Nintendo Direct - June 18, 2024

[Moonface]

Here's everything from today's Nintendo Direct presentation:

• Mario & Luigi: Brothership | Trailer | Discussion Thread
  A new entry in the Mario & Luigi series!
  • Release Date: November 7, 2024
    
  
  
• Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition | Trailer
  Take on over 150 speedrunning challenges, face off against the best times of players of different skill levels in Survival Mode, and put your skills to the ultimate test in Legend Challenges from across 13 NES games. Deluxe Set pre-orders are also available now.
  • Release Date: July 18, 2024
    
  
  
• Fairy Tail 2 | Trailer
  Experience the final battle of Natsu and his friends in an epic, action RPG!
  • Release Date: Winter 2024
    
  
  
• FANTASIAN Neo Dimension | Trailer
  The father of Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi, and renowned composer Nobuo Uematsu return to deliver an original RPG story!
  • Release Date: Holiday 2024
    
  
  
• Nintendo Switch Sports - Basketball Update
  Basketball is being added as a free new game mode.
  • Release Date: Summer 2024
    
  
  
• MIO: Memories in Orbit | Trailer
  A 2D adventure RPG set in the Vessel, a gigantic spaceship drifting in space for mysterious reasons. Play the android MIO and explore this decaying and mesmerizing world, overgrown with machines gone rogue.
  • Release Date: 2025
    
  
  
• Disney Illusion Island - Mystery in Monoth Update | Trailer
  The 'Mystery in Monoth' free update for Disney Illusion Island is available now!
  • Release Date: Today
    
  
  
• Hello Kitty Island Adventure | Trailer
  Cook delicious dishes, solve ancient puzzles, and decorate cabins to bring along new visitors and create your ultimate island paradise.
  • Release Date: 2025
    
  
  
• Looney Tunes: Wacky World of Sports | Trailer
  Avoid wacky obstacles and gain power-ups to incite chaos against your friends & family as you play as your favorite Looney Tunes character in 4 classic sports: Basketball, Soccer, Golf, and Tennis!
  • Release Date: Fall 2024
    
  
  
• Among Us - New Roles Update | Trailer
  New crewmate and imposter roles coming later today.
  • Release Date: Today
    
  
  
• Farmagia | Trailer
  Command your monster army as you adventure through the dangerous lands of Felicidad.
  • Release Date: November 1, 2024
    
  
  
• Donkey Kong Country Returns HD | Trailer
  Enjoy 80 levels, including the additional levels from the Nintendo 3DS version, and join up with a buddy for 2-player local co-op!
  • Release Date: January 16, 2025
    
  
  
• Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake | Trailer | Discussion Thread
  • Release Date: November 14, 2024
    
  
  
• Dragon Quest I & II: HD-2D Remake | Trailer | Discussion Thread
  The first two Dragon Quest games are also getting the HD-2D remake treatment!
  • Release Date: 2025
    
  
  
• Funko Fusion | Trailer
  Explore diverse and colorful worlds, solve puzzles, and relive memorable moments from over 20 worlds of entertainment.
  • Release Date: September 13, 2024
    
  
  
• Luigi's Mansion 2 HD | Discussion Thread
  • Release Date: June 27, 2024
    
  
  
• The New Denpa Men | Trailer
  • Release Date: July 22, 2024
    
  
  
• Metal Slug Attack Reloaded | Trailer
  The classic action shooter retains its detailed 2D pixel look and is now a tower defense game with beginner-friendly controls.
  • Release Date: Today
    
  
  
• Darkest Dungeon II | Trailer
  • Release Date: July 15, 2024
    
  
  
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Four Swords (GBA Online)
  • Release Date: Today
    
  
  
• Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA Online)
  • Release Date: Today
    
  
  
• Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (N64 Online)
  • Release Date: Today
    
  
  
• Perfect Dark (N64 Online)
  Now with online multiplayer.
  • Release Date: Today
    
  
  
• Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero | Trailer
  Set sail to save the day with Marona and her Phantom friends! Each stage of this colorful RPG adventure offers a gridless tactical turn-based challenge.
  • Release Date: 2025
    
  
  
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics | Trailer
  7 legendary games (X-Men Children of Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom Clash of Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 New Age of Heroes, and The Punisher) all in one Super Heroic collection!
  • Release Date: 2024
    
  
  
