Round Up: All The Games From The Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase - August 2020

These games didn't look bad, but in normal times they would have taken up a 5 minute segment of a 40 minute Direct. At this point any news of games coming to Switch is good news but I still can't believe it's been nearly a year since Nintendo had anything major to show.

SaGa Collection. That is all

Still nothing that I find compelling enough to make me turn on my Switch this second half of the year.

ZZZZZZZZ

Wake me up when you have ACTUAL games to announce Nintendo.

I'm interested in that tank game. Reminds of the good old days playing BattleTanx on N64 with friends.

@Bolt_Strike

ZZZZZZZZ

Wake me up when you have an ACTUAL original comment.

I'm not excited for anything here but I guess Crystal Chronicles Remastered might be interesting to try out..

Man, they really got everything Kinydom Hearts minus the actual gameplay, huh?

Collection of SaGa is neat and unexpected and the Rocky game could be nice if done well.

Im sorry, but this Direct was really bad. I didn't found any remarkable new announcement in here... And I don’t really like this Parters Showcase directs. I miss the old Directs. They need to announce one now. We need to see what First Parties Nintendo is preparing, bc it feels like a really bad year for Nintendo, specially this second half, where there’s no Nintendo games in the horizon...

I’m actually happy about this showcase, as it just leaves more room for a first-party Direct.

There were some surprises here for me though, especially Puyo Tetris 2.

I really am hoping for a bigger Nintendo Direct soon, but as far as I see where they are holding these smaller Partner Showcases this year. We might never see a very big one until next year. Cause obviously nearly everything has been postponed till next year. Here's hoping 2021 we will bounce back from this and come out stronger then ever before. 2020 sucked!

Right so that happened. That’s the first direct of any sort that has not had anything of interest for me. Hurry up with the real Direct please

@Emperor-Palpsy
Hope this Showcase was part of Nintendo’s strategy, so there’s more room for new games in a future Direct!

Decent announcements. Nothing mind blowing, but fine for what it was.

Some of these look ok, but none of them look like games people will still be talking about a year from now.

I am super hyped for the Final Fantasy Legend collection! The Game Boy is my favourite system of all time and it's fantastic to see it getting some love on the Switch. It's like everything coming full circle.

Love how it's a non Kingdom Hearts Kingdom Hearts game... They just couldn't give us the mainline series.

Story mode in puyo puyo tetris 2 sounds ace though.

I need to find out what PPvT2 offers that the first game doesn't, as the first game is still one of the go-to multiplayer games in our house. Other than that, I'm only really introgued by Captain Tsubasa and maybe FUSER, depending on the music included.

FFCC was always a mediocre game, and I'm not interested in a Kingdom Hearts game in name only. Wake me up when an actual KH game comes to the Switch, I'll be there with bells on.

Only thing of interest here to me is a collection of old black & white Final Fantasy games.

@Bolt_Strike There were no games in this showcase? Wow, I must have been fooled!

The Direct was OK. Nothing mindblowing, but some announcements got me interested.

We’re getting a Kingdom Hearts rhythm game....someone’s got a sense of humour.

I was hoping for something Persona-related... But I guess Atlus gave everything in the previous Direct.

@ianl579 honestly the fact you pointed out these are exactly the kind of stuff that would normally have been part of a 5 minutes rush of announcements make me wonder if that's the point;

I.e.: clearing it everything in smaller shorter Directs prior to a fully first party Direct.

Plus with how much stuff can release all at once on the eshop, it would make sense to now give more of a chance for indie/ third parties to shine through separate direct rather than crammed in a 5 minute blitz easily skipped as 'filler' during the formal Directs.

This in turn means that first party directs might be able to do just that: focusing fully on first party content.

We're also getting The Last Campfire tomorrow. Should be interesting.

Not a bad Direct but definitely not good either. Though there are many 'outside directs' announcements so I am not that bummed. I think Nintendo will pick it up after summer with bigger announcements.

Wish they could have ended on something new instead of 3-4 games coming out this week. Better than last time but still lacking that star-power I crave. Just hoping a full-fat Nintendo Direct may arrive before I have a nervous breakdown.

Creed looks like a PS2 game!

At least third party companies can't complain about Nintendo not giving them enough visibility as there is now an entire brand of Nintendo Directs dedicated to them.

