Nintendo Direct Thoughts, September 13th

I can do current events blogging, right? Probably?

The new direct is what's on everyone's mind and I'm a sucker for corporate advertising just as much as everyone else, and it'll be fun to talk about anyway! I'll cover everything I have at least a passing interest in.

I'm just confused with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. Is it a remake? A sequel? A do-over? A 3rd version a la Emerald? I just don't know what this game is or what it's trying to be. New areas, but what are they for and are they the majority or an add on? What's the story gonna be like? I just don't know what it is and I have zero interest in it because of it. Definitely the weakest part of this whole show. Pokemon Gold and silver coming to virtual console is cool, I guess.

Smaller stuff part 1:
Kirby Battle Royale looks a bit odd but like some silly fun. I could see myself getting it if it was on the Switch. More Layton is always good and a nice time. I find Minecraft on the 3DS a hilarious concept and I'm amazed they even got it working. Mario Party minigame compilation is a nice fun idea, but why is it not on the Switch?

Ok, so... I do not like what I've seen of Xenoblade 2. At all. The voice acting is super flat, boring, and plain bad. The artstyle is still the most bland "anime" one they could have chosen.The lore seems interesting at first glance, but looking closer it sounds like a generic "kingdoms at war" story with interesting window dressing. And the fanservice on Pyra is just awful. I'm definitely waiting to see how this one goes, but I'm just worried for the future of Xenoblade in general. First X, now this.

KELP DOME IS BEST STAGE THANK GOD IT'S RETURNING

Smaller stuff part 2:
Morphies law looks like a bad unity hackjob that gives a great engine a bad name. Rocket League is always a very good time, good to see it on more platforms. They're porting that super popular mobile MOBA game to switch as well? More interested to see how it controls on console than anything else. Skyrim is Skyrim, as usual. I'm super excited to see DOOM and Wolfenstein on Switch, definitely gonna pick those up if the ports are good.

Octopath looks neat, though I'm not a fan of the super generic fantasy style. Still, gameplay looks quite interesting and I'm very interested to see how it goes. Will be checking out the demo for certain. Oh, and it also looks gorgeous. The more I look at it the more impressed I am.

Finally, Mario Odyssey looks pretty dang good as usual. Dunno why they need to dedicate so much time when we're so close to release, but regardless it looks like a very fun Mario game, and you're pretty much guaranteed to have a good time with those.

So, today's corporate hailing ritual went pretty ok. Nice roadmap for smaller titles, though I'm not interested in most of them. If I took away anything from the direct, it's that the Switch is gonna be keeping it's momentum most likely, and that's pretty dang good news if I say so myself.