Nintendo Direct (Thursday 27th March 2025 @ 14:00 GMT)

[killthenet]

Rhythm Heaven? Tomodachi Life? Releasing in 2026? 

And we didn't get a date for Metroid Prime 4 or see the long rumoured Kirby Planet Robobot Remaster - this was a weird Direct, right?

I was a bit worried when Takahashi introduced the Virtual Game Card segment saying 'an update on what's happening with your digital games' I thought they were going to drop a bombshell about Switch 2 but in the end I think it's a mostly welcome change - definitely a nice bonus that you can share games with people in your family group - but like you guys say, what is the benefit to the system for a single user over just logging in on your other device?

Still seems like weird timing to have this Direct so close to the Switch 2 one but they definitely had a pretty varied showing 

[Dcubed]

2 minutes ago, killthenet said:

Rhythm Heaven? Tomodachi Life? Releasing in 2026? 

And we didn't get a date for Metroid Prime 4 or see the long rumoured Kirby Planet Robobot Remaster - this was a weird Direct, right?

I was a bit worried when Takahashi introduced the Virtual Game Card segment saying 'an update on what's happening with your digital games' I thought they were going to drop a bombshell about Switch 2 but in the end I think it's a mostly welcome change - definitely a nice bonus that you can share games with people in your family group - but like you guys say, what is the benefit to the system for a single user over just logging in on your other device?

Still seems like weird timing to have this Direct so close to the Switch 2 one but they definitely had a pretty varied showing 

Two people can play a game from the same account at the same time with this new system.  Currently, if you log into your account on two different systems, it boots you off one of them when you log into your account on the other.

It also means that you don’t have to share save data anymore!

Edited Thursday at 02:45 PM by Dcubed

[Julius]

9 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

First Patapon, now this. It's crazy.

Interesting to me that both seem to be getting licensed from PlayStation but are developed by Bandai Namco? 

Wonder if we'll see more of this in the future to shore up some of those gaps in PlayStation's studio lineup? 

[Dcubed]

2 minutes ago, Julius said:

Interesting to me that both seem to be getting licensed from PlayStation but are developed by Bandai Namco? 

Wonder if we'll see more of this in the future to shore up some of those gaps in PlayStation's studio lineup? 

Seems that Sony are licensing out a bunch of their “unused”/“forgotten” IPs to Namco for them to port over to Switch/Switch 2.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up getting stuff like Wild Arms and Parappa The Rapper on Switch going forward

[Julius]

1 minute ago, Dcubed said:

Seems that Sony are licensing out a bunch of their “unused”/“forgotten” IPs to Namco for them to port over to Switch/Switch 2.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up getting stuff like Wild Arms and Parappa The Rapper on Switch going forward

I mean, I'd assume that they're also coming to PlayStation and maybe PC too  

But yeah, totally agree, could definitely see some of those smaller IPs coming back being licensed to Bandai Namco or others. Makes a lot of sense of they're just going to sit there unused otherwise, and it makes sense to get them on other platforms, too. 

We'll see what else comes but hey, I'm a fan of the idea! 

[Ike]

5 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

Two people can play a game from the same account at the same time with this new system.  Currently, if you log into your account on two different systems, it boots you off one of them when you log into your account on the other.

It also means that you don’t have to share save data anymore!

Oh, so you could trade to yourself in Pokémon for example using 1 digital copy?

Watch them block that for some reason.

[Glen-i]

Rift of the Necrodancer getting released later today is very cool! Was hoping that would make the jump to Switch.

And naturally, I am all in on Tomodachi Life, the 3DS one is completely insane!

[Julius]

I know they mentioned it briefly when going over the Nintendo Today! app, but I'm shocked there wasn't more said about next week's Switch 2 Direct 

I reckon the first bit of news on there might be relating to the Switch 2 Direct, maybe the runtime for next week's event? 

