Nintendo Direct June 18, 2024 (and other Summer Games News): Information and Reactions (2024)

It’s June, and that means it’s the summer game news season, which stands over us journalists like a hellish heat wave! And not unlike the actual heat waves that are running roughshod over the Earth, it was overwhelming and tiring. Over by Summer Games Fest, Geoff Keighley continues to hold the world of video game news in his jovial yet vise-like grip. Amid the public expansion and triaging of Microsoft’s games division, the packed to the gills Xbox show became a lighthearted farce where the year 2024 was taking every other game to the debutante ball but just wouldn’t commit to a date. In Sony’s latest State of Play, the delightful Astro Bot stole the show over the contentious Overwatch clone Concord and a… I’ll be tactful and say “look” at the remake of Silent Hill 2. And at what I think was my first Future Games Show, I watched a host with the look of a Baldwin brother and some of the worst public speaking I’ve ever seen. The games industry seems more perilously close to a crash than ever, and while these shows didn’t dissuade that feeling for me in the slightest, they did give us some stuff we’ll hopefully love after hitting the ground.

Oh, also Alan Wake’s getting a physical release. And UFO 50—the crazy meta retro game collection by Derek Yu and a bunch of indie devs that’s been in the works for years—is hitting Steam in September. Finally!

And then there’s Nintendo, the focus of our humble site. Most of us came into this with a certain understanding. The Switch’s currently unnamed successor is coming out; after years of leaks Nintendo has at least confirmed that. Even money it’s next year. And between claims that the Big N has been holding off the machine to build up as big of a launch as possible and the general knowledge about how this works, we got that this would be a quiet year. More remakes and remasters, fewer new things. But while we got the former, the latter defied expectations in a big, exciting way. This forty minute show was packed to the gills, and we’ve got all the details here. Plus, we’ve also collated Nintendo and Switch-related announcements from the presentations of Summer Games Fest and beyond. Both of those… right now.

News from the Direct:

