Holy smokes, Nintendo. You hit it out of the park with a variety of announcements within that Direct. A few returning franchises, such as a new WarioWare bringing its minigame mayhem to Switch, along with Metroid – which brings Dread back from the dead. That title was originally meant to release more than ten years ago, so to see it be revived is absolutely lovely. Even if it means little to me. But just because those two don’t, doesn’t mean nothing did.

Seems Nintendo is in a revival mood, which certainly felt like the tone of the entire Direct, as quite a few of the games featured were from series that haven’t seen much in the way of support on a Nintendo platform. Worms Rumble is finally coming to the Switch, having seen a release last year on PC and Playstation systems. I enjoyed my time on the open beta of the PC version, but I’m not sure I’ll be grabbing it on the Switch. Good for fans who do, though.

Cruis’n is another Nintendo franchise seeing a revival of sorts, by bringing Blast to the system. Having been released for arcades in 2017, a lot is being added for the series return to consoles. With 29 tracks in total – including the five from the arcade game, I’m ready to get into a Nintendo racer that isn’t Mario Kart. Over-the-top action – including racing on a unicorn – makes this a must have for me. A true arcade racer that’s not of the karting variety.

Now, I mentioned during my talk of Summer Games Fest’s Kick Off Live that I was interested in Metal Slugs Tactics to get a strategy game. Nintendo have just made it so I don’t even need to bother with that. My king of strategy is returning. Yup, Advance Wars is back in town, with a remake of the first two games.

I only ever played the DS games, so being able to try out the GBA games for the first time will be great. I will admit that I most enjoyed creating and role-playing rather than following the story with those games, but I’ll be testing out my strategy muscles with those campaigns when they release at the beginning of December. As if the end of the year wasn’t busy enough.

And I do mean that. A Mario Party game going by the name of Superstars reimagines the N64 games by bringing five boards and over 100 minigames into the modern day. With online play and the ability to leave and return mid-game, there’s a lot of quality-of-life improvements and features seen here. Releasing on the 29th October, I will seriously be looking at getting this one.

I passed over Super Mario Party when it released as I felt it was a good base for the series to go, but that a sequel would improve things. Superstars… isn’t a sequel, but considering many say that the older Mario Party games are the best, I’d say this one is a good choice to make my first on the system. Watching the Treehouse team play the game, it certainly looks a lot of fun.

A revival not from Nintendo, but a series that originally featured on a Nintendo system, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania celebrates the 20th anniversary of the series by recreating 300 stages from the original three games, along with the other games that appeared within them. Billiards, Baseball, Soccer, and another I’m not sure of were featured within the trailer.

I’ve enjoyed a few of the Monkey Ball games before, including a lovely find of the original on Gamecube while at Birmingham Comic-Con. They’re brilliant games to play over and over, trying to beat scores or times, and those party games are also great. With all those stages to play through when it arrives on the 5th October, I will be in for a treat. Along with those party games. Can’t ever get enough of those.

The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was shown off here, but we still don’t have a name. What we do know is that the team is aiming to release it next year. Within the gameplay shown off, we’ll be taking to the skies to explore floating islands that have appeared around Hyrule, with new abilities to help us with exploration and combat.

The first game had a lot to explore, with its gameplay offering a lot of freedom while doing so. Breath of the Wild boosted my investment within the Legend of Zelda franchise, so I’m ready to get back to this version of Hyrule and seeing what new things there are to experience. I will be returning at some point to Breath of the Wild in anticipation of this new one, along with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (which showed off some of its DLC coming in the next few days).

Nintendo absolutely surprised me with this Direct, and I hope this revival mood of theirs continues. There are plenty of series that could use a revival, and others that could pull off the celebration style of game that Mario Party is doing (and Super Monkey Ball, though that’s on SEGA – who could also get in on reviving their history).

What was revealed here is enough for now, especially as there is so much already coming within the last three months of the year. Plenty of time to reveal more in a potential September Direct later in the year. If the end of this year is looking packed, I do hope the same can be said for all of 2022. Even if I’ll never be able to get through half of it.

Images Taken From:
Mario Party Superstars Nintendo.co.uk Gallery
Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania Nintendo.co.uk Gallery
The sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Nintendo.co.uk Gallery