Nintendo Direct Mini 03/26/2020 — Good Job at the Clubhouse

The rumors of an impending Nintendo Direct this week had been floating around for a short while now. One source said an indie focused presentation would come first with a Direct the week afterward, and it sure seemed like the latter would come to pass when the former was accurate. The most infamous source was Hot Girl Videos, which first became popular (among gaming circles, anyway) after becoming one of the accounts to predict that E3 2020 would be cancelled, which it was. When Wednesday arrived, certain extremely online types started losing their minds about the lack of a Direct, especially within the Twitterverse. But it turns out those rumors were accurate after all — mostly.

A Nintendo Direct Mini was suddenly dropped online today, packed with info and previews for upcoming games. The details from Hot Girl Videos weren’t accurate, as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel and a new Metroid game were no-shows; but points for at least being part of the pack to predict this. It was called a “Mini” because the only brand-new game announcements from Nintendo were for smaller titles. It’s possible they’ll adhere to their recent tradition of saving the biggest announcements for a Direct around E3 time, perhaps running at the same time as the E3 digital event.

One of the biggest presentations here was for Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, first announced on a Direct in September last year. For this, Monolith Soft and Nintendo are rereleasing the original game in a prettier sheen for its 10th anniversary, with much improved graphics and select redone tracks. It will also come with a new epilogue known as Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected, the visuals for which resemble Xenoblade Chronicles 2 more than DE. The game will release on May 29th, with a limited edition available for all major territories.

Another big presentation was for Bravely Default II, previously announced at The Game Awards in December. The extended preview showed how it will look exactly as impressive as anyone who imagined what this team could do on an HD console expected after playing the first two Bravely Default games. Similar to a new numbered game in the series it was inspired by (Final Fantasy, if you weren’t aware), the characters and universe will be all new; but it will keep the same battle system from the original game, hence its name. A demo is now available on the Switch eShop, and both Nintendo and Square Enix will gather feedback for potential adjustments in the near future. The game is due for release later this year.

The third big presentation was for Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield’s Expansion Pass, previously revealed on a Pokémon Direct. It’s impossible to tell precisely how much content the two new quests will have, specifically known as The Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra, but they’ll ideally be long enough to at least partially replace a sequel. Alongside the new quests, both will come with new items, outfits, and hairstyles for the main characters along with new league card backgrounds, effects, and frames. The Isle of Armor will come in June, while the Crown Tundra will arrive sometime in the future (in a switch from the previously-confirmed fall 2020 timeframe). The overall Expansion Pass is available for $29.99.

The next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character will be from Nintendo’s own ARMS, which immediately kicked off a new speculation game. Spring Man is an easy guess, considering he’s one of the main faces, though Ribbon Girl and Min Min are also candidates. I’m not the only one hoping for Twintelle. The Smash Bros. team might have been ready to announce this today, but director Masahiro Sakurai previously mentioned that the Coronavirus pandemic was (and probably is) hindering development of the new character. The identity should be announced soon, since the character is due for a release in June. ARMS itself, meanwhile, will be free to play for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers from March 26 (today) until April 6.

More existing Nintendo games are getting new content. The recent and extremely popular Animal Crossing: New Horizons will have Bunny Day events between April 1 and 12, to find eggs from visitor Zipper. The next event will be for Earth Day in late April. Ring Fit Adventure received a new update that added a Rhythm Game mode, which includes tracks from games like Super Mario Odyssey, Breath of the Wild, and Splatoon 2. It also added a female in-game voice, and several alternate language options. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 received the Fantastic Four: Shadow of Doom pack, which adds the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom as playable characters in a new campaign.

Nintendo also announced a couple of smaller games. One was Good Job!, an action puzzle game that involves performing office tasks by any means necessary within a quick pace that released on the eShop today. The other was Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics, a collection of 51 popular games playable in local and online modes that will release on June 5th.

Yes, there were third-party announcements too. Ninjala from Gung-Ho Online was shown off in a bit more detail, a free-to-play multiplayer title starring mini ninjas that compete in 4-on-4 games, using similarly miniature weapons to get the upper hand. It will release in May on the eShop. Catherine: Full Body is coming to Switch on July 7th, a port of the game released on PS4 (and Vita in Japan) that itself was an enhanced port of a solid puzzle adventure game. Now that Atlus is releasing this, the desires for Persona 5 Royal on Switch (due for a PS4 release in western territories on Tuesday) are about to pick up again.

2K Games is releasing a trio of titles, including The BioShock Collection, XCOM 2 Collection, and the Borderlands Legendary Collection. All three will release on May 29th, where they can compete with each other and Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, for some silly reason. Burnout Paradise Remastered is also coming to Switch sometime this year, as is Harmonix DJ rhythm game Fuser and tactical RPG King’s Bounty II. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy released on the eShop today, while the legendary Star Wars Episode I: Racer is coming later this year. Lastly, Capcom’s Shinsekai: Into the Depths (a port of an Apple Arcade game) and the Panzer Dragoon: Remake arrived on the eShop today.

The Direct Mini was short on big announcements, but it delivered on its purpose of holding off the fanbase for the bigger Direct. It might take until E3 for Nintendo to provide that thanks to the Coronavirus outbreak creating all sorts of logistics and development issues everywhere. Some Nintendo fans might want another Direct before that, but it’s not looking likely at this point.

If you want to watch the Direct, feel free to do so here: