Another Nintendo Direct is in the books. A healthy dose of gameplay trailers and announcements were shown early this morning, and reactions from Nintendo fans have poured in.
The biggest news from the Direct was announcements for a new Mario & Luigi game, a Legend of Zelda title where you can finally play as Zelda, another Mario Party game, and a release window for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Smaller announcements that also made noise were an HD port of Donkey Kong Country Returns and a compilation of classic Capcom games in Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics.
These games made for some of the more positive reactions to the Direct, with fans excited about the prospect of playing as Princess Zelda. Others were simply happy to have finally received more information about Metroid Prime 4 after it was first announced in 2017.
But not everyone was fully pleased with what was shown, as many were disappointed by what wasn’t. Much of the disappointment seems to stem from the fact that there was no news about another Animal Crossing game coming soon. With no new installment since 2020’s New Horizons, fans of the social simulator will have to wait just a little longer to return to Tom Nook and his pals. Another game not shown was a follow up to fellow social sim Tomodachi Life. The 3DS title came out in 2013, and the franchise hasn’t gotten any love since. Both of these games were speculated but not expected to be shown by fans, but the realization that they still didn’t still stings.
As par for the course with and Nintendo Direct, not everyone will be pleased with what was on display. But even if not every franchise got the spotlight, there’s still a lot to appreciate about this latest Nintendo Direct.
