there is other big AAA games still coming this year? It didn't look like it😂

A pretty good direct with some interesting games, but the biggest surprise is that Nintendo Museum in Kyoto. I was just in Kyoto last month and passed by the site of Nintendo’s HQ, looking a bit like a law office in a very unassuming area of town. For a company with such a storied history, you’d think there would be some way to experience that while in Japan. A museum is long overdo.

Edit: Let’s just hope it’s not like the Ghibli Museum that requires you to sign up on a waiting list months in advance just for general admission.

Without TTYD this direct would have been a 4/10 at best. But I give it a seven just due to TTYD. Either way, I think this direct all but confirms a new console sometime next year.

@LadyCharlie I absolutely love Trombone champ on PC, as a 1 player experience on PC, it really genuinely helped cheer me up out of one of the nastiest periods of crippling depression in my life. I can only imagine how joyous it will be as a communal party experience with motion controls and everyone gathered round the TV.

It was pretty good. A lot of interesting lesser games. But nothing really surprising or major and I think that further shows that this system really is winding down now. I think Switch 2 in Fall ‘24 is looking very certain.

Nothing for me in this Direct or the last one. Hopefully third time's the charm.

Lots of old games that I didn't buy in the past, and I won't buy in the present.

Nintendo repeats its games a lot.

From this direct I will only buy:

Horizon Chase 2
Warioware Move it
Trombone Champ
Wargroove 2

All these Nintendo games are not $40-$60 good enough for me.

It's all about the Trombone Champ! Will buy it today.

I considered buying the PC version a while ago, but the IR hand controls seem like they'll be significantly more entertaining versus mouse controls.

No Fantasy Life i?
WtF????

@samuelvictor Thank you for sharing a little piece of your story. I absolutely empathize. Rock Band 3 and 4 were both able to help me get through two separate periods of difficulty in my life.
There's something about the hypnotic pull of rhythm games, combined with interacting with familiar music, that hits a wonderful level of catharsis. I hope better days have found you since then.

Paper Mario is obviously the big one and for good reason. But besides that I'm honestly mostly excited for the new Princess Peach game which looks really fun to play (no pun intended).

As expected though big major announcements like the previous directs in terms of brand new games that aren't remasters and it makes sense since Nintendo is gearing up for their new console launch.

I know some people will be disappointed for this direct but if we review the entire year we got a new Mario, Zelda, Fire Emblem and Pikmin game all in one year. That is as excellent a year you can get in terms of Nintendo first party support.

So no Level-5 Showings here. Wonder why, I know they are at TGS but i was expecting at least Decapolice here... What a shame. Still enjoyed the Direct just really wanted to see something from them.

Looking forward to the Eastward DLC, TTYD and maybe the Side Order DLC. Need to see more details on that one. It seems like a roguelike type of gameplay similar to Risk of Rain?

Three words: new mousefolk faction

Between both regional directs I have about 12 games to buy so good direct for me. Been a really packed year. But NEW SHIREN THE WANDERER! Gonna die sooo much.

Why only 3? Well I’m just gonna make a list of game I would try.
Super Mario RPG-I have the original on the wii but I’m planning on getting the remake because of some of the extra stuff and because of the portability.
Paper Mario TTYD-while paper Mario fans are being kinda annoying with their love for this game (seriously this is like that “it’s not melee thing years ago) I still love this game and am planing on getting it.
Princess peach showtime-honestly this seems to be a whole new thing thanks to the main villain NOT being bowser and the costume system is really interesting.
Warioware move it- must I say more? I do? Ok. The game looks absolutely goofy and silly looking and seeing that it’s…well warioware it’s a great thing.
Splatoon 3 side order- after playing through little Noah and enjoying my time with it I’m up for a new roguelite and this seems like it would scratch that itch.
Spy*anya- I’ve heard and seen a few clips of spy family and it looks really interesting so I would definitely give spy Anya a go.
Dave the diver- honestly my interactions with anything nexon is maple story from back in the day and blue archive today (don’t pity me because I love both games) so I would definitely give this a try. Plus it looks fun.
Battle crush- I honestly have a soft spot for free to play games and this one honestly looks like it might be fun.
Detective pikachu returns- I played the first detective pikachu and while I didn’t finish it yet I did like what I played so I would definitely like to give the sequel a go. (Though I should probably finish the first game first.)
All the RPG games- I love RPGs and honestly I would love to give all the RPG’s in the direct a shot.
Wargroove 2- both wargroove and it’s sequel look like what happens when you combine both fire emblem and advance wars so I wouldn’t mind giving them a shot either.
And that’s about it. Jeez there is so many good games coming out before the holiday season…hopefully I get to play them all.