• Super Mario Party Jamboree | Trailer
  Rainbow Galleria, Roll 'em Raceway, Goomba Lagoon, King Bowser's Keep, and more maps revealed! Also features over 110 minigames, and up to 20 players can compete in a new game mode, and there's even more new game modes to look forward to. It's the biggest Mario Party game yet!
  • Release Date: October 17, 2024
    
  
  
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom | Trailer
  Link is missing, which means you finally play as Zelda for an entire game! Using the Trirod, she can recreate items such as tables, beds, boxes and water blocks to help traverse the world. Also, create echoes of monsters with the Trirod too to have them fight for you!
  • Release Date: September 26, 2024
    
  
  
• Just Dance 2025 | Trailer
  • Release Date: October 2024
    
  
  
• Lego Horizon Adventures | Trailer
  • Release Date: Holiday 2024
    
  
  
• Stray | Trailer
  • Release Date: Holiday 2024
    
  
  
• Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game | Trailer
  • Release Date: Holiday 2024
    
  
  
• Ace Attorney Investigations Collection | Trailer
  OBJECTION! Swap between the new and old visual styles.
  • Release Date: September 6, 2024
    
  
  
• The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy | Trailer
  • Release Date: Early 2025
    
  
  
• Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven | Trailer
  A full remake of Romancing SaGa 2.
  • Release Date: October 24, 2024
    
  
  
• Metroid Prime 4: Beyond | Trailer | Discussion Thread
  IT LIVES!
  • Release Date: 2025
    

[Mr EliteL]

Nintendo Wins.

I mean, damn it started strong with an M&L game? Perhaps it's finally time for me pick up a new M&L since I've really only played 2 and a remake of one of them. First one on the home console too, just have to. Then Mario Party with 20 players?! Speedrunners have got to be happy, perhaps the Marvel Vs Capcom community as well, Dragon Questers, Metroid 4 finally, and a Zelda protagonist game?

For Echoes of Wisdom I guess it's a good way to to try out something with Zelda to see how well it does before making a bigger game with her in to play as, or a dual Link & Zelda protagonist. The only one that came close was Spirit Tracks with Zelda's spirit with Link. I just couldn't but think what a full-scale game would be like instead of the cutesy type, but I'm no LoZ fan anyway so I got nothing really.

[Dragon Lord]

Holy crap Square Enix owned this Direct. Which you don't hear often with how they've been lately, but not only did we finally get a release date for Dragon Quest III 2D-HD Remake (a day after my birthday as well!!!), but also a huge surprise in announcing 2D-HD Remakes of both Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest II. Holy!

The announcement of a remake for Romancing Saga 2 was also a surprise out of left field.

I thought FANTASIAN Neo Dimension was a Switch port of Bravely Default at first, haha. Character models look very Bravely Default. Looks okay, will have to wait and see more, but it's an RPG in the looks of Bravely Default, so it'll be on my list automatically.

Other than Square Enix owning it, the announcement of a new Phantom Brave game was very surprising, especially considering that NIS normally doesn't make announcements for games for both Japan and the West at the same time. Wonder if it'll get a simultaneous release as well. Guess I'll have to go see what NISA has said about i, if they've said anything about it.

The Hundred Line looks like it could be okay. Game play seemed kind of meh from the trailer, but I'll wait to see more. I think it's kind of funny that it is Danganronpa in every way, but not a Danganronpa spin-off game.

MIO looks like it could be promising! I'll definitely be keeping my eye on that one, I saw PlayStation posted a trailer for it too now, so I'll be looking for it on PS5 down the road.

Fairy Tail 2... not sure how to feel about it. The first Fairy Tail game was... meh. Big meh. I hope this second game is going to improve on the first by a lot. I'll give it a try for sure though.

Echoes of Wisdom was by far the biggest disappointment of the Direct for me. I was very interested until they got to the part where they showed how the game play/combat worked and they lost me. We finally get a game where we get to play as Zelda and we don't even get to fight with her. Bruh. Just give her a sword and let her kick some ass, Nintendo.

tl;dr version:

OMG DQ32DHDRELEASEPOGPOGPOGPOG OMGDQ1+22DHDREMAKESPOGPOGPOGPOGPOGPOGPOGPOGPOGPOGPOG

New Phantom Brave, Romancing Saga 2 Remake, MIO, FANTASIAN, The Hundred Line and Fairy Tail 2 could be promising.

