Solid 8. Of course they're saving the big guns like Animal Crossing and Pokemon so impressive they still pulled off an amazing direct despite holding back information on these games.

One thing to note, Rune Factory is the next of the franchises that found success on the DS/3DS making its way onto the Switch along with series like Fire Emblem, Ace Attorney (albeit only the remastered trilogy), Yokai Watch, and Shin Megami Tensei.

Would be really cool if we get to see more franchises like Professor Layton (outside of his daughter's spin-off game), Bravely Default (though it appears its more likely now due to hints), and Etrian Odyssey.

Easily one of the better directs. 2019 is shaping up to be an incredible for year for the system.

I do though get the feeling we are gonna get at least 1 more direct between now and E3, like possibly April since we don't know much about Mario Maker 2 despite it releasing in June, Smash 3.0 and Joker dates, and who will be challenger pack 2.

I'm absolutely pissed off that they have the balls to charge for dlc for 5 extra levels in Captain toad. Not only, they already have had the balls to put 0 f***** effort in every single wiiU port they have made so far (Barely adding any extra content) AND charge full price. On TOP OF THAT, they have the balls to release dlc and charge for it. Meager dlc should I add to that. The original game came with 70 levels, you're telling me you can only add 5 levels? LOL. That kind of greedy Nintendo (Charging for terrible online service, 0 effort wii U ports, cheap mobile games filled to the brim with microtransactions, etc) is becoming a consistent theme ever since Iwata passed. I wouldn't be surprised if we get Animal crossing on switch with microtransactions.

And to think people were defending their ports last year is laughable. Sure, they're smart from a business standpoint. Put 0 effort and rake in tons of sales and even get defended by fanboys. But on top of that, now we can even sell them DLC EXCLUSIVE to the switch version meaning f**k everyone who purchased the game on other platforms, INCLUDING the people who purchased the 3DS AND wiiU versions!

Also, another side note to rant, although that title I am excited for, why do they ABSOLUTELY have to remake 2d Zelda games. Why can't they simply craft a BRAND new 2D Zelda game. Or I don't know, make LA2. Adds even more to the laziness I'm talking about. I've never been more displeased with a console in a long time in terms of first party offerings. Sure, we started off on a bang, but ever since, it's been sluggish at best for everyone who stuck through thick and thin with Nintendo during the wiiU era.

/end of rant

Not sure I can give it a ranking, but I really enjoyed it overall.

• Fire Emblem: Three Houses looks amazing. Still need to know more about it, but playing this series on a console again makes me giddy. The character designs look great, and the base features seem interesting. Only big concern is how much breadth there is in unit customization...too much and I worry the units lose their identity, which was  a problem I had with the DS remakes. Also want to know more about how the support system is set up. 
• Link's Awakening remake!!! Yes I'm so hyped for this one. The art style absolutely nails the quirkiness of the original, and I like that Mario enemies are still around.
• More Rune Factory yay! And good choice on the marriage partner demo-player-san.
• I'm not a huge DQ fan, but XI looks really really good, and man...16 bit option? I might have to spring for this one.
• Yoshi is coming soon! Wooly World was so fun, so I think this one is a must buy.
• Astral Chain looks great...thought it was a new Xenoblade at first. Heh.

Stop trying to speak for everyone, myself and many others owned Wii U and are more than happy with Switch output. Is it perfect? Far from it, but its miles better than Wii U and better than 3DS as well.

Section 1

Mario Maker 2 - love it!
Marvel game - Like it
Box Boy Girl - Don't care
Smash Bros stuff - Expected more here...
Treasure Tracker new content - Okay...
Bloodstained - Backed on Kickstarter, so can't wait either way
Dragon Quest Builders - Already planning to buy it, though the first one is on my wishlist, too
Dragon Quest 11 S - Now we're talking!
Disney junk - Don't care
Star Fox Atlas - Don't care
Rune Factory 4 - Creepy looking graphics, but otherwise I like it.
Rune Factory 5 - Finally, been waiting since Frontier for a new one!
Oninaki - not sure what to think on this one yet.
Yoshi - Interesting new stuff, gonna try the demo later.

Section 2

Fire Emblem - Looking great on the mechanics so far, though the story seems very blurry now.
Tetris 99 Free today - I suck at Tetris, but hey, it proves you can Battle Royale everything
Dead By Daylight - Very unexpected, but really not my type of games
Undertale Expansion - cool
Deus Ex Machina -Not my type of games normally, thogh I'll try out the demo for sure.
GRID Autosport - I prefer arcade racers, but it's a nice addition to the Switch game lineup.
Hellblade - Cool, didn't see that coming. Great game!
Mortal Kombat 11 - Finish him and release the game, dammit!
Unravel Two - it's EA, so I'll pass
Assassin's Creed 3: remake - Not my kind of games, but I can see why people like it.

Section 3

Final Fantasy stuff - coming earlier than expected, and also IX before VII? Okay...
Astral Chain - Looks great, but also like that's not gonna be my kind of games. Still, very interested to know more about it.
News on Bayoneta 3 - Don't care
Zelda Link's Awakening Remake - never played the original, but those graphics look mre than weird, really off-putting to me


I'll give it an 8.5/10 due to many great game announcements out of different genres, but there are clearly some gaping holes that need to be fixed in future directs.

It was a great direct. I'll be getting Mario Maker, Hellblade, Astral Chain, and Zelda.  Maybe Unravel 2 if it doesn't get EA'd up.  I give it a 4/10 (8/10 without the Switch Online penalty).

Alright, I gathered a list of ALL Nintendo published game released in 2018. Here it is:

- Bayonetta 1/2 (Direct port, no meaningful new content, charged full price)

-Hyrule warriors (Direct port, 0 effort put into it, 0 new meaningful content, charged full price)

-Captain Toad (Direct port, Slight amount of new content put in, Barely any effort put in, Charged same price as the original wiiU release on top of releasing paid DLC instead of it being added to the port in order to add a bit of value, but nope again, Nintendo doesn't give a shit about consumers (New Nintendo I should say) )

- Nintendo labo (First original release, Hurray!)

- Mario tennis Ace ( AA release, Mario sports game)

- Sushi striker (Never heard of this game, apparently was published by Nintendo)

- Fitness boxing (Lol)

- Mario party (AA release again)

- Super smash ( First brand new AAA release)

- Pokémon (Remake, with actual effort put in. Although not developed by Nintendo)

- Go vacation (Lol)

Alright, so let's compile the data...  For 2018, Nintendo released 3 full priced wiiU ports will little to no effort put into them and 1 remake, 1 AAA game, 2 AA games which are consisted of 1 party game and one Mario sports game, and a slew of shovelware including fitness boxing, go vacation and Labo.

Any self-respecting Nintendo consumer would be pissed. You're getting burned and spit in your face for supporting them when they needed your support the most. Sure, 2019 is shaping up for being a much better year. But once again, releasing paid dlc for captain toad and releasing NSMBUD with NO extra levels, NONE! They just don't give 2 flying damns about you or any Nintendo consumer. 

Just think about how long it would have taken them to even only design an extra 10 or so levels for NSMBUD and then you will realise just how fu**** lazy they were with these ports. And now, they're even being lazy with the dlc. 

You should look up the sells numbers of those ports and realize, considering people keep buying those Wii U ports. Nintendo is just giving into supply and demand.