Greetings, once again! I’ve wanted to do another longer impressions piece based off gaming reveals for a while now, but IRL priorities kept blocking the road; couldn’t do one for the Star Fox direct like I wanted, nor the Mario Galaxy Movie (though I am working on it still, just unsure when it’ll be done), and I am contemplating whether to even bother with one for all the non nintendo not E3 reveal showcases.
Well, Nintendo is one thing, a very easy video to go over, and we established a formula last time there was a direct, so this one should be pretty simple to go into. No, contrary to The Discourse today, this wasn’t the “first direct in 9 months”; it was the first 1st Party Direct in 9 months, but games still got revealed. Games still got dated. Other third parties began to back the platform, and we’ll touch on that aspect a lot in this piece. Needless to say, while I did worry Switch 2 might lack a 2026 killer app for the first party side of things, it’s pretty clear Pokopia ended up being that pretty easily, as Mario Kart was for 2025.
I give this context ahead of time, because when we get through this direct, and I give my thoughts, and after giving said thoughts, give thoughts on other people’s general thoughts… You might not be happy with me at the end of this piece. At least, if you only play Nintendo games and absolutely nothing else, like Wii U/3DS era me. So, with this being the June timeframe direct, the usual big gun reveals for the end of the calendar year, what sort of goodies did we get? Well, let’s take a look and see! Like last time, I’ll skip over games I don’t have much to say about.
The first big game was Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Yes, I skipped the intro game of the direct. No, I do not care about it. But I am pretty eager to see this new Onimusha, and kinda wrote it off coming to Switch 2 initially due to it being a pretty action heavy game where a stable framerate is vital. Seems at the very least, this one is holding up surprisingly well, and I just wish that demo other systems got came to the Switch 2 eShop. Definitely gonna add this to my list of games to play whenever. Add one to the September pile. Seems like a good starting point for the series too, but I will admit, getting back into PS2 collecting, maybe I’ll pick up Blade Warriors for a quickie taste of the IP…
The next game caught me completely off guard; Dragon’s Dogma II. Not just that, but a Dark Arisen expansion for the game, revealed at the direct. I cannot emphasize enough just how abnormal this sorta thing is for Nintendo fans, but I’m pretty happy to see Nintendo nab a big reveal here. Sure, the main game is a late port, but it coming with new DLC for all is a pretty good deal for fans of that game. I have the first one to eventually get to… Someday… But I’m pretty sure the DLC reveal wasn’t a thing anyone expected, let alone here of all places. And yes, Dark Arisen is also the subtitle to the first game’s DLC. I dunno whether or not I find that funny.
Then we have another late port of Stellar Blade. Yes, the game wackadoos on the toxic social media site used as a culture war weapon to brag about why more women need big boobs or whatever; it was immensely stupid and I’d not blame anyone for being turned away from this game due to chuds associating with it before moving onto the next game they didn’t actually play. Thankfully, this game is actually considered great fun to play, oddities with character design aside, so I might pick this one up at some point; looks to be a pretty great port. Who knew years away from discourse just left it as a pretty fine action game?
Rayman Legends Retold got shown off here after being shown off at multiple events last week, and I have to admit, I might finally pull the trigger on this one. With Rayman 30th fixed enough I consider it a good way to play that original game, this seems like a nice way to show off the newer aspect of the Rayman franchise. Well, newer as in “the original version came out when GTAV did”. I was very excited for this one when it was a Wii U exclusive, lost all interest when it wasn’t so.
The only version of Origins I ever played was the 3DS one, which kinda soured me on the new duology, but maybe a fresh coat of paint will be the motivator to finally play this game? Can’t say I’m fond of the idea of music levels, though, but that’s mostly due to me not being exposed to most songs present in the original game and thus not having that familiarity. The original Legends is available for the original Switch if you prefer that 2D style, so I think it’s perfectly fine for this one to exist as well for folks like me who’d rather start with a newer version.
Kairosoft regretfully will never die.