Loved the direct, but it does appear that Nintendo might have cut 1000 year door's frame rate in half... GameCube and Wii games that run at 60fps don't need much. Mario Galaxy looks and plays great on Switch. I could be wrong, hopefully 1000 year door will release on Switch at 60fps (and maybe even 120 on the next system!). It's such a great game I'd hate to see it get an origami frame rate : /

The Spy X Family Anya was my sleeper hit! Looks like that one Shin-Chan game Zion did a fantastic video on

Been taking a break from gaming for awhile now due to life events + studies. But boy am I excited for TTDY, and definitely Funky Kong in Mario Kart (Sorry shy guy, it’s been a good 6 years but I’m certainly switching over now haha). My family and I have enjoyed the Spy x Family anime and manga series, so I might pick up the game during a sale maybe.

Ngl, this Direct was underwhelming for me. Seems like I would have enjoyed it more if I were a bigger Mario fan. That said, my favorite announcements were:

Splatoon 3: Side Order DLC (gameplay, finally!!)
Unicorn Overlord
Princess Peach: Showtime!

I guess all the major stuff they have cooking is gonna be saved for the next system. The silver lining for me is that I should probably focus on my out of control backlog now.

Paper Mario TTYD Remake, Mario vs DK, Princess Peach Showtime, Super Mario RPG and Spy x Anya we're the highlights.
(Spy x Family getting a game was not on my bingo.)

Quite disappointed with this direct but interested in Paper Mario, Peach and Donkey. Won’t buy Persia but nice to see it.

Clearly all the really big games are being developed for Switch 2 now.

this Nintendo Direct really felt a end of generation presentation huh?

For some (suspicious...) reason, F-Zero 99 is not included on the poll.

I just realized the Thousand-Year Door remake releases in the year of its 20th anniversary. That make me happy.

F-Zero!
Contra by Wayforward!
OG Tomb Raider!
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door!
Luigi's Mansion 2!

This long time gamer is happy. 😎

Decent Direct considering the Switch is winding down. I wasn't expecting a bunch of new games to be announced for Switch, I imagine most studios are now working on Switch 2 games.

2023 will very likely be the last full year of just the Switch on the market, and it's been great. 2024 already has good titles to start out while Switch 2 probably comes out in the latter of half of that year. Most other Nintendo platforms didn't have this strong of an exit.

Why limit to only three answers though?

A pretty boring Direct. New Contra is ok. Unicorn Overlord is the best game on this presentation...And nothing more interesting for me.

So Vanillaware makes a new game, Cing games are coming back from what I feared was their grave with Another Code and hopefully Hotel Dusk collection in the future, old school Tomb Raider, Wargroove 2, Eastward DLC,... A thousand Year Door, Prince of Persia looking fine,... Luigi's Mansion 2 I won't get, I rather have a 3ds downgrade of 3, as the 3d was awesome in 2 and I don't even want to play 2 in 2d... Had to check my two's and threes there. I was already confused when the announcer said Tomb Raider 1 through 3.

Some may call me easily satisfied, but I am satisfied, actually genuinely excited about Another Code.

I remember playing that game in the evenings when I did volunteer work with disabled kids and adults in some sort of school / village / farm. Some of the most (and only truly) satisfying work I ever did - but EXHAUSTING. Didn't even get paid, I just loved my time there, at will playing with the kids outside or inside in case of bad weather, helping on the fields, in and around the small houses of the adults,... The evenings playing Another Code on my then still quite new standard OG DS which has etched the music and everything about the game in my memory forever.

Was I the only one hoping for Pizza Tower?

As someone who hasn't played 1000 year door this was a nice surprise

I, uh, wasn't excited for any of what was announced! :/ I was super disappointed and wished I hadn't bothered watching it all when it was done

The Donkey Kong and Peach games both looked for like, very young kids, F-zero...I think I'm gonna get tired of that pretty fast...and..well, nothing else even stood out besides the trumpet thing! Everything else that wasn't shovelware anime stuff was a remake...

@LadyCharlie Thank you for the kind response Charlie, you are a consistent empathetic voice on this site which is very welcome. I completely agree with what you said about how rhythm games and music games can be very cathartic. This combined with the fact the silliness of the game made me smile then laugh for the first time in months was extremely healing at an incredibly difficult time. I'm sorry to hear you have been through periods like this also and very glad that you were able to overcome them in a similar manner.

This is actually the first time I've posted to this site in quite a few months because I've been taking a long mental health break from social media. Hope its not oversharing and no need to respond if its awkward but some people here know that I'm in the film industry... earlier in the year I went insanely viral unexpectedly and this lead to many interviews and convention appearances and a book deal and all kinds of crazy stuff in a short period and as someone who is autistic and has high anxiety, masking and coping for so long for literally hundreds of thousands of people in person and millions online essentially lead to my brain just noping out, and I'm still semi recovering emotionally.

