The top 5 games revealed at Nintendo Direct (February 17, 2021)

Nintendo’s much-anticipated Nintendo Direct made its debut today, the first major event of its kind since 2019. This Direct ran 50 minutes long and was packed full of new trailers and surprise reveals. While there were tons of great games worthy of praise featured today, five of them in particular captured our attention. Here is our list of the top five titles that we felt deserved special mention.

No More Heroes III

No More Heroes was announced during E3 2019, and fans have been eagerly devouring any new information and trailers that creator/director Suda51 has bestowed upon them since. During today’s Nintendo Direct, yet another action-packed release date trailer dropped for the upcoming title, filled with even more crazy and genre-bending antics than ever before — including a hilarious-looking Final Fantasy VII-esque battle and a first-person horror segment. This is definitely the action game to look out for, whether you’re a long-time series veteran or a newcomer to the franchise.

Mario Golf: Super Rush

The last Mario Golf title, Mario Golf World Tour, released on the 3DS in 2014 and was an excellent golf game with solid mechanics and well-designed courses. Judging from the debut trailer dropped today, the latest entry in the Mario sports juggernaut looks quite promising. The courses are beautiful and expansive, there’s a wide variety of characters with their own strengths, and the strategic depth of judging wind and terrain is still front and center. And not only do the controls look tight and responsive, but there are even two options: traditional button layout and Joy-Con motion controls. The Mii-based Story Mode also makes a return, along with a brand new Speed Mode, so there’s plenty of content for players to swing into.

Splatoon 3

This is a franchise that has catapulted into the stratosphere of popularity and for good reason: Splatoon is an excellent third-person shooter that avoids the common trappings of many other titles in the genre. Instead of darker graphics and more realistic weapons, Nintendo opted to feature the far more unique ink-based weapons and mechanics on top of deliciously colorful visuals and vibrant designs. Splatoon 3 continues on that tradition but changes the locale to a desert while seemingly expanding the world that players can explore.

Triangle Strategy

Fresh off the success of JRPG Octopath Traveler comes a brand new “2D-HD series” title from the same creative team. Project Triangle Strategy, which is apparently the working title, merges absolutely stunning graphics with rich tactical turn-based strategy gameplay that immediately invokes the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics for a killer combination. And just as in Octopath Traveler, this title also allows players to choose their protagonist and explore their unique story. The best part is that a free demo is already available for download on the Nintendo eShop, so players can dive into the rich world and explore it for themselves before the full game’s 2022 release.

Legend of Mana and SaGa Frontier Remastered

Two classic JRPGs from Square Enix have both been revealed and will be coming to Switch later this year. While the former has been left untouched as more of a straight port, the latter features brand new content in the form of new protagonist Fuse. Both titles also boast cleaner graphics, which bring out the rich palette, sprite art, and environmental designs much better. For fans of old-school classics, both of these titles cannot be missed.