Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

I didn't see anything that matched Grubbs prediction either. Overall pretty lame Direct. There were quite a few games I'm interested in but none that got me super hyped (except Metroid Prime 4 but that was already known). I expect more Switch announcements at their e3/summer Direct though.

For now I have DCK Returns HD and Xenoblade X, knowing Metroid Prime 4 and another Pokémon Arceus game are coming this year. That's fine with Switch 2 coming. Besides which my Switch backlog could last me decades at this point.

I am curious where Planet Robobot, Kid Icarus and Fire Emblem 4 are. Perhaps those are being retained as the summer reveals, otherwise they may have nothing to show for Switch this e3 season.

Very odd and weak Direct. They announced two new 1st party Switch games... both are 2026 releases. They showed off two 1st party titles for this year... but it's the two we already knew about and no dates were given.

Biggest takeaway is that I'm 100% convinced Switch 2 is launching before the end of June, otherwise Nintendo would be releasing zero games for an ENTIRE financial quarter.

Anyways, Metroid Prime 4 looks absolutely fantastic.

I think the Direct was fine given the context - my take-home here is that the Switch is still receiving decent (and surprising - see: Patapon and Everybody's Golf) 3rd party support, and Nintendo have mostly (but not entirely) shifted their focus to the Switch 2. My only disappointment is that we didn't get one of the highly-requested ports, e.g. Kirby or WW/TP.

Honestly I think it would've been a mistake to announce any big 1st party titles today. Save that for next week.

@Dev-N "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games"

Upgraded Switch 1 games confirmed?

@PikminMarioKirby I think it's about what @Dev-N is saying about Nintendo Switch 2 Edition games. Announcing a bunch of new games with a vague 2025 release would look suspicious but so would giving specific release dates but not putting them up for preorder because there's Switch 2 versions being announced in 6 days.

My guess for the purpose of the Direct is that Nintendo didn't want to spend much time on Prime 4 and Legends Z-A in the Switch 2 Direct.

The direct honestly wasn't as bad as I thought at first. (Especially now that I learned there's an opt out for the virtual game cards, thank goodness) Prime 4 looked awesome, and that's kind of enough for me. There definitely hiding something about the game still, that's for sure. Hopefully we see more next week. Also happy to see Rhythm Heaven and Tomodachi Life, but I can't really be excited for either yet since they aren't releasing until 2026. Definitely shows the Switch 1 is still going to be supported for a while though. Now for the real excrutiating wait to begin...

Hard to be upset about an unexpected direct, but still, it was probably the most disappointing one to date. Apart from MP4, there were 2 games that I was interested in: Marvel & Gradius Collection. The Marvel game will be a day 1 purchase, and I've LOVED Life Force since the NES days, and have yet to pick up a copy on my Switch (Didn't know there was a Salamander 2, and we're getting a 3rd).

I thought that there would be, at the very least, a surprise NSO announcement, MP2 or MP3, or something interesting and exciting - out today. If I'm being honest, the quality of this direct has put a little bit of a damper on my excitement for next week. I hope that I am wrong - but what if the Switch 2 direct is filled with more farming sim type games that seem to dominate every direct? There must be a big market for those...but it's not me. I really hope that next week's direct goes BIG - I'm hoping to be surprised and excited for what's to come.

Japan's Direct had announcements for a new Super Robot Wars game and a new Winning Post game.

Worst mainline Direct ever. Or at least worst in the Switch generation. I'm questioning why this needed to exist. Way too close to the main April 2nd Direct, most of the 1st party games were 2026 titles, the ones that aren't are probably Switch 2 titles. They could've scheduled things much better than this, as is it feels like a waste of everyone's time. This was bad. Like really bad.

Well, looks like that's even more pressure on the Switch 2 Direct to knock it out of the park. Because if they don't have some bombshells lined up here, then everyone's going to be wondering WTF they're doing and they're going to get "no gaemz" accusations.

I liked the direct. It showed me that the Switch will still receive support for a little more. You guys expected big titles like FE, Splatoon, a new Mario 3D title, and Smash Bros, and I don't know why.

@Bolt_Strike
Just because some of games are not your cup of tea, doesn't mean it was the worst Nintendo Direct ever.
I found cute and quirky games such as Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar, Tomodachi Life : Living the Dream, Tamagotchi Plaza, Fantasy Life I, Lou's Lagoon, Pokemon Legends Z-A, etc from the Direct and it wasn't really that bad.

I also wouldn't call it a bad Direct. But 20% of the Direct were games that were previously announced and 60% of the Direct were cozy or E for Everyone games. For a core-casual audience? Not exactly thrilling.

Aside from Metroid and Marvel, that Pacman came also caught my eye, and Hot Shots Golf, Rhythm Heaven, Raidou (or however you spell it) and DQ1+2 HD2D (even though it was previously revealed the gameplay was nice). That Star Overdrive game also caught my eye but Idk if it'll be any good.

The Marvel game was definitely my highlight though. Spiderman moves match the SNES/Genesis game Maximum Carnage, one of my all time faves. The addition of all the other playable characters, better graphics and art style, no doubt a broader moveset with improved controls, but still offering that same Spidey experience in a side scrolling beat-em-up... it's perfect.

Eh, it was alright...atleast it's something to talk about while we wait for the Switch 2 Direct in April. So that's a side benefit.

I don't know what people where expecting to say that it was awful lol you hyped yourself up for no reason people.

Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon Z-A are the last "ambitious" games by Nintendo and that's okay we are already spoiled with games on the system. It's nice to see smaller stuff like Rhythm Heaven and Tomodatchi that can grow with the switch audience and it shows for casual (who btw are the ones most likely to not buy switch 2 right away) that there is still support and Nintendo are not ditching them.

In fact the direct reassured me that the one next week will be really solid.

I never said anything about the quality of the games? Read my post again, my issue is that the 1st party announcements didn't need to be in this Direct. They were either 2026 games that didn't need to be announced now (they could've put these in a June or September Direct), or they're likely Switch 2 games that could've been in April 2nd. And without any 1st party stuff, they could've just made it a Partner Showcase, which would've set expectations better. 1st party announcements are what define the full fat Directs and this had precious little.

I pretty much expected nothing and was still disappointed. I didn't really need anything right now, but if they were going to go through the trouble of having a full Direct right now you'd think what they'd be announcing is some quick remakes/remasters or smaller games for the next few months to tide us over until Switch 2. We got nothing new to fill in the gaps, so why did this need to be now with these announcements? It felt like they could've moved some announcements around and made this a Partner Showcase and this would set expectations more appropriately.

I'm happy Nintendo are still going to be making what a lot of folk see as 'low effort' games. It's weird that there was no talk for games releasing in the upcoming months as is typical with Directs. Will some of the Switch 2 games be cross gen then? And 2026 launch dates is definately not the norm. What is crystal clear is the Switch will still be getting games for the foreseeable future.

I have patapon on PSP, Story of Seasons might be good but that's just about it.

Meh.

Outside of Metroid Prime 4, which we still don't have a release date for, and maybe Pokemon Legends ZA, I found the whole thing pretty humdrum.

High on Life looked like it could be good, and virtual game cards is a nice idea.

Apart from that, I think they've just about squeezed all the juice out of the Switch after eight years.

"Lame" Direct is good, IMO. It gets stuff out of the way for Wednesday.