That Nintendo Direct last night sure was a doozy! I’m doing this roundup in the morning instead of right afterwards, because those evildoers over at Nintendo decided anyone doing this job on the East Coast was gonna sign up for overtime. And buddy, you can shove that right down the nearest warp pipe. Anyway, the first Nintendo Direct of 2023 has occurred, and set up more or less what to expect between now and at least July. Highlights included the Metroid Prime remaster finally dropping, new footage of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and yet another big round of niche JRPG re-releases for all the sickos out there. There was something for everyone, something that I feel like I’m saying every time one of these airs lately.
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So much stuff happened it’s hard to break it all down and organize it, but I’ll do my best here. Let’s go with separating brand new game announcements, release dates, general updates and remasters/remakes. That seems reasonable.
New Games
Level-5 seems to have made a huge comeback after struggling a bit (probably thanks to Yokai Watch, sadly). This developer pulled a Square Enix and announced several new games, including Professor Layton and the New World of steam (yes “steam” is uncapitalized on purpose for some reason), Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and a totally new IP called Decapolice. Not sure how to feel about that last one, but whatever. We also saw Samba de Amigo: Party Central from Sega and Harmony: The Fall of Reverie from Life is Strange developer Don’t Nod.
Remasters/Remakes
Metroid Prime Remastered, which has supposedly been ready to roll for a long time now, finally got a release date of, well, yesterday. A retail version is coming later this month as well! Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp also showed back up now that the war in Ukraine is over finally, getting a new release date of April 21. I’m just gonna bullet point the rest, because there’s a lot.
- Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster
- Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
- We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie
- Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection
- Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games were added to Nintendo Switch Online!
Release Dates
- Pikmin 4: July 21
- Disney Illusion Island: July 28
Updates:
Kirby Return to Dreamland Deluxe will feature a new epilogue after the main story, and a demo is out now on the eShop. Demos for Sea of Stars and Octopath Traveler II are also now available. Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom still exists and still is coming out in May. There’s a new trailer and extra merch you can buy. Check out the trailer:
That’s pretty much it in terms of Nintendo Direct highlights for the February 8, 2023 edition. See y’all next time.
