On February eighth, Nintendo streamed its first Nintendo Direct of 2023. This direct was packed with new game announcements, new footage for previously announced games, DLC and more.
The Direct provided a ton of third-party titles, such as Samba de Amigo: Party Central, DECAPOLICE, and Omega Strikers. Samba de Amigo: Party Central utilizes the joycons’ motion capabilities as maracas in this dancing game. DECAPOLICE is a detective game that takes place in a virtual world as well as the real world and has a nice animated art style. Omega Strikers is a free-to-play three versus three air hockey game in which characters with certain skills battle to help assure victory.
Metroid Prime Remastered was also announced, which is a remaster of the first Metroid Prime game that was originally released for GameCube. The newest addition to the retro game collection, exclusive to Nintendo Switch Online members was released, being GameBoy and GameBoy Advance applications. The games on the GameBoy app upon release include Super Mario Land 2 – 6 Golden Coins, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX, Kirby’s Dream land and more. The GameBoy Advance app includes The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgames and a bigger selection.
The direct opened with new footage from Pikmin 4, which was given a release date of July 21, 2023. The new footage showed a new Ice Pikmin and a new rideable dog-like creature. New footage was also revealed for The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom at the end of the direct. Some new vehicles were shown, and the game will release on May 12, 2023.
Downloadable Content (DLC) was also shown in the stream. Fire Emblem Engage got wave 2 of its Expansion Pass, containing Hector, Soren, Camilla, Veronica and Chrom and Robin. Splatoon 3 also got an expansion pass, with two waves. The first wave is Inkopolis, which is the main city in which the first two games take place. Everything runs the same there as it would in the normal Splatoon 3 lobby.
Nintendo fed its fans with a ton of content slated for release in the next few months. According to Nintendo Life, out of 5021 people, 33% thought the Nintendo Direct was amazing and 32% really enjoyed it. Fan reception was overall positive for the stream, and it gave Nintendo fans games to look forward to.