I debated on and off about writing up my thoughts for the Nintendo Direct yesterday— partially as I don’t feel I have too much to say! But some stuff has still been nagging at me so might as well write about it anyway.
As usual, I’ll just be talking about things that caught my eye or that I actually have something to say about. If it’s not here, it’s not that I forgot, it’s just that I don’t have any real opinion on it.
So, first we have the new Smash character(s) announcement! Honestly, there’s nobody I’ve been hoping for and with each new Smash iteration at this point, I’ve just not found the game as much. I feel Smash focuses so much on the competitive scene between the challenges and higher difficulties and with removing trophies, which was my favorite thing to collect, I just stopped playing after finishing the story.
I didn’t even purchase the second DLC pack and while for the most part there’s nobody I’m upset that joined (The one exception: Sephiroth due to scarring me for life when I was 8 because of what happens to Aerith and it’s why I won’t play the Remake unless something changes), there’s just… nobody I necessarily want. I feel no pressure to pick up the second for that very reason (though, I will admit, I would love to have Aerith’s Mii outfit and the remake of her theme, but then I’d have to buy Sephiroth and I really don’t want to so I am very conflicted), but even so… I just don’t play anymore. Regardless, the irony that the one character I absolutely hate is the one I’d have to buy for the theme song of one of my all-time favorite characters is not lost on me.
That said, I will say this is a very overly dramatic trailer?? Like I really thought it was going to be some DLC thing or something or even somehow a new game with how story arching they made it and it just being her getting into Smash felt like such an anti-climactic twist, but not even in a funny way like what happened with Banjo Kazooie? It just felt weird. Super happy for those who wanted them! I have no particular feelings about Xenoblade so I don’t really care, but that announcement trailer is probably the first one that frustrated me a bit from that whirlwind of emotions.
I will say the Stage looks really pretty though.
Next up was Fall Guys getting announced for the Switch! I feel like I’ve seen a lot of Japanese players really be excited for the game (for obvious reasons considering its inspiration– I love Japanese game shows so much), but also people who would prefer to play on Switch so I’m happy for them.
Personally, I will not be getting it as data isn’t shared between games and I already own it on PC, but maybe we can at least see Nintendo collaborative costumes then… I just hope they won’t be exclusive to Switch.
That said, I will admit I haven’t played tons of Fall Guys lately either. This is partially because I always thought of it as Players vs The Course, but that’s clearly not the popular opinion and sucking due to my own inability is one thing, but losing because of someone else grabbing me and causing me to die sucks and is just not a good time. I hope people playing on the Switch will be nicer/better sports.
The first thing to super grab my attention interest-wise was the announcement of the Famicom Detective Club games (The Missing Heir and The Girl Who Stands Behind) finally being localized and coming over! I don’t think anyone really expected this, but as someone who loves mystery games, it’s really exciting and it looks great just from the initial footage.
I might just get The Missing Heir to start as The Girl Who Stands Behind looks kind of spooky and I am very skittish, but if I like it enough, I might pick it up anyway. I’m hoping we might see the Collector’s Edition come over too, if only because I prefer Physical Editions over Digital ones. I always worry about running out of space otherwise.
Since the game is Region free, obviously there is a chance that you could just order this version and maybe there will be an option to select your language when you boot it up (or it’ll pick based off your Nintendo Account’s region), but I’m not sure I’d want to gamble that.
The next game to catch my eye a bit was the new Mario Golf. I’m not sure how I feel about it just yet. I kind of suck at Golf, though, that didn’t stop me from enjoying Pangya so… That said, Speed Golf is especially odd to me? Is it just about who manages to get it in first? Because that could be neat and even a bit more relaxing if you don’t have to worry about stroke counts. The special running animations look super silly though.
But what I’m most happy about? Story mode and the return of Miis! I honestly love the Miis, if only due to my love of customization, so a story mode where you play as them has me really excited. Not to mention one of my biggest issues with a lot of the Mario sport-esque titles as they added more into stats is my favorite character to play as doesn’t always fit my playstyle so this could possibly fix things…
The only worry is I have no idea if I’d be good enough to finish story mode… I do hope there could be other outfits too at least.