• After the other two Mario RPG franchises got their new installments, Mario & Luigi: Brothership announced following the demise of series developer AlphaDream. Set on an archipelago explored via the half-boat, half-landmass Shipshape Isle, it features an all new art style to bring the series’ look into 3D and HD, as well as more elaborate prompts, powers, and extensions to that “one-player co-op” style. Releases November 7, “almost nine years” after the release of the series’ last new entry.
• Previously announced last month, Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition was shown off. Releases July 18, with pre-orders for both the digital version and a deluxe edition available now.
• Fairy Tail 2, an adaptation of the anime’s second season, announced. Releases “this winter.”
• FANTASIAN Neo Dimension, a 2021 Apple Arcade RPG made by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi and composer Nobeu Uemetsu, is coming to Switch after leaks a day earlier. Unlike the original two-part release, all of the game’s content will be included—alongside new stuff, like voice acting and extra difficulty options. It features a bevy of mechanics, including the ability to abduct enemies and fight them in a special “Dimengion,” and a unique art style that incorporates real world dioramas. Published by Square Enix, this version releases on Switch “this holiday.”
• Two years after its 2022 release and over a year after its last major update, Nintendo Switch Sports is getting Basketball—a wildly expanded counterpart of Wii Sports Resort’s miserable Basketball mode. Releases as a free update “this Summer.”
• MIO: Memories in Orbit, the latest project of A Plague’s Tale’s Focus Entertainment, announced. It’s a haunting 2D platformer with Metroidvania mechanics, precision platforming, a gorgeous art style. Releases “2025.”
• Disney Illusion Island is getting a free, detective-themed update: Mystery in Monoth. It’s a mystery in which you follow clues and solve the case. Updates today!
• Another former Apple Arcade exclusive, Hello Kitty Adventure Island, will be coming to Switch. Features a plethora of life simulator features as you explore a mysterious island. And yes, Badtz-Maru is along for the ride. Releases as a timed console exclusive “next year.”
• Looney Toons: Wacky World of Sports announced, featuring four sports, local co-op, and a unique cel shaded art style. Releases “this fall.”
• Among Us is getting new roles: Tracker (who plants tracking devices on crewmates), Noisemaker (who notifies the crew when killed), and Phantom (who can turn invisible). Releases today!
• Another new announcement—or, rather, a formal announcement after having been teased as “Project Magia”—Farmagia is a real time RPG / monster catching / farming / fusion game based around training monsters to fight enemies. Its characters were designed by Fairy Tail creator Hiro Mashima, leading to the anime franchise getting two more references in a Direct than normal.Releases November 1.
• Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is back after the original DKCR’s 2010 release. Looks pretty dang good, and it even features the bonus stages from the well regarded 3DS re-release. Releases January 16, 2025.
• Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, a reissue of the most acclaimed entry in the Dragon Quest series and a prequel in the first three games’ “Erdrick Trilogy,” announced. Alongside the stunning HD-2D graphics, it features “modernized” turn-based battles. Releases November 14.
• Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake was also announced, albeit without a release date. This follows up on leaks from days earlier that the remakes both existed and would be released as a single package.
• Announced in May, Funko Fusion is a crossover game based on those horrible Funko Pops, features dozens and dozens of ugly Funko characters and bland looking gameplay. Releases September 13.
• Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD got another appearance in advance of its release next week. Still looks good!
• THE NEW DENPA MEN by longtime Pokémon collaborator Genius Sonority was announced. A sequel to the 3DS and mobile Denpa Men games, it’s a free-to-play RPG adventure with local co-op and island-building features. Releases as a timed exclusive on July 22.
• METAL SLUG ATTACK RELOADED is a tower defense take on Metal Slug. Releases today!
• A year after its full release (and three since its early access launch), Darkest Dungeon II is coming to Nintendo Switch. Releases July 15, with pre-orders beginning today.
