More Thoughts From Me #103: The State of the Nintendo Direct

So…we had a Nintendo Direct last week. It was Nintendo Direct Mini to be exact. During that Direct, we got some new announcements. A lot of people that I follow seemed to like the Direct. I heard there were people who didn’t like it, but I never saw those comments. Well, ok, I did see those comments from one person: myself. I didn’t care for the Direct. I stated why in this article. However, I want to talk about that Direct a little bit more and talk about Nintendo Directs in general.

The Nintendo Direct we got last week was…not good. I know there are many people who would disagree with me. We all have our opinions though and my opinion is that it wasn’t good. It wasn’t just the content of the Direct though. It was also the presentation and the way in which we got the Direct.

Lets face it: Nintendo hasn’t been the same since Iwata died. Yes, the Nintendo Switch has doing great and the company has been giving us a lot of good games. That being said, Nintendo doesn’t have fun anymore with their Nintendo Directs. We don’t see humor or weirdness in these Directs. E3 has even better a pretty straight forward affair.

I always loved Nintendo’s weirdness and humor. I thought it was great to see Reggie and Bill and the others just bring us these Directs in a very special and interesting way. Recently though, we haven’t been seeing any of them in the Directs.

Last year we saw presentations with a host who presented a list of titles to talk about. Last weeks Direct just showed us games and had no host, just a voice over.

I know for most fans its all about the games. Probably a lot of people didn’t care about Nintendo’s humor or since Nintendo is bringing the games, it doesn’t really matter to them. For me, it seems like Nintendo is becoming much more a company that wants to sell games and thats it. Iwata’s Nintendo was all about selling games and having fun while doing it. In a way, I do understand that they want to reinvent Directs now that Iwata is gone, but did they really have to suck the fun out of them?

And then there’s the way we got this Mini Direct. Nintendo just put the Nintendo Direct mini online without even announcing it. Yes, I realize that a lot of people thought that a Direct was coming but we didn’t know that one was coming for sure. I know I went to bed the night before thinking it wasn’t going to happen and then I woke and the Direct had already aired.

It feels like Nintendo just said, “Well, they already know ones coming, so lets just put it up.” Either that or they just threw together a Direct at the last minute. Frankly, given the content we got in the Direct, I tend to think they just threw together a last minute Nintendo Direct because everyone was expecting one. We had no host (just a voice over), no warning, and a bunch of games that they could have easily been announced separately.

Don’t get me wrong: I love a good Nintendo Direct. I love seeing new games announced and all that. But Directs just don’t seem fun anymore. Maybe its time that Nintendo thinks of a different way of getting game news DIRECTLY to us. I don’t know what that way is. I guess Nintendo hasn’t figured that out either…

What did you think of last weeks Nintendo Direct Mini? Do you think I’m right or wrong about Directs not being fun anymore? And can you think of a new way that Nintendo could deliver game news to us?

Next week: I will give hands on impressions of something that I thought I’d never get to give hands on impressions of! Thats pretty vague right? I’ll announce soon via twitter what next weeks column will be about. Stay tuned to @df2506!

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed here are mine and mine alone. One of these days we’ll see Reggie, Bill, and the gang again. Right?