An Arms character got into Smash. ANY character is fair game. Just because you dont like them, doesnt make them any less deserving. Cant really think of a more deserving character than Bayonetta since shes the only one actually voted in by the fans of the series.

I'll give it an 8/10. On a positive note for people that are disappointed: all of the Nintendo published announcements outside of Fryangle Strategy and Splatoon 3 are 1st half titles. This direct gave a complete picture of what Nintendo plans to do for the 1st half of 2021, which will be carried by Mario 3D World, Monster Hunter Rise and Skyward Sword HD, but left things completely in the dark when it came to their 2nd half plans.

Skyward Sword HD and the looming ports of past Zelda titles are making BotW2 look like a 2022 title. Also, after seeing Nintendo willing to put two Splatoon titles on the same platform, I wouldn't be surprised if they position Mario Kart 9 as their big holiday title this year.

Not good for me. It's still too soon after Splatoon 1 for Splatoon 2, let alone Splatoon 3. Give some other ips a chance!

This direct is probably satisfying towards people that like Japanese games, but that isn't really me (though I am appreciating JRPgs more). No Kid Icarus, Metroid, Starfox, Advanced Wars, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Monolith Soft game. I love Skyward Sword, but I don't need to rebuy it in HD.

It was a 6/10. Not bad, not great.

Awesome new Monster Hunter trailer, new footage and finally a release date for No More Heroes 3, and I'll definitely be getting Splatoon 3. The rest was meh though.

I kinda wish they'd waited a week and unveiled Crash 4 in the Direct, that alone would've bumped it up to a strong 7/10.

6.66666666/10

Project Triangle Strategy was the highlight for me

Mario Golf Cool

Ninja Gaiden Collection might be cool if they don't butcher the physical release lol

I give it a 5/10 based on my tastes.

I think its a solid 7-8/10.
Even after almost 1.5 years since the last general direct, I doubt Nintendo was gonna stray from their usual format of announcing games at certain periods of time. I did not expect the world and the show was pretty much what I expected. Some neat surprises and updates of current and upcoming games. They did mostly what they said they would, focus on games coming in the first half of 2021 (with some coming in July and August). Showing a couple of 2022 games was like a little extra frosting and sprinkles on a cake.

What did surprise me is that they actually teased Splatoon 3 for next year, in February 2021. Some of their first party games that they announced around this time of year would usually release later in the year. Luigi's Mansio 3, Yoshi's Crafted World, and ACNH were announced in the middle of their respective years and would release the following year.

Otherwise, solid reveals, some interesting games. I get that some are kinda turned off on so many ports, but what can you do when it comes to third party developers? At least there are new third party games coming like NMH3, Project Triangle Strategy, Samurai Warriors 5, and Bravely Default II. Again, the pandemic is still something to consider when talking about game releases. I knew that they were gonna still provide that PSA before the presentation.

I know some will not like the direct due to the fact they didn't show other games like Bayo 3 or BotW 2 or announce titles heavily rumored like 2D Metroid. You're more than welcome to be disappointed, but I don't think this means doom and gloom for Nintendo and the Switch. The titles were just no your taste. It doesn't take away from the fact that there's a lot to look forward to for the console. They'll announce more games when they're ready to do so, like more info on BotW2.

Some highlights for me were:

- Pyra/Mythra coming to Smash Ultimate. I had a feeling that something like this was possible, but I wasn't sure what Sakurai wanted to do with Rex. Still, as a Xenoblade fan, I am very pleased with their inclusion. More female representation and its great that Xenoblade 2 gets something more than music and a Rex costume in a game that is basically a Nintendo (plus third party partners) Hall-of-Fame.
- Famicom Detective Club finally coming West. A neat surprise. Awesome to have cult classics remade and released to the West for the first time.
- Mario Golf: Super Rush. I love golf and was a fan of Mario Golf 64 (never played Toadstool Tour or the GB/GBA games). A story mode and a unique speed golf mode looks fun.
- Project Triangle Strategy. Square Enix does it again. I guess with the success of Octopath Traveler, it was inevitable that another game in the style of Octopath would be in development. Pretty cool that they're focusing on the FE/FFTactics style of games in this project. Will try out the demo later.
- NMH3. Looks absolutely bonkers, but in a good way. Looking forward to it in August.
- Neon White looks interesting.
- Just waiting for Monster Hunter Rise and Bravely Default II to come out.
- Will definitely get the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection.
- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity getting an expansion pass. Not a surprise, but nice to know its coming.
- Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. Really cool that Skyward Sword will get another shot in the spotlight. I liked what I played on Wii, but couldn't finish it due to focusing on other things. The new features like optional button or motion controls, 60fps, HD graphics, etc. are nice to have. The Joy Cons are awesome and I doubt I will be able to get one. I can see these Joy Cons sell out fast.
- Splatoon 3. A great surprise and it says a lot that Nintendo wanted it to end the show. A new IP on Wii U that a few thought it wouldn't amount to much (a couple even comparing it to the Wonderful 101) ends up being a phenomenon in Japan and still performing well throughout the rest of the world. Guess the dev team was ready to bring in new ideas to create a new game.

Overall, I can't really complain. I'm glad the general direct is back and, again, I was not expecting the world in this presentation. I know more games are going to be announced in the future and my backlog of games is already too much. I can't be too greedy for Switch content because there's so much for me to play already and to look forward to in the near and far future.

