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Every game announcement from Nintendo’s E3 2021 Direct

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Heading into the final day of E3 2021, there was a common sentiment going around social media: It was up to Nintendo to “save” this year’s show. That was no easy task. E3 has largely been underwhelming this year outside of Microsoft’s mega-showcase. Placing all of one’s hopes and dreams on a company that often delivers uneven digital showcases felt like a recipe for disappointment. No matter how much Nintendo tried to set expectations in advance, fans were already setting themselves up for failure the night before as Mario Kart 9 trended on Twitter.

Against all odds, Nintendo delivered. The company put on its best Direct showcase in years with tons of surprises. Breath of the Wild 2 was the big reveal, but it was far from the most exciting announcement. Metroid Dread was a genuine shock, bringing a new original 2D Metroid to the Switch. We saw new a Wario Ware, Mario Party, Advance Wars, and way more. It was a mile-a-minute show, so here are all the biggest announcements.

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Breath of the Wild 2 finally gets new footage

Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - E3 2021 Teaser - Nintendo Direct

Nintendo finally showed off new footage from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, and it looks stunning. The game is set two years after the events of the first game and appears to feature much more verticality. The game’s world has been expanded to include areas in the sky. We saw clips of Link skydiving through the air and standing on a structure well above Hyrule. The game is launching sometime in 2022.

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That wasn’t all for Zelda news. Nintendo is making a special edition Zelda Game & Watch that includes the first two NES Zelda games and Link’s Awakening. it’ll launch on November 12. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is also getting its first wave of DLC on June 18. It adds a Battle Tested Guardian as a playable character.

Metroid Dread is Nintendo’s E3 shocker

Metroid Dread – Announcement Trailer – Nintendo Switch | E3 2021

Metroid Dread is a new Metroid game coming October 8, making it the first original 2D Metroid game in 19 years. It’s very much in the style of Nintendo 3DS title Metroid: Samus Returns and features a high-tech setting that’s reminiscent of games like Metroid Fusion. The game is getting a new pair of amiibo as well. One features Samus in her new suit and the other is one of the game’s new E.M.M.I enemies.

Wario Ware: Get it Together features two-player co-op

WarioWare: Get It Together! – Announcement Trailer – Nintendo Direct | E3 2021

The Wario Ware series is finally returning with Wario Ware: Get It Together! Like previous entries, the game features tons of microgames for players to try. It also features two-player co-op, which is a first for the series. The game comes to Switch on September 10.

Mario Party Superstars collects old games

Mario Party Superstars – Announcement Trailer – Nintendo Direct | E3 2021

Mario Party Superstars is a new collection featuring boards and minigames from previous Mario Party games. The game will feature full online play, which was missing from Super Mario Party at launch. It’ll land on Switch on October 29.

Smash Bros. Ultimate gets Kazuya from Tekken

Kazuya Mishima Smash Bros. Ultimate X Tekken Reveal | Nintendo E3 2021

We finally saw the next fighter coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Kazuya from the Tekken series joins the roster, bringing brawling gameplay and dragon powers. Nintendo will go over additional details on the fighter at a later date.

Shin Megami Tensei V’s release date is official

Shin Megami Tensei V – Release Date Trailer | E3 2021

After leaking on Atlus’ website earlier this month, we finally have an official release date for Shin Megami Tensei V. The Switch game will launch on November 12. The game was one of the titles showcased at the Switch’s official reveal stream in 2017, making this a significant development for longtime Nintendo fans.

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania remakes the first two games

Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania - Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer

The Super Monkey Ball series is returning with Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania. The game is a remake of the first two titles in the series. It’ll be available on Nintendo Switch, as well as PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

Advance Wars 1 + 2 remasters the GBA classics

Advance Wars 1 + 2 Re-Boot Camp Trailer | Nintendo E3 2021

Nintendo is remastering the original Advance Wars games as Advance Wars 1 +2: Re-Boot Camp. The game features totally new visuals and will hit Nintendo Switch on December 3.

Life is Strange and Guardians of the Galaxy come to Switch

Three Life Is Strange Games come to Nintendo Switch! | E3 2021

Despite the Switch not getting mentioned during Square Enix’s show this week, it turns out two of the publisher’s biggest 2021 releases are coming to the console. Life is Strange: True Colors and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy will both launch on the system. Life is Strange: Remastered Collection will also come to Switch sometime next year.

Mario Golf Super Rush will get post-launch content

Nintendo confirmed that the upcoming Mario Golf: Super Rush will get post-launch content, as has been the case with other Mario sports games. A quick glimpse at the DLC confirmed some new courses, including one based on Super Mario Odyssey‘s New Donk City.

Everything else …

  • Worms Rumble is coming to Nintendo Switch
  • Astria Ascending comes to Switch on September 30
  • Two Point Campus is coming to Switch next year
  • Just Dance 2022 is coming to Switch, naturally
  • Cruisin Blast is a new racing game console exclusive coming this fall
  • Dragon Ball Z Kakarot is getting a Switch port with new content on September 24
  • Danganronpa Decadence collects the first three games in the series
  • Strange Brigade is out on Switch today
  • Doom Eternal‘s The Ancient Gods DLC is out on Switch today too
  • Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water is coming later this year
  • Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope made another appearance

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Giovanni Colantonio
Giovanni Colantonio
Section Editor, Gaming
Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…
Nintendo confirms that it won’t be part of E3 2023
Pikmin and Bulborb in Pikmin 4.

