Everything in today’s Nintendo Direct
Today’s Nintendo Direct didn’t disappoint, with a brand new look at The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel, new title Tears of the Kingdom, plus surprise announcements for Pikmin 4, GoldenEye 007 and a new Fire Emblem game.
Nintendo has finally confirmed Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s name and release date: May 12, 2023 – along with some new details on what to expect from Link’s next adventure, which will apparently take him “to the vast lands of Hyrule…to the skies and [into] an expanded world that goes beyond.”
Originally confirmed to Eurogamer by Shigeru Miyamoto in 2015, Nintendo finally gave us a first official teaser for Pikmin 4. I can’t believe it’s still in development, but it is, and it’s coming to Nintendo Switch in 2023.
Another big announcement came today in the form of Fire Emblem Engage, the next mainline game in Nintendo’s strategy series that was leaked earlier this year. Set 1000 years after the war against the Fell Dragon, this installment will have you summoning and fighting alongside ancient heroes such as Marth and Celica. It will be launched on January 20, 2023.
Next up is GoldenEye 007, which was announced simultaneously by Nintendo for its Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription, as well as directly by Rare for Xbox Game Pass via Twitter. This new version adds online multiplayer to the Switch version, while the Xbox edition has 4K visuals.
Other upcoming N64 games for Nintendo’s subscription were also detailed, including Pilotwings 64 and Pokémon Stadium.
Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe, a remake of the Wii original, was announced today for launch on Switch on February 24, 2023. This version includes new copy ability, local multiplayer support, and new mini-games .
After breaking sales records in Japan, Splatoon 3’s first post-launch Splatfest will ask you what would you use to survive on a deserted island: Gear? Worm? Or… fun? Look for this over the weekend of Saturday September 24th.
The third wave of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC will arrive this “winter” with eight additional tracks, including Merry Mountain from Mario Kart Tour and Peach Gardens from Mario Kart DS. These mesh perfectly with past track leaks, lending them even more legitimacy.
Today brought new gameplay for Bayonetta 3 which, as we knew, will arrive next month on October 28th. A separately posted video looked at the game in more detail – which you can watch here.
We’ve received a series of updates on existing Nintendo games, such as the next wave of content coming to the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Expansion Pass. Volume 2 will allow you to add the new mechanical-looking hero Ino to your party and dress up in beachwear, of course. This all happens on October 14.
In Mario Strikers: Battle League Football land, a second free game update will be launched later in September and will bring Diddy Kong to the game, as well as more equipment, another stadium, individual rankings based on skill points , customization options for supporters in the crowd and stadium effect options. It would have been great to have this hardware ready for launch, but hey.
And for Nintendo Switch Sports, its long-awaited Golf update has been slightly delayed from this “winter”. Today’s footage showed local play and a new eight-player online survival mode.
On third-party games, which were headlined by the announcement of Octopath Traveler 2. The next adventure in the retro pixel 3D CG series will be coming to Nintendo Switch on February 24, 2023.
A brand new Final Fantasy Theatrhythm game has also been confirmed, in time for the franchise’s 35th anniversary. Theatrhythm Final Bar Line has a frankly ridiculous number of tracks from the series – as well as other franchises – and will arrive on February 16, 2023.
Beloved indie masterpiece Tunic will arrive for Switch on September 27th, thanks to several prayer circles here at Eurogamer.
Project Zero/Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse will launch outside of Japan for the first time in early 2023, Nintendo has announced. It’s also coming to PlayStation and Xbox, following its arrival on Wii in 2008.
Critically acclaimed co-op game It Takes Two is coming to Nintendo Switch on November 4, it has been confirmed. It’s the same day as Final Fantasy’s farming game Harvestella, which gets a Switch demo today.
The similar Sifu will launch for Switch on November 8th.
Speaking of farming games, Rune Factory 3 Special will launch on Switch next year – and a brand new Rune Factory is in development.
Want more farming games? The GameCube classic Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life will return to Switch under the guise of Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life. After almost 20 years, it will be launched in the summer of 2023.
Another farming game, Fae Farm, will launch exclusively on Nintendo Switch in spring 2023.
Another GameCube classic, the role-playing game Tales of Symphonia Remastered, is coming to Switch in early 2023, as well as PlayStation and Xbox.
Various Resident Evil games are coming to Nintendo Switch via cloud releases, including Village on October 28. Cloud versions of Resi 7, 2 and 3 are also coming this year.
Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, from the creators of Danganronpa, will be released in Spring 2023.
From Ubisoft, there’s Just Dance 2023 Edition on November 22 and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope on October 20. As we found out the other day, the latter will include Rayman in a post-launch expansion. We also took a look at Oddballers, a board game coming out in early 2023.
Launching today is a simulation RPG named Various Daylife, alongside arcade shoot-’em-up Radiant Silvergun.
The Factorio machine building sim will launch on October 28. Crisis Core – Final Fantasy 7 – Reunion is coming to Switch on December 13th. The Arty 2D Ib exploration adventure is coming in spring 2023.
Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star will launch in March 2023, while Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Secret Key will arrive on February 24, 2023.
Also confirmed for next year are SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake and roguelite Endless Dungeon. Remakes of Front Mission 1-3 were also shown, but without release information.
Finally, games appearing in montage form included Disney Speedstorm (Winter 2022), Lego Bricktales (Fall 2022), Life is Strange Arcadia Bay Collection (September 27), Romancing SaGa – Minstrel Song – Remastered (December 1) and finally Fall Guys Season 2 – which begins September 15.