Pokemon Pokopia gets paid DLC, with the usual annoying but not too tragic “preorder now for a useless accessory, wait for the actual DLC to launch” thing a lot of Ninty DLC passes do much to my annoyance, but you could also just be like me and wait to buy the DLC pack when the first volume actually drops. Or, if you’re also like me and don’t even own the game yet, there’s a bundle on the eShop that’s over $100 MSRP if you wish to go that route.
It might sound strange as a PMD maniac to not have touched a Pokemon game where you talk to Pokemon, but the answer as to why isn’t that complicated; I just have been so busy with many things I have zero time for such a game, and I feel like I owe it to myself to play the first Dragon Quest Builders game before jumping into Pokopia just to see where it all began. I felt a little overwhelmed by the demo for DQB2, so I think the first one might be a better fit for me. Plus it takes place in the DQ1 world, not the DQ2 one!
As a side note, I do also find it mildly amusing to see the PMD community yet again trying to summon circle a new PMD. I don’t think it’s gonna happen if TPC hasn’t come knocking yet and if Shiren 6 is doing well, but for all I know next year they might go “ooooh 20th anniversary” and ring up Chunsoft. Or we get DS NSO and Explorers of Sky is dumped there. I said plenty of times I’m more than content with PMD being on hiatus/ended after Super, and I still stand by that. Sometimes it’s OK for a series to end! Look at mainline Phantasy Star, it ended on IV 30 years ago and that game was epic, and the IP went on to do better things. I thus think it’s perfectly fine if spinoffs are more in the Pokopia vein of trying new mashups VS just go back to the Ranger/PMD well of old. (That being said… Mouse Controls with Ranger is tempting…)
Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave gets added onto the September Pile. I need to beat Engage first, and FE3, and FE8, and FE9… but i’ll probably pick this up before I beat three houses considering it launched the literal week before a horrible loss in my life. Hopefully no tragedy will occur in my life late September or I’m considering that entire region in Fire Emblem to be utterly cursed and a sign to run for the hills if we get a third game in that location.
Ninjala 2 would be the sorta thing I wouldn’t normally care about at all, but I actually kinda do because the first game had surprisingly good music, and that was in part because Arata Iiyoshi made some tracks for it. Yes, the PMD Rescue Team composer. He made some modern albums that are pretty solid too, you should buy them from iTunes if you haven’t. Ethnoplex is my favorite. Anyhow we have zero idea if he’s back or not, but even still Ninjala has good music so I’ll get good jams outta this sequel either way.
NSO gets cool mini challenges! I really like this, and it makes me more eager we’ll get similar events for the service ala how we get icons every week. Shame we have to wait until September for more. I also might finally pick up that Bananza DLC due to the limited time challenge thing, but I might also beat Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth first, hmm…
DMCV is coming to Switch 2, and I literally just picked up the first DMC a few weeks ago. DMCIV is the only one absent IIRC, but i got that on an xbox sale ages ago (and never booted it). I’ll catch up someday, but nice to see this on Switch 2. Surprised 4 never came to Switch 1 or 2 beforehand.
This next one is where I out myself a little; I usually listen to the directs live via headphones, unable to look at the screen as I’m busy doing other tasks. Thus, I had no idea what the hell this game was about until they mentioned it was Muramasa. Not a sequel to The Demon Blade, but a full blown remaster with a new dub and everything, and it looks excellent. Super pumped to finally play this game, and I also find it amusing how this means Vanillaware broke their allergy to PC ports. Win-win for everyone!
Then like Kairosoft, Xenoblade unfortunately will never stop. When you think it’s done for good and Monolith will remaster Xenosaga or do a new IP, it comes back and declares it will never die, so here we are; Switch 2 Editions of all the Xenoblade games. I only own Torna’s physical version but much to my surprise it’s getting a free update in July, no paid DLC required for that. Blows up another part of my infinitely delayed Switch 2 BC article, though, but alas, it’ll come together someday. Will Torna getting a big boost be the gateway drug for me to finally make amends with this IP after a 14 year bitter feud? Probably not, but it’d be neat if it did, since I hear Torna is one of the better ones.
