After last week’s all too brief Nintendo Direct, which had little else to do beyond celebrate Pokémon’s 20th anniversary and announce the next twinned games, last night saw a full fat Direct, covering a lot of upcoming games together.
Watch it in full here, or keep going for our round up, there’s rather a lot to get through!
It got under way when Shigeru Miyamoto appeared to talk about the much delayed Star Fox Zero. He talked about the Fortuna stage, with its particularly alien look, as well as showing the alternate paths you can take, in a manner similar to the N64 version game.
There’s also a new co-op mode sharing Arwing controls between a Pro Controller player and a Gamepad player.
Miyamoto then turned to an evolution of the Project Guard tech demo that was first shown at E3 in 2014. It’s now called Star Fox Guard and has you managing 12 separate cameras in a kind of live tower defence game.
Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard are both out on April 22nd in Europe, both are available separately, but there’s also a special first print edition that bundles the two games together.
Splatoon is getting a new patch on March 9th to balance gear abilities, adjust ranked battle matchmaking, and tweak the Splatfest content. This will be followed by another update that will adjust weapon balance as well as adding Sheldon Picks to recommend potential new combinations to you. The ‘Sheldon’s Picks Vol. 1’ update will be out in April.
Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games is out on April 8th on 3DS, with a Wii U game on June 24th.
Super Mario Maker has more than 6.2 million player created for it already, but there’s set to be even more possibilities. You’ll be able to make locked doors that require a key and angle for more puzzle elements with pink coins. Consider yourself a Mario expert and you can test yourself with the new Super Expert difficulty in 100 Mario Challenge.
This patch is out on March 9th.
Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE fuses Atlas’ RPGs with the Fire Emblem series and pop music concerts. It’s out on June 24th in Europe.
Paper Mario: Color Splash takes Paper Mario off to Prism Island, with our hero fighting to bring colour back to the land with his new paint hammer. Of course, it goes beyond just exploring, with a new system in battles that has you painting cards on the Gamepad in order to unleash attacks on enemies.
There’s little more to say, but the game is planned for Wii U later this year.
Flipnote Studio 3D will be a free 3DS download for anyone that signs up for a Nintendo Account during its launch period, which starts in March.
Series 4 of the Animal Crossing amiibo cards will arrive on June 17th. The 3rd series is out on March 18th alongside a bunch of new amiibo figures.
Hyrule Warriors: Legends is on track for release for 3DS on March 24th, with all new copies of the game coming with a code to download Legends’ new characters for the Wii U version of the game.
Legends will get a DLC season pass with four packs coming this year and a special Ganondorf costume. Coming alongside the first DLC pack, a new character is coming for free to both platforms, with Medli having a powerful harp-based attack.
Get a quick taste of the game with a demo that’s out now on the eShop.
Yo-Kai Watch is a big hit over in Japan, and it’s now coming to Europe for 3DS on April 29th. You head around the city trying to solve mysteries and keep misbehaving hidden Yo-Kai monsters in check, with the help of your own Yo-Kai companions.
A demo is now available on the Nintendo eShop, but here’s a natty video from the Direct.
Disney Art Academy does what it says on the tin, teaching you how to draw popular Disney and Pixar characters on 3DS. It’s out on July 15th.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force is out for 3DS some time this summer.
Lost Reavers is a free to play game from Bandai Namco with co-operative adventuring and battling, as you hunt for ancient treasures. It’s heading into open beta on Wii U on April 28th, leading straight into the full game.
Exclusive to the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL hardware, SNES classics are coming to the portable’s Virtual Console – the original 3DS hardware must not be powerful enough for good emulation of these games.
Super Mario World and Earthbound are already out, with more games out each week for the rest of this month. Including Zelda, Donkey Kong Country and more.
There’s a special offer for each pair, where buying one lets you get the other half price – most games will be £7.99, but some may be more. However, for those that have already bought these games for the Wii U’s Virtual Console, there’s no discounts or cross-buy style promotions.
Azure Striker GUNVOLT 2 lets you play as Copen, Gunvolt’s former enemy, who has his own particular combat style, as well as the ability to copy attacks from boss enemies. The game is out on the eShop this summer.
The original game is now on sale with 1/3rd off.
Montage!
There’s a lot of people looking forward to Fire Emblem Fates. It’s split across three stories, with Fire Emblem Fates Birthrights, Conquest and Revelations. There’s a new special edition New Nintendo 3DS XL on the way, and the game will come with a special edition version that has all three storylines on one game cartridge.
However you want to buy it, the game is out on May 20th. Revelations will be part of the above special edition from launch, but for those buying just one of Birthrights or Conquest, it will be available as add on content on June 9th.
Monster Hunter X has been out in Japan since November of last year, but now it’s coming to the rest of the world under the new name of Monster Hunter Generations. Check out the trailer for “the most customisable Monster Hunter ever” below, with the game out in the summer.
If you’re super stoked to see it in action, Capcom have a stream of the game today, March 4th, at 5PM. Head over to twitch.tv/monsterhunter_eu to watch.
Rhythm Paradise Megamix brings together more than 100 rhythm games, with 70 taken from Rhythm Paradise on DS, Beat the Beat on Wii and the original game on Game Boy Advance game. That means there’s 30 new rhythm games mixed together with the old, when it comes to 3DS later this year.
And finally, Kirby: Planet Robobot rounded out the 3DS centric Direct. The game has two planes of play, with Kirby jumping back and forth, making use of his copy abilities, and even turning into a Robot himself.
There’s a separate mode called Team Kirby Clash, with four player co-op to battle against powerful bosses, trying to make use of complimentary classes. The mode is Download Play enabled, so you can play with people who don’t have the game
Oh, and you can use every single amiibo with the game to get fresh abilities and potentially costumes, with a fresh Kirby series of amiibo coming out alongside the game, which is launching on June 10th.
Kennykazey
A lovely and extensive write-up!
I’m glad we finally got an English title and date for SMTxFE, I mean TMS#FE.
Paper Mario looks wonderful, but I’m not sure about the gameplay. One to keep an eye on though.
As a Wii U owner of Hyrule Warriors, I’m dissapointed that the far inferior 3DS port gets more additional content. I would have loved being able to buy a “Legends” expansion for Wii U.
J_Joestar
wow, actually seeing it typed out like that, TMS is SMT backwards and # sorta has a resemblance to X.