• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

How would you rate the June 9 2026 Nintendo Direct?

How would you rate the June 9 2026 Nintendo Direct?

  • A

    Votes: 103 25.2%

  • B

    Votes: 92 22.5%

  • C

    Votes: 82 20.1%

  • D

    Votes: 52 12.7%

  • E

    Votes: 35 8.6%

  • F

    Votes: 44 10.8%
  • Total voters
    408
C for me. Nintendo usually knock it out of the park but something didn't click for me this year. Not a big fan of the cel shading in the new Xeno' and as great a game as OOT is, do we really need another remake, even if they have given it a FF7 style lick of paint?

Too many remakes, last thing the industry needs is Nintendo playing it safe.
 
LavitzSlambert said:
I hear ya. We usually need to wait for September or January of that same year before we get those. I don't remember how many June announcements we actually get for the following year, but seems uncommon nowadays.
Click to expand...
I hope so. Usually on a console launch year, Nintendo will stretch a bit on their year one trailer reveals so that it entices people to stick around or be excited to buy the console beyond the next few months.

This time they didn't do that so I hope they show some 2027 stuff soon.
 
One thing I'm noticing is that Nintendo fan channels seem really disappointed with the Direct, while the mainstream/general audience response seems fairly positive. I wonder how much of this comes down to the fact that almost every major reveal (besides Xenoblade 4 and Kingdom Hearts) leaked in advance.
 
C+ for me, but would have been a B with more OOT and Duskbloods.

Nintendo has a solid lineup of exclusives for the rest of the year, but would be better if the Zelda and Star Fox games weren't remakes.

What pleasantly surprised about this Direct and the last week or so is third party support. While there were some ports, the clear majority of games shown for Switch 2 were new releases. And lots of them are coming in 2026.
 
Duskbloods and Zelda were cinematic, no gameplay. Everything else was old games. Ports. Nostalgia bait.

One of the worse shows I can remember. Where the hell is Mario, it's been 10 years.
 
youknow-you.gif
 
blacktout said:
One thing I'm noticing is that Nintendo fan channels seem really disappointed with the Direct, while the mainstream/general audience response seems fairly positive. I wonder how much of this comes down to the fact that almost every major reveal (besides Xenoblade 4 and Kingdom Hearts) leaked in advance.
Click to expand...
This is a good point. I personally voted C, but I feel the big hitters being leaked took some excitement away for me personally.
 
I could go either way on this one. I could buy SF, Splatoon Raiders, RH and OoT along with Sports Resort and maybe even FE. Because they look fun enough.

But I also could buy none of them because I feel like there's a lot of been there, done that sometimes literally.
 
Last edited:
Why the hell didn't they show Zelda? This tells me 2026 is BS and they did this for the shareholders because the Switch 2 would really look bad this year if all they had was Starfox and Fortunes Weave.

Fuck Nintendo with that tease. You have a whole direct and no gameplay for a supposed 2026 game? Doesn't add up.
 
Such a bizarre start to the generation from Nintendo. Thought they'd have more in year 2 than Fire Emblem, Pokopia, and Starfox. Im not even going to count Splatoon because that looks like a damn Switch 1 game.
 
diffusionx said:
Yea I probably would have given it a B with thirty seconds each of duskblood and Zelda gameplay

I've been waiting almost a decade to play Xeno 2 without that horrible image and now I can.

It just felt kind of blah I feel like Nintendo needed one more game. Not Mario, but like, F-Zero or Waverace or 1080. Star tropics. Something like that. Not a remake. Just a cool new game in one of their franchises. Switch 2 feels kind of "empty" still.

I would say if you don't own another console this is an A+ show though.
Click to expand...
Upon reflection. I think the issue is truly two fold.


1.) we needed 30 seconds of gameplay from Duskbloods, or OoT or both. I'm no longer convinced Duskbloods is a 2026
Game.

2.) second, what was lacking? Western 3rd parties. Mainstream ones. If MS, or EA would have shown up, that would have been plenty. Minecraft is not what in talking about.

If MS would have shown a quick COD message saying "coming in October". And another game. Any one of these would have been sufficient. MS Flight Sim, Halo, Gears 1, Rare Replay, Banjo Collection, older Forza, or Killer instinct. Especially Halo, Banjo, or Gears would have lit the Direct on 🔥!
 
Feel Like I'm On 42 said:
Why the hell didn't they show Zelda? This tells me 2026 is BS and they did this for the shareholders because the Switch 2 would really look bad this year if all they had was Starfox and Fortunes Weave.

Fuck Nintendo with that tease. You have a whole direct and no gameplay for a supposed 2026 game? Doesn't add up.
Click to expand...
It doesn't help shareholders to lie about the release date wtf
 
Feel Like I'm On 42 said:
Why the hell didn't they show Zelda? This tells me 2026 is BS and they did this for the shareholders because the Switch 2 would really look bad this year if all they had was Starfox and Fortunes Weave.

Fuck Nintendo with that tease. You have a whole direct and no gameplay for a supposed 2026 game? Doesn't add up.
Click to expand...

They didn't show more Ocarina of Time for two reasons:

1. It's part of the Zelda 40th Anniversary celebration (along with the upcoming movie) and they're waiting until September to truly roll that out, just like they did with Mario last year and Zelda during past anniversaries.

