Nintendo Directs have been going on since 2012. These pre-recorded broadcasts are one of only two aspects I can think of where Nintendo was actually ahead of their competition, the other being the popularization of gyroscopic aiming.
With the September 2023 Direct behind us, I want to look back at some of the worst or just generally weakest Nintendo Directs that have happened over the last 10 plus years. One particularly notable one I want to bring up is the one from [March 2016](https://youtu.be/_rSc12RTxx4?feature=shared), which was especially painful for us Wii U and 3DS owners.
From this Direct, you could immediately tell that Nintendo lost all faith in the Wii U. They just dropped off Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Bandai Namco’s Lost Reavers, gave unnecessary updates to Twilight Princess HD and Pokken Tournament, and suddenly and nonchalantly announced both Star Fox Guard and Paper Mario Color Splash. The latter of which was met with absolutely no controversy whatsoever. Pretty sure Nintendo actually spent more time hyping up Mario and Sonic Rio 2016 than the new Paper Mario too.
When it came to 3DS content there was a bit more stuff to be excited about, but not that much. Updates to upcoming localizations like Bravely Second End Layer and Dragon Quest 7, DLC for Fire Emblem Fates and Hyrule Warriors Legends, and two admittedly hype announcements, being Rhythm Heaven Megamix finally coming to the West and the next mainline Kirby game, Planet Robobot. But who cares when the real 3DS highlight was Game Freak’s new IP Pocket Card Jockey, amirite?
But the low points hit really hard. Star Fox Zero still failed to impress graphically, and that was only a month before release. SNES games were finally coming to 3DS Virtual Console, but for some reason only for New 3DS models and there would be no cross buy system in place. But easily the worst part of that entire Direct in my opinion was the 5 minutes of damage control for Metroid Prime Federation Force. Nobody was convinced to buy it during that showcase, and Nintendo actually turned off the comments on that separate trailer upload. And of course Nintendo stayed tight-lipped about their next home console, codenamed NX, and fans were frothing at the mouth for some kind of reveal.
So that’s my pick for “Worst Nintendo Direct Ever” and my reasoning for it, but what say you? What are your picks for the worst/weakest Nintendo Directs of all time and why?
by Asad_Farooqui
36 Comments
It’s quite often the case that the ‘worst’ Directs end up being retroactively better. There are almost always several games that maybe don’t make a huge impression on an individual viewer when announced or shown off during a Direct, but then go on to become huge hits and some of our favorite games .Ex: Hades shadow dropped on Switch during what most considered to be a ‘meh’ direct. That game went on to win numerous GOTY awards and a massive hit. We often go into a Direct wanting specific things, and leave them feeling disappointed we didn’t get what we were looking for, even though they were our first introduction to something new and awesome that we just haven’t gotten to actual experience yet.
Pretty sure the last one for me. So many remakes, princess peach game looks like it should be 40€ max but will be full price, besides 1 or 2 games also no interesting 3rd party stuff. Highlight of the direct were Amiibos
The farm one 😂😂
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There’s no bad Direct in a way. Each one just caters to different audience. The latest one? Mario fans would be happy with it. The one before that? For JRPG fans. The farm direct? For the chad farmers.
E3 2015’s Direct. It’s not even close. It’s like they looked at their core franchises and asked themselves, “How can we bastardize every one of these?”
Context: in 2015, it had been
– 4 years since the newest console Zelda
– 7 years since the latest console Animal Crossing
– 8 years since the last Metroid Prime
– 9 years since a new Start Fox game released.
We got:
– Triforce Heroes, a handheld multiplayer Zelda. This game was also peak Nintendo Treehouse cramming stale memes into their translations. Game turned out OK, but first impressions weren’t good and we still hadn’t heard what the new main Zelda game would be
– Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival. What the hell?
– Metroid Prime Federation Force. A chibi style handheld multiplayer game. Not calling it a Metroid game, because it certainly wasn’t.
– Star Fox Zero & the ridiculous little bonus Guard game they threw in with it. The irony is that Guard was more fun than the main game.
Then they spent what felt like 30% of the presentation talking about the already-announced Yoshi’s Wooly World.
We also got the most maligned Paper Mario entry in the series, and their showstopper at the end was… Mario Tennis and confirmed amiibo support for Mario Maker. Sure, why not.
E3 2015 felt like repeated kicks in the teeth. I don’t think a single person was happy. It’s really unfortunate that Iwata died a month later. His last direct interaction with fans was an apology letter for failing to meet expectations. Kinda sobered the fans up, in a way. I wish he could have seen the runaway success of the Switch.
I quite enjoyed this direct. I wasn’t expecting any bangers since were at the end of the Switch’s lifespan. I’m just happy we’re getting Another Code and Eiyuden Chronicle.
E3 2018. They spent the first 17 minutes doing a normal presentation, and the remaining 25 minutes going over Smash Bros. Ultimate in great detail. That part should have been a separate Direct. Horrible layout.
Why is the direct removed?
Most 2015 and 2016 directs. It really felt likey they have nothing to show. Even on the 3DS side things, most announcements is Nintendo finally announcing they are localizing a Japanese games months or sometimes years after they came out in Japan.
Most of the WiiU’s directs were a disaster
Not a direct, but the wii music presentation. That or the Skyward Sword reveal.