[Julius]

16 minutes ago, killthenet said:

Rhythm Heaven? Tomodachi Life? Releasing in 2026? 

And we didn't get a date for Metroid Prime 4 or see the long rumoured Kirby Planet Robobot Remaster - this was a weird Direct, right?

Fire Emblem remake missing too, which has more of a reason to be believed to exist than possibly any other game

Agreed, it was a weird Direct, though I think because of the burden placed on it by its timing and us viewers which suggested it would serve as something of a swansong Direct for the system, which it still was in a way (last Direct with the Switch 2 not firmly in the picture) but it was anything but when it came to announcements, specifically

19 minutes ago, killthenet said:

Still seems like weird timing to have this Direct so close to the Switch 2 one but they definitely had a pretty varied showing

Agreed. I'm surprised they didn't make more of a song and dance about the Switch 2 Direct being next week with as many viewers as it had, think it was only briefly mentioned in the Nintendo Today! app section? And even that was just saying the app would give daily updates on the Switch 2 following next week's Direct... 

[S.C.G]

Nintendo Direct 27/03/2025 Roundup

Press release and video embed.

(Metroid Prime 4 is shaping up nicely)

[Hero-of-Time]

Sat and watched it again this morning. It was such a weird Direct. It felt a little desperate. Things such as the Virtual Carts and new app (can't believe they ended the show with this) could have just been a quick youtube video or blog post. Rhythm Paradise and the Tomadachi game showing up but not releasing until 2026 felt something more suited to a Microsoft/Sony event. Nintendo have been great in recent years in showing and delivering games in a short space of time. I'm not sure what their thinking was here.

The show really lacked any killer blow. I get it, the Switch is on its way out but it seems to gone out with a whimper and not a bang.

Dunno if it was Nate or Grubb but one of them said there are 3 Nintendo games that they know of that didn't show up in the Direct for some reason. Gotta imagine Kirby and FE were these. If so, I've no idea why they would hold them back any further.

One thing about these shows (Directs and SoP) now is that all of them lack exclusives. Most of the games shown are now on all platforms and while that's great for consumers, the shows themselves feel less special to me.

Meh/10.

[Dufniall]

Yeah this was a weird one. Stuff I really expected like Kirby, Zelda Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, Metroid 2&3, Fire Emblem Remake are all M.I.A., while we see the return of other long-lost franchises like Rhythm Paradise and Tomodachi Life. Coming 2026!

Glad to see Rift of the NecroDancer shadow-drop, and the DotEmu Marvel game looks great. Metroid Prime 4, the new mechanic looks cool but if this comes around when the Switch 2 has already launched without any update that would be a really weird decision.

But hey, it's Nintendo and weird decisions are what they are all about! Such as coming up now with the digital cartridge system, or giving us yet another app that could have easily be integrated in the Nintendo Switch Online app.

It really makes you wonder what they are going to show next week. Will we see all the expected remakes/remasters there but in 4K? 

[Ashley]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Rhythm Paradise and the Tomadachi game showing up but not releasing until 2026 felt something more suited to a Microsoft/Sony event. Nintendo have been great in recent years in showing and delivering games in a short space of time. I'm not sure what their thinking was here.

I'd assume "don't worry, the switch isn't dying". I think with being able to play switch games on the 2 they're hoping some people who may not want the 2 yet might be encouraged to get the switch knowing the support will continue for a while and when they're ready to get the 2 they'll have plenty of games they can play. 

[RedShell]

Well, I've seen worse Directs for sure.

At least there were a few things in this that I'd almost certainly enjoy, like new Rhythm Tengoku, Tomodachi Collection and Everybody's Golf (I'd get that one on Steam though).

The Virtual Game Card thing seems needlessly confusing, why all of this additional malarkey when simply logging in with the same account on another system already works fine for basically every other platform?
Of course we all know the reason.

Anyway, with the original Switch stuff now out of the way, next week's Direct should be an exciting one.