November 5th Nintendo Direct Recap

Today marked the first new Nintendo Direct in a while, actually around E3. The Directs since were based on an individual game like Bayonetta 2, but it looks like it’s business as usual with Mr. Iwata back from surgery.
The Direct didn’t even hesitate to drop a bomb. At the first second, we see a remake of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for the Nintendo 3DS just like they did Ocarina of Time’s back in 2011. This was one of the most requested games Nintendo received, and I hope you are all happy to see it happening. In traditional fashion, there seems to be a European-exclusive limited edition with a steelbook case, double-sided poster and Majora’s Mask pin.

After Iwata briefly discussed how Majora’s Mask works, Bill Trinen comes in to detail a few upcoming games.
First up was Intelligent System’s Codename S.T.E.A.M.. In this obviously parallel 19th-century, you control an American team led by Abraham Lincoln tasked to get rid of aliens in London (watch the trailer below if you don't believe me). Though in the Direct, we learn that we can actually use Abe Lincoln alongside Fleming, Lion, Tiger Lily and Tom Sawyer. Fleming can use an “All-America” Eagle gunas well as a real bald eagle. Lion, the one from the Wizard of Oz, has a Lion Launcher that allows him to pounce across the battlefield and can roar to take out enemies. The Native American Tiger Lily is quicker than the rest and has a healing mortar as well as other healing moves like Healing Wind. Tom Sawyer from Huckleberry Finn can hit foes with a punch gun, plant landmines and scout traps. If you haven’t seen it in action, it plays like Valkyria Chronicles.

Ultimate NES Remix for the 3DS contains most of what the 2 NES Remixes on Wii U have (which are also hitting Wii U on a disk), but the 3DS compilation will have online leaderboards, Speed Mario Bros. (a port of Super Mario Bros. with double the speed) and Famicom Remix, a collection of Famicom games only released the Japanese version.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was next and while nothing new was unveiled, the game looks awesome, especially with the addition of Toadette. Trinen used Toad as an opportunity to discuss their new initiative to allow you to pre-order eShop versions of games now and have the game preload on the Wii U.

The amiibo figures are a big push for Nintendo to revitalize the Wii U and allow a new platform to expand from it. With Super Smash Bros. coming out we know how they’re used in that, but we finally see what they can do in other games. In Mario Kart 8, using the Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Captain Falcon, Kirby and Fox figures will allow you to unlock an outfit of them for your Mii. In Hyrule Warriors, Link’s figure will have you unlock the Spinner from Twilight Princess. These functions seem a little lame and limited (I mean they’re used once in these and that’s it) but hopefully we’ll see a more Skylanders-like game out of them.

Speaking of Mario Kart 8, we now know that we’ll see the first DLC pack launch on November 13th and will contain the Excitebike Arena, Hyrule, and Mute City from F-Zero alongside five other tracks (three of them remade from other Mario Karts). You’ll also get Tanooki Mario, Cat Peach and Link as playable characters and new karts like the Blue Falcon.

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse seems to be Nintendo’s Q1 Wii U game and will play just like Kirby Canvas Curse, but now with 4-player co-op, which honestly completely breaks the game.

There was also the trailer for Super Smash Bros. for Wii U that introduces the character Duck Hunt:

In a bigger surprise, Duck Hunt will hit the Wii U Virtual Console soon, and according to the warnings underneath, will require Wii Remotes. It is a light gun game after all.

Next Nintendo’s Senior Licensing Marketing Manager, Damon Baker, wanted to discuss Nindies (Indie devs on Nintendo systems), Sonic Boom’s demo for 3DS that launches tonight, Persona Q’s 3DS XL and the creepy Mario & Luigi Feline outfits for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. There’s also a Commander Video trophy for Smash Bros. Wii U that encompasses the success Nindies have with Nintendo. Many Nindies were interviewed by Baker and are all on Nintendo's YouTube channel. Here's his interview for the Wii U-exclusive Swords and Soldiers II by Ronimo:

Next was Shigeru Miyamoto and his announcement of the Pikmin 3 Short Movies. These three episodes were storyboarded from Flipnote Studio and released today for both Wii U (in HD) and 3DS (in 3D) for $4.99 each. He also announced a demo for Pikmin 3 released today, perfect timing for the game’s launch 15 months ago, with the ability to transfer the saves to the full version.
Iwata then discussed Xenoblade Chronicles X, and that the game will use the GamePad for navigation purposes. The game will have a much more vaster world to explore than the first Xenoblade (which was already big in its own right) and that towns like New Los Angeles will have gigantic towns to explore. The game is still slated for 2015.

Last on the Direct was Splatoon, the online multiplayer shooter made from younger devs within Nintendo, and behold the game actually has a single-player campaign! It seems to be very platformer-like (Super Mario Galaxy to be precise) but with shooter controls, so this will be very interesting when the final product launches this Spring.

And that’s it for today's Nintendo Direct! Anyone shocked that the New 3DS wasn’t mentioned, because I wasn’t with the holiday season coming up. But Majora’s Mask was a nice shocker for the beginning for all of us to enjoy, and any news Xenoblade X-related is appreciated.