Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase: how to watch and what to expect

If you’re looking for a new Switch game to play with your kids following titles like Bluey: The Videogame and Disney Illusion Island, get ready to meet the Moonmins. Snufkin: Melody of Moonminvalley comes to Switch and PC this week, giving the cartoon vagabond his own game. Developed by Hyper Games, the adventure title aims to capture the cartoon joy of Moomin, a Swedish children’s series, with some musical twists.

Microsoft will air its second-ever Xbox Partner Preview showcase later this week. It established the format in 2023 as a Nintendo Direct-style presentation where Microsoft can highlight third-party titles coming soon to Xbox platforms. Last year’s show included titles like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater and The Finals, while this March’s show will feature games like Tales of Kenzera: Zau and Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.

If you’re getting ready to start your Final Fantasy VII Rebirth adventure, let me offer you fair warning: it is a long game. If you’re planning to do every sidequest, minigame, and Chadley combat battle, you’ll be wandering around Gaia for 100 hours. That’s not an exaggeration; I hit credits in 73 hours and I still had a massive checklist of side content to complete.

When I reviewedSplatoon 3 in 2022, I found myself impressed by what a robust suite of content it offered at launch. It had a solid single-player campaign, great competitive multiplayer, a killer PVE mode in Salmon Run, and even a fun card minigame. All of those disparate modes meshed together perfectly to makeSplatoon 3 the kind of game you could pick away at for hundreds of hours. And with its latest DLC, called Side Order, that’s more true than ever.

Ah, it’s a new day, full of Nintendo news. We got our first Nintendo Direct of the year today with a Partner Showcase, spotlighting games arriving in the first half of 2024 for the Switch.

It’s become a bit of a tradition for Nintendo to drop a Direct presentation every February. That held up this year, but not in the way that some fans expected. Rather than dropping a 40-plus minute presentation highlighting upcoming first-party games, