After months of waiting, on September 13th of this year, a Nintendo Direct livestream dropped. From this livestream, we can assume that the rest of this year, and early next year have some highly-anticipated games, as well as a bunch of beautiful looking smaller titles.

     One of the biggest games that have been confirmed by Yoshiaki Koizumi, the host of Nintendo Direct, was Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom. This game was previously hinted at in Nintendos’ 2019 E3 showcase, but was always known as Breath of the Wild 2, or other variations of that concept by fans. The game’s brief trailer was shown at the end of the Nintendo Direct, and so far it looks very interesting. Coming out in May of next year, the new Legend of Zelda game has so far shown many similarities to its predecessor, but still looks extremely nice and is very refreshing after five years of waiting for a sequel. Another very surprising development in this Nintendo Direct was the release of Pikmin 4 in 2023. This game, according to Miyamoto (the director of the Pikmin series), was almost done in 2015, so there has been a long wait time for a new game in this series. Dedicated players, including YouTuber Pikmen, who has been posting two-minute long Pikmin 2 gameplay every day for almost two years until Pikmin 4 would release, have been overjoyed by the finishing of this game. Along with this, Miyamoto states that controlling Pikmin will be made much easier on the switch, along with a whole new way of viewing the game by having the camera on the same level as the Pikmin instead of above them. 

     This Direct, compared to others, has a bunch of new indie games that look beautiful in graphics and storylines. One of these includes, Ib, an RPG maker-esque horror game that leads the protagonist, which the game is named after, through an evil art museum she is sucked into. This game, though very simple in graphics, seems to have a very fun playstyle that is reminiscent of games like Yume Nikki. Another smaller game that is being released is Fae Farm. This farming simulator may remind many of a different farming simulator called Stardew Valley, but Fae Farm will delve deeper into the combat areas of games, so you won’t have to stick around your farm all the time. The setting of Fae Farm when you first join, is a very small farm that you can eventually develop by planting crops, adding cozy furniture, and more. This game’s main focus during development was to have a seamless multiplayer mode, in which up to four people are able to work on different parts of the farm. For example, one person can take care of crops, two can team up in combat, and another can explore the land of Azoria in order to get materials. Whether you like RPGs, farming sims, or fitness games, this September’s Nintendo Direct has got you covered with new releases coming out in the near future.