Given that December is often a tapered-off time of year for new game releases, which don’t often pick up again until February, it was a pleasant surprise to see Nintendo have so many cool announcements waiting up their sleeve, even at a slow time of year! Hyrule Warriors, NES Remix, Dr. Luigi, Chibi-Robo: Photo Finder and the Yoshi-themed DLC for Sonic: Lost World on Wii U were all amazing left-field announcements that nobody would have expected to see, continuing to prove why Nintendo Direct is such a fantastic way for Nintendo to share information on new and upcoming games! Better still is that only Hyrule Warriors isn’t imminently seeing release either today, or in just a couple of weeks!
As usual, disappointment will be inevitable, even with a beefy, busy Direct like this one. The lack of news on Bayonetta 2 and Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney was a bummer, and the continued limited press given to games like Yoshi’s New Island and Mario Kart 8 just seems kind of baffling at this point! It’s also disappointing that nothing was said about Nintendo’s promising lineup of indie games during this Direct, despite the Big N having a nice big sizzle reel of both awesome-looking 3DS and Wii U eShop indies during their previous Direct.
Lastly, as much as it’s evident what Nintendo is trying to do, the small spoonfuls of press sporadically given to the two upcoming Super Smash Bros. games is getting a bit frustrating, especially when Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS has almost entirely been given the shaft in contrast to its Wii U sibling so far! Wasn’t the whole point of tailoring games for the 3DS and Wii U from the ground up to avoid having one overtake the appeal of the other? In this case, it seems like Nintendo wants to market the Wii U edition of the game much moreso than the 3DS edition, but perhaps this could also be a way to entice more people to buy the commercially-struggling Wii U as well.
Still, this was an excellent Direct, and one of the better Nintendo Direct streams in recent months for sure! We at Eggplante remain committed to delivering you any and all news out of Nintendo Direct, so keep coming back for all of your vital Nintendo news, as it surfaces!