That one that was 98% farming sims
E3 2015’s Direct was absolutely terrible. It pretty much confirmed they had waved the white flag on the Wii U/3DS, but also felt like they had completely misread what pretty much casual gamers, core gamers, and Nintendo fans had wanted.
Not ahead of their competitors? What part of them making fully fleshed out, not broken on release games, that are fun to play for just about everyone is behind their competitors? I’ll take switch graphics and frame rates over half baked bloated games full of monetization any day. Nevermind that Nintendo games look fantastic, they know how to push their own hardware
This last one didn’t thrill me much because it was mostly stuff we already knew was coming. I’m excited for Wonder and RPG and the Kart wave but we already knew those were coming. Princess Peach I’m not sold on and again it’s not a new announcement. So the big reveal was Thousand Year Door which I’m glad for the people who have been waiting but I already own it and have played it more recently so not too exciting. My takeaways were Horizon Chase Turbo 2, Prince of Persia (which we already knew about), and the Tomb Raider collection. We also already knew about Luigi’s Mansion 2 which is graphically not looking great. And we got the announcement for a mini Mario DK game which is a $50 remake of a GBA game. They could have just given us the game on GBA now that it’s part of NSO but they wanted to charge $50 for it. DK has been rumored for so long and this game is not the one everyone was hoping for. Also, still no news on Prime 4. I watched Kit and Krysta react to the direct and they said the guy who hosted it looked bored (I don’t know him well enough)
One of two? That’s like Nintendos whole thing is being ahead of the competition outside of like specs as of late and online play.
I never really am disappointed or let down by directs. There’s not really a shortage of games available to play at any given time. There’s this weird like constant need for new stuff in the gaming community. I know for a fact most gaming enthusiasts have a backlog of games. There was a bunch of great stuff in the latest direct, but some are like it was bad because there wasn’t enough brand new stuff. Or they got hyped up and expected other stuff because of rumors. There’s been too much negative surrounds this last direct.
Nintendo has done a really good job of destroying the notion of a “bad” direct by separating them from established gaming media blowouts and doing them much more frequently and smaller. There are disappointing ones when we haven’t gotten a truly great Nintendo game in a while tho.
I didn’t watch most of the pre-SSB4 ones, and a few of the ones that were during its hype cycle as well, but of the ones I actually saw, there was the September 2022. Farming Sim. After Farming Sim. After Farming Sim. And then Miyamoto hyped us up for Pikmin 4, only to spend more time to promote Bloom. I remember saying “This direct sucks!”. But hey, at least we got a Return to Dream Land remake (especially so soon after Forgotten Land)
2020 partner directs are the ones that I just walked away with nothing
Idk but the last one is the best one for me by far
Paper Mario TTYD squad rise up!
I remember E3 2018 being so boring on the general side of things.
2015-2016 was a true dead zone.
I am actually impressed Nintendo has maintained a solid level of hype through this transition period between the Switch and Switch 2
Probably most 2015-16 directs, AKA the dark age of modern Nintendo
All the ones that don’t have anything I want
Not exactly the question you were asking, but the worst PART of Nintendo directs to me are how they always have Todd from HR doing the same cheesy voice over for every. Single. Trailer.
“Learn how to zomBE the best killer in Resident Evil 4. And watch out for that chainsaw on your jugular – ouch, that looks like it hurt!”
Even if the game didn’t appeal to you, did any of you notice how great the Unicorn Overlord trailer felt because they actually had someone competent do the voiceover for it?
I’m mixed about the Wii U era Directs because we had the best and the worst. We had the worst game announcements but the most fun with Reggie, Miyamoto, Iwata, and Co. The Directs themselves were often better than the games. The Tomodachi Life one stands out for this.
Tokyo mirage sessions was quietly a great game that was way way better than it had any reason to be
I mean it’ll be subjective. But in recent mind, that unintentional cat one.
Because not only we’re almost all of the games just upgrade mobile tier games involving cats. But the fact that so much of it being around cats and it not being intentional felt weird.
So much hate at the end of the switch lifecycle, hyped for MvDK, Mario RPG, Peach, TYD
Any Mini Direct or Partner Showcase. Everytime one of those is announced all hype is immediately deflated.
I only started watching directs after I got my switch lite in March of 2020. Imo the direct we had a couple of days ago is the worst Nintendo direct I have seen in all the directs from the past three years. Pretty much just remakes and ports. Then again that’s to be expected with the new console being rumored to be releasing soon and honestly after the direct this week I honestly think that the new console is coming sooner rather than later
There are no bad directs.
> These pre-recorded broadcasts are one of only two aspects I can think of where Nintendo was actually ahead of their competition, the other being the popularization of gyroscopic aiming.
Wat? Portable gaming? D-Pad? Analog stick? Shoulder buttons? Good 3D game design? Controller feedback?
There’s so many things now seen as standard that Nintendo brought to the gaming world.
I think I’m in the minority and value my time more now so while at the time I loved back when Nintendo has personality and charm in their Nintendo directs looking back I see all the padding, pacing, and filler issues I feel like every Nintendo direct gets better with each one since it feels like Nintendo is actually listening to their fans although that’s one of my conspiracy theories 😂
**Recent Partner Directs in general…**
It basically boils down to 3rd party devs offering C-tier games and leftovers instead of porting their major games.