Everything shown in today's Nintendo Direct
Monkey Island! Rabbids! Portal! Persona!
Today's Nintendo Direct highlighted an arry of third-party games coming to Nintendo Switch through the rest of this year and beyond. As expected, the showcase focused on games made by non-Nintendo companies - but there were still plenty of highlights, and several exclusives.
The show kicked off with Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, which launches this week. A title update with yet more monsters to slay arrives in August, and has the jazzy title of Seething Bazelgeuse. Oh, and there's a demo available now.
Next was the venerable Nier Automata, PlatinumGames' acclaimed role-playing game from 2017. It's now headed to Nintendo Switch via a fresh The End of YoRHa Edition which contains previous DLC and new costumes. It launches on 6th October.
Surreal puzzle adventure Lorelai and the Laser Eyes is an Annapurna-published indie coming first to consoles in 2023 via Switch.
Super Bomberman R2 is a fresh Bomberman game coming to Switch next year, where up to 15 people can play together. There's a stage creator mode, too.
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection is a compilation of 10 classic Mega Man games from the Game Boy Advance era coming to Switch in 2023. There's also an art gallery and music mode with more than 150 songs from across the series. Digitally, it will be available split into two volumes - Vol. 1 and 2.
Next up, a remake of the puzzle classic Pac-Man World. It's called Pac-Man World Re-Pac, unfortunately, and launches for Switch on 26th August.
Blanc is an arty monochromatic adventure free of text starring a fawn and a wolf cub who must work together to find a way home across a snowy wilderness. It's described as an emotional adventure, and has both local and online co-op play. On console it's exclusive to Switch, and arrives in February 2023.
Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert's Return to Monkey Island - which indeed he is, after a very long wait - will launch first on consoles via Nintendo Switch, which is nice. Just don't pirate a copy! There's still a vague "2022" launch date for this one.
We thought we might see a Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope release date confirmation today after the earlier leak, and indeed we now have one. The game's 20th October launch is now officially confirmed, and we got a look at a new trailer which revealed Bowser as a playable part of your squad.
A further detailed showcase for the game will be broadcast tomorrow at 5pm UK time. Oh, and Nintendo Switch Online members can try out the original Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle via a limited-time Game Trial.
Next up, a montage of games. Chibi roguelite Little Noah: Scion of Paradise launches on the Switch eShop today, train management sim Railgrade arrives this autumn, RPG Time: The Legend of Wright is another promising puzzler set in a notebook and is due on 18th August.
We got another look at Sonic Frontiers, which is out in time for Christmas. A brief look at the game's Cyberspace zone provided glimpses of challenges you'll take on at "supersonic speed" to grab keys and progress further.
Then some other games we knew about already: the previously-revealed Disney Dreamlight Valley launches 6th September via early access, Square Enix's Live a Live - already confirmed for launch on 22nd July, Doraemon Story of Seasons launches later this year, while action strategy spin-off Minecraft Legends is due in 2023.
Dragon Quest Treasures, a spin-off starring Erik and Mia from DQ11, was dated for release on 9th December.
One last montage showcased other known quantities: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (available now), No Man's Sky (7th October), A Plague Tale: Requiem - Cloud Version (18th October) and Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions (28th July).
The Portal Companion Collection - a compilation of both Portal 1 and Portal - is available today on Nintendo Switch. Valve's excellent first-person puzzle platforming games had previously been announced for Nintendo's handheld - but today's launch is a surprise. Multiplayer mode fans take note - you can play Portal 2 in local, splitscreen and online co-op.
Harvestella, a Final Fantasy-style take on Stardew Valley, was announced by Square Enix. There are fields to farm, townsfolk to befriend and beasties to slay - as you might expect. There's also something very ominous called the Season of Death, which you should avoid. It arrives on 4th November.
Finally, we got a glimpse at Persona 5 Royal, which arrives for Switch alongside PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S versions on 21st October. Persona 4 Golden and Persona 3 Portable are also on the way soon.
