nintendo direct Archives - I'm Not Doctor Who

There was a Nintendo Direct today, almost certainly the last one we'll ever see devoted to the original Nintendo Switch. So it seems fitting to go through the stuff that was announced and discussed and provide my own personal feelings about them.

Note: my own personal feelings. If you feel differently about any of these things, great! You have an opinion and a personality. You are not wrong for feeling differently to me, just as I am not wrong for feeling differently to you.

Standard procedure Internet of 2025 disclaimer over, let's get to it, shall we?

Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake

Brilliant news. I haven't bought III yet, let alone played it, but I'm thrilled we finally have a modern way to play early Dragon Quest games that isn't those fucking awful mobile phone ports with the horrible visuals. Here's hoping they give IV, V and VI similar treatment, because while I'm lucky enough to own the Nintendo DS versions, I certainly wouldn't complain at the opportunity to play them on the big screen.

To date, the only Dragon Quest I've played to completion is IV. I got right to the end of V, but was underpowered for the final boss and couldn't be arsed to grind, so I never got around to beating it. I loved it up until that point, though. Bianca was my waifu.

No Sleep for Kaname Date

HELL YES. I love Kotaro Uchikoshi's work, and the two AI: The Somnium Files games are absolute masterpieces. I'm thrilled that we're getting another one. If you're yet to play the first two, I highly recommend setting some time aside for them (they're both pretty chunky by adventure game standards) and playing them fully. Can't wait to get back into that world with those wonderful characters.

Raidou Remastered

I never played the Raidou Kuzonoha games back on PS2, and they're super-expensive to collect today. I remember several folks whose opinions I trust enthusing greatly about them 15-20 years ago though, so I'm excited that I'll finally have the opportunity to check one of these games out. And that Shoji Meguro soundtrack sounds great.

I know absolutely nothing about the game other than it's supposed to be a pretty good time, so I'll likely be going in fairly blind to this. But I will be going in!

Shadow Labyrinth

Pac-Man-themed exploratory platformer? Interesting, and I can see the potential there. The "dark and edgy" thing is a bit of a turnoff, to be honest, but if the game's decent I can live with it. Not something I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to play, but I will follow with interest.

Patapon 1+2 Replay

Yes! Never really played the PSP versions much beyond trying them out at a friends house a very long time ago, but I liked their vibe and their music. Plus me and my wife often tease our cat Patti by going "pon, pon, Patti-pon", so it will be nice to finally educate my wife on where that actually came from.

Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar

I've played a few Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon games in my time and quite enjoyed them, but my trouble is I've got it in my head that they sort of never end. I don't think that's actually true, and that my opinion is probably largely based on the number of people who have been playing Stardew Valley for approximately 300 years, but it's kind of put me off jumping into any of the more recent ones. I think the last one I played was the one on Gamecube?

Certainly not against this, but not rushing out of my way to pick it up, either.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Cool that it actually exists and seems to be a decent way along. I've still never played a Metroid Prime game, though, so my excitement for this is somewhat tempered compared to many other folks. I do like Metroid from my relatively limited contact with the series to date (mostly Super Metroid) — I just haven't made the time for other entries in the series so far.

Disney Villains Cursed Café

I quite like the concept of this, as the "make drinks for patrons who have their own stories to tell" thing has been done well previously by VA-11 HALL-A and Coffee Talk. I just wonder if the Disney Villains thing won't end up holding it back rather than making it interesting. After all, I suspect there's fairly strict writers' guidelines in place on what these characters are and are not allowed to "do" in narrative terms.

Witchbrook

Well this looks adorable! I have a lot of time for school-themed games, and throw in a bit of magic that isn't the work of a raging transphobe and you have a winner, so far as I'm concerned. Will it beat Mana Khemia? It'll probably be a rather different experience, but I'm very much up for this, particularly with its lush pixel art.

