tohya.net
As always I'll only talk about the announcements that stood out to me in some way.
Switch 2 Console Hardware & Design
Looking at the Switch today it appears (and feels) quite flimsy and like a cheap toy. For adults or even teenagers the Joy-Cons were never a joy to use individually or in combination. In that sense being larger and bulkier will do well for the Switch 2. On the other hand I also felt like the Switch was too heavy and big for a handheld, a problem that's bound to be worse with the new console. However I barely play in handheld mode these days anyways so for me it's a big plus that the Joy-Cons seem to be much better suited for their purpose as controllers. But I sure hope there will be an optional left Joy-Con with a d-pad again. Personally I don't care much for 120fps and 4k resolution since my monitors can't display either, but if the bulkier model means better grahpics I'm all for it because many of Nintendo's games on the Switch were falling behind even Wii U releases in the visual department. I think the hardware looks promising. But I hope they manage to sort out the input lag issues that plagued the old Switch.
Mario Kart World
I've been playing Mario Kart all my life. From Super Mario Kart on the SNES with a childhood friend, to Mario Kart 64 with my siblings, the occasional session Mario Kart DD with my best friends from school and countless hours of Mario Kart Wii, DS and 8 with friends and siblings at home and online friends and strangers. Guess what my favorite part of playing Mario Kart has been. Exactly: doing races, challenging myself in time attacks and battling with friends. I see nothing fun in driving around aimlessly for hours on a huge map. So thankfully the free roam mode appears to be fully optional. On the other hand I don't like how the open world is influencing the Grand Prix mode by replacing laps on actual courses with boring intermediate sections that are meant to connect the courses. But we haven't seen the entire game yet so I'm remaining hopeful that it might not turn out all that bad. I'm not hyped for this release, but looking forward to giving it a chance at least.
Nintendo Chat
So it's basically Discord. Not a bad idea. But I grew up playing at home with friends and family. And I still meet up with friends and family to play locally. The direct focussing on online-only interaction for so long felt nothing short of dystopian to me.
The Duskbloods
This one was fun to watch. Never thought I'd see a Fromsoft game exclusively announced for a Nintendo console, especially one that looks like it might be a spiritual successor to Bloodborne. Unfortunately the trailer was not very promosing. It's all over the place in terms of theme and design and appears to be tailored for the Fortnite audience, more so than Nightreign even. And with the announcement of cosmetic DLC for Elden Ring Fromsoftware does not seem to be evolving in a direction that I would consider favorable. With the multiplayer aspect of Duskbloods confirmed this one just isn't for me.
Donkey... Donkey Kong?
Oof. They couldn't possibly have come up with a worse sell for Donkey Kong's new design. I get that his new designs allows for a wider range of expressions. But what's the point when all of those are almost entirely out of character? The trailer makes DK look so over the top goofy it's insulting to his character. Setting the railer aside, I've seen gameplay where DK was looking mostly fine. The gameplay seems really gimmicky and the colorful cartoon aesthetic does not match the Donkey Kong brand. Donkey Kong Bananza looks like it should have been a Wario DLC for Super Mario Odyssey.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
The first game in the Metroid Prime subfranchise was fantastic. Every subsequent entry turned out a little worse than the previous one however. Beyond looks like it might at least be better than Corruption, so I'm optimistic that it will be worth checking out.
But Retro desperately needs a consultant for their mecha designs. Those small heads on the Federation mechs make them look too silly.
Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion
I'm sold (despite the switch to power armor), but might get this on PS5 instead depending on how the versions are going to compare visually.
Pricing
I get the idea. Games are bigger now. But the reality is that most of that extra content is mere padding that usually only serves to make playing games feel like a chore. Rather than raise the prices I suggest developers stop filling their games with so much useless filler content. Elden Ring may have great dungeons and bosses, but the open world added nothing to it that would make it better than any of From's previous releases (which I all vastly prefer to replay). Mario Odyssey has great worlds conceptually, but collecting all of those moons was a real chore (my go to 3D Mario game to replay is still Mario 64). Similarly Mario Kart World is not shaping up to improve upon Mario Kart 8 with its world of straight roads. Final Fantasy XVI's hours of cinematic cutscenes did not add value to my play experience, they made me put the controller down and want to quit. I would have enjoyed every Xenoblade game twice as much if I they didn't make me feel obligated to do their side quests (Xenoblde 3 is just a grind, who asked for this?). And I could keep going with this list. Really, just make shorter and smaller games instead of hiking the prices.
Conclusion
This was far from the worst Nintendo Direct I've seen. They didn't show anything I'm dying to play but there seems to be a lot of potential. Mario Kart World no longer featuring the zero gravity gimmick makes room for a new F-Zero game. And F-Zero at 120fps could be the game to make me get a new monitor. It's also nice we finally get Gamecube emulation on a console. Wind Waker, F-Zero GX and Metroid Prime looked absolutely fantastic back in the day which should make them worthwhile to play in HD even today (especially in Wind Waker's case because the remake of that one is just a dud). Nintendo's games haven't evolved in a direction I like (the open world meme really needs to die already), but I'm still curious to see what they bring out in the future.