Samantha Lienhard

Highlights From the Nintendo Direct (No Ace Attorney)

Sep 092026

The Nintendo Direct was this morning, and I’ll be covering the highlights that stood out to me, so be sure to check out the full showcase to see the rest.

(Actually, let’s back up: yesterday was the Legend of Zelda Direct, and while I have mixed feelings on the Ocarina of Time remake’s graphics, I have to admit to being tempted…)

Moving on to today’s Direct, I have to admit there were a lot of announcements that didn’t interest me. Seeing things like a new trailer for Final Fantasy VII Revelation and the Crisis Core remaster is nice, but it’s not as exciting as a new announcement.

The same goes for seeing Star Fox Adventures coming to Nintendo Switch Online and a new trailer for Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave.

So the first thing that really jumped out at me was Professor Layton and the New World of Steam getting a new trailer and a December 10 release date! I really thought it was going to miss 2026 entirely, so that was good news… even though I still have mixed feelings about Level-5 in general.

I should be over the moon at having a release date for the new Professor Layton game. I should be screaming in joy and checking every site to see if it can be preordered yet. I just… don’t want to get my hopes up, considering how pro-AI Level-5 has been.

Anyway, they followed that with the surprise announcement of Yo-Kai Watch 2: Haunted Domain, which seems to be a remake of Yo-Kai Watch 2. Once again, I just can’t feel excited yet.

So let’s move on to the next big surprise for me, the announcement of Onyx: The Dark Grip, a new game from Bloober Team that looks really neat!

Nintendo also shared a new look at Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s Switch 2 Edition, but sadly no updates on Genesis yet.

Ondeh Ondeh Kaya’s Tasty Tale looks like it could be a fun game, too, but I was especially excited for the reveal of Metroid Ravenous. The title was leaked a while back, and it’s real! It looks really interesting! I enjoyed Dread, so I’m looking forward to this.

Mario Kart World is getting a free update that adds some classic tracks to Versus mode, and Capcom showed another look at Mega Man: Dual Override.

Another big surprise for me was Eternal Anima, a turn-based RPG from Marvelous that looks exactly like my sort of game!

Meanwhile, while the release date reveal for Professor Layton might have left me less excited than I should have been, the same can’t be said for Danganronpa 2×2. I was disappointed when the upcoming Danganronpa 2 remake got delayed to 2027, but we not only got another look at the new game scenario, but also a January 14 release date!

Another surprise came in the montage, which revealed Dragon Quest Heroes: Torneko’s Mystery Dungeon. It’s a remaster of 1993’s Torneko’s Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon, the very first Mystery Dungeon game!

Persona 4 Revival and Persona 6 both got confirmed for the Switch 2 (with the same tiny teaser for Persona 6 we had before), and they closed out the Direct with the announcement of a new Kirby game, Kirby and the World Beyond. I never did get around to playing Forgotten World, but this one looks even more like my sort of game.

And there we have it! None of the games I was really hoping for, but some nice announcements nevertheless.

What were your highlights from the Nintendo Direct?

Let’s (Finally) Discuss the State of Play(s) Highlights

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Sep 072026

As we discussed, last Thursday saw two States of Play, a regular State of Play followed by the State of Play Japan.

Neither had any huge surprises, but there were still some good announcements, so let’s take a look at some of the highlights for me. Meanwhile, you can check out the full showcase if you want to see everything else.

It took a while for the State of Play to reach a game I was interested in, but I did enjoy seeing a new trailer for Final Fantasy Resonance. (And yes, that was in the main State of Play. So was Monster Hunter. Trying to guess what Japanese games got into the main State of Play versus the State of Play Japan was a losing battle.)

The big highlight for me was actually Konami. They had a new trailer for Rev. Noir, which continues to look interesting, and they followed that with the announcement of Rhapsody in Scarlet, an action-adventure game that also looks right up my alley.

So yes, Konami came out swinging as far as I’m concerned.

And that was it for the main State of Play–okay, I’m partly joking. Until Dawn 2 looks slightly interesting, and it was nice to see a new look at Final Fantasy VII Revelation, which revealed that side quests have branching paths. It was nice getting to see the airship exploration, too. And cats!

(These are the sorts of things that make me excited despite it being open world. Splitting the game into three parts makes it feel like it should be open, anyway; this is the part of the game where things opened up.)

Anyway, that concluded the State of Play, and then the State of Play Japan kicked off.

Just a couple of announcements in, it hit on a huge one for me that I definitely didn’t expect to see. Fate/Extra Record has been in limbo for years (we last talked about it over two years ago), and the most recent news was that they’d switched publishers and the director left the project. Whatever happened, I assumed it would be a long wait until the game got back on its feet.

But no! It was there at the State of Play with a January 28, 2027 release date!

The upcoming Dragon Quest Monsters game also got a new trailer, and there was a surprisingly fun trailer for Stupid Never Dies, too.

There was a trailer for Digimon Story Time Stranger’s DLC (I’ll get there someday) and a deeper dive into Rev Noir and Rhapsody in Scarlet. Oh, and if you think you finally figured out what determined a game getting into the State of Play versus the State of Play Japan, just know that the State of Play Japan ended with a deep dive into Ghost of Yotei.

And there we have it! Even with back-to-back States of Play, there weren’t a huge number of exciting announcements for me, but I love what Konami is bringing, it was nice to learn more about Final Fantasy VII Revelation, and Fate/Extra Record getting a release date made the whole thing worthwhile.

What were the highlights for you at the States of Play?

Two Nintendo Directs Announced for September 8-9

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Sep 042026

We’re just coming away from the two States of Play (which we’ll discuss highlights from soon, I promise), and now it’s time for two Nintendo Directs!

That’s right, Nintendo also announced back-to-back Directs, although these ones are on separate days.

On September 8 at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET, there will be a 30-minute Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Direct. Most likely this will contain new information about the Ocarina of Time remake, although with 30 minutes, I’d assume there will be other announcements as well.

(They might also talk about the movie, of course, which doesn’t interest me as much.)

Anyway, exactly one day later on September 9 at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET, there will be a 45-minute general Nintendo Direct. On top of that, it will be directly followed by a Nintendo Treehouse live stream planned to last 110 minutes.

So… that’s a lot. And with Zelda having its own dedicated Direct one day earlier, I can’t imagine the Ocarina of Time remake having too big of a section in the main Direct.

With that, my hopes are:

A new Ace Attorney game! This has to be our time, right?
Another trailer for Xenoblade Genesis.
A new 3D Mario? Luigi’s Mansion? Paper Mario??
Some big surprise we’d never have considered (like when they revived the Famicom Detective Club series)

What are you hoping for from next week’s Nintendo Directs?

(And in unrelated exciting news, my hopes for a localization of the new game from the Liar Princess & the Blind Prince team have been answered, as NISA announced it under the title The Grimm Reapress and the Drearytale Monster for 2027. I can’t wait!)

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