5 Biggest Surprises From the February Nintendo Direct That Had Us Gasping

Biggest Surprises From the Nintendo Direct

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening Remake

Used as the last and probably biggest announcement during the Nintendo Direct, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening will be getting a full-blown remake and it’s coming to the Switch…sorry 3DS fans.

Nintendo did a fantastic job keeping this reveal a secret from everyone, as fans were expecting some sort of 2D Zelda adventure to be announced eventually but not a remake of this 1993 classic in a chibi art-style.

Link’s Awakening is one of the most intriguing of the Zelda franchise, as it is super quirky and even has tons of elements and enemies from the Super Mario franchise such as Goombas, Chain Chomps, and even 2D side-scrolling segments.

We were not expecting to wake up the all-powerful Windfish again anytime soon, but Nintendo has shown us all something that we didn’t even know we wanted and you can color us excited.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening will be released on the Nintendo Switch sometime this year.

Biggest Surprises From the Nintendo Direct

Super Mario Maker 2 … Yes, a Sequel

Mario Maker on the Wii U and 3DS gave players access to what felt like the majority of the tools available to create some of the most interesting 2D Super Mario stages ever, but it turns out that Nintendo has more in store for us creators.

Super Mario Maker 2 is a full-fledged sequel for the Nintendo Switch and ups the ante for the Mario Maker series. It seems that you’ll have access to way more content and creator tools that will aid you in developing some of the most difficult/fun/zany stages that you can think of.

From watching the trailer, we can see that there will be new characters to play as, as well as new enemies, items (like the Cat-Mario suit), the addition of slopes, and much much more. Super Mario Maker 2 lands on Switch this June.

Biggest Surprises From the Nintendo Direct

Ninja Theory’s Hellblade Is Coming to Switch

Seeing Ninja Theory’s action-adventure game, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, at Nintendo’s Direct presentation was quite surprising to say the least, but as one of my favorite games of 2017, I’m all here for it.

What makes this announcement so surprising is that Ninja Theory has been acquired by Microsoft, so this must have been in the works long before that took place. Also, Hellblade is quite the looker in terms of graphical fidelity, so it will be interesting to see if the Switch can do this game justice.

Hellblade follows a woman named Senua who is stricken with psychosis that is on a mission to rescue the soul of her lost lover. There are hack and slash/puzzle elements that push Senua to her limits and these challenges are nothing compared to the inner demons that she must face due to her illness.

Biggest Surprises From the Nintendo Direct

PlatinumGames’ Astral Chain Looks Spectacular

Astral Chain is a brand-new exclusive action title that is being developed for the Nintendo Switch by none other than PlatinumGames, the studio behind titles like Bayonetta and NieR Automata. We also have Hideki Kamiya, creator of the Bayonetta series as supervisor, and character designs by Masakazu Katsura, creator of ZETMAN and Video Girl Ai.

Needless to say, there are some pretty awesome folks that are part of Astral Chain and it just looks super rad.

As part of a police task force, it’s up to you to defeat alien-like creatures by choosing to play as either a boy or a girl, two playable characters that are both on the screen at all times. Combat is done by controlling the character you choose, with the other supporting you with synergetic attacks and combos.

Astral Chain is due for release on August 30 on the Switch.

Biggest Surprises From the Nintendo Direct

Tetris Goes Battle Royale With Tetris 99

With all of these Battle Royale games out and about such as Fortnite, Apex Legends, and PUBG, you would think that there would be no space for yet another Battle Royale game, but that’s where you’re wrong.

During the February Nintendo Direct, the company announced that a Tetris game would be coming to the Nintendo Switch. Well, it was made immediately available and free to download for Switch Online subscribers, which is just fantastic.

Tetris 99 throws, you named it, 99 players into an online lobby with each and every one of them playing their own game of Tetris at the same time. There can only be one winner though as that’s how Battle Royale games work.

In order to stop your rivals from winning, you can throw garbage blocks over to their game and vice versa, making the competition very cut-throat from the get-go.

Tetris 99 is out now on the Switch eShop.