The Eternal Life of Goldman

I must confess, I couldn't remember what this was just from the title as I think I tuned it out a bit when I was watching the show (no shade on the game, I was working at the time) but looking back at it now, it looks kind of neat. The animation on the characters is lovely, but the backdrops look a bit drab. If this has a decent story or some more varied environments, I might give it a look.

Gradius Origins

Yes please. The other Konami collections are excellent, so I will be happy to add this one to the mix.

Rift of the Necrodancer

I like Crypt of the Necrodancer, but my first impression of this is that it loses a bit of its charm by being a more conventional rhythm game rather than a combination of rhythm game and RPG. The visuals are nice, though, and it looks like it plays well enough. I was a bit concerned about the number of times they mentioned DLC, though. Perhaps one to wait for a "Complete" physical release of.

Tamagotchi Plaza

Do not care. Never had a Tamagotchi, have no attachment to them whatsoever, and the dentistry bit looked like one of those spam mobile games. No thank you.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A

I've never been a big Pokémon fan, though I moderately enjoyed Sword/Shield a while back. Another one I'll keep a bit of an eye on, but probably won't rush out to buy.

Rhythm Paradise Groove

I feel the exact opposite about this as I do about Pokémon. A new Rhythm Paradise/Rhythm Heaven/whatever you call it in your neck of the woods is an insta-purchase for me after loving the DS and Wii versions.

Virtual Game Cards

Seems like a decent solution to sharing digital games. A little more cumbersome than it perhaps needs to be, but that's Nintendo for you. I do like that you can "lend" digital games to family members, though; I've been hoping for a way to do that so my wife can play the Atelier Arland series for a very long time.

SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered

I bounced off this hard on PS1 but I'm much more open to it these days. The art is kind of weird though; the heavily pixelated characters on the upscaled backdrops just look a bit odd. Not "ew, I'm never buying this" odd, just a bit odd. Which would be firmly in keeping with SaGa in general.

Monument Valley

Hooray! A mobile game breaking free of its mobile prison! I was always curious about this but had absolutely no desire to play it on a mobile device. Now I don't have to!

Everybody's Golf: Hot Shots

Yes please! Arcadey golf games are very much my jam, and while the Mario sports games are insistent on getting a bit too experimental with their more recent installments, this looks like it will be a good old-fashioned silly golf game. I am definitely there for this.

Marvel Cosmic Invasion

I have zero stakes in the Marvel race, but Tribute Games is always a good time. As someone else pointed out earlier, I hope they don't just get stuck doing licensed stuff until the end of time, though.

Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream

I had zero contact with (and, really, interest in) the original Tomodachi Life, but I know it's responsible for some funny moments. I also remember having some funny times with… what was it called, Miitomo? So I'll have a look and see what this is, but not one I'll be rushing out to buy or anything

Nintendo Today

Sure, Nintendo. Another app just for your news. I'm fine with this.

On the whole, I think it was a pretty good presentation! As some folks pointed out, this can be looked on as the Switch's last desperate gasp before Switch 2 shows up, and thus there's a lot of "niche interest" stuff here. But that's good! I like niche interest! I am the niche! So I say bring it on.

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I did not manage to get up early and go for a swim today, but I wasn't really expecting myself to. Suddenly doing some exercise after a long period of… not doing that left me feeling a bit stiff (eyy) so I thought I would take today off and make an effort to go tomorrow. Easing into it and all that.

But that's not what I want to talk about today. Today was the latest Nintendo Direct, a presentation that many have been assuming will be one of the last big shows Nintendo do while the Switch is still their current platform. The Switch's as-yet unnamed successor has not yet been announced — and a clearly increasingly irritable Nintendo has been repeatedly pointing out that it has nothing to announce aside from the existence of a successor as yet — but it's clear that the console is currently doing its victory lap ahead of graceful retirement.

That does not mean there's nothing interesting coming for Switch, however! On the contrary, there were some really cool things showed at the Nintendo Direct, including some long-awaited news on Metroid Prime 4.

