All the Announcements
- The World Ends With You – Final Remix – TWEWY comes to Nintendo Switch sometime in 2018, with an added epilogue and the option to use traditional controls in addition to touchscreen input.
- Kirby Star Allies – Kirby’s first adventure on the Nintendo Switch drops on March 16 and includes 4-player co-op.
- Mario Tennis Aces – The newest entry in the Mario Tennis series will include a story mode and improvements to the classic gameplay. It’s scheduled to launch in Sprint 2018.
- Pokken Tournament DX Paid Fighter DLC – The Battle Pack will cost you $14.99 and include 2 new playable Pokemon (Aegislash and Blastoise) and 4 new support Pokemon (Mega Rayquaza, Mimikyu, Mew, and Celebi). Wave 1 of the pack will land on January 31 while Wave 2 will drop on March 23.
- Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze – A port of the Wii U game that launches on May 4th. Funky Kong joins as a playable character in this version.
- Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition – This port includes the base game and all the DLC that released on Wii U, for one price. There are a couple added bonuses not found in the original version (Link and Zelda Breath of the Wild skins). Expect this sometime in Spring 2018.
- Super Mario Odyssey Free Update – Break Out the Balloons is a free update that adds an online competitive component to the stellar platformer where players hide balloons for players on maps of their choice. Some added features also arrive for Snapshot Mode.
- Dark Souls: Remastered – A remaster of the original Dark Souls, this title launches on May 25. Remastered will also launch on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
- Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA – Ys VIII is being ported to the Nintendo Switch and will be here sometime in the summer of 2018.
- SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy –
- PAYDAY 2 – Arriving on February 27, PAYDAY 2 will include what seems to be a timed exclusive character named Joy and will support the touchscreen.
- Fe – An artistic EA Original that will arrive on Nintendo Switch on February 16.
- Celeste – A pixel platformer with interesting speed manipulation features drops January 25.
Overall Impressions
Although there were numerous announcements, a great many of them are ports of previously released games. There are a couple Wii U remasters and several other games that released at least a year ago, such as PAYDAY 2 and Ys VIII. The World Ends With You Final Remix is my personal highlight despite being a remaster of the original 2008 Nintendo DS game. It’s one of my all-time favorite games and includes a bit of extra content as well as traditional controller support (although I’ll most likely end up playing with touch controls). It’s a shame so few people played this masterpiece. Hopefully Final Remix will introduce thousands of new players to the classic and maybe Square-Enix will finally get around to releasing that rumored sequel.
Dark Souls: Remastered is going to make a lot of people happy and it’s great to see it on Nintendo’s console despite my dislike for the series (I just suck). Although I was generally disappointed with the presentation, I really can’t justify that feeling because of the word “mini.” Who am I kidding? You’d hope Nintendo was releasing a few more high profile games sooner in 2018. They still have time to announce more games and maybe a full Nintendo Direct, but for now, at least we have a few games to look forward to soon.
You can watch the full Nintendo Direct Mini below.