Nintendo has confirmed reports that it won't be participating in E3 2023, meaning the gaming trade show will be missing one of its key vendors when it returns in-person this June.
"We approach our involvement in any event on a case-by-case basis and are always considering various ways to engage with our fans," a Nintendo spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge. "Since this year’s E3 show didn’t fit into our plans, we have made the decision to not participate. However, we have been and continue to be a strong supporter of the ESA [Entertainment Software Association] and E3."
After taking 2020 and 2022 off and being digital-only in 2021, this year was supposed to mark the grand return of E3, which was once a dominant game industry trade show that attracted every big video game company. Although Sony hasn't participated since 2019, it still came as a shock in January when IGN reported that both Nintendo and Microsoft would not be attending E3 this year as well. It appears that the report is true, as Microsoft has not confirmed any E3-related events outside of its independently run Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase.
Nintendo skipping E3 2023 not only takes away a vendor that dominated the show floor in previous years, but also raises questions about whether or not the company will hold an exciting Nintendo Direct around then. While Nintendo typically holds a big showcase with lots of first-party game announcements around June every year, in 2022 it only held a third-party driven Partner Showcase in June. Now that we know it won't be at E3 2023, we're left to wonder when exactly then next big Nintendo Direct will be. 
E3 2023 will take place between June 13 and June 16, but don't expect Nintendo, Sony, or Microsoft to have a big presence there.

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Don’t expect Zelda’s $70 price to become the new Switch standard, says Nintendo
Link looks at his hand in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be Nintendo's first Switch game to be priced at $70. News that Tears of the Kingdom, a sequel to one of the bestselling and most critically acclaimed titles on the system, will have an increased price compared to its predecessor came as a surprise over three-and-a-half years after its announcement. It also raised questions about what the future of pricing for Nintendo games will be, especially as Sony, Microsoft, and third-party publishers all upped the cost of their new games in recent years. 
While Nintendo will release Tears of Kingdom at $70, a spokesperson for the company tells Digital Trends that this will not always be the case for its first-party games going forward. 
"No," the spokesperson said when Digital Trends asked if this is a new standard. "We determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis." 
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Official Trailer #2
To get more insight into the price shift, I spoke to Omdia Principal Analyst George Jijiashvili, who explains what has caused the price of games to go up in recent years and how Tears of the Kingdom demonstrates that Nintendo will "remain flexible about first-party title pricing." Ultimately, Nintendo fans are finally starting to feel the impact of inflation that's been sweeping across the game industry, even if it's only "on a case-by-case basis" for now.
The price is right
Nintendo claims that not every one of its significant first-party game will be $70, and we can actually already see that in action. Preorders just went live for Pikmin 4, which launches on July 21, after Tears of the Kingdom, and it only costs $60. Still, Zelda's price tag indicates that going forward, Nintendo will at least consider raising the price of its most anticipated games to $70. But why start with Tears of the Kingdom?  
When asked why it chose Tears of the Kingdom as its first $70 Nintendo Switch game, a Nintendo spokesperson simply reiterated that the company will "determine the suggested retail price for any Nintendo product on a case-by-case basis." Still, it's a surprising choice for Nintendo to make that pricing change to just one exclusive game almost six years into the Switch's life span. Jijiashvili thinks the choice to do this with Tears of the Kingdom was a pretty apparent one for Nintendo, although it won't apply to everything going forward.
"If you are going to make a game $70, it's going to be the follow-up to one of your most critically acclaimed and bestselling games ever," Jijiashvili tells Digital Trends. "I don’t think that this means that $70 will become the standard price for all major Nintendo releases. It's worth noting that Metroid Prime Remastered is priced at $40. It's clear that Nintendo will remain flexible about first-party title pricing."

It makes basic financial sense for Nintendo to ask for a little bit more for a game it knows will be one of the biggest releases of 2023. But what factors in the game industry and world's economy at large caused Nintendo to make this decision? 
Priced Out
For more than a decade, people got comfortable with AAA video games being priced at $60. Of course, there were occasional exceptions to this rule, but it was seen as an industry standard until the dawn of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Publisher 2K was one of the first to announce a price increase, and companies like EA, Sony, and Microsoft have all followed suit. Jijiashvili chalks this up to inflation-related pressure on game publishers.
"The games industry has already been experiencing a lot of inflationary pressure," he explains. "AAA games are much more expensive to make now than they used to be, but prices have actually been declining in inflation-adjusted terms -- if prices had risen with inflation since 1990, they would now be over $90. On top of that, we’ve had a big burst of general inflation, meaning that publishers are looking at big increases in everything from salaries to tools. It’s going to be really hard for most publishers to avoid passing on all those extra costs at some point."
Jijiashvili provided us with a graphic created by Omdia that "shows what the typical price points for each generation would look like if you adjusted for inflation." As you can see, the inflation-adjusted prices are only exponentially growing, and the big game pricing shifts the graph highlights were all technically not even enough to keep up with inflation when they happened. 

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Everything announced at the February 2023 Nintendo Direct
Samus Aran stands tall in Metroid Prime Remastered.

Nintendo is the king of digital video game showcases, and the company jump-started its 2023 with another great show. This February 2023 Nintendo Direct gave us our best look at The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom yet, highlighted upcoming Nintendo Switch exclusives like Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe, and Pikmin 4, and featured the shocking reveal and shadow drop of Metroid Prime Remastered. On top of all that, we learned thattwo new platforms are coming to Nintendo Switch Online.

We now have a clear idea of the Nintendo Switch's game lineup through the summer, so there's no doubt that this Nintendo Direct featured lots of notable announcements. As it can be hard to keep track of it all, we've recapped everything Nintendo announced during the February 2023 Nintendo Direct right here.

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