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After a bit of a lull, Nintendo‘s game studios are back in full force for 2022, beautifully illustrated by today’s Nintendo Direct presentation. We already knew about a few games coming to Switch this year, but Nintendo used the Direct to fill out the rest its Spring and Summer schedule. Here are 5 of the most noteworthy, surprising, and/or exciting announcements to come out of today’s Nintendo Direct.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Fates
The showcase began with the reveal of the latest Musso game. This time, the Dynasty Warriors developer is making Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Fates. Similar to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, Three Fates will tie into the most recent game in the Fire Emblem series, Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The game is set to release on June 10.
Mario Strikers: Battle League
Nintendo is finally returning to the hidden gem in its Mario Sports series, Mario Strikers. Nintendo didn’t share who is making it, but chances are the developer is Next Level Games, the studio behind past Strikers games and hot off the massive success of Luigi’s Mansion 3. Play some action-packed soccer with residents of the Mushroom Kingdom using new and familiar power-ups when Mario Strikers: Battle League releases on June 10.
Nintendo Switch Sports
Given the cultural of Wii Sports, it was inevitable that Nintendo would bring some version of it to the Switch. But Nintendo Switch Sports is no simple port. Based on the trailer, the game is clearly inspired by Wii Sports but has a new visual style, includes new sports, and features enhanced online capabilities. Nintendo will run online tests for Nintendo Switch Sports from February 18-20, an opportunity for Switch owners to try the game out before it releases on April 29.
Mario Kart Booster Course Pack
Nintendo hasn’t shown a lot of interest in making a follow-up to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Switch, maybe because they want to launch the Switch 2 with a new entry in the series. But fans are hungry for more from the franchise, so Nintendo is releasing the Mario Kart Booster Course Pack, which includes no less than 48 courses from past Mario Kart games newly remastered for the Switch. The first wave of games drops on March 18. You can either purchase the pack for $25 or access it as part of the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack subscription. A warning: if you only have it as part of a subscription, you will lose access to it if and when Nintendo moves on to a new form of monetization at some point in the future.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
The next game in Monolith Soft’s open world action role-playing game is almost here. Nintendo ended its Direct with the announcement of Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The trailer was short and didn’t provide many hints to the story, but it did include a release date. The game is scheduled to release this September.
These 5 games aren’t all the Nintendo Direct had to offer, it also featured such things as DLC for Metroid Dread and remastered Klonoa games. Watch the Direct in it’s entirely here to see out everything that came out of today’s showcase.
The last few Directs were a bit sleepy, possibly because of how the pandemic impacted Japan more drastically than the rest of the world due to its work culture. It’s nice to see Nintendo back in top form. And this Direct is just the start! Nintendo historically hosts another Direct around E3, so expect even more fireworks when that airs sometime in July. 2022 has already been a busy year for video games; it will be fun to see how much more eventful it will get by year’s end.