The latest Nintendo Direct has revealed Switch games Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, and Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion.
Everyone was advising caution about this week’s Nintendo Direct, warning that it wouldn’t feature many major reveals, but in the end it did have quite a few surprises – and one long awaited confirmation.
The most important was left right till the end: Super Smash Bros. will be coming to Nintendo Switch this year. No details were offered but the teaser trailer showed Inklings from Splatoon and what looks like the Link from Zelda: Breath Of The Wild – not the one from the Wii U version of Smash Bros.
Whether that means the new game is a full sequel or an enhanced port is unknown, with its name given simply as ‘Super Smash Bros.’.
The other big news was also Splatoon 2 related, with the game getting a free Ver 3.0 update in late April that will see the addition of three new maps, 100 new pieces of gear, and a new Rank X that is even higher than S+.
But Splatoon 2 will also be getting its first paid-for DLC in the form of the Octo Expansion, which adds a new single-player mode where you get to play as an Octoling (or an Inkling disguised as an Octoling, we weren’t quite clear on that detail). Either way it looks to be a substantial new campaign and will give you the chance to play as Octolings in multiplayer for the first time. It’ll be out this summer and you can already pre-order it for £17.99 (the same as the Zelda: Breath Of The Wild expansion pass).
The only brand-new Nintendo game was a low budget creation called Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido, which will also be coming to 3DS. It takes place in a world where sushi has been outlawed and seems to be a colour-matching puzzle gamer. It’s out on June 8.
Predictably, there were a number of new ports announced, including Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, with new levels based on Super Mario Odyssey, on July 13. A 3DS version was also promised, but it was implied not to be the same date. Capcom’s Okami HD will be arriving this summer with both motion and touchscreen controls, plus South Park: The Fractured But Whole on April 24 and Little Nightmares Complete Edition on May 18. Undertale will also be coming to Switch, but the only release date given was ‘eventually’.
There were also some new release dates announced, with Square Enix’s Octopath Traveler out on July 13 (plus a special edition with a pop-up book), Mario Tennis Aces on June 22 (just as previously leaked), and Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition on May 18.
Finally, there was some proper gameplay footage of Suda51’s Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, which was confirmed for this year, and news of a network test (i.e. a beta) for Dark Souls Remastered and an amiibo of Solaire of Astora. Last year’s ARMS will also be free to play for three days from March 31.
Despite rumours there was no mention of the recently announced Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 coming to Switch, but Nintendo has clearly been talking to Activision because Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is coming to the console on July 10. It’ll also be coming to the Xbox One and PC on the same date.
The 3DS also had a few new games announced for it, although it’s clearly running on fumes now. WarioWare Gold will be a compilation of new and existing micro-games, for a total of 300, and will be out on July 27. There’s Detective Pikachu this month, plus a port of GameCube launch title Luigi’s Mansion this year and the excellent Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story next year. The only brand -new game was Dilllon’s Dead-Heat Breakers, another entry in the semi-popular Tower Defense series that’s due out on May 25.
You’ll note that, especially for the Switch, very few games were due for release in the second half of the year, so depending on when Smash Bros. comes out we still know virtually nothing about Nintendo’s plans for the run-up to Christmas. Which may mean we won’t find out now until E3 in June.
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