Nintendo Direct 9.12.25 Overview and Thoughts

There’s a handful of reasons to be particularly interested in this Nintendo Direct. For one, it’s the 40th anniversary of Super Mario, and we all know Nintendo can’t pass up an opportunity that big. Secondly, the Switch 2 is only a few months old and can certainly benefit from having more games and release dates announced. There’s also the nearly decade long wait for Metroid Prime 4; will it release in 2025 or 2026? Lastly, this is the longest Nintendo Direct ever at 60 minutes!

Let’s see what we can look forward to.

Super Mario Bros. 40th Anniversary:

This Direct opened up by addressing the elephant in the room: Mario’s 40th anniversary! We were greeted by Mr. Miyamoto himself, and some unbelievably cool sketches and design drawings during the development cycle of different games.

The announcements during this section were oddly narrow and niche. The tickets for Nintendos museum have changed to a Mario based design, and they’ll be collobrating with the Kyoto Marathon. Neither announcement really relevant to 99% of gamers watching.

But a few more intriguing announcements await us…

The Super Mario Galaxy movie! Lot’s of rumors were swirling around about this. It was unsure if it would go fully with the Galaxy theme or just slap a “2” on the previous movies title.

Sadly, Miyamoto said this movie would “be the main event of the 40th anniversary.” Luckily that was a lie! We finally get access to Super Mario Galaxy 2 on Switch! For a few years now Switch players only had access to the original Galaxy via Mario 3D All-Stars.

Players can buy the physical bundle of both games or buy each game individually digitally via the e-shop.

There was also the announcement of Mario Tennis Fever! This one has a weird little “Adventure” mode where Mario and his friends have been transformed into babies. There’s also the titular “Fever Shots”.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder received a Nintendo Switch 2 version alongside “Meetup in Bellabel Park”. The Bellabel Park addition seems to focus on multiplayer content.

Lastly in the orbit of Mario- a new Yoshi and the Mysterious Book was announced! I love the art style of this game. It’s got a real storybook and almost stop motion look to it. It looks like it’ll have the typical 2D Yoshi gameplay. So if you’re a fan of Yoshi’s Island and the various sequels like Wooly World, you’ll have to keep an eye on this for Spring 2026.

Various Smaller Announcements:

Storm Lancers was shadow dropped by Probably Monsters. It’s a 2D roguelike action title. Doesn’t look too special.

Dinkum by Krafton was announced as a timed exclusive for the Switch. It looks like a cool little mashup of Animal Crossing with some light Minecraft elements.

Popucom by Grypline was announced. It’s a colorful and cartoony platformer with shooting gameplay. I definitely see some Splatoon influence.

We got some more information on Tomodachi Life Living the Dream. I personally can’t wait for this game because the first one was absolutely hilarious and fun. We got an ambiguous Spring 2026 release window for this title.

Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection was announced for both Swich 1 and Switch 2. It includes a documentary and exclusive interviews.

Final Fantasy VII Remake:

Final Fantasy VII Remake will be coming to Switch 2 on January 22nd, 2026. I have serious doubts Rebirth could ever run on Switch 2, so Remake will probably be alone on the system.

Hades 2:

The wildly anticipated Hades 2 got a nice new beefy trailer. Thankfully it has a Switch 2 version that can run at 120 FPS.

Kirby:

New amiibos based on Kirby Air Riders were announced. Another Air Riders focused Nintendo Direct led by Masahiro Sakurai will be coming soon.

Hyrule Warriors:

We got a look at the new characters and abilities in Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment. It’s coming sooner than expected on November 6th

Dragon Quest VII:

There were whispers of a Dragon Quest VII remake. It’s a little strange given they already remade it on 3DS, but it was announced today! And I must say…it looks damn good! I’m really just hoping they’ll fix the structure and pacing of this game, but it is notoriously cryptic. The game has the word “Reimagined” in the title. So I’m expecting there will be some big changes. It’ll be here on February 5th!

Virtual Boy:

For some reason Nintendo launched the Virtual Boy library on the Nintendo Classics service. I sound unenthused because they want you to buy a dumb Virtual Boy accessory to slip your Switch into. Luckily there’s a cheaper cardboard version for people who don’t want the actual model.

Fatal Frame 2 Remake:

One of the most beloved horror games of the sixth generation is getting remade! It is widely considered the best of the Fatal Frame series. We can expect it in early 2026.

Power Wash Simulator 2:

Everyones favortie virtual addiction is coming back! The sequel arrives to Switch 2 fairly soon.

Suika Game Planet:

Last year every streamer was addicted to Suika Game. It was a niche little puzzle game exclusive to Japanese consoles, but the sudden popularity caused them to make it availble in all regions. This sequel is launching in winter 2026 and focuses on the fruits gather in the middle of a sphere instead of just falling straight down.

Metroid Prime 4 Release Date:

A beautiful gameplay trailer of Metroid Prime 4 finally answered my biggest question: 2025 or 2026? Well, December 5th 2025 is the date and it’s not too far away!

Donkey Kong Bananza DLC:

DLC featuring DK Island will be coming to Donkey Kong Bananza. It was shadow dropped and is available now alongside a demo of the main Bananza game.

Pokémon Pokopia:

Well this was unexpected. At first glance the world looks like Minecraft, with an emphasis on building and growing crops. It looks like you can learn new abilities from various Pokémon. Not gonna lie, I’m very much over Pokémon, but this game looks cool.

And yes, this came with another trailer for Pokemon Legends Z-A. It launches October 16th. In a very scummy move, paid DLC was announced before the game has even come out.

More Small Announcements:

Danganronpa 2x2 was revealed for 2026. It includes the original game and a new scenario.

Dynasty Warriors Origins was announced for Switch 2 with some DLC. It’s coming to Switch 2 on January 22nd.

Monster Hunter Stories 3 was announced. Players can expect it in March 2026.

Little Nightmares 3 was confirmed for October 10th.

Resident Evil 7, 8 and 9 Confirmed for Switch 2:

Resident Evil 9 was shown to be running on Switch 2. This is an exciting breath of fresh air when compared to the many anime inspired looking games on the Switch consoles. This looks extremely good and we can only hope it runs well on Switch 2. It is confirmed for February 27th alongside Resident Evil 7 and 8.

Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave:

Aaaand straight back to the anime looking games. We finally got a new look at the next entry in the Fire Emblem series. I actually really like the character designs we’ve seen so far. Gameplay looks exactly as we can expect from the series. At the end there seemed to be some sort of tease regarding Three Houses.

We got a huge release window of 2026.

Final Thoughts:

Nintendo gave us a good chunk of things to look forward to these next few months. I’m sure there will be many naysayers who get upset at the lack of the next big Mario or Zelda, but those two big boys take time to cook. In the meantime, we’ve got Kirby Air Riders and Metroid Prime 4 in terms of first party releases coming soon, and many more third party games coming.

For me personally, it was nothing too exciting. But I still walked away with some fun announcements.