Nintendo Direct September 2023: all the news and trailers

If you’re a fan of the classic Tomb Raider series, today’s Nintendo Direct had something special for you. Lara Croft makes her triumphant return to the console as well as PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, with a remaster of her first three games in Tomb Raider I-III Remastered Starring Lara Croft.

The three games are all coming to the Switch with improved graphics and, hopefully, improved control schemes. Lara Croft’s classic trilogy has been rereleased on PC and mobile, but the PC release suffered from lackluster controls that made it difficult to raid tombs properly.

Nintendo is giving Another Code: Trace Memory and its sequel, Another Code: R, a remake for the Switch. Both games will return “fully enhanced” as part of the Another Code: Recollection bundle that will release on Nintendo Switch on January 19th, 2024.

Another Code: Trace Memory first launched as a point-and-click adventure on the Nintendo DS in 2005. It follows 13-year-old Ashley Mizuki Robbins as she searches for her father on Blood Edward Island, with the DS version prompting you to complete puzzles along the way using the handheld’s touchscreen.

During its September Direct event, Nintendo announced progress on plans to convert its old Nintendo Uji Ogura Plant in Kyoto, Japan, into a gallery displaying its various products. Dubbed the Nintendo Museum, the site is under construction and on track to finish by March 2024. However, an exact opening date hasn’t been announced yet.

Other than the concept rendering from its original announcement in 2021, Nintendo showed off an iconic question block that’s painted on the building’s roof, and from the air, you can get an idea of how it will line up with the planned design, at least from the outside.

Did you know there was a time when Nintendo had more than one racing game? With today’s Nintendo Direct, now you do. F-Zero, after an almost 20-year hiatus, is back with a new online multiplayer battle royale game, F-Zero 99.

F-Zero 99, like Super Mario Bros. 35, Pac-Man 99, and Tetris 99 before it, is a battle royale game in which you and up to 98 other players race to be the last Captain Falcon standing. F-Zero 99 will feature all the carts and tracks from the original F-Zero game and is available for free right now to those with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

Paper Mario is back! At its September 2023 Nintendo Direct, the company announced a remake of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, the beloved RPG that first came out for the GameCube. The game is set to come out sometime in 2024.

It looks incredible in large part thanks to the game’s original paper and cardboard art design holding up remarkably well. But there have clearly been some graphical enhancements to make the game look even better on Nintendo’s Switch hardware. In Nintendo’s trailer, characters in particular looked really impressive: to me, they actually seemed like they’re cardboard cutouts come to life. The remake also looks to be incredibly faithful to the original game, as the trailer is packed with iconic moments that I remember from my time playing it on GameCube.

The toot-tacular indie darling Trombone Champ is releasing on Thursday on the Nintendo Switch eShop.

Announced during Thursday’s September Nintendo Direct, last year’s hilarious music rhythm game that was a sleeper hit on Steam is making the move to Nintendo Switch. The game also has new control schemes just for the Switch, allowing you to use the Joy-Con controllers’ motion or IR sensors to control your trombone pitch.

Splatoon 3’s expansion pass is getting a new single-player campaign. The DLC, called Side Order, comes out in spring 2024 and is designed to “be replayed over and over,” according to Nintendo.

The new DLC invites you to see what has happened to Inkopolis Square, the city featured in Splatoon 2. As you traverse the Spire of Order, you can continue to level up your abilities by adding upgrades to run speed, splash damage, and more. The new mode also features damage counters that appear when you splat your enemies, which seem a bit distracting at first glance.

He’s the leader of the bunch; you know him well. He’s finally back to kick some Mario tail in Mario vs. Donkey Kong.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong seems to be a remake of the 2004 Game Boy Advance game. In it, Mario must complete a series of platforming puzzles to reach Donkey Kong and thwart his theft of windup Mario toys.

Earlier this year, Nintendo teased that it had a Princess Peach game in the works. With Thursday’s September Nintendo Direct, we finally know more about the game, which is officially titled Princess Peach: Showtime!

Peach will be able to put on different outfits to transform into new versions of Peach with different powers, like Detective Peach and Kung-Fu Peach. During the Direct, Nintendo hinted that there were more transformations than what was shown, so I bet there are some fun surprises in store. The game is scheduled to release on March 22nd, 2024.

It’s almost time for the third major Nintendo Direct of 2023. It’s set to be a big one, as Nintendo promises that the livestream will feature “roughly 40 minutes of information” focused on the Nintendo Switch games set to release this winter.

Nintendo already has a packed lineup through the rest of the year, so we’ll probably get looks at games like Detective Pikachu Returns (October 6th), Super Mario Bros. Wonder (October 20th), WarioWare: Move It! (November 3rd), and the remake of Super Mario RPG (November 17th).