And then to finish off the holy trinity of “Things Connor bitterly wants to never see again” is Switch Sports Resort, AKA another game with motion controls and nothing else. At least this seems to have more sports than Switch Sports did at launch, and probably won’t suffer from the same awful “delayed content release” strategy that turned me off that one. I also noticed Baseball is missing yet again, but it was also kinda surprising to see Swordfighting not here; the first things to come to mind in Wii Sports Resort for me are Swordfighting and the Wuhu Island free flight game, and neither of which appear to be here. Those + Bowling/Golf might be enough for me to check this out if I find this on sale at a local store, but I have to admit, I think my aging mind is still filled with thoughts of drowning motion controls in a bathtub and banishing them from the planet. Please let this be the final one to not allow buttons.
Hello Kitty Party Land gets shown off, and I mistook this for the Smash Ball sequel they announced at some point earlier this year. Alas, it ain’t that, but this still looks pretty adorable for a Mario Party clone, and something I might get a kick outta. I’ve been playing the Famicom Character Soft games, so a good Sanrio game is a fun time. (Seriously, those games are really damn good!) I still need to pick up Island Adventure, honestly…
And now we finally get to Star Fox. Since I didn’t have time to do this for that direct, quickie thoughts on what we already know; yes, I’m a bit bummed it’s 64 again, since 3D was 15 years ago and feels new to me because I Am Old, but it also makes logical sense. Fox is in the Mario Galaxy movie, new people will wonder who tf he is, and hey, they have a new game to pick up to see his origin story for the fifth time. I lowkey always wanted Q-Games’ dream “Super FX SNES Starfox, but in HD 60FPS”, but alas, we get a remake of the 64 game, and I actually don’t mind the artstyle? Yea it’s more realistic and a bit weird, but I got used to it rather quickly and I’ve seen some butt ugly Star Fox renders in the past (ie; The Gamecube games), which this just looks far better than in my book. Falco looking more like an actual pheasant (his actual species, contrary to what the name might make you think) is a cool touch too.
The only thing I find a lil off personally is the weird V-Tuber video cam mode, mainly because I know the grenade to the shadow realm that could go off when it falls into the hands of the wrong people. Let’s hope that gate stays sealed shut. Anyhow a demo is out today, I’m gonna pick this game up sometime this summer (likely after Rebirth), and I’m still pretty darn happy to see any kind of AAA score focused game in 2026; I’ll take whatever I can get.
Next up is Final Fantasy Resonance, which just looks incredible. HD2D has been milked to death I feel, but this somehow pulls me back in. A redux of one of their mobile games, this goes the Octopath 0 route and just makes a new game outta the mobile concept, incorporating story elements and being a full fledged experience. Really happy to see Brave Exvius preserved in this manner, and I’d love if maybe that Bravely Default mobile game could get preserved in a similar manner? Or at least Final Fantasy Record Keeper… Definitely on my to buy list, coming out in the swamped month of October. Surprised it wasn’t December like Octopath was.
Pikuniku 2 was shown off and this is by far the game I think looks the best and just fits all the right vibes for me. Goofy looking character, long lost cousin of Spewpa with those eyes. Cute art style, fun puzzle looking gameplay. Never picked up the original, but maybe now’s the time; definitely on my radar for 2027, so time for me to build up hype for it.
Dragon Quest Monsters 4 got shown off for a Dec release; ah, so that’s where the Octopath 0 slot went this year! Anyhow, this is another DQM game in a series where I made a whopping total of 30 minutes on the original DQM. I’ll catch up… eventually. You know, maybe the delay for DQXII isn’t that bad after all if there’s so much other games coming out in this series to hold any fan over; you slip behind on one of them, and oops, you have hundreds of hours to catch up on. Maybe The Dark Prince will get a Switch 2 Edition upgrade later? That’d be nice.
