A Quick Review of the Nintendo Direct Feb. 2022

The most recent Nintendo Direct was longer than I thought. That’s a good thing though, because a lot of games were announced or shown, even if a lot were ports or remakes. I was correct on a few of my predictions, but not many. If you missed it, here’s a quick rundown of everything that was shown.

Mario Strikers: Battle League

I’ll start with what I think the biggest news should be. I’m not big into sports games, but ever since I first experienced the original Mario Strikers, I started calling it the best sports game of all time. Sure, it’s a soccer game, but it’s just done so well, with so much in-your-face Mario flavor that it’s hard to look at Madden, Wii Sports, or any other sports game and not find it lacking by comparison.

I know it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re going to play a video game of a sport, why shouldn’t it be as over-the-top as possible? I hope this game dominates Switch sales when it arrives, because it looks like a blockbuster.

Nintendo Switch Sports

To think I would ever list one sports game, let alone TWO as my highlights of a Nintendo Direct would have been unthinkable before Thursday, yet, here I am, putting these two on top.

You remember Wii Sports? It’s that but on the Switch! All of my most anti-sports friends spent hours and hours of their lives playing Wii Sports, so seeing it come back is really exciting. Hopefully it will remind a lot of people of the ’06 holiday season and early ’07 when life was simpler and everyone was bowling, playing tennis, baseball, and accidentally throwing their Wii remotes into the TV screen. Ah, great memories.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

This was already announced, but seeing a lot of new gameplay mechanics (that you might have already seen memes of) is really exciting for a Kirby games. Kirby games have always been about simple yet elegant gameplay, but this one looks like it will push the envelope. Does Kirby need an open-world game? Time will tell.

Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece

I can’t lie, I love the Kingdom Hearts series. It’s completely ridiculous, and should never have been successful with such an odd premise, but it’s a beautiful mixture of Disney classics and Square Enix properties. This collection allows Switch owners to play (essentially?) all of the games. On the Cloud. Yeah, I know that’s a sore subject for some people, but cloud gaming is coming whether people want it to or not.

EarthBound and EarthBound Beginnings

What’s this? A western port of Mother 3? Sorry Lucas, no official release for you yet. You can get Ness and Ninten’s games on Nintendo Switch Online though! Those who missed this classic RPG series because… well they had such limited releases in the west… can finally play it! This is the biggest opportunity for American players to show Nintendo how much demand there is for the EarthBound series!

Metroid Dread Update

I don’t know if you can call it new content, but the one-hit-kill Dread mode and the “easy” rookie mode offer more variety for hardcore and casual gamers to enjoy this already difficult side-scroller.

Splatoon 3 Salmon Run Mode

No surprises here. It looks like a lot of fun though.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

For a series that Nintendo of America had so little faith in at first, they sure seem to be putting all their weight behind it now. I’m so far behind in this series it’s not even funny. I’m halfway through the first game. On the Wii version. I’ll get around to it eventually.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC

It’s really odd for a game this old to be getting DLC, but this DLC is adding FORTY-EIGHT NEW TRACKS to the game. You can buy the DLC yourself or get it free with an NSO subscription! I’ll be diving back in when the update arrives.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three houses

Good news for hack-and-slash lovers! I don’t play them much, but this might be a fun one if you like the genre.

Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition

The sudden and (unexpected?) return of a classic JRPG. Never played it before, but I would give it a shot.

Triangle Strategy

This was announced before, but it offered some new insights as to how the response to the demo changed the game. I wasn’t super impressed with the demo because of all the visual clutter, but that looks to have been fixed! Would I have preferred Octopath Traveler 2? Yes, very yes. This game still looks good though.

Front Mission and Front Mission 2 Remakes

For everyone who likes giant fighting robot games. Maybe it’s a niche, but there’s obviously a dedicated fanbase out there.

Portal 1 and Portal 2 Ports

Yup! That’s happening! Will it convince Valve to make a Portal 3? Probably not. They might reach a whole new audience of younger players by bringing it to Switch now.

Other Games Announced or Shown

There’s too many games to offer thoughts about, so here’s a list of everything else.

• Advance Wars: 1 + 2 Re-Boot Camp (Previously announced)
• LIVE A LIVE (Port of a classic JRPG now coming west)
• MLB The Show 22 (First time the series has come to the Switch, I think)
• Disney Speedstorm (Mario Kart but with Disney characters?)
• No Man’s Sky (Port, first time on a Nintendo console)
• Klonoa and Klonoa 2 (Ports/Remasters of Namco’s platformer mascot series)
• Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival (Who knew drums could be so cute?)
• Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course (DLC)
• Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection (Port Collection)
• SD Gundam Battle Alliance
• GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon
• Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles
• Zombie Army 4
• Two Point Campus
• LEGO Brawls

Like I said, a lot of games. If you’re enjoying my blog, please check out my fantasy novel on Amazon. It’s called “Withered Kingdom” and it’s about a man struggling to remember his past life as he gets caught up in a war against demons. And for some reason, everyone thinks he’s an angel… except him.