• Nintendo Switch Online is getting new games: A Link to the Past + Four Swords, Metroid: Zero Mission, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, and Perfect Dark. The first and fourth feature online multiplayer, and they all release today!
  • The latter two games will be coming in the Nintendo 64 Mature 17+ app, which follows the split Japanese NSO owners experienced whenJet Force Gemini (which has a much higher age rating there) launched on a separate N64 app.

• The latest Phantom Brave installment, Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero, features environment-based “grid-less” strategy fighting. Announced here and releases “next year.”
• Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics features seven of Capcom’s Nineties Marvel arcade classics: X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, and (in its first US re-release) The Punisher. Also adds online play, rollback netcode, a new training mode, and an art gallery and sound test. Releases “2024.”
• Super Mario Party Jamboree announced. One of the several games here set on an island chain, boards include a mall, racetrack, beach with a changing tide, and two from older Mario Party games. JoyCon functionality is also used for at least some of the “over 110 minigames.” There’s also a sort of Fall Guys-esque mini-battle royale in the Koopathlon mode, which allows up to twenty players. Releases October 17.
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom brings back the art style of the Link’s Awakening remake and a Hyrule that appears close to A Link to the Past’s for the first entry in the series to star Princess Zelda. Link’s been lost to one of several spooky rifts opening up everywhere. To “break conventions” of 2D Zelda games, Zelda uses a “Tri Rod” that copies and duplicates objects to allow player-directed progression. It even lets you make “Echoes” of monsters to fight with you, like exploiting a Re-Dead’s terrifying scream. Also appears to feature a plethora of classic Zelda characters, like Business Scrub and the Deku Tree. Releases September 26, along with a Nintendo Switch Lite based on the game.
• Just Dance 2025 Edition is also coming out. Releases “October.”
• In an act of superlative inexplicability, Sony’s Horizon franchise is coming to Nintendo in the form of LEGO Horizon Adventures. Co-developed and headlined by series creator Guerrilla and initially revealed at the start of Summer Games Fest after leaks days earlier, it’s a comedy take on Horizon: Zero Dawn. This is the second Sony franchise to appear on Nintendo hardware after MLB: The Show, and it will appear on Switch alongside PS5 and PC—not Xbox, with whom Sony’s rivalry has only gotten pettier—in the “2024 holiday season.”
• 2022 Annapurna darling Stray, a cat platformer in a cyberpunk world, is coming to Switch. Releases “this holiday.”
• Previously shown off in April, Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Games is a life simulator set in Middle Earth. Releases “this holiday.”
• Ace Attorney Investigations Collection announced, featuring both of Prosecutor Edgeworth’s mystery escapade spin-offs. Notable here is a re-release of Adventures 2, which was never released outside Japan. Features new hand-drawn character visuals that can be switched with the original sprites, alongside the art and music galleries that are customary with this kind of reissue. Release September 6, with pre-orders available today.
• The new project by the creators of Danganronpa, The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, was announced. The gimmick is that the protagonists have to defend their school from monsters for 100 days. Releases “early next year.”
• A remake of Romancing SaGa 2 and yet another shocking entry in the recently blossoming SaGa franchise, Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven, was announced. It has a “Timeline Battle” system based on the order of your party’s attacks, though I’m unsure whether or not it was in the original game. Releases October 24.
• After five years since Retro Studios officially rebooted the project (and seven since it was announced), Metroid Prime 4: Beyond was finally revealed as the customary final big reveal. Features… that guy, Sylux, one-time Smash Bros. darling who was teased at the end of the last game, but also gorgeous graphics and all the scanning, shooting, and Morph Balling Metroid fans love. Releases “2025”—as, I am at least strongly suspecting, a cross-generation game with the Switch’s successor.

