By William Rogers

Nintendo unveiled an absolute banger of a Direct on Feb. 9. The Direct featured over 20 new games, ports and DLC additions to already released games.

The direct first opened with a trailer for the upcoming “Fire Emblem” game titled “Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.” Although Fire Emblem fans were excited to see a new game, it was revealed to be a spin-off and not part of the main series. “Fire Emblem Warriors” will be released on June 24, 2022.

Nintendo then dropped trailers for two highly anticipated games: “Mario Strikers Battle League” and “Splatoon 3.”

“Mario Strikers Battle League” is a 5 v. 5 Mario themed soccer game. The last “Mario Strikers” game was released for the Wii back in 2007 so it is exciting to see the franchise get a much needed refresh. Mario Strikers will be released on June 10, 2022.

First announced just over a year ago, Splatoon 3 is Nintendo’s own third-person shooter. This trailer focused on the game’s newly updated “Salmon Run” game mode and announced a release frame sometime in the summer.

Breaking up a wave of ports, Nintendo unveiled yet another trailer for their highly anticipated Kirby themed platformer: “Kirby and the Forgotten Land.” The trailer showcased main character Kirby’s “Mouthful Mode” where he is able to suck up objects into his mouth in order to gain new powers and abilities. The trailer showcases Kirby inhaling various things including cars, cones and lightbulbs. “Kirby and the Forgotten Land” is set to be released on March 25, 2022.

Nintendo then shocked the world and brought nostalgia to many with the announcement of “Nintendo Switch Sports,” a new sports themed game derived off of the classic fan favorite, Wii Sports. The game brings back classic tennis and bowling while introducing new games such as volleyball and badminton. The game makes excellent use of Nintendo’s Joy-Con controller’s motion sensors allowing older fans to relive moments playing Wii Sports using Wii remotes. “Nintendo Switch Sports” is set to be released April 29, 2022.

Following a trailer for the new “Cuphead” DLC, “The Delicious Last Course,” Nintendo announced a free update to last year’s Game of the Year nominee, “Metroid Dread.“ The update adds new “Rookie” and “Dread” difficulty settings, as well as a “Boss Rush” mode, where players work to defeat every boss in the game one at a time in a row.

The Direct continued on further, announcing that “Earthbound“ and “Earthbound Beginnings” would be added to the Nintendo Switch Online program.

More unexpected was the announcement of a “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” DLC pack. Priced at $24.99, the “Booster Course Pass” will add 48 remastered tracks to the game. The courses are set to be released in packs of eight and will be released over the course of the year.

Nintendo ended the direct off with a trailer for the highly anticipated JRPG “Xenoblade Chronicles 3.” The game will bridge the gap between the first two “Xenoblade” games and is set to be released sometime in September 2022.

All in all, Nintendo’s February Direct gave most gamers something to look forward to. The Direct showcased a nice mix of RPG, sports, indie and AAA games, and brought forward a nice balance between ports and remasters and new titles to look forward to.

Image from Nintendo via YouTube