All the focus is on Switch 2/Pro

And we need a rumored Switch PRO for this type of stuff?... $400 to play Just Dance @4k 🤦‍♂️

Awful list - now even "showcasing" F2P World of Tanks Blitz!

If Captain Tsubasa is broken on Switch (like Fairy Tail was) it is basically going back to collecting dust.

I really hope the rumors are true and they are going to be doing a proper Nintendo Direct in September because I haven't seen anything spark my interest in a direct since they announced Bioshock and Borderlands

@ianl579
What's "major"? We got Paper Mario: The Origami King last month. Is this not major enough? 🤔

War tanks looks nice but nothing that made me go, YAAAAAAAA WHOOOOOOOOOO LETS GOOOOOO not at all,

@MrBlacky No no its not.

Taiko no Tatsujin was the pick of the litter for me; I hope Bamco serves up a physical release for that one. Collection of SaGa is a solid announcement too.

The longer Nintendo goes without announcing anything significant, the more I believe those rumours that they're gearing up for a beefed up Switch Pro release next year with a host of games to showcase it.

I mean, does nobody else find it weird that their concrete upcoming plans consist of a Pikmin re-release? Sure there's MP4 and BotW 2 somewhere on the horizon, but aside from that, what notable announcements has Nintendo made recently?

Glad we got to see Mass Effect Trilogy, amirite??

Jumo force!!!! Need that game on my switch.
Looks great.

Was playing rocky on GameCube last night. It was actually a decent game, hopefully they can deliver but I haven't played anything good since the last fight night game on 360

UFC games I don't really count and are super goofy

@Snatcher
Then could you tell me the formula for a "major game"? Because for me Paper Mario was a major game. Why wasn't it for you?

@MrBlacky Well I havent gotten around to buying it from what I have seen it change to much of the other paper mario games the bosses still look good and the funny jokes are there just not the big hitter for me that I wanted from nintendo.

Taiko no Tatsujin. SaGa Collection. Puyo Puyo Tetris 2. Jump Force Deluxe. Big Rumble Boxing (review required).

However, overall that was quite average set of announcements. Oh dear.

I love rhythm games, I love puzzle games and didn't get the first puyo/tetris game.... I'm pretty happy!

@ianl579 And they really didn't show anything major then, either. The only new announcement was a port of Xenoblade. Nintendo hasn't given us an even half-decent Direct in a very long time.

@TheBigK 100% agree. Well said!

First off, I’d like to state I am a Nintendo fan boi through and through. I love Nintendo and the games they pump out. That being said Nintendo has me on my last string. Like in the movies when someone is hanging on a cliff edge and the fingers start to lose grip... Nintendo what are you guys doing?! These games are average at best. There’s been a handful of big title announcements and most of them are ports. Your online is terrible and needs to be reworked and your cloud saves aren’t even for every game. I really hate to be a downer but danggggg Nintendo has me looking to PS these days. Help me Nintendo... I’m slipping!

What a disappointment.

I literally bought Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum 'n' Fun immediately before watching the Direct, only for them to announce another game. Glad I never bought Puyo Puyo Tetris though, so I'll definitely check out the sequel. Might buy Kingdom Hearts, but I'm still undecided.

Only the Puyo Puyo game caught on my attention here. Not much else sadly.

None of them stir any interest from me.

Disappointing.

@SwitchVogel Good theory. I'm hoping 'more interactivity' means the Switch can be also used as a controller on someone else's Switch (like a Wii U pad). It's so Nintendo to reuse old tech (especially if it 'flopped').

However, Emily Rogers did pretty much say as far back as January that it would be a port year and smaller games. She must have had access to their road map, because the lady was spot on.

My personal theory is they were going big on Mario this year. Theme Park. Movie. Appearances at the Olympics. Lots of licenced products. Covid has delayed so much outside of the gaming industry, I bet it's been a logistical nightmare to coordinate. I mean the Olympics got postponed! So I reckon they'll have a Mario Direct.

I can normally find something of interest to me whenever they do a direct but I can honestly say I have zero interest in anything included in this direct. I’m glad if someone is excited about some of these but I found it disappointing. Luckily that last Nindies presentation was awesome! I guess I’ll be hitting up my backlog in the coming months.

