The latest Nintendo Direct aired this past week. Nintendo originally announced it as a broadcast focusing on Arms and Splatoon 2, but in the end, there was quite a bit more than that.
Nintendo started out with 3DS. We were given a new name for Pikmin (Hey! Pikmin) and a release date, a date for Ever Oasis, news about Monster Hunter Stories, Yo-kai Watch 2: Psychic Specters and Miitopia all coming west, followed by three Kirby 3DS titles. Bye-Bye BoxBoy! also launched in North America after the presentation.
Some news about amiibo was also shared. The three rumored Zelda amiibo were confirmed. Nintendo is bringing out the final Smash Bros. amiibo this summer, along with alternate versions for each. Hey! Pikmin and Splatoon 2 are also getting amiibo.
Speaking of Splatoon 2, it was dated for July 21 and the new Salmon Run mode was revealed. Arms, Nintendo’s other big Switch game for the summer, is planned for June 16. The new character Min Min was introduced plus a 2-v-2 option. Third-party highlights include Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition on May 11, plus Namco Museum, Fate/Extella, Monopoly, Sine Mora EX, Battle Chasers: Nightwar, and Payday 2.
The Nintendo Direct also snuck in some hardware news. New Neon Yellow Joy-Con are launching with Arms in addition to a Battery Pack accessory. Finally, the standalone Switch dock is set for May 19.
For a Nintendo Direct that’s just two months off from E3, I personally thought it wasn’t too shabby. A personal highlight for myself is Monster Hunter Stories, which I was praying would be made available in North America and Europe. But what about you guys? Were you impressed or disappointed? What was your favorite announcement? Let us know in the comments below.
Highlights from last week’s topic: Future feature additions on Switch
The new versions of LEGO City Undercover launched in the UK last Friday. With two days of sales, it debuted in the eighth position, just behind Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Chart-Track’s individual rankings showed that the Switch version of LEGO City Undercover came out on top. On Nintendo’s console, it was the 14th best-selling game. PS4 and Xbox One followed at #26 and #32 respectively.
Wondering when Redout will be heading to Switch? It may not be too long until we receive a final date. Developer 34BigThings wrote in a blog post that an announcement should be made “soon”.
Going into specifics as to why it’s taken so long, 34BigThings explained that the initial PC release required a great amount of resources. This resulted in “less allocated time, more assets, regression bugs, more optimisation work” on consoles. In the end, “PC gamers got more stuff early, console gamers will get a polished game with the same content.”
34BigThings wrote:
Pocket Rumble was planned to hit the Switch eShop in March. That didn’t happen sadly, and the game remains without a concrete release date. The good news is that Pocket Rumble shouldn’t be too far off.
As for why Pocket Rumble was delayed, one of the co-designers mentioned that “the date we announced was too early to begin with due to miscommunication”. “Working out the technical kinks of the port has just taken much longer than we expected,” the developer added.
CoroCoro has announced that a new manga based on Splatoon is on the way. This will be kicking off with the magazine’s June issue, releasing on May 15. The May issue comes with a full-color preview chapter for the manga.
As for the March edition of CoroCoro, that has a pamphlet with a one-shot manga adaptation of Splatoon 2. Sankichi Hinodeya, who is leading the way on the new manga, drew the one-shot. You can view the full pamphlet with the one-shot manga online here.
Atlus held a lengthy live stream for Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology today. During the broadcast, over an hour of footage from the game was shown along with a first look at the new Sub-History. We have looks at both below.
Zelda: Breath of the Wild – going for Calamity Ganon while playing flight mini game breaks the world
One mini-game in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild tasks players with gliding as far as they can. With players coming up with interesting ways of flying, what happens if you end up at Hyrule Castle for the showdown with Calamity Ganon?
1-2-Switch has a few Easter eggs that you may not be aware of. On its Japanese blog, Nintendo went over some of the smaller but more significant details.
The first Easter eggs concerns the Shaver mini-game. If you keep playing it three times, you may receive a challenge to shave all of the hair on your head. Hold the Joy-Con like a barber’s clippers and start shaving your head. The angle for shaving here is different from shaving a beard, so those who couldn’t win with beard shaving may have a chance to come out victorious.
