The Latest Nintendo Direct Reveals More on Splatoon 3, Bayonetta 3, Metroid Dread, and More

The Nintendo Direct showcase yesterday included over a dozen games as well as announcements of new features for the Nintendo Switch. While the Nintendo Switch OLED was not a major focus of the presentation, there were a ton of surprises. For instance, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 was not showcased, and neither were any Pokémon games.

In typical Nintendo fashion, the event was announced the day before it happened. And, unlike the PlayStation Showcase, it wrapped up as soon as all the game trailers were done. In fact, several of those announcement trailers were for games that launched yesterday after the event.

The Showcase opened with Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak which is coming out next summer as paid DLC for Monster Hunter Rise.

On Oct. 29, Mario Party Superstars is coming to Nintendo Switch. This new Mario Party includes stages from Mario Party 64. The same day, Hyrule Warriors will receive the “Age of Calamity Expansion Pass,” adding new characters, stories, and challenges to the Dynasty Warriors/Legend of Zelda crossover.

Disco Elysium is also coming to the Switch as Disco Elysium: The Final Cut on Oct. 12.

ChocoboGP, a Mario Kart-style racer based on the characters and themes of Final Fantasy, is set to release next year.

The last fighter character coming out for Super Smash Bros Ultimate will be announced on Oct. 5, three days before the release of the Switch OLED and Metroid Dread.

New details for Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be announced in October, with free content coming in November, including the return of The Roost coffee shop and its owner, Brewster. Mario Golf: Super Rush is getting its second free update, featuring a new desert course, a new snow course, and new players.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land—which many have joked looks like Kirby exploring the world of The Last of Us—was announced and will be released in Spring 2022.

Nier and Drakengard creator Yoko Taro is teaming up with Square Enix once again for Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars, an RPG where characters, abilities, and even the map are expressed through cards. The game will release Oct. 28 this year, and is available for preorder now.

Dying Light 2 is being released on Feb 4, 2022—with a free demo the same day. The first-person, open-world zombie survival RPG will release its Cloud Version to Nintendo Switch, while the original game—which was originally released on PC and non-Nintendo consoles—comes to the Switch as Dying Light: Platinum Edition on Oct. 19.

Several ports and remasters were announced. Aspyr, who brought several Star Wars games to mobile platforms and is remaking Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for PlayStation 5 and PC, is also bringing a port of the original Knights of the Old Republic (first released in 2003) to Switch. It will be released on Nov. 11, with preorders beginning yesterday.

The Castlevania Advance Collection collects all four Game Boy Advance Castlevania games in their Japanese, North American, and European release versions. They bring with them new rewind, quicksave, and button-mapping features, and a gallery mode of never-before-seen artwork. The collection released shortly after it was announced.

Disney Magical World 2, a remaster of a Nintendo DS game with Mii-like player insert characters, will be released Dec. 2021.

Actraiser Renaissance was released worldwide after its reveal trailer yesterday. The remaster of the 1990 RPG combining sidescrolling combat and a top down citybuilding strategy game will feature the original SNES musical score and an updated version to go along with its stupendous new graphics.

Besides all of these remakes and remasters, Nintendo included many archival re-releases to boot. The new Nintendo Switch Online subscription plan will include games from the Nintendo 64, like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart 64, as well as games from the Sega Genesis, like Castlevania: Bloodlines and Sonic 2. More games from Nintendo 64 and Genesis will be rolled out over time. “Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack” goes online in late October. To go along with this new plan, replica wireless controllers modeled directly after the original Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis controllers will be made available to all players that subscribe to any Nintendo Switch Online plan; these controllers will cost just under $50 a piece.

DELTARUNE Chapter 2 released yesterday as a free upgrade for DELTARUNE Chapter 1. The episodic top-down RPG with the retro-inspired aesthetic has five more chapters with release dates yet to be announced.

Splatoon 3 had a big reveal as well. The trailer, which showed gameplay and hinted at its single-player campaign, was followed by a premise-breakdown by a labcoat-wearing “Squid Researcher,” who were are absolutely positive was not Splatoon creator Hisashi Nogami.

The most anticipated first-looks might have been Metroid Dread and Bayonetta 3, which was first announced in 2017. Metroid’s trailer came about midway through the presentation, showing off the gameplay and story of the latest addition of this beloved franchise.

Fans and games writers on Twitter seemed genuinely delighted about the Bayonetta reveal, which came toward the end of the presentation, and was one of the longest of the event.

Short clips hovering around thirty seconds were shown of Hot Wheels Unleashed, a racing game tied to the Mattel toys, Surviving the Aftermath, apparently a post-apocalyptic strategy game, and Shin Megami Tensei V, releasing in November, a sequel to 2013’s Nintendo DS-exclusive game. The new gameplay trailer for Shin Megami Tensei V was only available on the Japanese Nintendo Direct.

Some of the biggest news of the day was the reveal of some of the voice cast for the upcoming Super Mario Bros. animated movie. In a move that brought widespread fan condemnation, Mario will be played by Chris Pratt. Fans are more excited about the casting of Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach and Charlie Day Mario’s perpetually overshadowed brother Luigi. Jack Black will play Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key will play Toad, and Seth Rogen will play Donkey Kong, Mario’s original nemesis. Fred Armisen will play the fourth wall-breaking, elderly Cranky Kong; Kevin Michael Richardson will play Bowser’s Magikoopa mentor, Kamek; and Sebastian Maniscalo will play Foreman Spike. Charles Martinet, who has voiced Mario in most videogames with the character, will appear in as-of-yet-unnamed cameos.

If you’d like to watch the entire Nintendo Direct, you can watch it on YouTube here.