Nintendo Direct February 2022 live report
Three Houses gets the musou treatment! More Mario Kart - but! And so much more besides - everything as it happened.
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That was fun, wasn't it? Nintendo rattled off some fun surprises for its first Direct of the year, revealing Salmon Run in Splatoon 3, EarthBound coming to Nintendo Switch Online and... Oh there's so much more.
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
Hullo! Nice to see some you here already!
I'm not ready myself, I'm afraid - I'm about to watch the last episode of that Star Wars thing before picking up the report. It sounds dreadful. I can't wait.
Catch you all back here in an hour!
That was bloody awful.
Kami: You expected anything else, Martin?
I expected nothing, and still it disappointed.
But hey forget all that, we're here to videogame!
I'm expecting a *bit* more from tonight's Direct.
But as ever it's best to brace for disappointment.
What I'd love: Mario Kart 9 reveal, Metroid Prime, Xenoblade X and Wind Waker on Switch, Pilotwings 64 and EarthBound coming to the N64 and SNES apps, Breath of the Wild title reveal and release date. And screw it, why not a new F-Zero and also that Star Fox GP game that sounded so promising.
More likely: teaser for the Mario movie that reveals the full horror of the project, a 20 minute apology about the state of the toilets at Super Nintendo World followed by news that the Breath of the Wild sequel is delayed for another year.
Hopefully reality will meet somewhere in the middle.
vert1go: Xenoblade Chronicles X would instantly bring a game that lasts hundreds of hours back, with a framerate. But hopefully the ability to TURN OFF THAT GODDAMN CITY MUSIC.
This and this, basically. Oh I'd love the excuse to play that again though.
Saltedfish: (I'm not a fanboy I promise)
*waves* I'M A FANBOY!
Kami: Xenoblade Chronicles X is the only reason the Wii U still even remotely exists.
It's the main reason I regret selling mine.
That and not having Mario Chase close to hand anymore.
This is the first Direct since September, and given we're expecting a fairly busy year for Nintendo this should be a reasonably busy Direct.
Jimjamyaha: Did we ever get an ETA for working comment notifications again?
It won't be for a few weeks, I'm afraid, as the tech team's flat out on some big changes behind the scenes. Sorry it's not sooner!
This all seems quite reasonable to expect. Hang on - don't you work at Nintendo Miyamotosan?
Honoured by your presence, but honestly - SPOILERS!
Is that off the back of Itoi giving a shout out to this Direct? I hope it's true!
Miyamotosan: [throws a Pikmin plushy at Martin and runs away]
With all due respect, we're not falling for that Pikmin bait again.
Maybe it finally is Pikmin 4's time.
Excuse the unprofessionalism, but I'm a bit excited by this.
After a turbulent month in the world of videogames, the prospect of some nice straightforward surprises is quite refreshing.
Well, here we go!
I HEARD ENGINES DOES THAT MEAN MARIO KART!
Oh wait let's get straight in there with some Fire Emblem Warriors - the musou spin-off of the series - getting a sequel.
I second this statement, with much enthusiasm.
It implements the Fire Emblem stuff lightly but it all fits the map cleaning template, and musou stuff is just straight up fun.
So yes, I'm really up for this - building off the soap opera of Three Houses, which makes it seem an even better fit for musou theatrics.
Advance Wars! Here's an update on the remake of the first two games.
It looks chunky enough, but I'm still not convinced by the art style. I'm old and crusty though so what do I know.
It's out April 8th!
And a nice surprise - No Man's Sky is coming to Switch.
I have no idea how that's going to work, but if they can pull it off the Switch would be a lovely place to play No Man's Sky.
vert1go: Norman's Sky? Will it have a framerate?
Framerates are for try-hards. Just chill out to some 12fps gameplay.
Oh, Mario Strikers!
This is a surprise - though has Mario Strikers been good recently?
I find it hard to keep up - but Nintendo's sports output has been decent recently. Well, Mario Golf: Super Rush was decent.
Eventually.
When they added more courses in.
You're right, I'm an idiot!
Oh, no - we're both wrong. There was a Wii version.
This has been a fun journey of discovery together!
Now I'm on firmer ground, though - SPLATOON!
It's easy to forget what a standout success Splatoon has been, especially since hitting the Switch. This is going to be HUGE!
And this take on Salmon Run, the grungy co-op mode introduced in Splatoon 2, looks incredible.
FrozenMetalHead: This music sure is something...
It's a proper flipside to the sunniness of the rest of the game.
Well, I was expecting a bit more on Splatoon 3. Still, great to see Salmon Run returning, and that all just means there's room for more surprises.
LIKE HOLY HOLY HOLY THIS FRONT MISSION FIRST REMAKE!
