Nintendo Direct 12/04/2017: Extremley Not-so-live Impressions

Damn it, Nintendo! You always release these at the worst possible times! :D I don't think I've ever been in the middle of a busier time when one of these dropped, so much so that I was planning to give this one a miss, given it's apparently heavy Arms and Splatoon 2 focus. After catching wind that there might be some amiibo announcements on offer though, of course I immediately changed my tune (because having every available surface covered in the things apparently isn't enough), finally finding the time to sit down and take a look at it the following weekend.

Finding the energy to get this post together though, and not just collapsing into my arm chair to play some BoTW, proved to be a little more difficult. :D

 

• 00:00 - Wait, PEGI 18? Well it's certainly not for Arms or Splatoon. Devil's Third 2, you guys! It's happening!

  

• 00:16 - Koizumi! I guess he's going to be the Japanese face of these from here on out now.
• 00:29 - Yes, Koizumi, please be my guide.
• 00:45 - Yikes. This snapping fingers to "switch" thing isn't stopping any time soon, is it?

  

• 00:48 - Oh, come on! What the hell's this!? :D Way to strip away any surprise from these things, Nintendo. And boy, is that a bunch of stuff I don't care about. :D

  

• 01:03 - Well, I guess I am a little interested this Pikmin game at least. I do wish they were doing a Switch version as well though. Man, this looks rough.

  

• 01:29 - Yeah, can't say I'll be picking this up, at least not at full price. (I already have a towering pile of DS and 3Ds games to ignore.) That amiibo though? Oh, baby!

  

• 01:47 - Ever Oasis. Ohh! This was announced back at E3. (Well, just barely.) Man, I forgot this game even existed.

  

• 02:18 - ...huh. What? Oh, sure. Kindness. Yep, sounds great. How many 3DS games are there left to go through here again? :D

  

• 02:59 - Monster Hunter Stories, which seems like, sort of, Pokémon set in the Monster Hunter universe. (So probably something I'll never touch then. :D).

  

• 03:37 - Some Yo-Kai watch now. Again, no interest here, even if Fleshy Souls might well be the best subtitle for a video game ever.

  

• 05:04 - Man, RPG Maker. I remember downloading a PC version of that, or something very similar, like, 15 years ago with grand plans to make a game. I made a few minor alterations to some stock town that came with it and then promptly forgot all about it.
• 05:20 - I guess this is kind of cool though, even if I'm firmly not in the audience for it.

  

• 05:34 - Miitopia. I've seen it pop up in forum topic title, but i have no idea what this even is.
• 05:55 - Arrrrgh! Miis singing is somehow even worse than them chirping in the Wii U's Mii Plaza, which for some reason, I just can. not. stand. If I could disable that screen permanently I would, or, like, send in riot police with tear gas or something. Damn it!! Just make them stop!!

  

• 06:13 - So it's an RPG then, that you can import Tomadochi Life characters into?

  

• 06:43 - Still not any clearer on it after that really, but anyway, Fire Emblem. I think this is a remake of one of the older, pre-GBA ones.

  

• 06:46 - A modern enhancement, you say? Oh. It's DLC. :D

  

• 07:11 - Nintendo: very into their season passes at the moment. Still haven't put down the cash for the Breath of the Wild one. I kind of don't want to encourage them by paying for a season pass that you can't buy piecemeal; that's still pretty far out; and, that's offering a bunch of stuff they still haven't really detailed in any way. A "new map feature". Like, what!? That's no to say I won't buy it. I absolutely will, but not until the first pack drops at least. That'll show them!

  

• 07:20 - Good grief, is it really five years since the last Kirby Anniversary?. I've barely even touched that Wii anniversary compilation.

  

• 07:50 - First up in the anniversary celebrations: Team Kirby Clash Deluxe - a free to play, handheld, co-op, battle game. It's like they made it exclusively with me in mind. :D

  

• 08:06 - Kirby's Blowout Blast looks kind of fun though. Of course it's on the 3DS only. Boo!

  

• 08:26 - And finally; oh the joy; yet another multiplayer 3DS game, but starring Kirby.
• 08:35 - You could say that 2017 is Kirby's big year; it just wouldn't be true.

  

• 08:44 - "Remember this?" Nope. :D

  

• 08:50 - Oh, it's that last Brain Training game. Yeah I put all of five minutes into the first one. Maybe.
• 08:58 - Noo! Come back Shibata. This guy voicing the trailers in this Direct is literally the worst.

  

• 09:23 - Yes! Finally something I can get excited about. :D Had this spoiled beforehand, but I am definitely down for Cloud and Bayonetta here.