I'm slowly coming back online tentatively, first as a dev releasing a Sonic fan game for SAGE (when I was unable to really do anything else, and just hiding from the world in a room by myself, I threw my focus into a project based on something comforting that I love, people here know I'm somewhat Sonic obsessive! Not to plug, but if you're interested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTiAmOH8MM ). Having the safety of only talking to people with similar interests who were probably going to be happy to talk to me or would only ask about my game and nothing too personal or "scary" from an anxiety raising perspective. It was a very positive experience.

I always enjoy the group chat experience on Nintendolife during Directs, so I used this as an excuse to start posting here again today. Again, I'm not quite comfortable enough to go back to general social media yet, but a small, dedicated community of people with shared interests is a very nice way to ease myself back into being comfortable talking to people online 😀 Little steps.

These directs always find a good way of making me want something I would never thought I needed. I was hoping for something different but I was very happy with getting paper Mario, contra, horizon chase 2, wargroove 2,
Fzero 99,warioware, Mario rpg, and peach footage was nice,Mario vs dk, tomb raider collection, Mario kart characters, and diver Dave or whatever looks kindve cool. Paper Mario takes the cake here tho and Fzero 99 at least gives me hopes that maybe we will get more if this does well.

@BeefSanta Absolutely not, Pizza Tower is fantastic, I'm sure it will be on Switch soon, its the game's natural home. As a fellow SAGE developer its so cool that something from that community grew so huge in the mainstream - don't know if you saw but they actually released an exclusive (official) Nights into Dreams themed Pizza Tower for SAGE this year! I was very happy to see it! Nights is my favourite game.

You can tell that the switch 2 is on the way
With all the remakes for next year they must be making way for it

But we're it metroid prim 2 and 3
But for me the clear win for this direct is Another Code: Recollection that's a day one
But in all the direct was not to bad at all😁

Only Mario vs DK and Paper Mario for me here.
Somehow I missed playing TTYD back in the Gamecube, even if I loved the N64 original, so that is a must.
Not much else for me.
Due to the Indie/Third Party state of play happening also today, for the first time I genuinely believed that today was the day for a big Silksong announcement finally. But appears not.

This direct screamed "we're working on the Switch 2/new console" to me.

Not bad, but a lot of remakes/rereleases/smaller games and no major announcements.

F-Zero looks too chaotic and too busy to be fun. Just rename it "L.A. Rush Hour: The Game".

Nintendo is milking the success of the Mario movie. I love Mario games, but oversaturation is always a potential problem.

I think the next Direct will have something about the new console, maybe not a full on new announcement of it, but a teaser or something, This felt like the last Direct for the current Switch.

Absolutely dire, not one game there that I will be buying!

There are quite a lot of games I have interest about. Let's see...

DAY ONE
Princess Peach Showtime
Paper Mario The Thousand Years Door

Interested
Super Crazy Rhythm Castle
Super Mario RPG
Trombone Champ

The other games I will think again about them.

I'd rate it 6/10. Mario vs Donkey Kong, Horizon Chase Turbo 2 and Contra were my favourites. F-Zero 99 was a crushing announcement. When the world needs F-Zero X remade, we get a rehash of the SNES original that requires a subscription to play it. Sorry, Nintendo, I still won't participate in your extortionate subscription model.

Trombone Chump saved this show

Another Code has my vote more than anything else. I think it was my first DS game and I played it to death (though I was eight, so I made my parents do all the more complex puzzles). It was a game that really took advantage of the DS hardware so I hope this remake does the same for the switch.

The disrespect of Nintendolife to F-zero.

At least this Direct is much better than the previous one

Only 1 banger in there for me. Ttyd.

You had me at Another Code. Really hope a Kyle Hyde Recollection follows.

I'd hate to see what it takes to get some of you off, yeesh. This was great! If nothing else, Arlo was freaking out and that makes my day.

How dare they tease me with Super Mario Galaxy music for an art museum. I was hoping for Super Mario Galaxy 2 to finally get an HD remaster. Also, scalpers are probably raging right now thanks to the remaster we did end up getting, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. The OG version is stupid expensive, so nice that we can finally pay less for an even better version. Not that I'm going to get it.

Very excited about the SpyXAnya game. Getting it off Steam.

This didn't need to be put in a direct, i feel like all this could have been announced on their website. Most of this isn't even new anyway

Honestly I was super disappointed by this direct, I was hoping for a another big Nintendo game I could get with an extra game voucher I have but the only thing that interested me was TTYD and I really don’t think it’s going to come out on switch

Why is there no fzero in the list? That's literally the best announcement of the bunch, it's not a remake and not something that has been previously announced.