Nintendo related announcements in other presentations. Remember that while this only covers games that are officially confirmed for Switch, several of the ones that didn’t will likely appear on the console / its successor at some point, whether or not it makes their initial launch. For instance, Studio Pixel Punk openly mentioned their desire to bring their upcoming Abyss X Zero, which appeared at the Women-led Games and Latin American Games shows, to “all platforms.”

• Summer Games Fest:
  • Sid Meier’s Civilization VII was announced after leaks days earlier, with a projected “2025” launch on Switch and other platforms.
  • Following leaks days before being formally shown off, Sonic X Shadow Generations’ release date was revealed to be October 25. Also featured (and also leaked) is a rather ridiculous Sephiroth-esque winged form inspired by an obscure, scrapped proto-Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2’s development.
  • Alongside showing a teaser of the upcoming Among Us TV show, Among Us creator Innersloth formally announced Outersloth, an organization based around sustainable production that will fund and has been funding both new and smaller indie developers without being a publisher or IP owner. They showed off six games: 2023’s Mars First Logistics, Battle Suit Aces (from Battle Chef Brigade’s Trinket Studio), Mossfield Archives, ONE BTN BOSSES (whose demo is available on Steam), Rogue Eclipse, and Project Dosa (Thirsty Suitors and Falcon Age’s Outerloop Games). I suspect most, if not all, will come to Switch at some point.
    • Outersloth will also be funding games from Visai Games (Venba), Strange Scaffold (El Paso, Elsewhere), and Coldblood Inc. (a new studio by a Celeste developer working on a project currently titled Neverway). Either way, this attempt to rethink game publishing is intriguing, and I wish to subscribe to its newsletter.
  • Horror film production company Blumhouse will be expanding into video game production. Six games were announced, including a collaboration between Her Story and Telling Lies’ Sam Barlow and filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg. As with Innersloth, these games mostly came without platforms attached, but at least their first game, Cozy Game Pals’ (Tokyo Snap and Good Doggos) Fear the Spotlight, will be coming to Switch with a projected “2024” release date after a 2023 release on Steam that was removed to add improvements.
    • Hours later, at Day of the Devs, Fear the Spotlight got a more dedicated trailer. It uses retro graphics akin to (but decidedly smoother than and distinct from) early 3D game graphics for its survival horror story set at a high school.
  • Although only announced for Switch hours right before the Direct, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind was revealed. It seems to be capitalizing on the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, and is being made by Digital Eclipse, who produced the Cowabunga Collection and other retro collections.
  • The latest product of that horrible woman’s fetid literary empire, Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions will be releasing on Switch and other consoles September 3.
  • Other games shown include Neva (another painterly, emotional drama by the creators of Gris, “2024”), Battle Crush (early access June 27), and the remaster of Monster Hunter Stories (June 14).
• Day of the Devs:
  • The final project of Coffee Talk creator Mohammad Fahmi (who tragically passed away in 2022 mid-development), Afterlove EP was shown off here and later in the Wholesome Direct. Developed by the studio Pikselnesia and published by Fellow Traveler, it’s a visual novel / narrative adventure / rhythm game about grief, love, and music in Jakarta. Releases “October” / “Q3 2024.”
  • Previously shown at the February Direct, the very innovative looking Arranger: A Role-Puzzling Adventure got its release date: July 25.
  • A Little to the Left’s second piece of DLC, Seeing Stars, was shown off at Day of the Devs. It releases on all platforms, Switch included, June 25.
• Over seventy games were shown at the June 8 Wholesome Direct. The ones confirmed for Switch include Caravan SandWitch (demo currently available on Steam), Discountry (“2025”), Critter Cafe, Garden of the Sea, Times & Galaxy (June 21), Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo (“2025”), Pine: A Story of Loss (“coming soon”), Afterlove (“2024”), Freeride (whose demo is now out on Switch), Kamaeru, a frog refuge (out now!), Minami Lane (released on Steam in February), Moonstone Island (June 19, released on Steam last year), On Your Tail (demo available on Steam), Petit Island, and Magical Bakery.
• Switch game announcements at the Latin American Games showcase included Prisma (via Kickstarter, intended for Q1 2026), Diesel Legacy: The Brazen Age (“2024”), One Card One Shot – Mafia (“2025”), Hidden in my Paradise (“Q3 2024”), Mark of the Deep (“Q3 2024”), Project Timi: Sasha’s Curse (“Q2 2025”), Naughty Geese (“2025”), Keylocker (“Q3 2024”), Extinction Rifts (“2025”), Super Farming Boy (“Q4 2024”), The Midnight Crimes (“Q4 2024”), Star Oceans: Wings for Hire (September), The Cabbage Effect (“2025”), Bittersweet Birthday (“Q1 2025”), Super Crane HD (“2024”), Eagle Knight Paradox (February “2025”), SoulQuest (“Q4 2025”), Saborus (“2025”), and Mariachi Legends (“TBA”).
  • The LAG pre-show also advertised games that are out now: Astor: Blade of the Monolith, Dungeon Drafters, Neurodiver, and Saviorless.
• Several Switch games were shown off at the Women-led Games show: Yes, Your Grace: Snowfall (“2024”), SunnySide (“2024”), Soulitaire, The Star Named EOS (July 23), Bubblegum Galaxy, and Duck Detective – The Secret Salami (which was released in May). Many of these didn’t include the Switch logo but had been announced for the console at prior events or press releases.
• Of the seventy-plus games at the Guerilla Collective show, confirmed Switch releases include the following: Volgarr the Viking (August 6), Neon Blood (“Q4 2024”), SteamWorld Heist II (August 8), Killing Time Resurrected, Tomba! -Special Edition- (August 1), Final Knight, Clock Tower: Rewind (“Fall 2024”), Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit, Demonschool (“Q4 2024,” with a new demo coming on Steam next week, and appeared later in the PC Gaming Show), The Transylvania Adventure of Simon Quest (“2025”), Urban Myth Dissolution Center (“2024”), Doubleshake, The Secret of Crystal Mountain, Grit & Valor 1949 (which later appeared in the PCGS),Star Oceans: Wings for Hire (“2024,” though it was stated for September in LAG), Bittersweet Birthday (“Early 2025,” also shown at LAG), Echo Generation: Midnight Edition (July 10), Elsie (also shown at the Access-Ability Show), Toxic Crusaders (“2024”), Iron Meat (“Late 2024”), Beyond the Ice Palace 2, and Renaine. The postshow also featured Crypt Custodian (“Summer 2024”) and Frogun Encore (June 25). It also showed Anton Blast (November 12), which wasn’t listed as a Switch release here but was shown in the April Indie Direct.
  • Guerilla (and, later, the Future of Play show) also featured perhaps the single most pointless announcement of the entire summer games season: Yooka-Replaylee, a remaster of Yooka-Laylee—a not very good game that isn’t even a decade old.

