Technical Issues And A Lack Of 'Silksong' Plague Underwhelming 'Nindie' Direct

Nintendo fans who tuned into this morning's Nintendo "Indie World" Direct hoping for a crumb of news about Hollow Knight: Silksong, the highly anticipated sequel to 2017's Hollow Knight, were not only left disappointed at the lack of Silksong (again) but were also subjected to a slew of underwhelming titles, audio issues and some truly cringeworthy narration.

I (unfortunately) chose the wrong Indie World to watch today, and it's a shame since lately those shows have been pretty good. That one had hardly anything of interest at all, and audio sync problems on top of it.

Just give us the next Nintendo Direct. #Nintendo #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/VfNJ0KPg28

— SuperMetalDave64 (@SMetaldave64) May 11, 2022

The lack of a major headliner left many fans disappointed in the Direct, but some games did catch gamers' eyes, chief among them was a Soulslike (or "Shellslike") game called Another Crab's Treasure in which the player plays a hermit crab who, upon death, loses its shell. Instead of recovering "souls," the player is tasked with recovering their shell from the enemy that felled them.

Game 2 is: ANOTHER CRAB'S TREASURE

– An underwater soulslike -

🦀 Crab vs crab combat
🗑️ Wear trash as shells
🌊 Explore a corrupted ocean
📉 Dismantle crabitalism??

thanks for waiting y'all. we finally announced. i can go cry now 😭 pic.twitter.com/E2Y5lIK07E

— AGGRO CRAB (@AggroCrabGames) May 11, 2022

Devolver Digitial's Gunbrella also attracted attention. The game appears to be a Metroidvania centered around the player-character's gun/umbrella.

Introducing Gunbrella, a noir-punk action-adventure from @Doinksoft, the creators of Gato Roboto!

Coming to Nintendo Switch and PC in 2023!https://t.co/33wCdPJu01 pic.twitter.com/E9XKPI1iSA

— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) May 11, 2022

Still, the majority of reactions coming out of the Direct expressed disappointment and amusement at its poor quality in terms of content and technical execution. It also didn't help that the narrators of the Nintendo Direct, who always tend to do little skits about the games they're presenting that are more cringeworthy than amusing, seemed particularly cloying today.

the narrators with their horrible jokes in every nintendo direct make me feel like i'm at a fucking corporate morale meeting. it's so bad.

— ◢HERGÉ TANKIAN◤ (@TEANTACLES) May 11, 2022

Just watched a Nintendo Direct where the audio was 2 seconds delayed for the entire duration of the broadcast LOL

— Moist | Aaron (@AaronFGC) May 11, 2022

What a disappointment. Terrible nintendo direct. https://t.co/6ZMYBoeD3E

— Awesome Sea Pickle Facts (@seapicklefact) May 11, 2022

Sorry not sorry I didn't give a single crap about any of those Indie games from the Nintendo Direct. Gunbrella looked cool I guess but they said that's not even coming until next year soooo yeah that was a total waste of my time.
And yeah ima say it, I wanted Silk Song man wtf 😒 pic.twitter.com/fazrRY9Zdv

— Audrey Azwell (@AudreyAzwell) May 11, 2022

If there's any silver lining to today's Direct, it seems that Silksong news, should any ever come out, will come in a Nintendo Direct proper considering the hype around the game. As for now, fans will have to wait for that, as today's slate of indie titles decidedly didn't generate as much hype as Nintendo surely would've hoped.