Deltarune got another chapter reveal, and I will continue to unintentionally not play any of this until the whole darn thing is complete; last year I was actually planning to break that due to the Switch 2 release, but then other games distracted me (Hi, Bravely Default), so I guess I’m in it as a wait until the game is done. I think it’s to end at Chapter 7? Either way, 5 is out this month, so not too much longer, so I hope… It’s easy to dismiss this as an internet meme game from afar if you’re like me, but I’m also not dumb and had my decent share of fun with Undertale, even if it didn’t blow my socks off. People swearing up and down this game is miles better and a lot more wacky in all the right ways has me intrigued, and I’m feeling if I binge all chapters at once, I’m gonna have a magnificent time (that, or I never, ever trust the internet ever again)
Sizzle Reel kicks in, and we get Atelier fiftybilliontrillion. I swear you blink and another one comes into existence, but at least this means the prior game in the trilogy got a stealth S2 edition. Maybe I’ll put Yumia on the to buy list? Holding this off til 2027 was smart. Tales of Eternia Remastered is the biggest one of the bunch for me, since I’ve been largely tepid on the Tales of Remasters until Berseria came out, (and even then, that’s knocked way down on my to buy list, no S2 edition isn’t making me jump up and down to play that this minute) but this one being a remaster of one of the 2D ones has me beyond hyped. It ain’t Phantasia, but I heard good things about this one too; Hoping we get Abyss as the next 3D remaster since that’s the one I played the most and I have a score to settle with it. Metal Gear Master Collection 2 is a good one too, and I’m tempted to skip playing 1-4 to buy the Deluxe Edition solely for Ghost Babel. Rise of the Tomb Raider showing up also is a neat thing too, which seems to indicate to me eventually all of Lara’s adventures will be on Switch 2 at some point. Neat!
I feel real ashamed about this one, since I was so close to having a sudden jumpscare moment of excitement; but alas, something pulled me away from the end of the direct so I had to VOD these last bits, and the one I left the direct on was right before Kingdom Hearts got revealed for Switch 2… All of em. And a trailer for Kingdom Hearts IV that was brand new. Yes, even this is day and date with the other consoles now, and I am thrilled. I wonder if they’ll add streamline progression to the KH games? I’d not mind having them in those games to make some of the tedious parts go by a lot quicker, and I’m absolutely replaying the entire franchise on Switch 2 before IV drops, and also beat Melody of Memory, finally. Switch 1 owners get to play KH 1.5/2.5 too, which is pretty sweet and the cloud version is no longer needed here. (or even available anymore, for that matter)
Lemme tell you, even just that one alone will get you lots of hours of content and some of the best action games in recent memory (Except KH1, take it or leave it) Nevertheless, I think it’s clear with this and Dragon’s Dogma and Onimusha that a lot of third parties are taking the Switch 2 way more seriously and also don’t have to be held back by hardware and port these over much later; that alone makes me pretty hyped overall and also makes me less bothered by first party software gaps.
And finally, as the very last announcement, a full remake of Ocarina of Time was revealed for Switch 2, with nothing more than… A CG cutscene of a sleeping Link. Yeah, that’s it, that’s all you get for a 2026 game with no date. As a way to end this presentation, I’d say that was deflating, except it wouldn’t be if certain events didn’t happen beforehand.
See, months ago both Star Fox and OOT remake leaked from a usual rumor poster who has been a rumor poster for years and years; by and large they get third party stuff pretty spot on, but have had a spottier record on the first party end. They also have a borderline cult of personality forming around them on an Nintendo forum, but at least the dude doesn’t seem to be grifting on purpose or anything.
