February 10, 2023—Nintendo held its first Nintendo Direct livestream this year on Wednesday, releasing a plethora of trailers for upcoming releases. In typical fashion, the largest announcements occurred at the beginning and the end. The broadcast ended with a trailer for the highly anticipated new Zelda game — “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.”
The new Zelda title is a sequel to the massively successful “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” though some fans argue that it could be a prequel. Breath of the Wild is easily one of the biggest titles on the Switch, selling over 29 million copies and receiving the highest Metacritic score for any game in 2017. So unsurprisingly, the sequel has generated a lot of hype since the initial teaser from Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2019. Nintendo has kept a tight lid on the project, only releasing one other trailer during the Nintendo Direct last September.
Tears of the Kingdom is reminiscent of “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask” on the Nintendo 64, with both featuring darker motifs, an ominous moon, and — assuming most fans are correct — being direct sequels.
The keen eye of fans are already picking the latest trailer apart frame-by-frame, with many noticing that the new traversal methods — a balloon, a car of sorts, and a hoverboard using large turbine-like devices — appear to be collectable components held together with goo. It is likely that Tears of the Kingdom will either have a standard crafting system — one where players collect the necessary items and simply select build — or one where the player is able to freely place, attach and build creations of their own design. Regardless, the new modes of transportation are an exciting addition to the open world game.
“The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” is set to release on May 12, 2023.
“Pikmin 4” kicked off the Nintendo Direct, showing a new dog-like companion and Ice Pikmin. These new Pikmin have the ability to freeze enemies and certain surfaces. The player and their Pikmin are able to ride on the dog to traverse over obstacles like water.
In the Pikmin series, the player grows and controls an army of plant-like creatures called Pikmin to solve puzzles, overcome obstacles and defeat enemies. In the original “Pikmin” — released in 2001 on the Nintendo GameCube — the player, controlling Captain Olimar, crash lands onto a planet. Olimar enlists the aid of the Pikmin to help gather missing ship parts and must leave the planet in 30 days before his life-support systems fail.
“Pikmin 4” — initially confirmed by series creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, back in 2015 — is set to release on July 21, 2023.
Another major announcement during the broadcast is the release of Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Game Boy Advance games on the Switch. One of the features of these releases is the ability to toggle between filters to emulate the screen of the original Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color respectively. Compatible games are able to be played multiplayer both locally or online.
Some titles include “Tetris,” “The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX,” “Metroid II: Return of Samus,” “Kirby’s Dream Land,” “Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3,” “Mario Kart: Super Circuit,” and “The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.”
The direct also featured downloadable content (DLC) for large titles like “Splatoon 3,” “Xenoblade Chronicles 3,” and “Fire Emblem Engage” and new titles like the dancing rhythm game “Shake It, Amigo!” and fashion sim “Fashion Dreamer.”
This Nintendo Direct did take place in light of recent information that all three of the largest game companies — Nintendo, Sony, and Xbox — will not be at this year’s E3. There does appear to be some logistical problems as physical events try to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which ultimately canceled last year’s E3.
Check out the full Nintendo Direct broadcast below or browse through individual trailers here.