  

• 09:31 - Oh! Two versions of each. Might have to go for both versions of Bayonetta. Advent Children/Kingdom Hearts Cloud though? Yeah, not so much.

  

• 09:38 - Whoa! More Zelda amiibos too? Just more Links though, I guess. And... wait, hold on. Why is Twilight Princess Link holding his sword upside down? Why does Skyward Sword Link look all buff and angry. Yeah, I think I'm passing on those two; maybe not Majora's Mask Link though. Kind of bummed that they're doing another TP-era Link (after that Smash Bros. one with the pee colum), and again, it's pretty goofy-looking. After a quick Google image search, I can see that it is actually based, pretty closely, on a piece of TP promotional art, where he does indeed hold his sword like this, but, you know what: it looked weird then too. :D Plus, his tunic isn't even the right shade of green! ( And still no Tetra. :( )
• 09:47 - Our long, national 3DS nightmare is over. Arms!

  

• 10:02 - Is that a fist on his head? Boy, I think Nintendo have just opened up a whole new world of Arms fan art possibilities.

  

• 11:04 - Yikes. There's really no better way to loose my interest immediately that to start drilling down into detailed game mechanics. Well, unless that game is also a free to play co-op 3DS game. :D This does look pretty neat though. Not quite neat enough to get me to splash out on a Switch before Mario, but still.

  

• 11:26 - Looks like there'll be mini games here that you can earn currency with, which you can gamble to unlock items, Smash Bros. style. This breaking targets one looks kind of fun. Hopefully there'll be a good variety of games on offer.

  

• 12:04 - So you can mix and match different arms. That should, hopefully, keep the fights interesting; allow for a lot of different strategies. Well, at least until someone comes up with the one combo that'll break everything.
• 13:51 - There really seems to be a lot more depth to the fighting here than I would have expected back when this was unveiled. Have to say that I'm not super into the character design though. It's a bit on the generic side for a Nintendo game. They're certainly no inklings.

  

• 14:45 - The graphics do look quite good though. The specifics of the this fight on the other hand, I couldn't tell you the slightest thing about; my brain switched off like a minute ago. :D
• 16:12 - Oh boy, if there's something I find even more boring than people detailing game mechanics, it's watching other people play multiplayer games. (Oooooooo! In your face, eSports.)

  

• 17:18 - Wow, they're wasting no time getting more colours of Joy-Con out there. I'm holding out for some sweet tribal tat Joy-Cons myself.
• 17:25 - A Joy-Con battery pack? But isn't it the Switch itself that has the super-short battery life?
• 17:37 - Nope. Not looking at the headlines this time. I won't have you ruin this for me, Nintendo.

  

• 17:57 - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe now. As much as I enjoyed the original version, I don't really see myself getting this. Never really cared for the battle mode in Mario Kart that much, to be honest. It's cool to see them finally bringing it back for the people that wanted it though. The few new characters are nice bonus, but really, its more tracks I was after here. I suspect we won't see more of those until the next game though, which, too bad for us MK8 vets, I'd imagine is a probably few years away.

  

• 18:10 - Wait, what? The feather is coming back in this version? Okay, back in! :D
• 18:18 - Woof! Really not liking the slick, advertising guy voice-over in this Direct. I hope this isn't the new norm for these. If so, I'm going to really miss Shibata. I think he brings a genuineness and charm to these that no generic ad guy can make up for. (If you guys haven't watched the video of him unboxing the Switch yet, I urge you to do so as soon as possible. It's so adorable.)

  

• 18:48 - Really not a fan of that Ultra Street Fighter II cover art, and what's with that heavy red tint? Everyone looks super sun burnt.

  

• 19:04 - :D I don't know why I find Violent Ken so funny, but I do. This game though, much like MK8, I really like Street Fighter II, but I have no interest in grabbing this. I've got SFII in a bunch of formats already. And I think that HD Remix look has always been kind of terrible.

  

• 19:22 - Speaking of terrible: tacked-on, motion control modes! They're back!

  

• 19:58 - Kind of surprised to see Microsoft still publishing Minecraft on rival platforms. It's a good get for the Switch though (that, once again, I'll probably never touch :D).

  

• 20:34 - Oh, neat! The Mario stuff is coming over from the Wii U version. The addition of that almost got me thinking about picking up that version. Almost. Having abandoned Terraria after a few hours though, I just couldn't see myself putting any real time into it. I can definitely see the value in Minecraft, but that kind of free-form creation in a game just doesn't seem to do it for me.