• The Future Games Show featured Wild Bastards (“2024”), Metal Suits: Counter Attack (“Q4 2024”), Sword of the Necromancer: Resurrection (“Summer 2024”), Duck Detective – The Secret Salami (already out, previously shown at WLG), Schim (July 18), Nikoderiko: The Magical World (“2024”), and First Dwarf (not identified as a Switch title, but announced for Switch in 2022).
  • Dredge also announced a new DLC expansion, The Iron Rig, releasing August 15. Shown at the Future Games Show.
• During its characteristically anarchic presentation, Devolver Digital revealed (among other things) Unholy Alliance, a free update to Cult of the Lamb that adds co-op play and new mechanics. Releases August 12.
• Tempopo, Witch Beam Games’ follow-up to Unpacking, is a sort of rhythm game take on Captain Toad, with you playing with and navigating compact diomara-like stages. Releases in “2024,” and shown at the PC Gaming Show.
  • Other PC Gaming announcements included the Nineties anime-inspired Wander Stars and Core Keeper (August 27, alongside launch of the PC version’s 1.0 update), Cat Quest III (August 8, as announced at April’s Indie World), and a demo on Steam for The Rise of the Golden Idol.
• Life is Strange: Double Exposure, announced at the Xbox show, zigs instead of zags by bringing us back to original Life is Strange protagonist Max Caufield, who’s got herself a universe hopping power and a new murder to both solve and prevent. The game launches on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC October 29, but a Switch port is confirmed. Worth noting is an IGN expose on the history of toxic culture at developer Deck Nine Games, specifically during the production of Double Exposure and its predecessor Life is Strange: True Colors.
• Alongside continuing their attempt to gaslight us on the quality of the name “XDefiant,” the Ubisoft Forward presentation revealed DLC for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown set to release this September.
  • Other Ubisoft Forward news: a new version of Monopoly (currently just titled “Monopoly”) will be coming to Switch, there was a new trailer for Biomorph (released on Steam April 5), and Brawlhalla will be getting an event and new character that came out on June 12.
• Yacht Club Games Presents 2024 had several Shovel Knight related announcements during a live streamed celebration of the retro classic’s tenth anniversary. The biggest was Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope DX, a “definitive” version of the original game meant to comfortably preserve the “historical functionality” of a game that has featured constant DLC additions for the past ten years. It also features many new features: “over twenty” playable characters, online and local multiplayer, rewind and save state mechanics, and “over 300 classic cheats” that alter graphics, difficulty, music, and more and can be combined.
  • Other YCG announcements: Shovel Knight Dig and Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon will both be getting free DLC (respectively, the final DLC Wicked Wishes and Paradox Pack, with a final Pocket Dungeon DLC adding online support coming later) and quality of life improvements “this summer,” the upcoming Mina the Hollower got an profoundly goofy live action preview, and (even more) Shovel Knight merch has been announced.
  • Additionally, Shovel Knight, Dig, and Pocket Dungeon will all be on sale at half price until June 27.
  • Finally, we did get an announcement of a new game. A sequel to Shovel Knight is in production, with comments implying that it will in 3D—presumably, a tribute to mid- and late-Nineties 3D platformers.
• Amidst years of public and protracted development hell, the Borderlands movie got its first trailer at IGN Live. Watch it if you dare.
  • The Thing: Remastered, a reissue of the 2002 The Thing adaptation of the same name, was also revealed at IGN Live. Releases on Switch and other platforms this year, with no firm release date given.