It's like when people speculate who's the next Smash Bros. character and blurt out Crash, Dante, Sora, or whatever because "it makes sense" or "it seems more likely." As we have seen in most of Fighter's Pass 1 and all of Fighter's Pass 2, you can't really predict what Nintendo and Sakurai are thinking in regards of who is becoming Smash fighters. Who would've thought Joker would be the first of Fighter's Pass 1, let alone into consideration to be a DLC Fighter (outside of Alpharad when he longed for him)? If you would've asked any Smash fan before Fighter's Pass 1 was even a thing, the majority of the characters that are revealed up to this point wouldn't have been thought of even among half the fans.

I honestly believe nintendo is in a development hell hole right now, itz like thsy are still struggling with HD. It was pretty bad. Where are all the gamea and new IPs. Whatbhas retro been doing for 7 years??.

In regards to what's developing under Nintendo's umbrella of developers, its interesting. They released so much in 2017 and 2019. Though some would argue that the big games released in 2017 were probably Wii U projects initially before transitioning to the Switch (with BotW being the only exception in which it was both a Wii U and Switch game) once the reality set in that the Wii U was not gonna go anywhere and the sales projections were gonna remain weak with no light in the end of the tunnel. Once the developers are finished with certain projects, they'll need to start back on square one (or whatever next square if they want to reuse assets for a new game). I guess some studios like Retro tried to create new projects, but things apparently fell through for one reason or another.

I mean, if you don't count Uncharted Lost Legacy (which was likely made under a smaller budget), Uncharted 4 and TLoU2 are separated by four years in terms of release dates. Unless Naughty Dog is planning a smaller title within the next couple of years, do you really expect them to just churn out AAA game after AAA game like its nothing? Insomniac Games are going to release Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, 3 years after Spider-Man (with Miles Morales, released last year, building off of what the original game established, so costs were not as high). Hell, it may take a while for the most noteworthy Xbox Game Studios projects to release on Xbox Series S/X (~2-3 years, maybe).

Meanwhile, Nintendo developed/published the following Switch games from 2017-19:

2017:

- Zelda: BotW (with an expansion pass)*

- Super Mario Odyssey*

- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

- ARMS*

- Splatoon 2 (with the Octo Expansion released the following year)*

- Pokken Tournament DX (Bandai Namco)

- Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Monolith Soft; with Torna: The Golden Country expansion the following year)*

- 1-2 Switch*

- Fire Emblem Warriors (Koei Tecmo)*

- Snipperclips (collab with an indie studio)*

2018:

- Smash Bros. Ultimate (Sora, Ltd. and Bandai Namco; has 2 Fighter's Passes at this point)*

- Super Mario Party (ND Cube)*

- Kirby Star Allies (HAL)*

- Mario Tennis Aces (Camelot)*

- Nintendo Labo*

- Bayonetta 1 and 2 (Platinum Games)

- DKC: TF

- Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee (Game Freak)*

- Sushi Striker (collab with indieszero)*

- Captain Toad Treasure Tracker

- Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition (Koei Tecmo)

2019:

- Luigi's Mansion 3 (Next Level Games)*

- Fire Emblem Three Houses (Koei Tecmo and Intelligent Systems; with the expansion pass)*

- Pokemon Sword and Shield (Game Freak; expansion pass the following year)*

- Tetris 99 (Akira)*

- Yoshi's Crafted World (Good Feel)*

- Super Mario Maker 2*

- New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

- BOXBOY! + BOXGIRL! (HAL)*

- The Stretchers*

- Astral Chain (Platinum Games)*

- Other Nintendo Labo projects*

- Ring Fit Adventure*

- Zelda: Link's Awakening remake (Grezzo)*

All in all, that's a lot of games Nintendo has been involved with. The ones with an asterisk are noted as new games (or games that are not considered ports). I probably missed some, but in the end, when you look at the big picture here, you can see there's a lot of original content that have been released during this span of time. Not to mention, there were the remaining 3DS games released within this period such as Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, Metroid: Samus' Returns, Hey! Pikmin, and two Mario and Luigi remakes.

If BotW 2 is going to have considerable amount of content that makes it completely different to the original, then I can see why its taking them longer to develop it, unlike Majora's Mask, which released 2 years after Ocarina of Time, in which apparently Aonuma did not want to go through such a short dev cycle again. Metroid Prime 4, unfortunately, hit a snag with the original developer (rumored to be Bandai Namco and its studios) providing an unsatisfactory build that Nintendo scrapped and restarted the project under Retro Studios. Bayonetta 3 is developed by Platinum Games, but funded by Nintendo. Whether Nintendo wants to show more I guess depends on what they think of Bayonetta 3's progress under Platinum Games. Other than that, I think the pandemic really affected their development and scheduling process. If Mario's 35th anniversary was supposed to be revealed much earlier in 2020 than it did, then you can definitely put blame on COVID.

Besides that, I think people just forget that games take time to develop with the quality fans hope for. Things can happen with studios that affect their upcoming projects. It took CD Projekt Red almost 7 years to "complete" and release Cyberpunk 2077, and look how that turned out. If games were much easier to develop now, why did it take a while for the PS4 to get its big first party exclusives? It basically rode 1-2 years of hype (and AA, budget first party titles) before Bloodborne came out (unless you want to counter with Killzone Shadow Fall, Infamous Red Son, and The Order: 1886).