The way they phrased the lack of teaser for Zelda screams non-2021 release imo. They will make a Zelda direct maybe on second half and then show us when they play to release BOTW 2, just like 3D World announcement was in September my guts are telling me BOTW 2 is gonna be released in Q2 or Q3 2022

I think I'll just copy-paste my thoughts, which I posted elsewhere earlier.

Now that I've had some time to digest the whole thing, let me go down every game revealed/mentioned and give you my opinion.

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[New smash fighter: Pyra and Mythra] Release: March
I'm sure plenty of people are gonna whine about yet another anime swordsman swordswoman being added to smash. I think it's a cool addition, though honestly I don't really care about Smash all that much anymore. At least I'm glad they didn't go the super obvious spoiler route with their final smash.

[Port: Fall Guys -Ultimate Knockout-] Release: Summer
That's cool, but I think this is a little too late to make any waves

[Port: Outer Wilds] Release: Summer
Apparently this game is critically acclaimed? I wouldn't know, I don't check reviews these days anymore. Looks interesting at least.

[Remake: Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir]
[Remake: Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind] Release: May 14^th
They weren't kidding when they said that these are deep cuts into Nintendo history. These games were originally released on the Famicom over 30 years ago! I have a soft spot for these kinds of visual novel mystery games, so I'm considering them at least

[New Game: Samurai Warriors 5] Release: Summer
Looks alright. Warriors type games are a bit too repetitive in my eyes, so I'm not terribly interested. Also, I can't be the only one who initially though this was a port. There are just so many damn entries in the Warriors series!

[Remaster: Legend of Mana] Release: June 24^th
Another classic Square RPG remaster for the pile. Since I recently finished playing through the Mana Collection, I'm actually halfway interested in this.

[New Game: Monster Hunter Rise] Release: March 26^th
Another trailer, this time showing of this new Rampage mode. I liked the demo, so I might buy this.

[New Game: Mario Gold: Super Rush] Release: June 25^th
Don't care. Never saw the appeal of Mario sports games.

[Port: Tales from the Borderlands] Release: March 24^th
I know nothing about the Borderlands series, and this doesn't interest me in the slightest

[New game: Capcom Arcade Stadium] Release: After Presentation
A collection of 32 classic arcade games, of which 31 are paid DLC. I kid you not. Getting the whole package will run you 40$, so it's not an awful deal or anything, but c'mon...

[Port: Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel without a Pulse] Release: March 16^th
Yup, this sure looks like a port of a 2005 game. Next.

[New Game: No More Heroes 3] Release: August 27^th
Looks pretty neat, but not something I'd buy myself. At least we finally got a release date for this thing.

[New Game: Neon White] Release: Winter
Looks pretty cool. I'll be looking out for this one in the future.

[New Game: DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power] Release: June 4^th
...I have no idea what this shovelware is doing in this direct. Willing to bet that Nintendo was given some money to include this.

[Port: Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville] Release: March 19^th
Not interested. Also: EA.

[Port: Miitopia] Release: May 21^st
Not the type of game I'd enjoy. Also, can we please let the Miis go already? They've had plenty of time in the spotlight already and I don't care anymore.

[New Update: Animal Crossing: New Horizons] Available: Februari 25^th
I don't play AC, so this does nothing for me.

[New Game: Project Triangle Strategy (working title)] Release: 2022
What's that? Octopath Traveller, but as a strategy RPG? SIGN ME THE HELL UP!!! I loved Octopath Traveller and I'm also a big fan of Fire Emblem, so this is right up my alley. I'll definitely get this when the time comes.

[New Game: Star Wars: Hunters] Release: 2021
Don't care about Star Wars. Next

[New Game: Knockout City] Release: May 21^st
Not interested 2: EA-ctric boogaloo

[Port: World End's Club] Release: May 28^th
Not interested. I'm sure its at least decent, given who's in charge.

[Physical Release: Hades] Available: March 29^th
I honestly think that people are way to obsessed over games getting a physical release. Beyond that, I've heard nothing but good things about Hades and I haven't played it myself, so I might pick this up (if it is actually available).