2. The Switch 2 price increase also hits in September. That's not a coincidence. They would rather pique your interest now but wait until the fall to close the sale when they'll be losing less on each system sold.
 
One of the worst presentations for a summer direct is crazy. Everything felt off about most of these announcements. To me, it's a clear "F" for Nintendo. Usually they are one of the best at presenting game announcements (even when they have a weak year). Crazy.
 
I gave it a C but maybe that is too generous.

I like Fire Emblem, but the new one looks kinda mid. I don't really understand the direction they are going here.
Fire Emblem saw a resurgence and its greatest success with the 3DS titles and Three Houses. And they just abandon that? Why?
And why are the character designs so lame?
Just take the successful titles and improve on them.

Same deal with Xenoblade. The best selling game in the franchise was 2, so why abandon that? 3 was bad enough. Definitely passing on this.

Then the rest was mostly just ports and remakes. No interest. Also I would be surprised if OoT actually released this year.
 
I do feel overall this was a pretty strong direct, and of course we have already had a third party showcase. And I can see what Nintendo are doing here.. they know a lot of third parties are going to be able to put some great triple AAA gamers on the new hardware, titles that where simply not feasible on the original Switch. They launched with Mario Kart World which is their biggest selling franchise consistently, and gave us a new Donkey Kong game, plus finally did the fan service and got Prime 4 over the line for both consoles.

They have had an awesome start hardware wise and are waiting for more sales before announcing the other big guns. My only issue is the first party releases seem a little bit thin on the ground... unless of course you count the remakes, Starfox although looking great is on it's millionth outing, Ocarina is also coming out for the third time, now of course we do not know a lot about this as yet... so I will reserve judgement.. And the new Nintendo sports resort has me divided, as part of me sees it as a simple upgrade to Switch sports, and on the other hand the island and Wii Sports resort is my best of the whole series.

There is and will be a lot of choice for potential Switch 2 owners, and you can visibly see the the development shift to the new hardware. But I do feel Nintendo and it's first party developers are pretty much copy and pasting it in for 2026.. And will be letting the third parties do most of the heavy lifting. I do feel this has a lot to do with the new mainline Pokemon titles releasing in 2027... Of course you do have to consider the wider demographic of Switch owners, and the fact they simply have more casuals to cater for, so games like Tamagotchi life, Pokemon pokopia and the Animal Crossing update, will bear fruit.

But for me at the moment the game I am most looking forward to is the the Lego Batman release.. Which as a massive Nintendo fan makes me scratch my head a little..
 
Only thing that interested me is Rhythm Heaven Groove and The Duskbloods.

Should've been called Dragon Direct. Every other announcement was for something with dragons in it, lol.

Honestly was hoping for F-Zero, mainline Mario, Mega Man, Pilotwings, Wario, Persona 4/6, Mischief Makers, etc.

Like, who asked for Nintendo Sports Resort or random Donkey Kong challenge bullshit? I absolutely love Splatoon but couldn't care less about Splatoon: Oops! All Salmon Run 🫩

The Direct was mostly ports of stuff I've played on other consoles and PC, baby games like Hello Kitty, and Fire Emblem 31 as well yet another Xeno game that somehow looks uglier than the one on Wii U.

These announcements just weren't for me and I was pretty annoyed with majority of the Direct. Just about as bad as how they keep putting out ports of 20-30 year old games and NS2 editions of games we just fucking played on the first Switch...

I'm just really not feeling that Nintendo magic with this console so far and that's a damn shame.
 
Last edited:
B+

Xenoblade Genesis jumped straight onto my most wanted list, Onimusha and Dragon's Dogma 2 are nice gets, Ocarina looks good from what we saw, I'll double dip on Stellar Blade cos I fucking love that game, and Switch Sports Resort looks like a fun throwback to the 2000s era.

Great show.
 
I am so confused by the amount of people disappointed that there was no 3D Mario. The 3D Mario team made Bonanza which came out less than a year ago.

Best case scenario is holiday 2028 for the next true 3D Mario.
 
Last edited:
It had some interesting announcements but a lot of mediocre showings.
The FF spinoff game could be good, but the font and other elements look very bad. I would hope that they would clean that up since Octopath Traveler Zero did.
Xenoblade Genesis is good, but there is a lot that is offputting about the trailer. I was most curious if they will be taking a new approach to battles and certain other elements as I found 3
to be a slog and to have the worst battles yet. The music definitely sounds on point though.
OoT is good, though it leaked and I knew it was coming. I'll have to see more to have any opinion about that. I actually want a Link to the Past remake more than OoT as that is my favorite, but both is ok of course.
Oh, and Duskbloods has completely lost my interest. I don't like the team's approach to multiplayer or recent obsession with it. I think it's likely to bomb or be very niche.
I do most of my gaming on PC, so crossover titles didn't really mean anything to me.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

  • Poll
How would you rate the June 2 2026 Playstation State of Play?
4 5 6 7 8
354
639
Gravemind replied
  • Poll
How would you rate Xbox Summer Showcase 2026?
2 3 4 5 6
257
258
Zannegan replied
  • Poll
How would you rate Summer Game Fest 2026?
2 3 4
179
329
NeverYouMind replied
Nintendo Direct June 9th, 2026 |OT| Let's-A-Go-Again
News  17 18 19 20 21
1K
1K
Mozza replied
  • Poll
How would you rate the Xbox Developer_Direct 2026?
2
71
1K
adamsapple replied
Top Bottom