As always, the reaction to the show on the Internet has either been breathless enthusiasm or varying degrees of "well I never liked Nintendo anyway", but taking as balanced a viewpoint as is possible from someone who likes the Switch and probably uses it as his primary gaming platform, I thought it was a good presentation. Nothing earth-shatteringly amazing, but lots of things that were good. And, to be honest, that's absolutely fine.

A notable highlight from the show was definitely the new Zelda game, in which you get to play Zelda herself rather than Link. It adopts the same tilt-shifted toy-like style seen in the Link's Awakening remake from a while back; it's nice to see that applied to an all-original game rather than a remake.

One thing I've been puzzled by is the number of people who seem to just want "Zelda where you play as Zelda but she's just swinging a sword around like Link". This is not what we're getting with Echoes of Wisdom, as the new game is known, and as far as I'm concerned that's a great thing. Instead, we have the ability to capture "echoes" of objects and monsters in Zelda's wand, then summon these for various purposes. I can see this potentially being a very interesting mechanic, and a factor which sets Echoes of Wisdom apart from other Zelda games. I'm mostly just glad we're not getting another Breath of the Wild-style Zelda, though; Breath of the Wild was great and I'm sure Tears of the Kingdom is also, but Zelda is at its best when it's being experimental, interesting and notably different from one entry to the next.

Outside of Zelda, I was also thrilled to see the announcement of Ace Attorney Investigations for Switch, including the first ever official localisation of Ace Attorney Investigations 2. I was particularly pleased to see the game features the option to play with new high-res sprites or the original pixel art; that's a nice touch indeed, particularly as Ace Attorney Investigations has actual character sprites walking around as well as the animated busts seen in the rest of the series.

What else? Dragon Quest III HD-2D or whatever it's called looks great. I'm all for Dragon Quest being remade and made more generally accessible. It's curious that III appears to be coming out before I and II but I guess they had their reasons. I'm looking forward to giving it a go, and hoping that IV, V and VI get a similar treatment; I'm lucky enough to have copies of the DS versions (they're pricy these days!) but I would like to play them on the big screen.

The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy looked very cool. I like the art style of the Danganronpa guy whose name I can never remember, and this looks like quite a different style of game. I dig it, but I'd like to see more of it.

The new project from Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu, aka the Final Fantasy grandaddies, looked a little underwhelming visually, but potentially mechanically interesting. I have faith that they can pull something cool out of the bag, based on their past post-Final Fantasy work together — The Last Story is a wonderful game, for instance.

Mario & Luigi getting a new entry in the form of Brothership is welcome news, even if I have never managed to get caught up on any of the Super Mario RPG-adjacent series. I do have a copy of the Super Mario RPG remake and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door on Switch waiting for me to play, but it'll be after Final Fantasy XIV's new expansion Dawntrail before I get to those.

Metroid Prime 4 I'm excited to see on behalf of everyone else, even though my experience with Metroid pretty much starts and finishes with the excellent Super Metroid. I have the Wii version of Prime Trilogy to get to at some point, so I'll have to make the time for that. I liked Super Metroid a lot, so it's a series I've always been meaning to delve deeper into.

You know, the more I think about the Direct as a whole, the more I feel like it actually was a pretty strong one. I'm struggling to think of any games that were shown where I felt "ugh, this isn't for me". Sure, some certainly appeal more than others, but I'm pretty sure I could have some fun with absolutely everything that was shown off today. This is a good thing, and makes me feel like whenever the Switch's successor is finally announced, the good ol' Switch is still gonna be kicking for a while yet. And if Nintendo has any sense, said Switch successor will be backwards compatible. Here's hoping; sometimes they have sense, sometimes they do not.

So yeah. They did a good. I'm looking forward to finding out more about all the games they showed — not just the ones I remembered to talk about here — and feel pretty confident Switch will continue to bring the hits for quite some time to come yet.