WoT (Blitz or otherwise) is long overdue on Switch but the physical controls when you're not in a battle are essentially non-existant, instead mostly relying on a horribly implemented cursor. It's been a couple of years since I played it on my phone and while it's pretty good on Switch once you're in battle I still think it's better played on a phone from what I remember of it.

@SwitchVogel To be fair to Nintendo, we know very little about the holiday lineup for Series X and PS5.

I’m so glad Skyward Sword, the Mario 3D Collection, and the Switch Pro we’re officially announced.

Hopefully the rumored Friday direct is still happening

At least Nintendo is saved from having a new Call of Duty Black Ops on it. Activision is the devil unless we are talking about spyro, crash, or Tony hawk.

That was pants. Pants year, pants direct. Really hoping Nintendo announce something original for the year at some point.

@Ludovsky Great points. If there's a Direct coming soon, I hope that's the case.

@MrBlacky Sure, Origami King is Nintendo's biggest announcement of the year, but it's far from a headliner like Zelda, Mario, Smash, or Pokemon.

Good job Nintendo. Keep pumping out those bangers in 2020.

I remember the wiiu days. In that situation I actually started buying the odd wii game I’d missed or checking out more on virtual console. The switch you just don’t have those options

@gaga64 pretty much for me too

As much as I don't mind seeing these Partner Showcases, I will have to admit that today's Showcase was pretty boring, to say the least. It wasn't disappointing, but it wasn't really enjoyable to watch either.

@Grumblevolcano That's a good point, but the fact that we have new consoles coming out is enough to get people excited. Console launches usually aren't packed with must have games anyway, people just want to take the shiny new thing for a ride.

To be fair, I don't think Nintendo could reasonably offer anything to really compete with that hype in a couple months, but I've got a feeling they're planning a strong comeback early next year

@ianl579 Covid is slowing things down, hardly Nintendo’s fault.

@SwitchVogel I don’t think it’s weird, Covid is slowing many industries down, so it makes a lot of sense that pretty much all gaming right now is fairly dry, not just Nintendo.

Everything is abit meh... The direct looks like the system is on it's last legs but it couldn't be further from the truth as Switch is selling better than ever....
I agree as others have said, I think they will ride out the next few months with the current schedule, let the PS5 and Series X have all the hype into the festive season then hit back strongly next year...
Although, we still might just get a shadow announcement of the Mario HD compliation of games with a release date say a week before black friday...
That along with the Pikmin 3 remaster and some advertising should be enough to ensure strong sales over Christmas...
I'm sure they have some secrets they are keeping quiet about which will be announced early next year...
(Switch Pro/big AAA titles)
Well, I sure hope so...

@TG16_IS_BAE I think if Nintendo came out and said "There will be no more original Nintendo games in 2020 due to Covid delays" fans would be a lot more understandable. If Pikmin 2 is there only Christmas game they may as well own that...

Literally nothing interests me.
At least my wallet can breathe easily.

Their were some interesting stuff , and if the next showcase is like this then bring it on. AS the first one was terrible

I think Nintendo is forgetting that the majority of their consumer base buys Nintendo consoles for first party Nintendo games, yet they insist on only announcing a single in-house game every few months. Don’t get me wrong; I’m loving the increase in third party support, but we really need a Direct that includes Nintendo’s own titles. Even a Mini would do.

In little over a week, it will have been one full year since the last general direct. It is not as if we had one the other week, it is a case where we do not have anything to look forward to bar ports. I just want Nintendo to annouce what they as a company have got lined up.

Also if there is any truth to the Switch Pro rumour and they are holding games back for that, I am not particular sure if I want to support Nintendo at that point. For all I know, games for that system will just be more Wii U ports.

It sucks that I honestly think Nintendo were doing better during the Wii U days when it came to games.

Already have Captain Tsubasa deluxe edition pre ordered. I'm interested in big rumble boxing i'll be checking that out hopefully its good.

@JasmineDragon According to the description, the only clear things it has that are new are Skill Battle (character based abilities and item cards) and spectate mode. Plus a story, but I found every character intolerable, so meh to that, ha ha.

Better be only ten bucks if that's what's on offer.

@Lilash20 Switch has proven itself capable of running watered down versions of PC/PS4/Xbox ports. Both in graphical capability and features. Meanwhile, the spin-off games are generally less demanding and thus, easy to optimize on Switch.

