So Nintendo did a very interesting thing today, they opted to do BOTH an Indie World showcase and a Nintendo Partner Direct on the same day, lasting a combined total of 40 minutes. A lot of speculation is Nintendo might be getting some final "Switch 1" announcements out of the way now so they can focus on the Switch 2 when the time is right (I'm speculating on a reveal happening in October or November).
So first up is the Indie World:
-Balatro is getting free crossover DLC with The Witcher, Vampire Survivors, Dave the Diver, and Among Us, with the end of the trailer hinting more crossovers coming in the future.
-Neva, the newest game from the makers of Gris, now has a confirmed release date of October 15, 2024.
-Moth Kubit is an experimental RPG taking place in a world of anthropomorphic bug people. Getting some Undertale and Deltarune vibes from some bits of it.
-Coffee Talk Tokyo takes the famed business sim and visual novel to Japan, with some of the cliental this time being yokai like the kappa.
-Sea of Stars is getting free story DLC next spring, which is pretty cool.
-SOME-BODY ONE TOLD ME Powerwash Simulator is getting Shrek DLC in the near future.
-Morsels is a roguelike top down shooter like The Binding of Isaac but with an artstyle that feels like a 90s grossout cartoon turned up to 11.
-Dating sim that lets you date humanized representations of household items, Date Everything, is out October 24, and it's now confirmed that yes a humanized version of the text box, Text Box-chan, will even be an option.
-Peglin is a game that mixes Peggle with an RPG, and it's shadow dropped today. Looks super fun.
-Wobbly Life is a goofy open world life sim where you control a character that might as well be one of those wacky inflate arm flailing tube men.
-Co-op platformer Pico Park has a sequel OUT TODAY on the Switch as a timed exclusive.
-And the final big reveal: PIZZA TOWER IS ON SWITCH TODAY! BUY IT NOW! But for real it's pretty cool that now two of the biggest indie throwbacks to Wario Land are now about to both be on the same platform (Anton Blast is releasing in November).
And next up the Partner Direct (meaning it's all third parties, nothing first party here):
-Tetris Forever is a new collection from Digital Eclipse that brings together many classic versions of Tetris all in one package, coming out later this year to celebrate the series 40th anniversary. Also of note is the NES version of Tetris will be added to NSO this winter.
-Star Overdrive is a new open world action adventure where you play as a character who rides a sci-fi surf board around alien worlds trying to find their lost love. It's coming in 2025.
-Goat Simulator 3 is coming to Switch with the game having the digital version shadow dropped today, but the physical edition will release in November if you're willing to wait.
-Spongebob Squarepants: The Patrick Star game is an open world game starring Patrick where you can either just goof around or take on challenges given to you by characters from the show, coming out October 4.
-Fitness Boxing 3 is the newest game in the popular work out series of games, featuring 30 new songs (I even noticed one of them is the Ghostbusters theme), six trainers, and you have some mild customization of your trainers (right now limited to just hair styles).
-Capcom Fighting Collection 2 brings together another assortment of Capcom fighters, and notably this one includes both 2D and 3D games. The list of games is: Capcom vs SNK 1 and 2, Power Stone 1 and 2, Project Justice, Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper, Capcom Fighting Evolution, and Plasma Sword. I'm already looking forward to seeing Maximillion Dood's reaction!
-Related: MvC Collection finally has a release date where you can either buy it digitally on September 12, or wait and get the physical November 22.
-Atelier Yumia is the newest game in Gust and Koei-Tecmo's Atelier RPG franchise, coming early 2025. it has the Japanese voice of Kiryu from Yakuza as the villain so that alone caught my interest.
-Suikoden 1 and 2 HD are on track for a March 6, 2025 release.
-Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D will allow players to customize their party members appearances in addition to their vocations, with one new one being Monster Wrangler, and it's hinted that you can use monsters for multiple purposes. Launching November 14.
-Castlevania Dominus Collection finally brings the DS trilogy of Castlevania games (Dawn of Sorry, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia) to modern platforms, and even better it's available right now! (I'm grabbing this ASAP, those three DS games were the shit when I was a teenager)
-Tales of Graces f Remastered finally brings this specific Tales game to modern platforms January 17, 2025. Interesting it's Graces first as apparently a remaster of Xillia was leaked about a month ago.
-MySim Cozy Bundle brings two MySims games together in one collection, namely the original MySims and MySims Kingdoms, both of which originally released on the Wii in the late 00s. I never played these back then so I might give them a try now, plus this is absolutely a huge nostalgia trip for gen z'ers whose first console was the Wii.
-FNAF Help Wanted 2 is coming to Switch this winter, plus the Ruin DLC for Security Breach. I already own these on PC so I'm not interested in Switch ports, I just hope for Switch-only FNAF fans these aren't bad ports.
-Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma reimagines the farm-sim action-RPG hybrid franchise in a new Japanese setting of Azuma, coming Spring 2025.
-And the final announcement is Yakuza is finally hitting the Switch with Kiwami coming out October 24. Odd they chose JUST Kiwami though rather than Zero and Kiwami combined as while true Kiwami is a remake of Yakuza 1, they updated the story to include many nods to Zero and IMO some story beasts are more impactful if you play Zero first. Still hey maybe a fuller collection could be coming to Switch or Switch 2 in the future.
And that's it. Overall I was decently satisfied, I knew not to go in with overly high expectations as these weren't general Directs. Highlights for me personally were Pizza Tower shadow drop, Peglin, Castlevania Dominus Collection, Atelier Yumia, Capcom Fighting Collection 2, and Tetris Forever.