There was a Nintendo Direct yesterday, which covered everything from No Man’s Sky to Nintendo switch sports. This article is mostly focused on ports and original titles as it was covered in the direct but don’t worry, we have the most anticipated games of 2022 coming soon, so stay tuned.
Here’s the download on the most important announcements from the stream:
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three hopes
Starting of the direct we have fire emblem warriors, now I’m not the most excited for this but the Zelda warriors release surprised me as to how much I enjoyed it, so I’d say it’s a solid announcement. This hack-and-slash game arrives on Switch on June 24, 2022.
Score: 5/10
No Man’s Sky
The prog-rock powerhouse is coming to switch in late summer, no date yet. Now this game has gotten better on the PS version since its release, but this seemed fairly one-note.
Score: 3/10
Mario Strikers
Now we have the first of the “big announcements” for the evening, Mario strikers. This is a reboot of the original game which was released in 2005 on game cube but fans seem excited for this one. I like all the cool multiplayer options too, including eight-Player local. And while they didn’t completely keep the post-apocalyptic theme of Charged, they did keep the style of the previous games, which is cool. It’ll likely be all play to win gear and the online multiplayer might need working out but we don’t have long to wait for Mario Strikers: Battle League comes out June 10, 2022.
Score: 5/10
Sports game counter: 1
Chronos Cross
I don’t know much about this game except it’s old, but I’ve heard diehard fans are very excited for this to be back and is a real original on the Nintendo lineup. With 40 characters to choose from, your team can have a huge variety and combat anything it throws your way. Remastered Chronos cross is released on April 7, 2022.
Score 3/10
Nintendo switch sports
A sequel to the best-selling Wii game ever – Wii sports and a major nostalgia fest for the Nintendo Switch. I’m surprised it took this long, but cool, nevertheless. Badminton is an interesting gameplay edition, but I can’t help but feel hurt with no boxing or fencing from the original. The online playtest is February 19-20, 2022 and the new version from the middle of April 2022.
Score: 8/10
Sports game counter: 2
Disney Speadsters
Brought to you by Gameloft, this looks like sonic racing and Disney infinity had a child and we know how the latter turned out. I’m pretty sure that we’d all rather have Mario nine but the characters are cool I guess. Release for summer 2022.
Score:2/10
Sports game counter:3
Mario Kart DLC
Speaking of which, the catfish of the night goes to…Mario kart 8 deluxe DLC. With fan favourites like Coconut mall, Toad circuit and Chocolate mountain, this is maybe what got me the most excited apart from one exception. I admit that £20 for 48 courses is a great deal and including Tour courses is a great addition. I am curious how they’ll be implemented, though, since all the Tour courses have multiple variations and soundtracks but overall, it could be worse. Mario kart 8 DLC launches on March 18, 2022.
Score: 9/10 (because it could’ve been Mario kart 9)
Sports game counter: 4
Live a Live
Live a Live – this is a remake of a very popular game in Japan where we play as a mute protagonist in Edo period Japan, the present and the space age, sci-fi future. It was giving me Octopath Traveller vibes and there will likely come a point where I will be sick of 2D RPGs, but I don’t think that is right now. Live a live, out July 22, 2022.
Score:6/10
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Now Xenoblade Chronicles 3 exists and is not far away. Nintendo revealed the sprawling open-world game will come to Switch in September 2022 and it looks gorgeous. As a huge fan of this franchise, I’m so excited for the new instalment in the series. Out September 2022.
Score:8/10
Let’s just address the elephant in the room…no Zelda, at all. No ports of originals, no Breath of The Wild 2, nothing exciting.
For such big games though it’s not surprising that Mr Takahashi is saving the big guns like Bayonetta and Metroid for E3 in the Summer. We did get a new Mario, sort of and Splatoon 3/kirby updates but we already knew all of these were happening anyway. Highlights for me were the switch sports and the Mario DLC. Of Course, there’s earthbound and Xenoblade 3 but they felt flat to me. Let’s just hope the year brings more exciting news for Nintendo
Feature image credit: Nintendo Official
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