Nintendo's Insane News Explosion Part 1.

Phew.

This article has been taking forever, and I've had to rewrite it three times due to the sheer amount of games/rumors/announcements that have happened in the last three weeks or so. It just doesn't stop, not that I'm complaining. I decided to split this into two parts just because the aforementioned metric shit ton of things going on.

First off, let's start with the Direct:

We got our fabled Direct in September, and to me, it was pretty decent. We got a 3D Kirby that looks fantastic, the cast and release date of the Mario movie, a Monster Hunter Rise expansion, a new look at Splatoon 3, a major NSO update and finally, the return of Bayonetta. Where I feel the event was lacking was third party games, while Chocobo GP looked very pleasant, nothing else interested me at all.

And I think that's a sign of a bigger thing coming, which I'll get to soon. 

First, let's go through some of the major stuff:

Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak:

While I'm excited for an expansion to the one of my personal favorite games of the year, that was kind of a nothing trailer. They've promised a lot of good, new things are coming though, so I'm definitely looking forward to jumping right back in. Thankfully, the days of having to buy a new  version of an MH for new content appears to be over. 

Splatoon 3:

I'll be honest, I'm very excited for Splatoon 3, but that trailer wasn't doing much for me. It just looks like a visually improved version of Splatoon 2, which is not extremely enticing. The story mode sounds a lot more interesting, but the trailer was edited in an extremely weird way and I wasn't into it. Regardless, it'll be a quality product, but they're gonna have to start selling people on this soon or some people are just going to pass. Not having a release year at the end of the teaser was also odd. I'm always happy to see this badass though:

The absolute Chad.

There was an Animal Crossing Direct announcement in the Direct, and that will be happening very soon, and while I'm not an AC guy by any means, I'm happy for the fans who have been waiting for new content for what seems like ages now.

Mario Party Superstars:

They actually did it. Game looks visually fantastic, there appears to be a lot of content, Woody Woods and Horror Land are some of the best boards in the series, I'm extremely excited to get back into Mario Party. The only bummer is the massively reduced cast of characters this go round. It's only a few weeks away and I'm ready. ND Cube finally has a winner on their hands.

Metroid Dread:

They gave a longer overview on it, but as you can no doubt tell, the game is already out. I'll have a review on it soon, but let me tell you. Dread is already one of the best Metroid games of all time. I absolutely loved it. Do not pass it up. Please.

The Mario Movie:

Easily the weirdest and most newsworthy thing in the direct, besides maybe Kirby.

Chris Pratt as Mario:

Wow. I'm still trying to imagine this being a thing and it still hasn't registered. That said, he's a charismatic actor, and I'm actually interested to hear his take on everyone's favorite plumber. He's not Charles, but I'm going to give him a chance. Oh, and look at that, both Mario and Sonic come from Parks and Recreation. Small world. 

Charlie Day as Luigi:

Absolutely spot on. I don't care what anyone says, this shit is going to be prime kino, just because he's in. Always Sunny is a delight.

Anya Taylor Joy as Princess Peach:

Very pleasantly surprised with this one. ATJ stars in the Netflix mini series The Queen's Gambit and I can tell you it's one the best series I've seen on any platform in a very long time. Watch it, I implore you. She's going to be an Oscar winner before too long, mark my words.

Keegan Michael Key as Toad:

I was weirded out by this one for awhile, but I've come around to it. I think it's a great fit. Key is one half of the comedic duo, Key and Peele, and they're some of the funniest people in Hollywood. Check their stuff out. I've wheezed laughing watching some of their sketches. 

Seth Rogan as Donkey Kong:

What. How is this real? And why can I imagine this being really good? I'm surprised by how positive people are about this one, to be honest. But ya know what, I'm all for it. I'm really excited to see how a speaking Donkey Kong bounces off the other cast. 

Jack Black as Bowser:

This one, wow. Yeah, I'll take it. Something about this actually seems pretty spot on to me. There's absolutely going to be a song and dance number, so that is immediately on my "ass in a seat" list.

As I said in the previous article, Nintendo is extremely confident in this film, and they're already talking about sequels, so that gives me a bit of faith that this is going to work out. The directing duo of Aaron Horvath and Michael Jalenic are two names I'm unfamiliar with, but from what I've seen and heard, they are well respected veterans of the industry.

That first trailer is going to be super important.

Outside of the Direct, there's also been tons of Pokemon news, so I'll just throw these into the article as well. 

Scyther is getting a new evolution, and it looks BADASS:

Absolutely super into the design, as well as the other forms and evolutions that we've seen so far. That said, I'll be honest. I'm still not all that interested in playing Legends. The world doesn't look that interesting to me, and catching Pokemon was never the core appeal of of the series to me, it was the battles and the league that got me hooked to the games as a young lad. That's not really the focus here, so I'll have to look elsewhere.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl have been getting constant updates, and they've been showing off things such as QOL updates.

Things such as being able to have your Pokemon walk around with you halfway through the game, The Underground has seen a huge upgrade, the box system from recent games will be in this one, a HUGE improvement is that your Poketch will now function as an HM Machine, meaning that you don't have to waste move slots on your Pokemon anymore. I cannot understate how huge of an improvement that is. Pokemon from Platinum, such as Houndour and Porygon Z have been spotted, as well as Pokemon that weren't catchable in Sinnoh at all, such as Sentret. The only concern I have is the EXP Share, abd whether or not that will be mandatory. ILCA aren't just doing a straight remake of DP, they're fundamentally improving the games, and I'm here for it. Say no more, it's day one purchase.

Nintendo 64 And SEGA Genesis NS0:

Yup, as the rumors suggested, The N64 and strangely enough, the SEGA Genesis are the next systems to join NSO. While I'm pretty hyped for N64 games to make their way to the Switch, with full online play for multiplayer titles, I genuinely couldn't care less about Genesis games, you can play those fucking games on a calculator, at this point. No, I did not need another way to play fucking Sonic 2. Online N64 games made this an instant upgrade for me.

Plus, we're getting BANJO-KAZOOIE! That alone is worth the price, to me.

Nintendo has a strong end of the year planned. My only question is, where in the world is Advance Wars?!

So, I'll cut it here. This article is going to be pretty long so I figured this was a pretty good cut off point. 

Tomorrow, I'll be going over Kirby, Bayonetta, Sora,

some rumored games that have popped up, and why I think 2022 will be the last full year of the Switch as we know it.