Of course, that wasn’t the only Mii-related announcement we received– much to my surprise, Miitopia is coming over to the Switch and I can’t say enough how conflicted I am about it. I really enjoyed Miitopia. I have a whole playlist on Youtube for Miitopia and it was the last game I managed to finish before my Capture Card died. I had some of the last extra hard challenge things left, sure, but the battling was never my favorite part– it was the silly antics and story and story-wise, I was essentially done.
But the grinding was awful. Level grinding for various classes, trying to get higher weapons (in which you spin a wheel and hope you get lucky or just hope the Mii you need the item for asks to buy it and actually does so when you give them money)… It took me so long to grind up for everything and it wasn’t a fun time in the slightest so when it comes down to it, I absolutely wouldn’t replay Miitopia. And that’s not really solely a Miitopia thing, it’s rare I replay much of anything.
What really gets me though is they’re adding in some really cool features and I hate that I’m going to miss them because I just don’t have interest in replaying the game again (If I could transfer my data and just do stuff I didn’t finish and/or new stuff? I’d do that in a heartbeat, but unfortunately that option doesn’t exist).
Miis have been incredibly sidelined with the Switch so to see them get a forefront is great, but what kind of kills me is knowing these Mii Creation improvements with tons of new hair due to the wig system and even more eye options among other things is restricted to the Miitopia Port.
I would LOVE to see these get adding to the full Mii creation options. The lack of good hairstyles is one of the most disappointing things with Miis so seeing all of these and just… not knowing if that’ll happen. Just imagine a good long curly/wavy/ringlet-y ponytail!! While there’s still worries of those being exclusive to Pigtails or Sidetails (an unfortunately super common occurrence in games), I can’t help but be hopeful… Heck, I’d pay for more hairstyles too :( Just let me make my Mii beautiful.
Besides the additional Mii features, Horses are also being added. I wonder how many different ones there may be…
Regardless, it just… isn’t enough for me to want to replay the game. It’s not even necessarily rebuying a game I own– I just don’t enjoy playing games. There’s people who have repeatedly reset their Animal Crossing town or played a game over and over and that’s just… not me. It’s part of why I struggle with things like “dailies” in MMOs and the general way you farm resources in games– I find it too repetitive and it burns me out. I’ll just constantly have the feeling of deja vu and it frustrates me incredibly fast.
The only games I’ve personally actually replayed are Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. That is it. Besides those, the closest you can get are Pokemon, where I’d transfer my level 100 Pokemon from the original versions to be able to immediately plow through, and Visual Novels which is only really possible if they have Save States and Skipping options so I can quickly get passed all the content I’ve seen before. Outside those exceptions, it’s very rare for me. I don’t find playing more than one character in an MMO interesting (unless the story is fully different and even then, any quests that overlap will be a grueling experience for me), I don’t enjoy doing the same thing over and over, and once I complete a game, I’m good. There’s no real nostalgia for me to go through it all again. I’d rather just play around in my completed state and just enjoy being done.
And that’s kind of my biggest issues with ports. I’m fine with Ports for those who prefer better graphics or maybe didn’t get a specific system or better accessibility options (always a good thing), but when they add on new features, it’s just… so frustrating.
I’m mainly just hoping that maybe a Miitopia 2 can happen with these features at the least, though, I’d love for them to become permanent Mii features and see a Mii Creator update, or even an enhanced Mii creator I can essentially “buy”. Just give me more content with Miis, Nintendo.
We had the Animal Crossing update next which I was very surprised to see. I guess it does line up with the end of the month, but them constantly advertising the update for March (The one for Festivale was announced as coming late January), having the initial announcement in the middle of February during the direct with the update being out next week threw me off entirely.
