The message early this morning from Nintendo in their latest Direct was clear: it’s a great time to be a Switch owner! The huge sales success of the hybrid home console/handheld is evidently starting to pay off in spades, with the livestream showing off a bumper slate of upcoming content. On top of filling us in on plenty of details for previously announced games, the Big N announced over a dozen new titles headed to the Switch, setting 2019 up to be a huge year for the platform.
While there’s a lot to unpack from the Direct, we’ve taken the liberty of compiling a list of what we feel are the most exciting new title announcements, starting with the one everybody has been clamoring for:
Animal Crossing is coming to the Switch!
Way back in June of 2015, when the Wii U was still a thing, Nintendo had the audacity to tease an Animal Crossing game for the console during their E3 presser that turned out to be the horrible Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival. I almost thought history was about to repeat itself during the Direct today when we saw AC staple Isabelle milling about the mayor’s office before being handed a mysterious letter. My heart sank when said letter turned out to be an invitation to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but thankfully that scene was followed up by a message from Tom Nook himself… Animal Crossing is coming to the Switch in 2019! Unfortunately that’s literally all the information we have to go off so far, but honestly that’s good enough for me. Better start saving those bells!
Luigi’s Mansion is back!
Everyone kinda saw this one coming. Between the success of Luigi’s Mansion 2 back in 2013 and the upcoming 3DS remake of the Gamecube original (not to mention all the rather grim ‘Luigi is dead’ viral stuff from the new Smash Bros) it makes sense that we’d see a brand new title for the Switch. While the reveal during the Direct was short, it did at least have a few seconds of actual gameplay footage in it, and what’s there looks bloody gorgeous. We’ll be blowing the dust and cobwebs off of our Poltergust 5000s at some point next year.
So much Final Fantasy (but not the best one)
If you could measure the success of a platform by how many Final Fantasy re-releases Square Enix can shove onto it, then the Switch is golden. Not only are we getting a brand new version of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, and the ‘HD’ version of the mobile port of Final Fantasy XV (port-ception or what?), but also a new and updated version of the excellent World of Final Fantasy and a new Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon game! Add to that the recent ports and remasters of Final Fantasy XII, X/X-2, IX and VII and there’s a hell of a lot of FF goodness headed our way. It’s just too bad that the best series entry, Final Fantasy VIII, continues to be overlooked. Granted, it’s the only one of the VII-XII bunch that hasn’t already had a ‘HD’ port on home consoles, so that kind of makes sense. Still gonna be salty about it, though.
Na na na na na na na na Katamari Damacy!
The diminutive Prince of the Cosmos is finally back! I must admit I squealed in excitement at this one, Katamari Damacy is coming to the Switch. It’s a HD port of the original game, which is maybe not as exciting as perhaps a brand new game would’ve been, but it’s a start. Plus the new gyro controls, HD rumble and on-the-go multiplayer should really add to the experience. The best news of all is that it’s rolling onto the Switch later this year!
Yoshi is getting crafty
Now, this one was already kind of a known quantity. Nintendo has shown off gameplay video from the Switch’s new mainline Yoshi game a few times, and accidentally even leaked the title about a week ago, but at least now we have confirmation. Yoshi’s Crafted World hits the Nintendo Switch next year and we got another glimpse at how it looks and plays during the Direct today. Nintendo have toyed around with the whole ‘crafted/handmade’ look plenty of times in the past with both the Yoshi and Kirby games, but this is probably the strongest example yet. It looks absolutely stunning, and a tonne of fun. This one is going to be at the top of my list for 2019 for sure.
Of course, that’s not everything we saw on the Direct. There were more brand new reveals like New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe and Game Freak’s new Town, and even a suite of tabletop games, plus details around previously announced games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and DAEMON X MACHINA. The whole thing was pretty chockers with exciting stuff. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to watch the full thing here:
What are your favourite moments from the Direct? Sound off in the comments below or on our social media pages!
Kieron's been gaming ever since he could first speak the words "Blast Processing" and hasn't lost his love for platformers and JRPGs since. A connoisseur of avant-garde indie experiences and underground cult classics, Kieron is a devout worshipper at the churches of Double Fine and Annapurna Interactive, to drop just a couple of names.