Either way, dude’s known to have sources, known to tease a lot of stuff, and to hear him boldly reveal their biggest 2026 games so early on, essentially revealing the big E3 surprise was quite daring, I must say. I had reason to suspect Star Fox might have been real with the movie and all, but OOT just seemed very weird to me. OOT 3D launched 15 years ago as well and I have a darn near photographic memory of that launch day still burned into my memory. OOT, the original is on Nintendo Switch Online and has been for years. So why on earth would Nintendo make their first Switch 2 Zelda game a remake of a game that’s been remade, rather than something new or a remaster of something more neglected, like perhaps a Link’s Awakening style remake of the Oracle duo? I figured if this was real, we’d see the same story and structure, but with some changes to make it a bit more modern, a bit more akin to the newer Zeldas. (ie; more “go wherever you want” in terms of dungeon order, ala how speedrunners have done it for years, but officially without glitches)
Needless to say, I had reason aplenty to doubt this rumor, since me thinks the whole “kirby planet robobot HD remaster and Switch Pro are totally real guys” dude might have a first party miss once in a while, but I’ll be darned, it was real, and by proxy the dude essentially spoiled the biggest reveal of the show. We also know nothing about it besides that it comes in 2026 and Nintendo might even be bold enough to drop it in November for all we know. Anyhow, I think if the dude shut up and didn’t say a word about this one, this would break the internet a lot more than you might expect; like with star fox, OOT 3D has been long enough that a new remake might be a good entry point into Zelda as a whole, and maybe even a testing ground for a true, traditional zelda entry rather than another in the BOTW/TOTK style. There’s also a movie coming out next year, which I’m more convinced it’s trying to line up with.
I think for me, as a OOT diehard who played it many, many times, for hundreds of hours growing up via that Gamecube disc and the N64 original, and will have many fond memories to share at some point in my life, I’m mixed on the idea of a remake. OOT3D did it pretty darn well, and had perfect QOL with touch screen items, assist gossip stones, and a handy map on the bottom screen. Grezzo even went the crazy extra mile of having some of the glitches from that original game remade, so much so in fact I still ponder if OOT3D is just the old code with the best new coat of paint imaginable. It even had the Master Quest version!
Now will OOT 2026 be just like that? 1:1 the old game, new coat of paint? If so, that’s quite a bummer in my opinion, since even Star Fox is adding a lot of extra new cutscenes to the mix, and having just finished Final Fantasy 7 Remake, I definitely wouldn’t mind some new twists being thrown our way in the OOT plot, especially with how it splits the Zelda timeline into three canonically. Will Master Quest be there? Will Hero Mode be in? Will it just be a game you’re better off playing on NSO, looking too much like “Hire this Man: The Game”? I genuinely can’t tell from how little we got today, but I’m cautiously optimistic. We’ll just have to wait and see, but it still is a pretty huge bummer to see the big finale to the show leak.
And that essentially does it for my overall thoughts on the June 2026 direct. So now for the elephant in the room; everyone’s initial reactions to this one. I may have been in a social media retreat lately, but it didn’t take me long to find a lot of rather hyperbolic, kinda silly emotions about this direct that seem to again miss the point of what these directs have become by now. June Directs cover to the end of the calendar year. Sept covers to Feb/March. Feb covers to Summer. It’s so cyclical, I could probably fake a leak that a direct will happen the second week of september at 9 AM CST and get it right one of these years. Thus I wasn’t expecting much of anything in terms of 2027 games, and as a result I wasn’t expecting anything akin to a Mario Odyssey kinda thing.
It appears that a lot of people were however, which is what mildly amuses me despite me finding this direct to be just fine overall. Forum comments and news site comments with people literally wondering if Mario Is Missing because the Mario team made Donkey Kong and people can’t fathom that no, they aren’t gonna make a 3D Mario in a year. No, Sakurai isn’t gonna speedrun a Smash Bros especially after he just finished his last game, and when I argue they don’t need to be doing another one to begin with and should just work through the legal minefield of SSBU to Switch 2 Edition the game and call it a day.
Game dev cycles take longer, so it’s no surprise to me that none of those things were there. I was a little surprised to see no mention of Kirby, but with how much he got milked in 2022/2023 I think a break is fine for him, he’ll probably come back next year anyhow. But yeah, even discounting all the third party stuff, there’s still a decent amount of stuff coming on the first party side of things. Splatoon Raiders looks fun, and makes me remember I have Splatoon 2 to finish up still, Mario Tennis Fever looks like the Camelot game i’ve wanted since Tennis Open, and I still have Age of Imprisonment to eventually nab. Fire Emblem is there if I want to lose more hours of my life or just never play it at all.
