On Feb 8, 2023, a Nintendo Direct was streamed on nintendo.com and made several huge game changing announcements, featuring information about several huge game series, like Splatoon, The Legend of Zelda, Pikmin, and Mario. Some of the titles announced have been highly anticipated and some even surprising titles are coming back after years of inactivity, like Samba De Amigo and the Gameboy games that were announced. 

During the direct, Nintendo provided a release date for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom of May 12, 2023. The game has introduced new mechanics like building vehicles and Death Mountain erupting, as well as new enemies like the unnamed cube boss and new Bokoblin variant seen briefly. Fans also got a glimpse of what is possibly the next final boss in the franchise which seems to be a reanimated corpse. “My theory is that the Zonai are the twilight people from Twilight Princess. Because in Twilight Princess, we were told the Zonai were banished to another realm. And in Breath Of the Wild, there was some dialogue that said the Zonai were banished and just disappeared. In TOTK we see some reminiscences of the Twilight language so I think they are trying to merge the Zonai and the Twilight together.” Said Mr. Puterbaugh, a local Legend of Zelda fan. 

The next release date announced was for Pikmin 4 on July 21, 2023, nearly 10 years after Pikmin 3 was released. In the trailer, fans saw new variants of Pikmin like ice Pikmin and even a dog-like companion named Oatchi (but I’ll likely name him President Doggo) that players can ride into battle. Fans also saw that the onions now have a more sleek and compact redesign. During the trailer, the return of the fan-favorite boss, Empress Bulblax, was found! And of course, the game reintroduces the aspect fans all were missing in Pikmin 3, the giant terrifying spiders and the burrowing Snagrets. It remains to be seen what happens to the enemies after the day ends for the first time ever and the 4th game reintroduces dungeons and treasures into the game! The only inaccuracy found was the fact that the captain landed the ship due to the fact that no captain in the game has been able to land their ship safely.

Making a reappearance for the first time since the early 2000s. Samba de Amigo: Party Central marks the return of the series many Wii fans forgot about. The rhythm game returns with a brand new redesign and many new mechanics that are going to revolutionize the franchise’s gameplay! Party Central is planned to release in the summer of 2023. Also making a new appearance, the Professor Layton series is releasing a new game for the first time in 6 years! Professor Layton and the New World of Steam follows Professor Herschel Layton who once again must solve puzzles in order to make case breakthroughs!

According to Nintendolife.com, the direct announced the release of many Game Boy games for switch ports! Some of the titles include Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Tetris, Metroid 2: Return of Seamus, Wario Land 3, and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. More games will be added in the future like Metroid Fusion, F-Zero, and Golden Sun.

Finally, Polygon.com says the fan-favorite game, Metroid Prime was remastered and became available shortly after the direct ended for $39.99. Along with the improved graphics, Metroid Prime Remastered implements a new dual-stick control scheme that has been long awaited. Nintendo also announced new DLC for Splatoon 3, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Dead Cells. The trailers for all of the games are available on the Nintendo YouTube Channel which also includes many more titles that were announced during the direct.