After months of waiting with bated breath, the world-famous Nintendo Direct aired live on September 13. There was a harvest of new games and downloadable content scheduled for release this winter into spring of next year. Sure, we now have a the full title for the Breath of the Wild sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, but that wasn’t the only thing at the show. We’re going to plant some seeds of joy and list out the games all presented in the show.
First, let’s highlight some choice games announced that feel like they’ll have a particular interest to our audience. The Direct opened up with Fire Emblem Engage, a brand new game. This one seems to focus on summoning older heroes from Fire Emblem past, like Marth and Celica. They don’t appear to be doing the Persona-esque school mechanic introduced in Three Houses, but I don’t think all of those systems will be dropped entirely. We’ll find out when it releases on January 20.
Pikmin 4 wasn’t given a lot of attention, especially compared to how much they talked about the mobile title Pikmin Bloom. But a new, proper entry of the series is coming next year, and looks great. (Does this count as a farming game?)
As a reminder, Bayonetta 3 is coming in out October 28. There’s a great gameplay breakdown released here.
Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe is an HD spiffy-up of the Wii game featuring a new Mecha copy ability, new minigames, and now everyone can play as Kirby. February 24 can’t come fast enough!
Tunic is a great game about a little fox boy who washes up on a strange island. We talked about this already, but if you’re interested, check out my review here. It comes out September 27.
Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End and the Secret Key is a great name, and looks like a great RPG. I think Breath of the Wild fans might want to watch this one, as it features a plucky art style and open environments to traverse.
A fat stack of of Nintendo 64 games are coming to the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion pass soon. We’ve covered those here.
Here’s a quick rundown of other games announced:
- It Takes Two arrives on November 4.
- Fatal Frame: Mask of the Eclipse spooks onto Switch in 2023.
- Sponge Bob: The Cosmic Shake releases next year.
- Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star repeatedly punches its way to March of next year. This is a strong contender for Game of the Direct.
- Oddballers is a quirky 4-player game coming out next year.
- Remakes for Front Mission 1, 2, and 3 are all coming. The first is in November, and the others are next year. #WanzersAreBack
- Octopath Traveler II launches February 24.
- Final Fantasy Theatrythm: Final Bar Line comes February 16 and will have DLC from Nier and Chrono Trigger.
- Mario+Rabbids: Sparks of Hope launches next month on October 20.
- Various Daylife announced that it releases… TODAY!
- Factorio builds a path to October 28.
- Ib brings the indie scares next Spring.
- Just Dance 2023 Edition hip shakes all over November 22.
- Master Detective Archives: Raincode is a stylish, cyberpunk themed mystery series from the creators of Danganrompa. It looks slick, and it’s coming next spring.
- Resident Evil Village, 7, 2 Remake, and 3 Remake are all bringing cloud-based gaming to Switch starting October 28. A free demo for Village is available now.
- Sifu arrives November 8.
- Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion is a remaster coming December 13.
- Radiant Silvergun “shmups” all over the place on later today.
- Endless Dungeon is a roguelike dungeon crawler with a sci-fi theme you can find next year.
- Tales of Symphonia Remastered is coming in early 2023. Take THAT people overcharging for used copies of the GameCube version.
- Life is Strange: Arcadia Bay Collection is out September 27.
- Romancing SaGa Remastered is out December 1st.
- Lego Bricktales comes later this fall.
- Disney Speedstorm is later this year.
Do you like Farming? Then why not check out:
- Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, available summer of next year.
- Fae Farm launches in Spring 2023.
- Rune Factory 3 is coming next year, with a brand new game announced for even further in the future.
- Can you survive the SEASONS OF DEATH in Harvestella? Find out November 4. A demo is out later today, and progress from it transfers to the main game.
New content and DLC packs are also coming to games on the Switch:
- A new metal lady and challenge mode are coming to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Expansion Pass, Wave 2.
- The new Splatfest in Splatoon 3 is coming on September 23 and lasts for 2 days. The theme is, “What would you bring to a deserted island?” The teams are Gear vs. Grub, vs. Fun. More outfits are also coming in the future.
- Pauline and Diddy Kong are coming with new armor and stages to Super Mario Strikers: Battle League
- Mariokart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass, Wave 3 was teased with two courses. From Mario Kart Tour, Merry Mountain will be added for a holiday themed stage. Peach’s Garden from Mario Kart DS will also be added. More stages will be included later this holiday.
- Switch Sports is getting a whole golf mode, featuring an 8-player “Survival Golf” game, this holiday.
- Fall Guys season 2 drops on September 15.
