More Thoughts From Me Special Edition #4: 3DS Nintendo Direct Excitement

Nintendo of America (and all of the other Nintendos) held a 3DS Nintendo Direct today. I loved almost every minute. I’m not going to say there weren’t a couple of disappointments, but, overall, I thought it was a great Direct. So here we are with a new More Thoughts Special Edition! What did I like during this Direct? What did I love? What were the disappointments? Let’s find out!

When Nintendo announced a new Direct for today, I tried to not get too excited. I just hoped that Nintendo would talk about the Animal Crossing New Leaf update release date, when Dragon Quest 8 was coming, and maybe give us a couple of surprises. Well, Nintendo did what I hoped (sort of) and gave us plenty of surprises!

First of all, I’ll get the disappointments out of the way. I was really hoping we’d get a release date for the Animal Crossing New Leaf update and it would be out this month. Nintendo announced that the update is coming holiday but didn’t say when. I’ll get to what excited me about this section of the Direct in a bit. As for Dragon Quest 8, we found out that the game has been delayed till 2017. This wasn’t totally unexpected since Europe is waiting that long, but it was disappointing. I really wanted that game for Christmas! However, there were plenty of cool surprises to make up for these disappointments.

Animal Crossing New Leaf’s update looks like its going to be even bigger than we previously thought. Nintendo showed off the update and it looks amazing! We’ll be able to use cards and figures that we already have and Nintendo will be bringing out special amiibo cards that will give us new villagers for New Leaf! These villagers will appear in mobile homes. This update is stunning. There’s more information to be revealed about the update and it’ll happen in a mini New Leaf Direct this fall. I love Animal Crossing. This was absolutely my favorite part of the Direct, however it wasn’t the only great part of the direct.

In a moment that truly stunned me, Nintendo revealed Super Mario Maker for the 3DS. Now, I have Mario Maker for the Wii U already but that doesn’t mean I’m not excited for the 3DS version. I love that you’ll be able to create Mario levels on the go, play Wii U Super Mario Maker levels, and share Mario Maker levels via street pass/local. And the game is coming this year! In December! This was a really awesome reveal.

Another great reveal was Yoshi Woolly World for 3DS. I never would have thought they’d be able to put this game on the 3DS. Yes, again, we have this for Wii U but the game looks fantastic on the 3DS. This one is coming next year! There will also be a Poochy amiibo next year and that looks like something my mom will want. Although, she should hide it from me cause I want it too!

There were other fantastic reveals too. The new Mario Sport game thats coming next year looks like a lot of fun. I’m especially fond of the horse racing. The Pikmin 3DS game revealed at the end of the Direct was another out of nowhere reveal and that game looks like a ton of fun. There are also things that are coming today, such as a new Streetpass update (and new games that looked fun), Skyward Sword for the Wii U (Wii download), and some predownloading action such as Dragon Quest 7! Quite a few of the games showed today are coming out in September. But there are cool looking things coming in October-December too.

Next month, we can expect Disney Magical Castle which looked fun. This winter, Nintendo will have some new Link amiibo (!) and Mario amiibo! Plus, the NES Mini was shown off again, Mario Party was shown (and looks good), and of course the previously mentioned Super Mario Maker is coming in December. Nintendo did mention Wii U briefly, but just far as the indies go. I’m not too disappointed with that because this was a 3DS Nintendo Direct. Nintendo completely delivered in this 3DS Nintendo Direct. If anyone tells you this Direct wasn’t amazing, then they shouldn’t be a Nintendo fan. The company completely over delivered and gave us a ton of things to think about. I know I’m probably forgetting some of the things they mentioned (wait! The Tank game looks cool too).

So, yes, I was very happy with this Nintendo Direct. I want to watch that Nintendo Direct again! Especially the Animal Crossing part! Wow. What a great time to be a Nintendo fan.

Btw, for those who were saying the 3DS is dying….yeah. That seems very likely he says sarcastically.

What did you think of today’s 3DS Nintendo Direct? What was the game that you were most surprised by? Which game do you want the most?!

I’ll be back next week with a look at Animal Crossing amiibo festival. Spoiler: I really love the game!

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone. Thank you Nintendo! You are the best!