by Ten Bottemiller

The Nintendo Direct livestream on September 13 had Nintendo fans of all ages on the edge of their seats. Followers of huge game franchises had been waiting months, even years, for some sort of announcement from the company. Nintendo Direct touched on so many games as well as possibly the most awaited one: the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The Nintendo Switch is the latest Nintendo console and has thousands of games on it already, but Nintendo fans wanted more. Older fans and fans of the older games are excited about the upcoming Nintendo-64 releases on the Switch, including the first three Mario Party games, Pokémon Stadiums 1 and 2, and Excitebike 64. Other classic games will be included on the newest Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack.

Games that were released on other consoles first are being brought to the Switch in the coming year, too. Switch players will finally get to meet Lady Dimitrescu in the upcoming release of Resident Evil Village on the console, with the addition of the Winters’ Expansion DLC. Other classics like Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (originally released on the PlayStation Portable in 2007) and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land (originally released on the Wii in 2011) were announced and are getting their own edition on the Switch. Even Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is being added and renamed to Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life in the Switch release.

Perhaps the most awaited news in the Nintendo Direct stream was the naming of the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, its official name being The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It came with a new trailer featuring gameplay that fans were ecstatic to see. Fire Emblem Engage, Bayonetta 3, and Pikmin 4 are more of the entirely new games being released, along with Splatoon 3’s very recent release. On the livestream, Splatoon 3’s upcoming Splatfests were announced. Not only is Splatoon getting more content, the Nintendo Switch is also getting a Fall Guys Season 2, a new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC, and a golf mode added to Switch Sports.