Thursday, February 9, 2023

This Month's Nintendo Direct Proves There's Still A Bit Of Life In The Switch Yet

 





It sure has been a long time since the last Nintendo Direct (remember Farm Direct, anyone?) and Nintendo recently announced they'll be skipping E3 this year because they don't have that much games to announce by then. Loads of clickbaity websites (not us) are STILL going on about a "Switch Pro" figure of imagination. This is never going to happen, shut up. 
Instead, we got a new Nintendo Direct for February 2023.

Although i'm not going to go into EVERYTHING from the direct because there were some games in there that didn't interest me at all, I am going to talk about only the ones I found exciting - cool!

For a start we had a new trailer for Pikmin 4, which is due for release sometime in the 2nd half of the year. Originally meant to be a Wii U exclusive back in 2015, it was delayed for unknown reasons and then eventually moved onto the Switch. Check out the awesome trailer below:


Kirby Return To Dreamland Deluxe Remaster for the Switch was also shown off a bit more. Due for release in February 24 2023. It looks really fun, and the updated graphics look great. There is also a new Epilogue mode which can be played when you beat the game. Last year, it was also announced that Kirby's Adventure Wii will also get a Switch remaster sometime in 2023, but so far Nintendo have kept quiet about it. Check out the trailer for Kirby Return To Dreamland Deluxe below. 



We had a fair amount of remasters announced for this direct, which is a bit annoying. But one of the biggest surprises (for me at least anyway) was the long rumored Metroid Prime remaster. However, sadly Metroid Prime 2 & 3 was not announced. Hopefully in the not so distant future they get released on Switch even as a lead up for the highly elusive Metroid Prime 4, if that still exists. Metroid Prime was one of my favourite games on the Gamecube when it was released back in the day. I am pleased it was remastered for the switch, and it looks amazing! And best of all, it's out now!


More importantly, out of nowhere, Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games are now released on the console through the Nintendo Online Service, which is a much welcome addition. They are available now to download, if you are a Nintendo Switch Online member. For free!


I find it annoying though, however - that Nintendo still continue to release only one N64 game a month, despite it being such a popular console. There's no reason that N64 games should be treated differently as other console games release multiple times a month and it shouldn't be that hard for Nintendo to emulate them.
Hopefully soon, Gamecube and Wii games will be added to the Online Service in the future. Hopefully this is now possible. However, some of my friends noticed that Pokemon games on the Gameboy & Gameboy Advance release are lacking. I hope they add more soon, such as Red, Blue, Yellow, Emerald, Ruby etc in the future. 

Oh there was also a new trailer for some new Zelda game, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe new additions to the Online Service Track additions.

Though the Switch is still in good form right now, I am not sure it can keep up with the other consoles for so much longer. It is time for Nintendo to start developing a new and fresh console. However, I do hope the Switch will continue to be supported as it does have some great potential still. 




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