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Get ready bois.

Posting this before the Direct: Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi was tweeting about the Direct, which is making Earthbound/Mother fans go wild. Best case scenario I can see is Earthbound and Earthbound Beginnings get shadow dropped onto NSO today (they were on the Wii U's virtual console after all), but don't hold out any hope for anything to do with Mother 3 or a possible Mother/Earthbound HD collection.

But as for what I'm expecting we'll see: some Kirby related announcements to go with his 30th anniversary (or maybe confirm a Kirby Direct for next month leading up to Forgotten Land's release), release dates for Splatoon 3 and Bayonetta 3 will likely be confirmed (I'm thinking Splatoon in summer and Bayo 3 for late summer/early fall), and I think we'll see one or two Wii U games finally get Switch ports. Xenoblade Chronicles X has been requested for a good while and I know the head of Monolith Soft said he would like to see it happen, but another likely scenario is the long rumored "Wind Waker and Twilight Princess HD Collection" finally gets confirmed (Skyward Sword HD has been out for more than half a year so it wouldn't be competing with another Zelda remaster, and Nintendo might use this as a way to hold over Zelda fans while they wait to confirm if Breath of the Wild 2 is going to absolutely be a 2022 release, or if it gets pushed to 2023).

One rumored surprise I'm hearing is Nintendo might capitalize on Metroid hype to announce something Prime related. The two biggest rumors of course being either an HD remaster collection of the original trilogy, but it's also rumored a full remake of Prime 1 from Retro might be in the works (supposedly Retro prototyped a Prime 1 remake as early as late 2018 and it was said prototype that lead to Nintendo shifting gears and cancelling their original plans for Prime 4 and having Retro make it instead).

>TFW the least popular Earthbound game gets on the Switch before Mother 3.

Pretty good Direct IMO, some pretty unexpected surprises to boot. Klonoa remastered collection, Live A Live remade on the Octopath engine, Earthbound and Beginnings finally on NSO, Mario Strikers and Wii Sports making a comeback, Front Mission 1 and 2 are getting remakes so thank heaven the shitty spin off Left Alive didn’t kill the franchise, and even Valve’s surprisingly releasing a Portal collection on Switch (a weird gesture to show Steam Deck isn’t really a Switch competitor perhaps?). The Fire Emblem Warriors game focusing on Three Houses does make a ton of sense because Hyrule Warriors did the same with Age of Calamity, and yes Xenoblade 3 baby! Still wondering if X will ever get a much needed port but of course I’m not gonna complain about a new numbered entry. Also I’m honestly shocked Nintendo waited 5 years to do DLC for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, but I guess this is happening because the game still sells like hotcakes all these years later and they probably decided MK9 will wait for the Switch’s successor, so in the meantime just remake 48 old tracks in MK8D to keep the current player base happy.

The Direct was fine overall. About half of the games I look forward to were already shown off at an earlier time, while some of the other games didn't catch my interest. With that being said, holy shit, Klonoa is finally back, and Live A Live is getting localized! I've been wanting to play the original Klonoa games and Live A Live for so long, and they've all even been given a lovely coat of paint (please let both of them sell well this time, Klonoa in particular…).

It was OK, a lot of decent announcements, but nothing too exciting overall (IMO).

I am looking forward to Mario Strikers, Advance Wars, XC3 Splatoon 3 and the DLC for MK8, but I still want my new F-Zero game, dammit…

It's been fifteen years… FIFTEEN FREAKING YEARS since the last Mario Strikers. I've been waiting a long time for this moment and it was such an incredible delight.

Fucking Xenoblade 3. Let's go.

Spoiler's abound in that trailer. The worlds of Xenoblade 1 & 2 are fused together. Both Melia and Nia seem to be in there.

Ah, I'm so hyped!

klonoa my beloved

Fuck i slept through it

Though I did manage to check what was revealed and GODDAMN!!!!!!!!

New Klonoa remaster with both 1 and 2
LiveAlive remake
Portal compilation
No Man’s Sky
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe dlc (48 additional retro tracks(including ones from Tour))
New Mario Strikers
Wii Sports revival (under different name and new human models and sports, but they have miis as well so it’s all good)
Chrono Cross remaster
New Front Mission game
Three Houses-themed Fire Emblem Warriors
Xenoblade 3

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE

I'm not interested in Xenoblade 3 but I am interested in Nia 2

Edit: Also this

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 looks cool, but it's yet another reminder that I still need to play 2 and its DLC (as well as replay the first game and its "new chapter/epilogue" thing on Switch).

Live A Live is another cool one, not only because of (what I assume is) another old school JRPG being brought to the west, but also because it seems like Octopath Traveler's "HD-2D" style is starting to catch on (what with this game and Dragon Quest III being remade in this style), which I have no problems with because it looks gorgeous. Now if only Square would do the same for Final Fantasy VI…

Also intrigued by the Front Mission remakes. I'm not a huge fan of strategy games, but I have been enjoying Super Robot Wars due to being able to control an army of giant robots, so I might try Front Mission if it's similar.

I've already bought an played the Ezio Trilogy on Steam and loved it, but since my computer's not optimized at all and the games ran like crap, I might consider getting it on Switch just to replay them with a decent resolution and framerate. It's just too bad that it's likely gonna be another "physical" release that requires a digital download, so it might as well not be physical at all… but at least it's better than getting the Cloud treatment (my sympathies to anyone who wanted Kingdom Hearts to get actual Switch ports).

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I'm just happy they announced Chrono Cross Remaster.

The company had the largest stock market increase in its history. Not the best Nintendo Direct, but one of the best. Mario's FIFA is great, super Kirby too. :))

In light of recent world events, we have made the decision to delay Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, which was originally scheduled to release on Nintendo Switch on April 8th. Please stay tuned for updates on a new release date.

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 9, 2022