The shadow drop of the Metroid Prime remaster puts us in uncharted territory for Nintendo. When they can announce and release on the same day a complete HD overhaul of one of the highest-rated games of all time in a series as prestigious as Metroid, then the door is flung wide open for other major titles to be announced and released very soon afterwards. Sure mainline 3D Mario and Zelda games won't see shadow drops like this, but secondary franchises like Star Fox, F-Zero, Kid Icarus, and other franchises on that level can now that Metroid has done it for such a big title.

I agree that the lineup is solid. But the Direct felt like a waste of 45 minutes when the most interesting thing was a list that can be easily read in 45 seconds. There wasn’t a lot shown about any of the games. Meagre details rarely enough to inspire interest in the games beyond pre-existing familiarity. Nintendo usually does better than this. I usually like their Directs, even when they focus on games I have little interest in (like Pokémon).

I feel like having access to the F-Zero games from the SNES, N64, and GBA is going to be the only way of Nintendo giving us F-Zero because they don't want to continue the franchise

I feel like they did this as a result of the circumstances. Namely, all the leaks early last year that all but confirmed the game's existence. So when everyone expected an imminent announcement, Nintendo held on for long enough for people to start questioning if the leak was real, and then shadow dropping it was the way to surprise everyone again.

I thought this was an almost great direct and would score it an B.

While I adore collections and rereleases I am not a fan of putting this behind a service I would love to buy some GB games like Warioland/Super Mario land and maybe even Gargoyle's quest but because it is Nintendo and we probably can not play on the next console what we bought digital I would rather give it a C+.

Oh yeah they didn't announce much for the second half so that is also great, next directs especially during summer can be full with surprises. 

I was expecting to see gameplay of what's new in Tears of the Kingdom instead of a focus on the world we already know from Breath of the Wild. I fully expected a dedicated Zelda Direct in April, but that doesn't mean that the Tears of the Kingdom trailer for this Direct should be so... not showing much of anything, but then proceeding to ask for preorders. This is the method of selling based on hype instead of selling based on substance. Nintendo should not be afraid of showing bits of TotK that are unique to it. Like I posted in the official Zelda thread, I am wary of what direction TotK will take because of Nintendo's track record with Zelda that is going up and down, alternating between the things that the market wants and the things that Nintendo wants to do. The absence of what will define TotK in the trailer makes me think that we could have a bait and switch here, "See, this will be more of what you loved about BotW," then the game comes out and people begin to realize that the meat of the game isn't what they believed it would be.

But if you have a lot of goodwill, you can think that Nintendo doesn't want to spoil people.

The TotK trailer was also disappointing because five years have passed since they've finished the DLC for BotW. It just left me asking if that's really all they've got after all this time.

If the meat of the game isn't fighting slightly different variations of the enemies I already fought in BotW, I'd actually be pleased.

I just want the return of traditional dungeons and my weapons not breaking after 3 hits lol. Tears of the Kingdom would instantly be a 10/10 for me lol

I agree the presentation of the Directs hasn't been that great for a while. Too much time spent on weird, nichey games, which OK I get it you want to give them some shine, and then they kinda just drop Metroid Prime in there and don't even mention that it's basically a full on remake of the game and not just a "port/remaster" lol and have a sort of bland Zelda trailer. 

If there isn't a new Mario platformer this year I have to wonder what exactly is going on. Even just looking at EAD Toyko:

2007 - Super Mario Galaxy

2010 - Super Mario Galaxy 2 (which they admit probably could've released in 2009)

2011 - Super Mario 3D Land 

2013 - Super Mario 3D World

2014 - Captain Toad

2017 - Super Mario Odyssey

2018-2023 - Nothing new but the Bowser's Fury section in the 3D World port?

Mario Odyssey will be six years old this fall, that's a 6 year window with almost nothing new if there isn't a new game from them. I suspect they have taken over the Donkey Kong IP as well since its getting a theme park section all to itself and DK looks to be prominently in the Mario movie, but still, like even if the Captain Toad team is now the DK team, what exactly is the main Mario 3D team there doing? 2011-2017 saw them release no less than three Mario platformers lol and Captain Toad even on top of that during a 6 year stretch and now 6 years of almost nothing is just weird. 

Either they are having some kind of internal staff crisis with development or they have been saving a new Mario to release loosely in the same year as the Mario movie orrrr they are basically waiting for the Switch successor to launch because they're overly cautious about making sure it has a dynamite first year. 

Isn't it crazy to think every mainline Metroid entry is going to be on the Switch? Then throw in a remaster of Prime, and you got Metroid fans just feasting this generation. Pretty sure Prime 4 is going to be a cross-gen title when that finally releases.

With the Prime remaster releasing, I'm betting Prime 4 will be revealed during the Summer Direct. Especially if the rumors are true that the Prime remaster has been finished for who knows how long. Timing can't be a coincidence.