The best Nintendo Directs of all time

With June 2024’s Nintendo Direct all wrapped up, we thought it’d be a good time to pick five of the best Nintendo Directs and ask you: which one is your favorite of all time?

Nintendo Directs are no doubt one of the absolute highlights of being a Nintendo fan. In some ways, it sort of feels like we live “Direct to Direct” – after a presentation comes and goes, we’re already looking forward to the next one, no matter how far it is. The presentations vary in the quality and quantity of their announcements, but are always something to look forward to. 

There have been plenty of Nintendo Direct presentations over the years, so it makes sense that not all of them necessarily qualify for the title of best Nintendo Direct. They’ve been doing them since 2011, in fact, so we’ve picked out a few presentations and listed the notable announcements within. If your favorite event isn’t on this list, tell us about it in the comments below.

June 2024 Nintendo Direct

This one should be pretty recent in people’s minds! It may not be the best Nintendo Direct from an objective point of view, but considering the Switch’s age – plus rumors of a Switch 2 launching next year – this showcase proved that the Switch still has fuel in its metaphorical tank. We got Mario & Luigi: Brothership, a brand-new surprise revival of the beloved Mario & Luigi series. We also got news of a Nintendo Switch Sports update (in 2024? really?), Donkey Kong Country Returns HD, the remastered Dragon Quest Erdrick trilogy, Super Mario Party Jamboree, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and the long-awaited Metroid Prime 4. Not too bad for a console in the final years of its lifespan.

June 2023 presentation

Last year’s “E3” Nintendo Direct presentation was certainly up there with the best Nintendo Direct presentations in recent years. We got word of the excellent Super Mario RPG remaster, which kickstarted a Mario RPG renaissance that continued with Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door and recently culminated with Mario & Luigi: Brothership. We also saw the initial announcement for Princess Peach: Showtime, back when the game didn’t have a title just yet. Then we got the initial announcement of Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, plus Detective Pikachu Returns, a look at Pikmin 4, and shadowdrops of Pikmin 1 and Pikmin 2. This presentation wrapped up with WarioWare: Move It and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Tons of Mario here, which makes sense given the Super Mario Bros. Movie released that year, but not a ton present for people who weren’t big into Mario or Pikmin.

September 2021 Nintendo Direct

This was another packed Nintendo Direct presentation, and with it came a huge number of announcements. The final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate-centered presentation was announced here, which in turn revealed Sora as the final fighter and marked the end of a 3-year long hype train for the game and its DLC. This presentation also saw announcements for Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Bayonetta 3, and Splatoon 3’s Story Mode. The Super Mario Bros. Movie cast was initially announced here too, plus an additional Nintendo Direct for Animal Crossing: New Horizons airing at a later date. This was a highly varied presentation, making it a solid contender for one of the best Nintendo Directs.

September 2018 presentation

We’re getting to some far-off Nintendo Direct presentations now, but September 2018’s isn’t one to be forgotten. It included Luigi’s Mansion 3, Kirby’s Extra Epic Yarn, update details for Splatoon 2 and Mario Tennis Aces, New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, Nintendo Switch Online information, Super Mario Party, Yoshi’s Crafted World, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 DLC. Then the presentation finished with Isabelle coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a new fighter – the intro cinematic sort of faked out viewers, who thought it could have been for a Switch version of Animal Crossing at first. Fortunately, the presentation’s final announcement was confirmation that a new Animal Crossing would indeed launch for the console in 2019 (though it was later delayed). There were so many announcements here, this definitely has to be one of the best Nintendo Directs.

June 2018 Nintendo Direct

We can’t go over every single Nintendo Direct that’s ever happened, but this one’s certainly up there was one of the best Nintendo Direct presentations ever due to the hype it created (or continued). In terms of actual announcements, there weren’t a whole bunch. What made this Nintendo Direct so great for so many was its laser-focus on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, dedicating over 20 minutes to explain the game on its own. The care put into the trailers was astounding here. The character reveal trailer went over every individual fighter reappearing in Smash Ultimate. Its timing was excellent, too – spacing out fighters with new appearances like Ganondorf and Zelda, and then revealing the return of the Ice Climbers before cutting to Snake. The three words “EVERYONE IS HERE” may as well be burned into Smash fans’ minds at this point – this trailer alone absolutely carried this presentation. Seeing all of Smash’s cut characters return in HD including oddball picks like Pichu, Young Link, and Wolf was truly a moment like no other – and we’re not sure if this one can ever be topped! This presentation’s weakness is certainly its lack of other announcements, though, and you could argue Nintendo was relying too heavily on Smash to fill out its 2018 release schedule.

There have been so many Nintendo Directs over the years, and just about all of them have an announcement for anyone. If we went over all of the best Nintendo Direct presentations, this post may never end – especially since there were more than a few notable Directs during the Wii U and 3DS era. In the meantime, what’s your favorite Nintendo Direct of all time, and what was your favorite announcement or memory from it? Let us know down below.

If you would like to see an archive of every Nintendo Direct, you can do so here.