Nintendo Direct - 17/02/21 @ 10pm - 50 mins long focusing on Nintendo Switch games for H1 2021

We're just porting our anger from the last direct.

Even heading in with low expectations, that was distinctly underwhelming. Not bad, but is was all just..meh.

Mario Golf looked so bland. It was only one trailer, but it just lacked any sort of pizazz.

I really enjoyed Octopath. Shame they’re not doing a sequel, but at least Triangle Strategy is NEW and DIFFERENT, and isn’t yet another port or remake.

The Splatoon 3 trailer was really weird. Why spend the time showing character creation, when it’s just the latest game in a franchise and not a new experience? What was the whole point of that wasteland intro? Fair enough if you haven’t got any gameplay to show-off, but all a bit odd an unexciting.

Most of the games were very Japan-focused (rank generalisation, I know), makes me wonder whether Western developers have had to push back their announcements.

I know Nintendo have to hold some stuff back for E3, but nothing convinces me they’ll have a blow-out of new stuff to reveal in June.

Totally agree with what others are saying that now is a direct result of under-investment in resources and in strategy of the past four to five years.

Mafro wrote:I'll definitely be getting Twilight Princess as well if that's 60fps as well.

Twilight Princess was pretty good - I haven't played it since it came out so I'd be pretty excited about it coming to Switch.

Looking closer at some of the SSHD stuff and the one thing I dont think they have got right is the DoF. Its not creating the same shapes and doesnt shimmer like the original which was a huge part of what captured the living impressionist painting aesthetic. Its hard to tell with not much footage but the background doesnt melt away in the same way.

Victor Mildew wrote:We're just porting our anger from the last direct.

Direct Disappointment DELUXE

To be fair, that famicom detective thing looked like it could be pretty good in a Phoenix Wright way.

SerialCeler wrote:The Splatoon 3 trailer was really weird. Why spend the time showing character creation, when it’s just the latest game in a franchise and not a new experience? What was the whole point of that wasteland intro? Fair enough if you haven’t got any gameplay to show-off, but all a bit odd an unexciting.

Yeah, like all it did was get me vaguely interested in a potential single-player spin-off and then it just went "nah lol it's the same 4v4 that we've always done hyuk hyuk". Will be interesting to see what the single player element of 3 ends up being like, though.

Karl_ wrote:

Mafro wrote:I'll definitely be getting Twilight Princess as well if that's 60fps as well.

Twilight Princess was pretty good - I haven't played it since it came out so I'd be pretty excited about it coming to Switch.

I bought the collectors edition with the amiibo and never got around to properly playing it

It was surprising - to me - how folk have had such wide-ranging responses to that presentation. Some folk seemed to utterly hate it, others loved it and there is every reaction state in between.

I watched it and felt very positive about it; there was a big selection of games that appealed to me personally. Before the show I was a bit frustrated with Nintendo and, here on GR, I had been a little critical about their Switch output.

I guess it comes down to luck of the draw for each of us. Skyward was a big happy point for me but others dislike that game. If any of F-Zero Tracks, Super Mario Odyssey 2, BotW 2, StarFox Zero Deluxe or Zelda Compendium had been announced instead of Skyward, we'd probably still have numbers of folk loving and hating them. We like different things and not all game selections please everyone. So... despite how I'd felt, the range of responses were perhaps not really surprising.

Yeah, I do still have a little niggle in my mind about Nintendo's recent output, though.

The Watching Artist wrote:...(about Skyward Sword HD) Its not creating the same shapes and doesnt shimmer like the original which was a huge part of what captured the living impressionist painting aesthetic. Its hard to tell with not much footage but the background doesnt melt away in the same way.

Yeah, the watercolour-styled design of the Wii version was very attractive and I hope that effect can be maintained in this new version.

Mafro wrote:I bought the collectors edition (of Twilight Princess) with the amiibo and never got around to properly playing it

Same, man!

I'll be selling my big box limited editions of TP AND Mario maker soon if anyone is interested. Probably most of my Wii U stuff too.

Hypes wrote:

Corazon de Leon wrote:Honestly I would've been happy with the DS versions of OoT and Majora re-released on the Switch. Don't know how I feel at all about Skyward Sword remaster on its own.

Well all the previous 3D Zeldas have had their own individual remaster so it's just a continuation of that

I'm aware of that, but simply chucking out the latest in a line of HD remasters doesn't seem like a fitting way to celebrate 35 years of a franchise to me. Metroid will probably get even less though, in fairness.

35 years isn’t much of anniversary to be honest

Not even sure Metroid will get a Tweet to be honest

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:I think im just going to plug my Wii U in when i get home. It basically gets me out of this loop of anguish over whether i should buy -

Mario Kart 8 (yeah, i know, its an "worse version of the game" on Switch).
WW
TP
SM3DW

On Switch. And i could try and finish BotW.

I have basically saved enough there to cover half the cost of a PS5. If i put that £200 or so in a high interest savings account now (0.05% PA) it should have doubled in value by the time i can actually order a PS5.

FTFY.

Jenuall wrote:

Victor Mildew wrote:We're just porting our anger from the last direct.

Direct Disappointment DELUXE

I've stated my own personal reasons for being disappointed with this Direct before - it just didn't really present anything I like the look of.

That feeling is compounded by the fact that it feels like it has been quite a while since they announced anything I like the look of.

That is then made even more of an issue by the fact they billed this as a full sized Direct, which naturally increased the weight of expectations!

I still love my Switch! I still have more great games to play on it than I will ever likely get time to take on. And I'm still confident there are many more great games to come.

But in this particular moment, I'm feeling just a bit let down!

