Last night’s Nintendo Direct was about much more than new Xenoblade characters! While I’m sure the single-player stuff has some people interested or curious (for you Mana fans), and the Animal Crossing: New Horizon Mario-crossover was something we’ve known about for a while now, there were a few curveballs. Some good, like the announcement of Splatoon 3, and some that maybe we shouldn’t get our hopes up for, like Zynga’s upcoming Star Wars game. Let’s recap!
Splatoon 3 for me was the big reveal. I honestly hadn’t dreamed of seeing another Splatoon on the Switch, but as one of the first big Switch exclusive games that wasn’t available for Wii U or just a port of a Wii U game, I guess it makes sense. Unless Splat3 is secretly going to be on a new console but you can enjoy that theory yourself.
What is apparent is that players are getting some new kind of buddy this time around. Of course, we see some new weapons, players seem to start from off the stage rather than on, and it looks like we’ll be in a really big city this time. Details are scant, but it does look like we’ve been shown the character creator. The 2022 release date can’t come fast enough for me!
While I noted in my Monster Hunter Rise demo hands-on that, visually and in terms of simplicity, Monster Hunter World seems to have set the bar for people just entering the series, the new MHR trailer certainly has gotten me hyped for the finished product. While it’s not uncommon to have one or maybe two extra monsters attacking you while you’re focusing on your main target, it’s apparent that, as some point, we’re going to be asked to fight, well, many more than that as part of something called a “Rampage.”
At once. In what looks like the main story base. The trailer looks like a combination of Attack on Titan meets Pokemon on steroids, with players zipping all over the screen and taking over monsters to turn enemy into temporary ally. There are also several new monsters, including the very impressive Almudron, which creates huge pillars of mud to shake-up the battle terrain. Start practicing your wire bug moves and Spiderman catchphrases!
Animal Crossing fans, set March 1st as the date to jump in for new items via Nook Shopping! We knew this specific update would come about six months ago, but Nintendo really went all out, and it’s not just simple furniture or interactions, like floating coin blocks or changing flags. Coins that appear and disappear as you walk over them should be applicable for anyone into adventure-themed islands, and the warp pipe actually transports players to a second location of your choosing. We’re not sure what the limitations are, but we’ll find out in a few weeks if we’ll finally have a way to break into villagers’ homes while they’re sleeping, now won’t we? As always, I’ve pestered asked Nintendo PR if there is any news about gyroids or Brewster coming any time soon and will update this if Nintendo every wants to share some good news with us. Although, I suppose this update is already pretty nice from what we’ve seen.
Fall Guys is coming to Nintendo Switch this summer! No exact date or mentions of cross-platform play, but one can hope.
Finally, there’s Star Wars Hunters, which I am admittedly worried about. While Zynga did host one of my favorite MOBAs, Solstice Arena, which didn’t nickle and dime me, it also rarely makes anything that makes me feel as if I can trust its monetization schemes. Seeing Google Play and the App Store logos at the end does color my bias (and I say that as the guy that tends to cover more mobile titles). Still, uh, it’s Star Wars and on the Switch, so maybe the very content-light trailer will get some folks excited.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVLLXp0KZVY&ab_channel=Nintendo
Or not.
