This morning’s Nintendo Direct at E3 2021 focused mainly on games releasing this year, with a few sneak peeks into some highly anticipated upcoming games. Unlike many had hoped, the event did not have any updates on a new Nintendo Switch. Standout games include a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, set to release in 2022, and a new Metroid game titled Metroid Dread set to release later this year.
Nintendo announced a large amount of news for The Legend of Zelda outside of the update for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, including a Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity expansion pass. The first wave, Pulse of the Ancients, will be available on June 18 with the second wave being released in November. A Game & Watch system will be launching on Nov. 12 and will offer three games in The Legend of Zelda series, including the original version of The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and the original Game Boy version of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.
A new installment of Wario Ware is coming exclusively to the Nintendo Switch. Titled Wario Ware: Get it Together, the game will be available this November and now offers a multiplayer mode. Nintendo also gave viewers a look into Mario Party Superstars, a new Mario Party game featuring five boards from the Nintendo 64 era and 100 minigames from past games in the franchise. Also announced: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re-Boot Camp, which remakes the first two games in Nintendo’s real-time strategy series. That’ll be out on December 3.
Nintendo previewed the multiple game modes featured in Mario Golf: Super Rush and teased some upcoming maps and characters that will be released in the future. The game will arrive for the Nintendo Switch on June 25. They also offered another look at Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, which was officially announced by Ubisoft during their E3 event over the weekend.
As is typically expected during a Nintendo Direct event, a new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character was revealed. Kazuya Mishima from Tekken is joining the fight, but Nintendo did not give a specific date for when he would be arriving. They did show him drop the corpses of multiple Nintendo characters off a cliff, which, hey, pretty morbid, there, Nintendo!
Other noteworthy announcements include a look into role-playing game Shin Megami Tensei V, which will release on Nov. 12. Also Life is Strange is coming to the Nintendo Switch in a big way, with a remastered version of the original game coming later this year, and the newest episode, Life is Strange: True Colors, releasing on Sept. 10.
If you missed the event or want to take a closer look at the games announced at this morning’s Nintendo Direct, check out the original livestream below.