Sure, Switch Sports might be my arch nemesis, kinda, because it uses a control style I think is dumb, but that doesn’t mean the game doesn’t exist nor others won’t enjoy it, and I hope those who like it really do enjoy it! OOT is a suitable project to do as a stopgap to the next major Zelda, and I think teasing a new Xenoblade, even if I personally don’t vibe with that IP, was a smart move after revealing upgrades for every prior entry. For a June direct, the job was done; we have our lineup for 2026, and I guess how a lot of the internet feels about it is how I felt about Nintendo’s 2022 lineup, which a lot of people thought ruled. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
If it was just the first party stuff, sure, this was a weaker year compared to the first Switch 2 year, and the lack of Mario Kart World DLC is pretty disappointing still. I think the first year of the Switch 1 spoiled a lot of ninty fans beyond repair though, and if I didn’t know the state of the modern games industry it might have for me too. Speaking of, The Car Game is in November, and The Car Game is gonna take over all gaming websites. (except this one, don’t worry!) That’s why everything is staying out of November, and why it feels like a major interstate car crash of game releases from August to November. I’d not be surprised if some of the stuff got delayed to avoid GTAVI’s blast radius as a result. (Please don’t delay Final Fantasy or Tales of Eternia, universe) The Car Game isn’t coming to Switch 2, but most companies are gonna be wary of it anyhow, even if I have a feeling Nintendo won’t care and might drop OOT in it anyhow. They do as they please, it seems.
But that’s why I actually found this pretty solid overall from a third party perspective, since this continues the trend of day and date third party releases we’ve been seeing lately; FF7 Revelation being another one is pretty huge for me, and far from the dark ages of delayed Switch 1 ports that ran like butt, a lot of Switch 2 ports are far more optimized and a lot better, even if not every single port is a winner. Thus, combine good port, with same day release on other systems, and oh hey, your first party game drought can be filled up by a good third party game. That is what I feel is the Switch 2’s superpower right now, so much so that I haven’t really thought much about the first party side of things in a while. I’m actually hoping we get an indie world soonish so we get more third party reveals, in fact, since i’d love to see some classic indies getting S2 editions.
Combine that with handheld boost mode and you do not have games running out of supply, my friend. If you say this is a software drought, you are outta your goddamn mind. I lived the Wii U era; outside of VC games and some of the indies that gave me my start twelve years ago, those droughts were dire even if you were one who only owned a Wii U and had nowhere else to play third party games, because there weren’t any. How do you think I felt being the only one to pick up Injustice on Wii U at Best Buy day one? I may see terminally online people insisting nobody cares about Game Key Cards and they’re satan incarnate so thus, third party games on Switch 2 do not count unless they’re all on cart, but I dunno, sales charts for Pokopia indicate most average people just think of them as a game you download a big update for. I don’t like em either, but thinking a GKC game doesn’t exist at all is a terminally online mindset and one that doesn’t reflect reality. Sorry your speculative bubble popped a few years ago and companies started to crater because of it, so companies are going to cut corners if they want to in a memory chip intensive environment. Mildly annoying, but what do you do? There are much bigger battles in life to be worrying about.
But yeah, this direct isn’t for all, and that’s understandable. Just maaaaaybe dial back the kneejerk rage about it because it didn’t announce a new Mario that isn’t ready or done yet; there’ll be one someday in the future, so maybe in the meantime play the other cool games you have on your backlog? Or go help out in local elections if you’re in the US; they could use some help this fall, I hear, and that’s a way to get outside and touch grass. All in all, it could have been a bit better, and I felt the first half was especially rough, but the second half landed things a lot better and more day and date confirmations solidified to me that the Switch 2 still has a good future as a platform, and one I’m happy to be enjoying my time with. So what did you think of this? Am I too old, or do you mostly agree with my thoughts on the S2 being a third party superpower? Lemme know in the comments if you so please.
Until next time…