Julius

I've mentioned it before but that Malice and Link's arm really is just Princess Mononoke huh? And no delay! And a Collector's Edition! And amiibo! LET'S GOOOOOOOO

Oh thank goodness we are getting some Zelda that had me nervous EDIT: can already tell this is more what I wanted from this trailer from the lingering shots we're getting

WHY PUT THIS INTO THE UNIVERSE

Wasn't there news a few weeks back that they were finally returning West? Would make sense that they'd do so with a bang I guess and have things in store ready to get prospective new staff interested!

So uh Animal Crossing with Laputa robot? Anyways, wow, Prime Remastered and Baten Kaitos I&II is nuts. So much for saving money on games this year...

All the broken clocks are right today! Coming Summer 2023.

F I N A L L Y !!! What a shadow-drop!

Oh they just going all in huh

As GBA will be included in the Expansion Pack, I'll add the details in here. Looks like a great collection of games, and they drop today?!

Well, it's about time! And a shadow-drop! Just announced in today's Direct, will update later with games and more details

ADVANCE WARS LIVESSSSSS oh dear haha "a couple of months away" okay you know April isn't too bad

Someone get @Grazza Etrian Odyssey's back!

Damn, Sea of Stars seems so close yet so far releasing at the end of August A demo is always good, though

Gotta love a shadow-drop (even if it just FE DLC)

Please be excited!

Splatoon 3's second wave with those NieR vibes

Was thinking the exact same – and it is! I kind of dig it

Opening the Direct with a game outside of the first half of the year is so typically Nintendo

Starting with Pikmin 4? Surely that's got to mean it's one of those games coming in the first half of the year, right..?

okay I take back my lack of hype, that totally slipped my mind ALL ABOARD THE DRAGON QUEST III HD TRAIN CHOO CHOOOOOOOOOO (please Horii I beg)

IGN First with the scoop in the form of 9 minutes of gameplay: Looks fantastic in Unreal Engine 5, the chicken run looks a little toned down and evolved compared with the first game, and most noticeably to me, the fighting animations seem just that slight bit faster? Can also already hear a bunch of nods to the films in the music too, always look forward to any and all new Star Wars music! These two and a half months could be long but then, if things go to plan, it's this at the end of April, Tears of the Kingdom two weeks later in May, and then Final Fantasy XVI in June! Going to be an awesome Q2

So, this could be an interesting development to keep an eye on: it looks like Tears of the Kingdom could be $70 in the US (and, I would assume by extension, potentially getting a similar price increase in other territories?). First, someone spotted that Tears of the Kingdom's price went up as $69.99 on the US eShop... ...and then the price was removed. No big deal, it's probably an error or something, right? Well, it seems like the game's pre-order listings at Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop were then taken down, following earlier listings going up at $59.99: That could be pretty wild if it turns out to be the case! Personally, I'd have no real issue with a price increase - hell, if any game's going to justifiably be £70 or so over here I feel like this is it - but that steady staying power of the pricing for first-party Nintendo titles would certainly get annoying fast if it applied to their entire slate. Could definitely see it for a title like Metroid Prime 4, too, though, and other such premier titles. If this does play out, though, got to say I'm surprised they wouldn't just wait for the release of the Switch 2 before upping prices. The thing hasn't even been revealed yet, and probably won't be for a good while still. Unless...

Yeah, I'm not sure if I agree with @Dcubed that I expect 15 minutes dedicated to TOTK (hey, I'd love for you to be right, because that's what I want ), but if all we're going to get is a trailer for it, I really do think this needs to be a trailer coming in at a solid 3 minutes or so, something along the lines of the E3 2016 trailer for Breath of the Wild: Now, while I prefer the Switch Presentation 2017 trailer personally, I think this trailer in particular really highlights the importance of a 3 minute trailer compared to a 2 minute trailer (or less). I'm super interested in marketing campaigns when it comes to films and games, so I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent about why we need a 3 minute trailer like this and not something much shorter. What we've had so far with Tears of the Kingdom is a 1:27 first look trailer (at E3 2019), a 1:39 teaser trailer (at E3 2021), and a 1:37 title reveal trailer (which we got in the September 2022 Direct) – and honestly, partly down to their lengths but also Nintendo's own marketing plans, they all portray something closer to a teaser trailer: mostly quick cuts, dramatic and eye-catching frames (Ganondorf turning his head, Hyrule Castle rising up, Link leaping from a floating island, flashes of new mechanics, etc., etc.), but virtually nothing to really set either the tone or expectation for what moment-to-moment gameplay for Tears of the Kingdom is going to be like. At this point we're comfortable with the idea of there being an underground, ground level, and sky islands...but given that most of our time will surely be spent at ground level (I mean, it's going to be the largest physical plane by size, surely?) it kind of shocks me how little we've seen of what's at ground level. Again, I don't think we need to see everything this game has to offer ahead of release, but I really think the E3 2016 trailer for Breath of the Wild was fantastic because of what it achieves in its 3 minutes and 19 seconds: it sets the tone of an empty, post-apocalyptic world ripe for exploration; the music is allowed to sweep us away because it can be one functional piece which doesn't need to be edited down and can instead breathe; and it bounces you around between showing off new mechanics to the new systems at play. Hype aside - which is difficult at times, I'll be the first to admit! - I think it's one of the purest examples of what a trailer for a game should be. So I have my fingers tightly crossed for something around 3 minutes long - which, notably, would be nearly double the length of all of the TOTK trailers we've had so far - to really set the tone of the game and let some of those moment-to-moment gameplay tidbits breathe a little bit more, as well as sweep us away with some awesome music. There's a narrative throughline to a trailer which is attainable in 3 minutes with smart decisions and good editing, but nearly impossible to attempt in 1 minute 30 seconds as we've had up to this point. So, please and thanks Nintendo, that's all I'm looking for, even if the other 37 minutes of the Direct are just spent with Koizumi holding a staring contest with the cameraman

Yeah, I think you're right about that. Seen some people suggesting a shadow-drop...but who on earth shadow drops a game like that in February out of the blue? I still need to play Hollow Knight Oh yeah, I'll do the same if they go too far in I think. I could just go for 30 minutes uninterrupted gameplay honestly just to get an idea of the tone at ground level (and maybe just a very quick look at what's above and below), because the trailers have been a contrasting dichotomy of bright and soaring open blue skies and floating islands adorned with gold-leafed trees with the dark browns, purples and reds of everything surrounding and below Hyrule Castle, but we haven't really got too clear an idea as to what's up at ground level. Can I expect more towns? Please?! And also maybe just show off a blacksmith or something idk In which case..! Nah, I don't have much I feel like I'll get hyped for, other than obviously Tears of the Kingdom, I feel like I've not got much left to go crazy over. Maybe some Dragon Quest Remasters are my next agenda now that we're waiting on the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters to land...(see you all in 5+ years for that I guess?) Actually, it would be really neat if Suikoden I&II showed up here too with a release date, I think I saw rumours floating around a month or so back about it potentially coming by the end of Q1? Everyone who loves a lean but wonderful JRPG (and let's be honest, there aren't nearly enough of those!) needs to play these two games