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Here’s everything announced in the latest Nintendo Direct Mini

Nintendo held a Direct Mini livestream on September 17, and it featured a number of games from third-party Nintendo publishers for the Nintendo Switch system.

The biggest news focuses on a pair of games set in the Monster Hunter universe. Nintendo announced both Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin. 

Another highly anticipated game, the indie title Hades, was also showcased.

Here’s a roundup of everything that was announced.

Monster Hunter Rise and Monster Hunter Stories 2

Monster Hunter Rise - Announcement Trailer

Monster Hunter Rise is a fast-paced, sword-slashing open-world game set against a backdrop of locales like leafy mountains and vast plains. The trailer for the game featured new monsters and tactics, including a battle where two monsters were fighting each other, and the player had to figure out how to navigate the fracas.

Each fighter also gets to use a “buddy,” an animal that helps in battles. The trailer also showcased a hook shot mechanic that allowed for grappling onto faraway surfaces.

A few monsters were featured in the trailer as well, including a large bird-like creature with a pointy beak named Aknosom, a ferocious crocodile-like monster named Tetranadon, and a giant, wolf-like, glowing-eyed menace named Great Izuchi.

It comes out March 26, 2021.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 - Announcement Trailer

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, is releasing in summer 2021. It’s a narrative game based in the Monster Hunter universe. The story centers around a girl who’s given a monster egg just as its species is mysteriously disappearing.

Hades

Hades - v1.0 Launch Trailer

Supergiant Games’ latest is breaking free of Early Access. Hades is a dungeon crawler set in the Greek underworld, which you try to hack, slash, and fight your way out of. A big part of the fun are the mythical Olympus characters and weapons that help you escape. The flashy rogue-like game releases today.

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise

Fitness Boxing 2: Rhythm & Exercise is a dancing and boxing game releasing December 4.

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny - Announcement Trailer (Nintendo Switch)

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny centers around a zombie creature named Zed who becomes stronger every time he dies. The game is vibrant, colorful, and has a fun art style. The game’s battle system looks like it leans heavily on statistics, and seems geared toward fans of turn-based combat. It’s coming out in summer 2021.

Nintendo Switch online members will also be able to play Disgaea 5 Complete during a limited trial period starting on September 23.

Empire of Sin

Empire of Sin | Gameplay Trailer

Empire of Sin is a criminal underworld noir game about a woman who runs fortune tellers. It’s set in the underworld of the 1930s, and Al Capone even makes an appearance!

Sniper Elite 4

Sniper Elite 4 – Reveal Trailer | Nintendo Switch

Sniper Elite 4, a war game about tracking down a general in Sicily during World War II, comes out this holiday season. The game follows a solitary sniper as he tries to accomplish his mission. The trailer shows him setting off land mines and running from tank explosions while avoiding enemy soldiers, all surrounded by lush landscapes and heavily fortified enemy bases.

The Long Dark

The Long Dark -- NINTENDO SWITCH LAUNCH TRAILER

The Long Dark, also released today, is a first-person exploration survival game set in a frozen wilderness. The main character has to slog through the aftermath of a geomagnetic disaster. The trailer shows a rudimentary bow and arrow used to stop a charging bear, and it also features a permadeath mode.

PGA Tour 2K21

PGA Tour 2K21 - Official Announcement Trailer

PGA Tour 2K21 makes its way to the Nintendo Switch on September 25. Players can golf on real-life courses, and play locally or online.

Balan Wonderworld

BALAN WONDERWORLD - Title Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch

A platforming game with special characters and colorful costumes, Balan Wonderworld lets you fly through the air and smash blocks. It has 12 stages in windy and underwater locales, and the game’s main characters get to wear costumes to receive special abilities. For example, a sheep costume lets the player float on wind, and a pumpkin costume is good for punching. The game releases March 26, 2021.

Rune Factory 5

Rune Factory 5 Announcement Trailer | Coming to Nintendo Switch in Spring 2021

Rune Factory 5 is a crop-harvesting game lets you also fight monsters. The anime-style artwork of the game has a certain rustic charm, and follows a man or woman (player’s choice) as they try to keep peace in a rural town while trying to regain lost memories.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Ori and the Will of the Wisps Desert Escape running on Nintendo Switch at 60fps

This sequel to the acclaimed Ori and the Blind Forest releases today on Switch. The game’s art style is beautiful, dark, and chaotic, and reminiscent of other popular indie side scrollers like Hollow Knight.

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Everything announced at Nintendo’s April 2023 Indie World showcase
A still from Rift of the Necrodancer's trailer.