[Port: Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection] Release: June 10^th
I don't know anything about this series, but it looks interesting. Might consider if a good deal is available.

[Expansion Pass: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity] Available: May-November
Didn't play this, so not interested

[New Game: Bravely Default II] Release: Februari 26^th
I was interested in the first game, but I never played. Interested in the sequel as well, but never played. This one interests me, too, but it remains to be seen if I'll ever play it.

[New Game: Ghosts 'n Goblins Ressurection] Release: Februari 25^th
Not interested

[Remaster: SaGa Frontier Remastered] Release: April 15^th
Yet another classic Square RPG remaster for the pile. There sure are a lot of those on the Switch, aren't there?

[Port: Apex Legends] Release: March 9^th
I don't care about these 'Live Service' type of games. Also EA.

[New Game: BotW sequel] Release: ???
Haha lol get dunked on folks

But for real, I appreciate them being transparent about this.

[Remaster(?): The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword] Release: July 16^th
Saw this one coming a mile away. I played the original on Wii and I thought it was alright, but, just like the rest of the series, it just never managed to wow me in any way shape or form. I'm sure some of you are happy that you can ditch motion controls, though I never felt that that was dragging the game down in any way.

[New Game: Splatoon 3] Release: 2022
Again, saw this one coming, what with the teaser image from new years. Can't say I'm interested in this series, unfortunately.

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That's quite a lot of games, good variety too for better or worse. However, there were no big standout headlines in this Direct like Metroid Prime, Pokémon or BotW 2, which I think drags this down for most people.
Personally speaking, there were a couple of games that caught my attention, particularly Project Triangle Strategy, but my biggest hope, something from the Fire Emblem series, was absent. Oh well, better luck next time.

Overall I rate this direct a 6.5, and I predict that the next one won't drop until E3 (assuming E3 even happens this year).

5/10

Worst switch big direct.

Japanese Thirds don't want to invest in Nintendo.

Square-Enix is only Asano  team and maybe Dragon Quest, and ports and remaster

Capcom is the first ( 2 Mhunt, Classics, RE), after 4 years of absence 

Konami seems the second ( Momotaro, Baseball game exclusive and pro Evolution soccer this year)

Where Sega? Where Namco Bandai? Sega has an awful year (change your director, this may be a good move)

EA does more support now than the Japanese majors.

And the Japanese productions try to look to the west and launch games in low instal base ( xbox s/x and ps5).

3, well below average

I expected Pokemon DP Remake at least

too kid and RPG centred, there must be more than that to an 80m userbase

I've been waiting on NGMC since late last year when it leaked online. I'd give the Direct a 10/10 on that alone. Samurai Warriors 5 was a nice surprise as well.

I think the problem when it comes to Nintendo Direct is that people hype themselves up and believe all the rumours and speculation that they read online. Then, when things don't go the way they hoped, they wind up massively disappointed and overlook all the good things that were shown.

I hope that the ACNH update adds Kapp'n and Tortimer's Island or the ability to properly customise your house's exterior. I would love to have my old Japanese castle back!

There was nothing bad in the direct, pretty much all good news. I give it a 7/10 because it had no big wow factor. For some that would be Splatoon 3. But for me it did not have much of an impact personally. Look forward to playing it though.

As for BotW2, I feel like people are forgetting that BotW1 had literally no gameplay until less than a year before release. Given how a game like Xenoblade 2 and Mario Odyssey got an E3 reveal and a holiday release months later, the panic is baseless. If this past year has tought us anything, Nintendo release dates are always unpredictable, lack of footage or not.

A deafening silence/10

Butsrsly, I am interested in Triangle Strategy and Mario Golf. Haven't played one of those since the N64 (besides Hotshots on PS2).

Mario Golf was cool.

