It’s no trick. Nintendo dropped a pre-Halloween treat into our baskets with a surprise Nintendo Direct Mini Partner Showcase, apparently the last one for the year.
The presentation began by showcasing Bravely Default II and its class system. The fan feedback from the game’s demo was also mentioned and that details on the resulting changes will be announced on Nintendo’s YouTube channel.
We then got “into the headlines” as the presenter put it, with Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town, set to release on March 23rd, 2021. That’s almost the same day as the one-year anniversary of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and this upcoming life-simulation title looks like it could be just as good.
The following trailer was for Surviving the Aftermath, a different kind of simulation game that puts players in charge of a small colony in a post-apocalyptic world. It will release sometime next spring.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising received a December 3rd release date complemented by an overview of its action-adventure gameplay and deep character customization options.
The Direct then launched into a series of short sneak peeks, mostly to confirm release dates for already announced Switch games. Bakugan: Champions of Vestroia comes out November 3rd, Griftlands: Switch Edition releases next summer, and Tropico 6 lands November 6th.
Another big announcement was a port off Hitman III set to release at an undisclosed date next year on the Switch’s cloud-based gaming service which allows players to stream their purchased games à la Google Stadia. Hitman III is the service’s first announced stateside release, as its previous games—ports of Resident Evil VII and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey—never left Japan. The gameplay footage seemed to run well but that may not necessarily reflect the final product.
Why is that? Well, the next cloud port reveal was Control: Ultimate Edition, this Direct’s first surprise same-day release. Although the in-engine footage in the trailer still looked great, early reports have suggested that the game has been experiencing severe server issues, at times keeping players in 20-minute queues before being able to play.
Following this, the Direct launched into its first long trailer with wrestling fan/otaku/legendary assassin Travis Touchdown in a series of battles against alien superheroes in No More Heroes III before striking a Viewtiful Joe pose and transforming into a mecha. The game still has no release date beyond a promise of dropping in 2021, but No More Heroes 1+2 has already hit the Switch for those wanting to catch up.
Next came the announcement of Part Time UFO, an adorable HAL Laboratory game released earlier this year on mobile devices in which adorable flying saucers controlled by up to two players help other characters out by grabbing and stacking items like an arcade crane game. It got the same-day launch treatment as well.
The show ended with an epic trailer for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity chock-full of new information including the ability to control each Divine Beast and their unique weapons and abilities, the confirmation that Sheikah Towers will make their return, and the announcement of a free demo out on the eShop following the Direct. That demo will feature the game’s entire first chapter and allows players to carry over save data to the full version. If all that doesn’t excite you, Nintendo added a reminder that the full game releases three weeks from now on November, 20th.
Author's Note: What did you think of this Direct? How many hours have you put into the Age of Calamity demo already? Has the revelation that there won’t be any more Nintendo Directs this year made your 2020 somehow even worse? Let us know in the comments below.
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