Nintendo's Secret Full-Length September 2020 Direct
The Nintendo Direct No One Saw Coming
10/6/20
It's funny to look back at September 4th of last year and see the outrage and controversy a direct without a whole lot of new first-party announcements. This direct still managed to be over thirty minutes long, and it's unimaginable to the people of 2019 what us fans would give for another one just like this. We did receive a pretty lengthy Nintendo Direct Mini this March, but it still wasn't anything like another full new major Nintendo Direct. Throughout the year we've had an overwhelming abundance of mostly false Direct rumors to get us excited for nothing, as we still have yet to receive a Nintendo Direct in 2020. The "July 20th" rumor did end up creating the "Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase" phenomenon, which sparked a lot more outrage than happiness with fans. After the multiple statements from Nintendo about the cancellation of these presentations and COVID still being as rampant as it always has, it's fair to say we aren't seeing any Directs any time soon. Though, upon stringing together all of the recent announcements, even in just the past month, we actually did receive a Nintendo direct. Perhaps not a full one, and certainly not a well-structured one, but something with enough first-party announcements to carry the Direct name. So today, I present to you the Nintendo Direct I've strung together with announcements from the past month of September.
To distract Nintendo's fans from the fact that they had gone a full year without a new Direct, strategically a day before the one-year mark, they released the "Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary Direct". This was the first of quite a few major first-party announcements from September, and it made one hell of a splash. Everyone knew about the new 3D Mario remasters coming to the Switch from a variety of rumors and leaks taking place since March. The Direct was only fifteen minutes long, but fans knew that it would make the most of its time. It did this exactly; in fact, it did what all good past Nintendo Directs have done and mixed in whacky-new announcements with predictable yet expected ones and heavily rumored games. Without going into too much detail, this Direct was absolutely amazing. To most people, it shouldn't make up for the severe drought we'd experienced throughout this year, but it was certainly nice. This Direct's most important announcements were "Super Mario 3D World Deluxe", which had been heavily rumored since March along with the "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" pack, which showed its face as well. The few strange game marketing choices aside, this Direct was great, and it certainly kept fans distracted from that coming up "one-year" mark.
September 8th, five days after the latest Nintendo Direct variation, saw the announcement of the completely unexpected "Hyrule Warriors" sequel. For those who are unaware, the "Warriors" games are a variety of hack-and-slash grind spinoffs deriving from the original "Dynasty Warriors". Nintendo has taken part in this series quite a few times, but we still have yet to see "Xenoblade Warriors", which the world desperately needs. Anyways, this announcement was gigantic for a number of reasons. It shows Nintendo working with third-parties again and trusting them with their beloved IPs, seeing as this game furthers the story of "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild". After this, we received the news that "Immortals: Fenyx Rising" would be coming to the Switch at its launch of December 3rd. This was a very wild announcement, and holy shit everyone, we're getting "Immortals: Fenyx Rising". This wasn't too important, though, as it was also announced for all other major consoles separately in an Ubisoft Forward. After this, we received a couple more games for our Nintendo Switch Online Virtual Console ripoffs, and that wrapped up this section of the month.
Finally, on September 17th, we received the next "Nintendo Direct Mini: Fartner Showcase". Though, arguably, this one didn't have nearly as many farts in it; in fact, it had a lot more pleasant scents and sounds coming from more pleasant places. The Mini kicked off with the announcement of an entirely new game in the "Monster Hunter" franchise: "Monster Hunter Rise". This was not only big because it was announced by Nintendo first, it was big because it was only coming to Nintendo systems. Many of the games in this franchise are not even on any Nintendo systems, so it's fair to say that Capcom have given the Nintendo Switch their full love and support. We also got a new exclusive "Monster Hunter: Stories" sequel, but nobody in their right mind should give half a shit about that. The rest of the presentation certainly did not disappoint; most notably a release date and more information for Square Enix's "Balan Wonderworld", and a sequel to the Nintendo-published "Fitness Boxing". To close the Direct, we had "Ori and the Will of the Wisps" coming to the Switch; a.k.a. the reign of fresh happiness. Finally, we received an all new "Kirby Fighters" sequel which excited a lot of people, and that wrapped up this month's announcements.
Before writing this essay, I came across a lot of doubt. Of course there was no way Nintendo had enough announcements to cover a full-length direct. Though, after adding up the numbers, you'll find my initial idea wrong. Added up, it adds up to just around 40 minutes, which certainly warrants itself as a full Nintendo Direct. Mind you, most of these are first-party announcements, and the ones that aren't still warrant a Direct because Directs do come with third-party announcements to fill up time. In conclusion, this Direct was not very structured, but it was still very good. This along with "Pikmin 3 Deluxe" that came in August along with the whole "Paper Mario" frenzy more than warrant a Direct. While it may not have been the Direct we wanted, at further glance, it does look far better than one might expect.
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