  

• 20:56 - More NeoGeo games, but still no Virtual Console? Come on, Nintendo. Not that I'm complaining. Well, I am, but... I mean, without a version of Urban Champion on the Switch, how could I ever justify buying one?

  

• 21:31 - Sonic Forces. Not sure what to expect from this. I've yet to give Generations a whirl. I have gotten pretty far into Colors on the Wii pretty recently though, which I thought was solid, though never really exceptional. I might have gone in with slightly too high expectations, given it's kind of hidden gem status at this point though.

  

• 22:02 - Sonic Mania I'm much more excited for. I still love me some old school Sonic, especially Sonic 2. I have to say that I was severely tempted to pre-order the limited edition of this, which included a huge Sonic statue on top of a fake Genesis, but, for once, common sense prevailed; but just barely. :D

  

• 22:13 - Project Mekuru. This is new. And published by Nintendo.
• 22:22 - Seems to be kind of an isometric Splatoon. Having still not touched actual Splatoon though, the chances of me playing this are pretty low.

  

• 23:09 - Fate Extella???? This looks like some Musou-type business, but screw that, the only Musou-like game I need in my life is this sweet copy of Nine-Nine Nights I just picked up for €1:

 

Woooooow!

 

• 23:22 - "Tactical", "dangerous", "over the top". Yep, that's me. Ask me anything about Disgaea.

  

• 23:34 - The dynamic wanderer Killa? Yep, absolutely know all about him. Is he having a conversation with a Lynel here? I've found that usually goes poorly.

  

• 24:04 - So annoyed that, finally, when I went and pulled the trigger on the Japanese Vita version of this, this localization immediately gets announced. Oh well, I guess there's not much in the way of deep lore that I'm missing any way.

  

• 25:04 - Monopoly on the Switch. Exciting stuff.

  

• 25:11 - I'm trying to envision a market for this, but I can't. Who's going to be so desperate to play Monopoly that they'll take a Switch with them, outside, to do it.

  

• 25:43 - Rayman Legends: a Wii U game I only removed from the shrink wrap - that it's been in since August - a few weeks ago, and I still haven't played it. Hey, at least I bought a copy! :D

  

• 25:50 - Mario content appearing in everything. It's like the last days of the Gamecube all over again. Still no sign of that alleged Mario/Rabbids crossover RPG though.

  

• 26:15 - I'm not sure THQ Nordic has ever "brought the goods". Sine Mora though, yet another entry in my endless backlog. Bought it years ago in a Steam sale and haven't touched it since. A pretty old game to be digging up for the Switch at this point though.

  

• 26:47 - Battlechasers? No idea.
• 26:56 - Looks pretty generic though.
• 26:56 - What? Those were "the goods". My point stands. :D Not even Darksiders or Saints Row ports? Come on.

  

• 27:20 - Payday 2. The first big-ish, western, multiplayer game announced for the Switch, I'm pretty sure. Now with exclusive Mario and Luigi masks!

  

• 27:33 - Namco Museum? Seems a bit early for one of these on the Switch. Maybe this is hitting the PS4 and XBone too.

  

• 27:43 - Splatterhouse? Whoah, that's a game you usually don't see on these. I was only expecting the usual Pac-Man, Galaga, etc. here, but maybe Namco is finally stepping out of their comfort zone with this installment.
• 28:10 - Gah! Nope, outside Splatterhouse, it seems to be just the same old, same old. And, as a digital-only title, I bet they'll skimp on the number of games in this even more so than usual. *sigh* Maybe next time.

  

• 28:57 - Splatoon 2 time. As a renowned expert in all things Splatoon, I'm sure I'll have much valuable insight to offer here. Liking the faux VHS footage so far though. Some nice attention to detail on that.
• 31:10 - Really not liking this kind of limp, kid-friendly humour both this and the Arms segment tried to pull off though. Come on, Nintendo, stop trying so hard to be cute here. Be direct; it's in the name of this thing! Failed humour is my department.

  

• 33:20 - Splatoon 2 amiibo. There's really no reason for me to pick these up at this point, but they do look pretty awesome. With the the poses and ink splashing around them, they're far more lively and dynamic-looking than the ones from the original game.

  

• 35:09 - And that's a wrap. Glad to see it wasn't just Arms and Splatoon. A few little surprises in there. Mostly of the amiibo variety, but I'll take it, for now. Hopefully we'll see some slightly more exciting stuff around E3 time. Maybe even, dare I say it, finally some word on the Virtual Console on Switch. Boy, remember when everyone was complaining about 3-4 VC releases a week back in the Wii days. Sure seems like a golden era now, doesn't it? :D