Echoes of Wisdom trash.


I was REALLY coping for an announcement of the heavily rumored Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster, but I'll take what SE gave me here. As long as they don't keep me waiting too much longer for FFIX Remake and FFT Remaster announcements.


EDIT: I forgot about Farmagia! Looks pretty interesting. Donkey King Country Returns HD is something I might pick up as well. Also I love that Nintendo announced the original Perfect Dark coming to NSO with online multiplayer right after Xbox announced that god awful looking new Perfect Dark game. That's the way to do it, Nintendo! Take the wind right out of those sails.

[Moonface]

I realized I never commented on the Direct at the time but I still want to share my thoughts on it overall:

• Decent showcase overall, and I liked how even in moments that had back-to-back games I have utterly zero interest in (such as the Hello Kitty - Farmagia block) the presentation didn't get dull to watch. I always appreciate showcases that pace themselves in a way that I don't just start wishing it would move on from games I'm not interested in.
  
  
• I was expecting a Mario & Luigi game remake rather than an actual new entry, given how other Mario spin-offs that have been dead for a while got remakes rather than new entries. I've never played any of the Mario & Luigi games before, and amusingly seeing stuff about the series on Twitter made me finally learn that the forum markers from way back when @Mr EliteL first made the forum in 2006 are sprites from this series specifically.  
  
  
• I'm surprised there's still a market to warrant making a Fairy Tail game in 2024. I always had the feeling once the manga ended people just stopped caring about it really, but then again I also had a negative view of the manga by the end of it so I might just be biased about whether it actually maintained popularity post-finale.
  
  
• Donkey Kong Country Returns HD interests me, and having not played it before is probably the only reason I'm not bothered the game is going to cost $60. It makes me wish that Nintendo had a way to detect if you own a copy of an older release of some of their games to give you a small discount; if Luigi's Mansion 2 HD had that I'd probably be far more willing to buy a copy of it but I don't really feel like spending $60 on a remaster of a game I already own.
  
  
• I have no clue what New Denpa Men was about and still don't. It reminds me of games like Katamari where it feels like the creator was doing some shrooms when they came up with it.
  
  
• I don't personally care about the Marvel vs. Capcom package, but I can appreciate it for bundling a lot of games together that were locked onto older systems and had no way to be played easily on modern systems or PC's.
  
  
• Mario Party looked okay, but with how Nintendo handled a lot of their mini-game Mario spin-offs for the Switch I don't think I could get excited about this too much even if I was a big Mario Party fan. I hope it doesn't repeat the same issues of the aforementioned games but it's hard to put faith in Nintendo changing their approach now when they haven't done it for this entire console life cycle.
  
  
• Echoes of Wisdom was the second big unexpected surprise of the Direct for me, especially because it puts Zelda as the main playable character. Like the Mario & Luigi trailer I was expecting to just see a remake of an older game when the trailer first started.
  
  
• I never properly watched the Lego Horizon Adventures announcement trailer, so this was my first time properly seeing this game and while I'm unsure if I'd get it, I like that there's finally a Lego game where the world is actually made of Lego. I could never get into things like Lego Harry Potter or Lego Indiana Jones because of how the worlds weren't made of Lego.
  
  
• Stray coming to Switch is neat I guess, although dear lord they really had to downgrade it visually to make it work. I'd be curious to see sales on this one because I just have the feeling the majority of people who wanted to play this already did it on another platform and I don't think the game really does enough to warrant double dipping on it, especially with the necessary downgrades to the visuals.
  
  
• Metroid Prime 4 looks fucking amazing! I can see this being the Switch's swan song game and maybe even being released for the Switch and the Switch 2 at the same time.
  

@Dragon Lord: It's funny seeing you say SE were a major star for this Direct, because while watching it I didn't know/notice how many of the games were from SE.

[ShiraNoMai]

The wildest thing about the Hello Kitty: Island Adventure game being announced is that South Park predicted its existence decades before it came to be

This was a very solid direct, as expected for their E3/SGF format. I'm surprised so many games were kept under wraps long enough to have releases this year.

[Moonface]

I wouldn't be surprised if somehow that Hello Kitty game just took stuff straight from the South Park idea. The latter wouldn't be able to own the copyright to any of that so not like Hello Kitty couldn't just take it, right?