Nintendo kicked off 2022 with their first Nintendo Direct. While no mention of the highly anticipated Breath of the Wild Sequel, I think they kicked of 2022 with a fairly strong Direct. Plenty of great announcements to get Nintendo fans started with the new year.

My personal highlights of the event are the Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, LIVE A LIVE, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 announcements. The new Fire Emblem Warriors may not be what traditional Fire Emblem fans were hoping for, but still looks like a fun extension of the Three Houses story. I wasn’t familiar with LIVE A LIVE, but I love the HD-2D look and the story/settings look intriguing to me. The newest installment of the Xenoblade Chronicles series looks amazing and is gearing to bridge the first two games together.

My honorable mentions are Front Mission 1st, SD Gundam Battle Alliance, EarthBound and Earthbound Beginnings. I’m all for re-releases of classic games. Big fan of EarthBound for the SNES, so I’m excited for that and Beginnings, as I haven’t played that. I’m familiar with the Front Mission series, but never played any. I’m a fan of mech games and tactical RPGs, combine that with the remaking looking good, I may give this a shot. As for SD Gundam Battle Alliance, I’m just a big fan of all things Gundam, and that gameplay looks right up my alley.

While not full game announcements, the free update for Metroid Dread and the new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC look great. Always game for free updates; but that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC is really making me want to get MK8 for the Switch. I have it for the Wii U, so didn’t see a need getting it again. Ugh, this is difficult.

In case you didn’t watch the event and want to see everything for yourself, here it is:

Here is also a rundown of everything announced with the release dates and links to their individual videos:

• Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (June 24, 2022)
• Advanced Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (April 8, 2022) –
• No Man’s Sky (Summer 2022)
• Mario Strikers: Battle League (June 10, 2022)
• Splatoon 3 – Salmon Run Next Wave (Summer 2022)
• Front Mission 1st: Remake (Summer 2022)
  • Front Mission 2 Remake also announced
• Disney Speedstorm (Summer 2022)
• Star Wars: The Forced Unleashed (April 20, 2022)
• Assassin’s Creed The Ezio Collection (February 17, 2022)
• SD Gundam Battle Alliance (2022)
• Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition (April 7, 2022)
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land (March 25, 2022)
• MLB The Show 22 (April 5, 2022)
• Kingdom Hearts Integrum Masterpiece for Cloud (Released)
• Klonoa Phantasy Reverie Series (July 8, 2022)
• Portal: Companion Collection (2022)
• LIVE A LIVE (July 22, 2022)
• Nintendo Switch Sports (April 29, 2022)
  • Online Play Test February 18 – 20, sign up @ sports.nintendo.com
• Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival (2022)
• Triangle Strategy (March 4, 2022)
  • Triangle Strategy Prologue Demo released and is playable to the end of Chapter 3. You can transfer save data to full game.
• Cuphead – The Delicious Last Course (June 30, 2022)
• Metroid Dread Free Update w/ Dread Mode & Rookie Mode (Released)
  • 2nd Update w/ Boss Rush releasing in April 2022
• EarthBound (SNES) & EarthBound Beginnings (NES) (Released)
• Zombie Army 4: Dead War (April 26, 2022)
• GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon (Released)
• Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles (June 10, 2022)
• LEGO Brawls (Summer 2022)
• Two Point Campus (May 17, 2022)
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass DLC (Pre-orders Started)
  • Includes Waves 1-6 w/ 48 Total Courses Added for $24.99
  • Wave 1 releases March 18, 2022
  • Included with Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (September 2022)

Nintendo’s off to a good start with 2022 in my honest opinion.