Nintendo Directs have become relatively rare since the untimely passing of Nintendo president (and Nintendo Direct mastermind) Saturo Iwata, but Nintendo just rolled out the most substantial Direct in nearly a year. There was no news about their upcoming console the Nintendo NX, but there was a number of game announcements for the Wii U and 3DS. If you have 40 spare minutes, you can check the entire presentation out above.
The biggest moments were the announcements of new Star Fox and Paper Mario games for the Wii U. Star Fox Guard started life as Project Guard, an experiment Shigeru Miyamoto revealed a couple years back at E3. It’s now a full-fledged Star Fox game in which Slippy (yes, Nintendo is giving Slippy his own damn game) has to defend a base by placing cameras and defenses using the Wii U GamePad. Star Fox Zero and Star Fox Guard will be bundled together in a single package, which releases April 22.
Paper Mario: Color Splash essentially mashes up Paper Mario and Splatoon, as our flat hero has to return color to the Mushroom Kingdom with his special paint-dispensing hammer. Paper Mario: Color Splash hits sometime in 2016.
Other juicy tidbits from the Direct include free updates for Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, another 3DS Monster Hunter game and a new 3DS Kirby game where you ride around in adorable little mechs. YES.
What are your thoughts Nintendo fans? Looking forward to Paper Mario? More interested in Star Fox now that it’s two games in one? Head directly to comments section to chat.