My thoughts on this direct are weirdly complex. In a lot of ways, it's basically the inverse of 2019's February direct, which is tied for my favorite direct Nintendo has ever done (the other being E3 2019's). It just kind of goes to show that the context of what is happening around a direct is important. During the 2019 February direct, we got new games like Super Mario Maker 2, The Legend of Zelda Link's Awakening Remake, and Astral Chain, as well as smaller new announcements like Rune Factory 5, the Dragon Quest XI S port finally happening, etc. This is on top of already knowing that Luigi's Mansion 3 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons were slated for this year, and that while technically not announced yet Pokemon's 8th gen would surely come out this year. Because of this, it not only made the impact of these "smaller" games (because most things are just inherently smaller than Animal Crossing and Pokemon and LM3, these were still huge announcements) much greater since they were filling out the year with high-quality productions, but it also highlighted those announcements in a weird way. There wasn't any pressure on say, Link's Awakening being the big holiday title for 2019, which would have been massively disappointing. Even without showing Luigi's Mansion 3 or Animal Crossing, the direct was still an amazing success. And even with Animal Crossing slipping out of the 2019 lineup, there was still by far enough content for the year to still be backed to the brim. 

Yet, 2019's first 6 months were actually fairly quiet. It took forever for the first big original game to come out, Yoshi's Crafted World, and it just wasn't a game that received much publicity or critical praise. Mario Maker 2 is amazing, I love it, but it came out very late in that first 6 months and after NSMBUDX and Yoshi it arguably wasn't what Nintendo needed. So we were in a weird situation where the direct gave a lot of security and assurance that the rest of the year would be great, but it didn't mean anything for about the next 4 months arguably until Mario Maker 2 came out (in particular because Yoshi's release date was already announced). 

This is why I say this direct was the exact opposite. It didn't really give much assurance that this year would be good, but there's a lot of upcoming releases really soon that are exciting, so it's hard to take it too harshly. Still, it was far, far from a great direct. 

Now to be clear, what surprises me is that I don't really care that much. I don't feel angry or offended at this direct. Usually even when something is just passable or mediocre, it kind of sparks an extremity in me of "why is this just so meh?". But this time, I don't care. I think a lot of the reason for that is that this direct was so weird about basically ensuring that it wasn't actually that important in the grand scheme of things. I mean you can just tell by the way Nintendo talked about things during this direct: They opened the direct basically ensuring that directs would stay as a staple (putting less overall significance on this one), and they didn't even mention the Zelda anniversary at all despite revealing Skyward Sword HD, even teasing a BOTW2 announcement soon. 

I kind of think that, initially when planning for this direct Nintendo did start out mostly wanting to showcase first half 2021 games, stuff like Miitopia, Skyward Sword HD, and Mario Golf, but by the time they ended up including just one special announcement (Splatoon 3) and all their third party development partners (NMH3, Project Triangle) it ended up looking very future-focused despite their own disclaimer. Which I honestly think was kind of misguided, because it makes it look like they might as well have revealed the rest of the years lineup, as it stands that second half has very little and I wonder if the direct would have just been better being about 25 minutes with announcements just concerning everything up to Skyward Sword. 

What IS unacceptable and what does make me mad is the pricing. GIVE. ME. A. FUCKING. BREAK. $60 for an HD Wii Port with a few QoL changes. Ok, look, it's Zelda, we all knew that would happen. It still sucks, but it's Zelda so it's not too surprising. But $50 for Miitopia? Probably the worst one of all: $35 FOR EACH FAMICOM DETECTIVE CLUB GAME? $70 FOR TWO VISUAL NOVELS THAT ARE REMAKES OF FAMICOM GAMES? That is fucking ridiculous. No way to slice it. If you're going to try and feed me regurgitated crap, at least don't make me pay a shit ton for it. That's honestly insulting. 

It's a 5/10 direct. It might be higher if NMH3 had a better trailer (I don't know why, but their trailers after the cool E.T. rip-off have just been pretty meh despite me being somewhat excited for the game). In retrospect, while it was harder to process live, Monster Hunter Rise's new trailer revealed a lot of cool stuff. So I guess that's a point for the direct. Overall though, just eh. Not offensive, except for the fucking awful pricing, but not good either. 

My favorite parts of that video were the ones not in the direct.