My highlights were Fall Guys, No More Heroes 3, kinda Pyra for Smash (I like Pyra! But I haven't played Smash in over a year) and the general fact that the first half of the year is looking pretty stuffed. Famicom Detective Club is interesting, I'm at least curious. Mario Golf is nice, even if it's not a game for me. Maybe the girls will like it so I'll get to play it a bit.

That being said, I really thought they were going to show Xenoblade 3 and for some dumb reason didn't realize at first this would be a Xenoblade character for Smash, so I was incredibly disappointed. Same for Zelda: Aonuma even wore that shirt he always wore for BotW news (IIRC) so I thought this was either going to be BotW 2 or a Zelda collection... instead they showed Skyward Sword, my least favorite 3D Zelda game and the antithesis to BotW in terms of game design. I expected Skyward Sword to be included in a Zelda HD collection (with Wind Waker and Twilight Princes) as it's not a Wii U but a Wii game. But no, we're now even getting Wii games from 10 years ago for full price. That being said, apparently the rumored Zelda collection will still come, and if that is the case I'll be happy. I'm also happy for the people who like Skyward Sword!

I'm torn on Splatoon 3. My first thought was "why give this of all games a sequel?" I understand BoTW 2 or Odyssey 2, or any other single player game getting a sequel. But Splatoon? Why not just release paid DLC? But if the game is good I'll buy. I really hope we'll get split screen multiplayer though!

Overall it was a solid Direct, just not many games for me personally.

Nothing really caught my eye.

I was pleased by the Zelda SS HD announcement but it was not Zelda35th (my expectations were too high I guesss)

We have a release date for NMHIII but it was announced like a random game, it was weird imo.

Anyway, the best news (and that saye a lot about this ND) was that we will have news about BOTW2 during the year.

5/10

Where are Bayonetta and Metroid?

You can't really argue the lineup is weak, thanks to 3rd parties and indies.
At the same time, considering 1st paerty this is really the worst Nintendo I have seen in while. Considering original content (not port/remakes) what is their output in one year and a half (2020 and H1 2021) ? -> Animal Crossing; Zelda/Dinasty Warrior spin off; 3D World DLC; Mario Golf. It's pretty bad if you ask me.

6/10, but because most of the games didn't appeal to me. But I don't understand people saying "only old ports", as I mostly saw new games in this direct.

I mean, Mario Golf, No More Heroes III, Bravely Default II, Star Wars Hunters, Knockout City, Samurai Warriors 5, Triangle Strategy, Splatoon 3, Neon White or World's End Club are 10 brand new games announced, and I'm pretty sure I forgot about other stuff as well. It's not that small.

9/10. Everything I have expected and wanted to have.

Skyward Sword - now without forced motion control, new Mario sports game (Golf), Fall Guys, new strategy RPG from the Octopath team, Hyrule Warrior DLC, Legend of Mana HD Remaster, Miitopia (WTF? I thought we have passed this but could be interesting for some people), Splatoon 3 next year (which opens up the way for Mario Odyssey 2 for the current console).

Overall some surprises and games that I wanted to have. I haven't expected news about BOTW 2 since it's obviously this year's holiday title (we should get news around E3).

4/10. It feels old?! It's like going back to pre-2010...

I find hilarious that all new EA-Activision announcements were all online multiplayer titles. They have it so easy to please the userbase and yet they go for this...

Also, I'm confused why Nintendo made so many long announcements. That isn't usually their style but they made a number of winter 2021 and vague 2022 announcements. Making it even weirder is the fact that they said this direct would focus on the first half of this year, so I'm assuming there will be at least one major direct focusing on games coming in the second half of the year, presumably with some major ones we don't know about yet. Why announce Splatoon 3 and others when they are coming after their big holiday title? Weird move, Nintendo. I hope this isn't an indication they won't have major titl a second half 2021.

4/10. It showed why they didn't have a Direct in 2020. Their situation is really dire in terms of new releases. I don't know what's going on, maybe they dediced to slow down production of new games and focus on ports or COVID really destroyed the company, but it's not good.