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?