Videos:

Wolfman’s Soapbox:

“PLAY IT DAY ONE ON GAME PASS”

Almost every single reveal at the Xbox show had that same animation. The thing would have the Game Pass logo at the end alongside the publishing information, then this separate clip would play, then the announcer would explain that it was a Day 1 release. Not to tell a company what to do, especially since they had so much stuff, but I’ve seen your Game Pass numbers, Microsoft, and this feels slightly… desperate. But truthfully, you could smell desperation all the time, at every show, and it was awful. I hated Summer Games Fest this year. And it wasn’t even the games, which are fine as always, but just this sense of need and fear—a fear of an audience they can’t control or economic circ*mstances they helped cause. A sense that a few steps are all it would take for any of the event’s participants to fully collapse in on themselves. Ubisoft clearly wasn’t basking in unmitigated Sea of Thieves success. It took barely any time for Sony fans to turn on Concord, the latest step in the company’s push into live services. And wow, it feels like it’s been a long time since I remember the kind of hate being levied against Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Some of this was extreme (that Dragon Age trailer sucked, but, like, almost every trailer for a BioWare game sucks. It’s not indicative of the final product), but it collectively feels like a natural boiling point not unlike the heat. We all know what’s going on. Publishers are buying everything and blotting them out of existence the moment it’s inconvenient. Budgets are ballooning in ways that are fully unsustainable. This was months ago, but a Warner Bros. executive went into a meeting, explained that because Hogwarts Legacy was a huge success and Suicide Squad badly underperformed, they want to make more games like Suicide Squad. No amount of glad handing is going to make us forget how precarious this all is.

Admittedly, a lot of my animosity comes from one company. After two obscene acquisitions, Microsoft is effectively the biggest video game publisher on Earth… and it’s firing thousands of people, destroying studios out of some apparent resentment towards the idea of making products in this field, and potentially shrinking the giant IP slate they gobbled up. They’re a nightmare of gluttonous corporate growth. And frankly, all I could think during the show was “how safe is Obsidian when Avowed launches? How safe is MachineGames when Indiana Joneslaunches? How many of these developers or new IPs will get to flourish or evolve, or will we just see them all sent to the Fallout and Elder Scrolls and Call of Duty factories?” I’d like to just say “I don’t like DOOM’s trailer because it doesn’t seem ‘different enough,’” but the games are fully incidental. I’d have felt upset no matter what. Granted, the lowest point for me wasn’t even this show but Yooka-Replaylee, because… god, that is needless. I mean, theShovel Knight one is not dissimilar, but there’s at least a preservationist justification there, and for a much greater game.

The indie shows did their part to present a path for an industry that’s smarter, kinder, and actually sustainable (Wholesome Games is supporting the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund; Outersloth’s business model is designed to prevent the exact kinds of acquisition nightmares that are plaguing the larger studios). And the four main ones I watched showed a lot of cool projects, games I’m sure I’ll love in the years to come and could be the foundation of something far healthier than the gaming world we have now. And I did enjoy these presentations, too! But through no fault of their own, they did nothing to assuage the increasing certainty of mine that we’re heading to a crash. An aura of abyssal doom. Maybe I’ve been hitting this point for so long that I sound like a broken record. I’m sure if I go back to my earlier soapboxes you’d see this again and again. It doesn’t change my opinion, and frankly, it doesn’t change the situation we’re seeing evolve every week of layoffs and mergers and closings and confused corporate directions.

The Direct did help a lot, though. Brothership is doing its level best to get me interested in a Mario & Luigi game for the first time in fifteen years, the new Zelda looks great, I’m beyond happy to finally get Ace Attorney Investigations 2 in any form, seeing Metroid Prime after so long is really special, and it’s nice that there were so many new games on top of your remasters and remakes. In a low stakes year all around, there’s still new stuff, and interesting and unexpected stuff at that. We’re having our low expectations thrown out in such a big way. Echoes of Wisdom was unsurprisingly my favorite of the show, and the whole summer games season, but I was also quite pleased by Screenbound (though given that it’s Steam only as of now, I might need to wait a while), Squeekross, Arranger, South of Midnight, and the apparently great Fantasian. Again, there are things, many of them really cool. I can look at this and feel good. But my fears will still be here afterwards.