In the span of less than a week, Nintendo will have aired two major showcases, with the first airing Thursday. The Nintendo Direct focused mainly on original Switch games rather than games for its highly-anticipated successor.
Some highlights from this direct were the announcements of new entries for the “Rhythm Heaven” and “Tomodachi Life” series, more gameplay for “Metroid Prime 4: Beyond” and “Pokemon Legends: Z-A” and a new retro-inspired beat em’ up titled “Marvel Cosmic Invasion.”
There were also a handful of remakes, remasters and ports such as “DRAGON QUEST I & II HD-2D Remake,” “RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army,” “Gradius ORIGINS,” “High On Life,” “SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered” and the first two “Monument Valley” games.
As strange as the timing of this Nintendo Direct was, it does reveal what awaits the ninth year of the console’s life.
For those unfamiliar, “Tomodachi Life" is like “The Sims,” but with Nintendo’s customizable avatars called Miis. The game has this bizarre text-to-speech system that hopefully has progressed further since the last game in the series released back in 2014 in North America. It was sometimes creepy and weird, but it was also an entertaining game for those looking to goof around with their Miis on a virtual island.
Game critic and analyst Jon Cartwright of GVG, formerly Good Vibes Gaming, spoke about the announcement of “Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream.”
“Miis have been de-emphasized a lot in this era… I didn’t really have that much hope that we would ever see this again,” Cartwright said. “It’s a wild, wild game and in the era of more tightly connected social this could be really special, just sort of sharing this experience with your friends.”
Nintendo revealed a block of more arcade-type games for Switch early on in the presentation, and “Marvel Cosmic Invasion” was the stand-out.
The game is going multi-platform so gamers will be able to play this one on just about anything, but it looks like a lot of fun on Switch. The developers behind it, Tribute Games, also put out the warmly-received “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge,” an ode to classic arcade beat em’ ups from the ‘90s. If it’s anything like the last foray, Cosmic Invasion should be one to look forward to, especially for Marvel fans.
“RAIDOU Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army” looks like a dramatic step up from the PS2 original. The Switch already has so many great role playing games from Japanese game developer Atlus. It can be a struggle finding time to play another one since these games are quite long, ranging from 60 to 100 hours.
“Metroid Prime 4: Beyond” has been in the works seemingly since 2019, when Nintendo announced it was restarting development on the game and handing over the reins to Retro Studios. Atmosphere and sound define these games as the Prime series changed the formula of what a “Metroid” game could look like. “Prime 4” looks like it could push the original Switch graphically, so we’ll be curious to see if this one somehow gets a boost on Switch 2.
Krysta Yang, of the “Kit & Krysta Podcast,” and former employee of Nintendo featured on the show “Nintendo Minute,” reacted to the Direct live on YouTube. She commented on the addition of psychic abilities in “Metroid Prime 4: Beyond.”
“It slows down the action a bit,” Yang said. “That’s so different for a Metroid game.”
“The Eternal Life of Goldman” was revealed back in August 2024 but seeing it in the Direct surely put a lot more eyes on this one. It seems to have similar movement to the old “Duck Tales” games with an art style reminiscent of “Cuphead,” with lots of hand-drawn animation. The game will be one to keep an eye on.
As the company barrels towards the Switch 2 showcase April 2, this Direct is one that does not simply wave goodbye to the original Switch.
Coupled with the addition of new virtual game cards and announcements of new titles like “Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream” and “Rhythm Heaven Groove” releasing in 2026, it is looking like the Switch 1 will be partially supported for another year.
For now, all eyes are on April 2 since what truly makes the Switch 2 special will be revealed. Not only will rumored features like joy-con mouse mode possibly come to light, but the announcement of Switch 2 exclusive games are sure to come.