And yes, lol - wanzer.
Tiel: No comment on the no notificatication on comments comment I just commented?
It's a known issue - unfortunately our tech team are slammed with a big change going on behind the scenes (that I think this was an unfortunate byproduct of) so they can't get to it for a few weeks. Sorry it's not any sooner!
Here's a Disney take on Mario Kart.
Which they can't have included in a Direct with *actual* Mario Kart in it, can they? Because that's some kind of crazy shade if so.
Also we've Final Fantasy Kart soon.
And here's some ports - Force Unleashed, Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection (which is out sooon) and one for weebs like me, SD Gundam Battle Alliance.
Did my edibles just kick in?
Ah, Chrono Cross - which sadly I've never played, but I know is well-loved.
I'm just here for Kirby though.
Kirby does The Last of Us is a game I never knew I wanted.
But it looks just wonderful, doesn't it?
Also I'd like to see Joel eat a rusty sedan then grow four wheels.
That's real horror right there.
Miyamotosan: Best Direct in years.
You would say that.
This looks so bloody delightful. Kirby's been on a good run of games, and this looks next level.
It's been fantastic so far.
He's *my* pink puffball.
Here's another quick dash of headlines - MLB: The Show leading them.
A PlayStation Studios game coming to Switch.
Which is surely a precursor to a Knack on Switch announcement next.
Come on.
Do it.
Choose chaos. Choose Knack.
Or Kingdom Hearts. Which is somehow worse?
Especially these awful cloud versions, where you pay a decent whack for the privilege of streaming these games.
KLONOA THO
Portal on Switch - that's a surprise!
Funny timing with Steam Deck imminent.
This really is going at a proper lick.
Live A Live! What a gorgeous thing this is.
It's new to me too - but I'm looking forward to finding out more about it. It looks INCREDIBLE.
A slice of classic Square I can't wait to be educated on.
Oh god.
Hold me.
I wasn't expecting this - Wii Sports gets a Switch outing!
But wait!
What have they done to my Miis.
They murdered our poor kin.
This looks like that Konami knock-off of Wii Sports.
Ah, it's basically taking the Wii Sports brand and merging it with something like Ring Fit Adventure.
It's Koizumi! He's about to play sports, and we're here to watch!
What a thrill this is.
This is awful. I love it.
It's all good. The Miis are in.
At ease.
This is unexpected but totally welcome!
ChrisOTR: Now that we have VR controllers that actually do what Wiimotes always b pretended to do, this kind of thing feels a bit silly to me.
The JoyCons are a big step up from Wiimotes (though not quite the same fidelity as proper VR controllers).
There's an online play test coming in a couple of weeks time for Nintendo Switch Sports.
There's 11 minutes left!
Taiko no Tatsujin is coming west!
Triangle Strategy!
It's out soon - there may well be something on the site on it all soon too.
Cuphead DLC! I'll always be too terrible at games to enjoy these!
A Metroid Dread update!
Which makes it even harder!
C'mon, give me an even easier mode you cowards.
Oh, you have - there's a Rookie Mode too. Thanks Nintendo!
A boss rush mode coming in April too.
Here it is.
EarthBound, one of the all-time greats, is coming to Nintendo Switch Online.
Which is exciting, but we did also have it on Wii U and 3DS and Nintendo's taken their sweet time getting it out on Switch.
Still, play this game - it's a whole mood.
Oh!
EarthBound Beginnings is also coming - and they're both arriving today.
I can't wait to play EarthBound again before dozing off later.
Lego Brawls, Two Point Campus, Zombie Army 4 - games, games and some more games.
Here's the Mario Kart news!
It's Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC...
Which I'm actually hugely happy about - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is perfection.
But still.
lol
48 new courses!
Ok you have my attention.
Does this mean... That the Mario Kart 8 team are really making Arms 2?
One final announcement.
I'm still tickled by the Mario Kart news.
This'll be a new Xenoblade.
Which looks like it's toned down the anime excess of Xenoblade Chronicles 2... a little?
There's still *a little* bit of anime excess in there though.
Just a little.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 coming September, and it ties the previous two games together.
Still nowt on X though *sadface*
Nowt on Breath of the Wild 2 either, but I think that's to be expected.
And it's hard to be disappointed after what was an excellent Direct. Really pacey, some good surprises and just a load of promising looking games.
How lovely.
vert1go: As always THANK YOU MARTIN for joining this nonsense.
Thanks for joining me - it's always lovely hanging out!
Saltedfish: So in conclusion: nothing we asked for, but a bunch of cool stuff we didn't!
And that's more than okay with me.
I'm off to play EarthBound. And maybe a little bit of OlliOlli World too.
Thanks for being here tonight - now go and play some video games!