Went to bed happy, did not expect quite such a reaction in this thread. You're all (mostly) mental

Monster Hunter Rise and No More Heroes 3 are probably my two most anticipated games of the year, both are looking slick as hell and are absolute must buys. Age of Calamity was one of my favourite games of last year and I was hoping for DLC, new characters are very welcome. Skyward Sword is one of my favourite Zelda games and I'm excited for the remaster not least because I can now get my girlfriend to play it (I just hope they make some QOL tweaks to make it definitive! The button controls are going to be... controversial). Brand new Nintendo IP game announcements in Mario Golf and Splatoon 3 - I'm almost certainly going to play both and am very happy to see Mario Golf has a proper singleplayer mode, plus speed golf looks to be good fun. Animal Crossing updates are very welcome (warp pipes!) for a game I'm still playing daily. Project Triangle Strategy with a demo immediately available is great, I might not have enjoyed Octopath that much in the end but I love the 2D-HD style and this being a TRPG has me interested (my friend assures me it looks very Tactics Ogre which I understand is a good thing). Famicom Detective Club remakes/localisations were completely out of left field and definitely have my interest, as do Legend of Mana remaster (what a casual bombshell!), and World's End Club. Indie representation in Hades (rebuying physical for the collection and that art book!) and The Outer Wilds (much like Disco Elysium I've been greatly wanting to play and a Switch port makes that more likely so is very welcome). Finally Neon White looks interesting with good reason to think it should be good and I won't ever say no to more musou games like Samurai Warriors 5.

I don't even particularly care for Smash or Xenoblade but that character reveal was pretty entertaining, I love how self aware Nintendo are with playing with the reveals and making an event of them. "No I won't tell you anything about BOTW 2" was also pretty funny.

Christopher wrote:I was hoping Splatoon was going to be a different kind of Splatoon from that opening. But nope it's just another Splatoon (don't get me wrong, I adore the other games).

These are my thoughts too! I was hoping from the way the trailer started it was some singleplayer action game so I was a little disappointed when the title appeared and it started showing multiplayer, but I can't really complain about a standard sequel as Splatoon is great! I'll definitely be playing it. It will have a singleplayer component anyway, hopefully that will be the most substantial yet for the series.

Jenuall wrote:The more I watch presentations like this and the similar content from the other manufacturers and publishers the more I think that "mainstream" gaming just isn't for me any more.

I don't think this was a particularly mainstream direct at all Famicom Detective Club remakes out of left field, JRPGs all over the shop (and TRPGs which are a niche within a niche), No More Heroes 3 (while it might be his most popular franchise I don't think you could ever call a Suda51 game mainstream!), whatever Neon White actually is, big indie titles with Outer Wilds and Hades. All popular stuff, I don't think you could expect anything else to get a direct spot, but definitely not your COD, Fifa, Assassin's Creeds or GTAs. Much more of a Japanese focus and with some proper curveballs thrown in.

Balladeer wrote:[Twilight Princess] was the last truly story-driven Zelda

Balla, my friend, I like you, but Skyward Sword is the most story-driven Zelda ever made

OrangeRKN wrote:

Jenuall wrote:The more I watch presentations like this and the similar content from the other manufacturers and publishers the more I think that "mainstream" gaming just isn't for me any more.

I don't think this was a particularly mainstream direct at all Famicom Detective Club remakes out of left field, JRPGs all over the shop (and TRPGs which are a niche within a niche), No More Heroes 3 (while it might be his most popular franchise I don't think you could ever call a Suda51 game mainstream!), whatever Neon White actually is, big indie titles with Outer Wilds and Hades. All popular stuff, I don't think you could expect anything else to get a direct spot, but definitely not your COD, Fifa, Assassin's Creeds or GTAs. Much more of a Japanese focus and with some proper curveballs thrown in.

It was the first "full Direct" in a while. This was supposed to be Nintendo coming out and saying - "Switch owners, here's what we've got for your in 2021!" and it offered me essentially nothing to get excited about. Mainstream probably isn't the best term, but these are the games that publishers are choosing to put weight behind showcasing - these are the things that matter enough to get marketing budget and time in this way.


But my point (as it said in the post ) was wider than just this presentation - almost everything coming out of the manufacturers and publishers presentations over the last few years is failing to appeal to me. I mentioned a whole bunch of genres that seem to be where everything is focussed these days and they just aren't for me.

Combine that with my last post just above yours and it's a recipe for mild gaming hobby based depression!

Jenuall wrote:I've stated my own personal reasons for being disappointed with this Direct before - it just didn't really present anything I like the look of.

That feeling is compounded by the fact that it feels like it has been quite a while since they announced anything I like the look of.

That is then made even more of an issue by the fact they billed this as a full sized Direct, which naturally increased the weight of expectations!

I still love my Switch! I still have more great games to play on it than I will ever likely get time to take on. And I'm still confident there are many more great games to come.

But in this particular moment, I'm feeling just a bit let down!

Going to start watching it shortly anyway! Hopefully I’ll find a few things in there to look forward too outside of Skyward Sword HD. Will post an update after I’ve watched it!

jawa2 wrote:

Jazzem wrote:...Famicom Detective Club in particular I'm super happy for, that's a lovely bit of Nintendo history to finally get localised!...

That did look intriguing, Jazzem - it's a game(s) that I wasn't familiar with and it looks like being fun.

Hypes wrote:

jawa2 wrote:Skyward Sword, though! Yes! I'm a bit grumbly about it being £49.99 but when I recall that fun experience of flying around Skyloft and holding the Wii Remote up high as if I was yelling "By the power of Greyskull!"... good times

Scaldera though...

Scaldera. Scaldera .

But it did happen! Back in 2014!

Pics gone from that post because tinypic imploded... but here they are again! Back from Oxtober 2014!







Defeating Scaldera remains one of my top gaming achievements. I was buzzing! .

Reader, this was the last jawa played of Skyward Sword