Today, Nintendo held another Indie World showcase, where it showed off a lot of neat-looking indie games coming to Nintendo Switch over the next several months. This April 19 showcase didn't have any shocking announcements, but some successors to enjoyable indie games like Crypt of the Necrodancer and Blasphemous were revealed, and multiple games were shadow-dropped. If you're looking for a roundup of everything that was shown off, we have that right here for you.
Rift of the Necrodancer was announced
Rift of the NecroDancer Reveal Trailer
Brace Yourself Games is one of the premier rhythm game developers thanks to titles like Crypt of the Necrodancer and Cadence of Hyrule, and it announced a new game today. Titled Rift of the Necrodancer, this is a lane-based game where players rhythmically attack the monsters that come down each lane. The game also features minigames that more closely resemble the Rhythm Heaven series. Rift of the Necrodancer will be released later this year.
Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach and more get shadow-dropped
Indie World Showcase 4.19.2023 - Nintendo Switch
As is to be expected with any Nintendo presentation, some games were shadow-dropped today. The most notable of these games was a port of the popular horror game Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach, but that wasn't the only game released today. Magnetism platformers Telsagrad Remastered and Teslagrad 2, as well as supernatural comedy RPG Shadows of Loathing, are also available today.
Blasphemous 2 was revealed
Blasphemous 2 - Announcement Trailer - Nintendo Switch
The Game Kitchen's Blasphemous made a name for itself as one of the most brutal Metroidvania's of the last decade, both in visual style and gameplay. During today's Indie World, the team revealed that is are at work on a sequel where players explore a place cursed by something ironically called The Miracle. When it comes to gameplay, players can expect three new weapons and will encounter weapon memories that expand their moveset. Blasphemous 2 will be released this summer.
Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals gets a release date
OXENFREE II: Lost Signals - Release Date Trailer - Nintendo Switch
Night School Studios and Netflix's horror-adventure game Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals has been in the works for quite a while, and it finally got a release date during today's Indie World showcase. We learned that Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, which takes place five years after the events of the original and follows a woman named Camena investigating mysterious radio signals, will come out on July 12. This release date also applies to the PC, Mac, PlayStation 4, PS5, and mobile versions of the game. 
Everything else

Mineko's Night Market launches on September 26.
Pathea Games showed off My Time at Sandrock, a desert-themed sequel to farming sim My Time at Portia that is coming out sometime this summer.
Overcooked-like PlateUp! launches this October.
Digital board game Quilts & Cats of Calico launches this fall.
A Little to the Left: Cupboards & Drawers DLC launches in June.
Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon's free DLC Puzzle Pack comes out this spring. 
Cult of the Lamb's Relics of the Old Faith update will be released on April 24.
Animal Well is coming to Nintendo Switch in early 2024.
Time-bending crime puzzle game Crime O'Clock comes out on June 30.
Paper Trail launches this August.
Little Kitty, Big City will be released in 2024. 
Chants of Sennaar got a September 5 release date.
Brotato will be released sometime in 2023.
Escape Academy: The Complete Edition comes to Switch this fall.
Jet Set Radio spiritual successor Bomb Rush Cyberfunk finally got a firm release date: August 18. 

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Nintendo Switch loses an exclusive Square Enix game next month
A duel in the Wild West section of Live A Live.

Square Enix's beautiful HD-2D remake of Live A Live will no longer be a Nintendo Switch exclusive starting next month. The game comes out on PlayStation consoles and PCs on April 27.
Live A Live is a unique grid-based RPG with a fun narrative gimmick. Its story is split up into eight different sections set across eight different sections: Prehistory, The Middle Ages, Imperial China, Twilight of Edo Japan, The Wild West, Present Day, The Near Future, and The Distant Future. Each comes with its own protagonist and gameplay gimmicks before they all crescendo together in a final chapter.

On top of that, this remake of a 1994 SNES game also gives the experience an extreme visual facelift with the HD-2D visuals that make games like Octopath Traveler 2 shine. Digital Trends found the game charming, with George Yang saying Live A Live "has the hallmarks that make it a good entry in the genre" in his three-and-a-half star review of the title. 
In North America, Nintendo published the Switch version of Live A Live. Now that the game is coming to other platforms, though, Square Enix has taken back over. To promote the upcoming release, Square Enix has released a demo for Live A Live on PS4 and PS5 today, which lets players try some of the Twilight of Edo Japan, The Distant Future, and The Wild West sections of the game.
Live a Live is available now for Nintendo Switch and will be released for PC, PS4, and PS5 on April 27. PlayStation Plus members can currently preorder the game for a 20% discount as well.

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10 minutes of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gameplay is coming. Here’s how to watch it
Link fights a giant golem in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

After years of trailers that only tease bits and pieces of what we can expect from the next mainline Zelda game, Nintendo has announced a 10-minute deep dive into The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom hosted by Eiji Aonuma. As this gameplay presentation will likely feature the most info we've gotten about Tears of the Kingdom since its 2019 announcement, Nintendo fans will want to tune in. If you haven't heard of this new gameplay video before or are just wondering when and where you should tune into it, we've rounded up all of that info here for you.
When is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's gameplay presentation?
This gameplay showcase for Tears of the Kingdom will be released at 7 a.m. PT on March 28. The presentation will last "roughly 10 minutes," according to Nintendo, and it should be available to watch for free afterward.

How to watch
This deep dive into Tears of the Kingdom gameplay will be released on Nintendo's official YouTube channel. We'll embed the video below once it is live. Of course, you can also expect an article highlighting any of the big reveals during the gameplay presentation here on Digital Trends.
What to expect
Nintendo will release 10 minutes of Tears of the Kingdom gameplay in a presentation hosted and narrated by Eiji Aonuma, producer of The Legend of Zelda series. While the game was announced over three-and-a-half years ago and has received several trailers, we still don't quite know how its moment-to-moment gameplay works and just how much it differs from Breath of the Wild.
https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1640353190414565378
As such, it seems like the main purpose of this presentation is to give players a clear idea of what to expect from Tears of the Kingdom ahead of its May 12 release on Nintendo Switch. Hopefully, we'll learn more about the floating islands in the sky that players can explore and the vehicles we saw Link controlling in the game's last trailer. Regardless, this gameplay showcase is shaping up to be quite revealing and exciting.
Though the announcement only mentions gameplay, there's always a chance we see some special edition hardware revealed at this too. A special Switch OLED model or Joy-cons designed around the game seem likely and we could see something like that here.

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