Well I am actually writing this intro before a Direct was even announced (today is September 10). Because it’s pretty clear we’ll get a Direct this month at the same kind of time as every September in the last 8 years, and I assume 13 or 14 for the date of the Direct (*Edit: okay it was 14, let me update the title*).

There are rumors going for this one from Pyoro, one of the only “leakers” that has actually been somewhat trustworthy so far. Namely a DK game that SEEMS to be Mario vs DK-related… hopefully it’s not one of the Minis games and actually a return to the original MvD, which was a take on Donkey Kong 94. Then one for an F-Zero game, which he is heavily hinting at being F-Zero 99 (please no). And one that seems to be hinting at a remaster of the 2 Trace Memory games (the Wii one never came out in America), or at least a Wii game and a DS game that are linked somehow. And there’s no other leaker saying anything credible. Would be funny if this Direct was the one where Pyoro lost his credibility.

My true expectation is, of course, that even a bad Direct has one or two cool things, so in the end I’ll probably have some thing to be happy about here.

Well, let’s go and watch this Direct! These are live reactions as I’m watching the Direct.

Well it happened. After recently predicting that Directs were a thing of the past because Nintendo replaced them with something I figured was better, Directs are making a comeback after not having any full-length ones since September 2019. I really liked the style Nintendo went with in 2020, with them doing shadow drops of game announcements 2 months before releasing the game, and having mini Directs for third-parties and indies. There’s many advantages to that, like keeping expectations in check (unlike, say, Cyberpunk, which had a fake “gameplay” trailer YEARS before release with a ton of features that weren’t even in the final game) and compressing the entire hype cycle to almost no time at all. It was just great seeing a game and knowing it would be in my Switch in just 2 months… even if Origami King sucked. I’d argue it’s objectively superior to announce games that way than having Directs and similar types of events. I mean, E3 is always just a pile of “here’s all these games you won’t be able to play for another 3 years and they’ll suck anyways”.

But I can’t deny the appeal of a Direct-style presentation. A bunch of announcements and such in one spot is fun. So even though I don’t usually post reactions to Directs… why not this time? The last proper non-mini Direct was literally in 2019, and this is a long boy with 50 minutes of content. Not gonna even attempt predictions, we just know about a Smash character (I mean, what else would they announce for Smash that’s worth even having the game in a direct for?) and… games for the next 4 months. Not much to go by and there’s not any rumors of note. My expectations are not very high, but it’s mostly because the Switch already has a lot of stuff announced for 2020, so who knows how much more it might get.

Note that I am writing this intro before seeing the Direct, and that I’m writing my reactions as I’m watching. I’ll include a more thought-out overall thoughts section at the end once the Direct is over (and I’ll edit my reactions to make sure this is readable).

Well it’s starting in a minute now, so let’s go!