In all honesty, as neat as it looks, I don’t really think I’ll be able to work with most of it. I am excited for the Princess Peach outfit though and I’d like to fit those mushrooms in the grove area.
I also think the Warp Pipes are really neat, but just won’t really fit with my island. I’m not even sure where I would put them, but after a conversation with a friend, I may just carry them around and use them for quick warps between two areas whenever I need.
What really bummed me out though is that yet again, other aspects of the update are just left out entirely such as the return of one of my all-time favorite items: The Hinaningyo.
I still find the way Seasonal Items (And Promotional and Posters and really most of the Nook Shopping Specials) are done incredibly frustrating, in part that they are never truly registered in your catalog. I don’t really like how apparently the items for both Hina Matsuri and Shamrock Day (which I’m surprised they kept over St. Patrick’s Day considering how Thanksgiving and Christmas were left alone in New Horizons) will change each day. We’re already stuck only being able to order 5 items a day, do we really need yet another barrier to deal with? New Horizons constantly forces people to go at the pace they want and it really removes the whole “going at your own pace” which let people relax in their own way :/ Despite my grievances, I hope to get the Hinaningyo ASAP and have even made room in advance for it (You’ll see that during my next New Horizons update). I already have ideas for 4-6 of the Blossom Lanterns as well. I also find the Pi Day Pie really cute. I don’t really have room for it (please let us expand our houses… Every room should be at least 8 spaces each way :( ), but I definitely want it. The Shamrock Soda also looks really cute.
As it is, there’s at least 33 Mario items, possibly more if there’s anything beyond the Yoshi’s Egg Rug, and as mentioned you can only order 5 a day so even to just get one of each thing (for showing up in Harvey’s Photopia), it would take about 6 days. The Mario items don’t show up until the 1st so you at least have 5 days to focus on the Hina Matsuri stuff again (which will be available from the 25th until the March 3rd, the actual day of Hina Matsuri) before having to deal with all the Mario stuff and with the Pi Day Pie being available from March 1st until the 14th, that means I can order the 2 I want there and still more or less get the Mario stuff done in 6 days as 2 Pi Day Pies + 1 Extra Pipe = exactly 36 items (well, technically 35 considering we get a Mushroom Mural for updating… but I can use that spot for maybe an extra Peach Dress for Judy or Cookie…) and then I’ll be set until the Shamrock Day items appear the 10th-17th as long as I don’t need to randomly order anything else for some reason :|
Despite my anxiety over balancing Seasonal/Promotional items, I am looking forward to Nintendo’s official Dream Suite Island to be updated for Mario Day and will definitely be doing a visit there again. If everything is all set-up, maybe I can even do the full Dream Suite stream I’ve been planning…
Moving on, World’s End Club caught my eye a bit considering I’ve enjoyed most of the other games from the Zero Escape and Danganronpa characters, but it might be one of those games I have more fun watching played than playing myself.
We also got some more brief Zelda news. Not really much, but I’m still looking forward to Breath of the Wild 2. I’m also happy for those who can finally play Skyward Sword due to it not requiring motion controls this time around. The Joy-cons are really cool and considering my husband’s joy-cons have been drifting like crazy, I’m hoping we can pick them up so he can have a new pair and maybe play some of his Switch games more.
Finally, the new Splatoon 3 announcement… Splatoon is a weird series for me because I really like the characters and lore, but the gameplay just isn’t fun for me. It’s not a gameplay I’m good at, I dislike PVP, and really the idea of a full adventuring game sounded more interesting to me than just more of the same thing with some solo story added on (especially as I found Splatoon 2’s story really difficult). Little Buddy is also really cute, but honestly, I enjoyed Splatoon 2 less than I enjoyed 1 so I’m not going to get my hopes up just yet for 3. The new customization options already look great though.
And I would say that more or less sums it up! I think, at the very least, everyone had something to look forward to and plenty of my friends are happy so that’s great.
BUT PLEASE NINTENDO JUST GIVE US THE EXTRA MII CUSTOMIZATION IN THE ACTUAL MII CREATION…