Wow! None of the games shown interests me, not even a little bit! Greeeat!

The legends were true!

Well, this is somewhat disappointing.

@Lilash20 Maybe when we get the rumored Switch Pro next year

91 comments and none yet asking if Just Dance 2021 will be available for the Wii.

SaGa Collection sounds interesting. But that "hold the Joycan vertically", does that mean like Pokemon Let's Go's TV mode one-Joycon controllers. That... wasn't that great.

@MS7000 If you're talking in terms of first-party titles, then yes, I agree. Second-party titles have probably been better on Switch though. Third-party seems to be a free for all, good and bad.

@HobbitGamer lol. I'd cry of happiness if that happened... I miss the N7 crew. I'm not going to get my hopes up that it'll ever happen, after that ME3/Wii U travesty.

At least the switch has astral chain, that's the only real switch game I love that isn't on the wii u. I'm resorting to playing old wrps on steam during lockdown beacause Nintendo has been lame for 3 years straight now. The thing is Risen, Gothic 2 and Arx fatalis are still more fun almost 20 years later, (ok risen is only a decade old but still)

@Clyde_Radcliffe That would be amazing, and with their older leadership they may have done so. Their current leadership isn’t so hot though, so I doubt they would own up to that sort of thing.

@TG16_IS_BAE I don't doubt that COVID has greatly impacted Nintendo, but it doesn't excuse their inconsistent PR and absence from every major E3 replacement. If Furukawa or Doug Bowser simply went out and said, "due to the difficulties of working under the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been forced to delay several upcoming titles for this fall season and may not make any major announcements for several months, but are looking forward to delivering quality games in 2021", people wouldn't be so frustrated. Yet as it stands, Nintendo's 2021 slate is completely empty to our knowledge.

@ianl579 That pretty much sums up the frustration, I totally understand. With their current leadership, their PR has been...different, from what we are used to. They aren't as open, they are much more business-like and don't seem to be wearing the "Nintendo face" that their former leadership did.

Is Jump Force that bad? Is it at least silly fun?

The only big releases are the ones that were previously announced. Well, I'm sure there are some big announcements, but right now my mind is focused on my first impression, I have no time to reflect right now!

Fuser, Big Rumble Boxing and Collection of SaGa were the titles that interested me. World of Tanks is coming to Switch but not in the way I expected... I will see how it holds up and if this version makes it justice. The others look a bit niche to be honest, just as "Mini" as the Direct itself. There was clearly no Shin Megami Tensei V-like appearance, and that was the disappointing part. Where was Rune Factory 5?

The final three titles featured here were previously announced months ago... and they're all releasing this week! (except for the Minecraft Dungeons DLC which is releasing on September 8th) One thing's for sure, they're one of the last few big third-party titles announced for Switch with a release date.
The fact these were saved for last suggest they seemed desperate for more games. Hopefully that's a hook for a bigger presentation in the near-term.

I'll definitely try World Of Tanks, as I've never played it before. The soccer looks an option, and perhaps Puyo Puyo Tetris 2. Curiously, I've been waiting for the original one to be severely discounted, so now I'll just forget about it altogether. Let that be a lesson to game devs: plenty of people do wait for big discounts, and that PPT only recently got listed at 50% off (from an already high price), is a shambles for a game over 3 years old. Where you might have got $10 from many people, now you get nothing from many people.

My thoughts: melody of memory looks good. Final fantasy Saga looks good. Just dance dance 2021 looks the same as always but I love the box art. Puyo Puyo Tetris was great so im excited for a sequel, but what exactly is new enough to make this a sequel? Rocky game's sound effects seemed... off. I can't pin point exactly what it is, but something about it seems cheap.

Mini Direct Japanese version.

@Juga no concrete bud...just pour that money saved into a PS5. At least you know there will be some new Capcom games on there!

Once more nothing interesting...
I bought on summer sales overwatch and dragonball fighter z.
Very nice games both of them.
I am covered.

@YoshiTails puyo puyo tetris 1 is on sale right now. Owned the game since 2017, wasn't the biggest fan of the story so I skipped most of the cutscenes 1/3 of the way through. Definitely worth waiting for a sale for the second game. The local multiplayer has been absolutely worth it though! Really great times

Cool, Crystal Chronicles was the only one I had interest in and that was already announced ages ago.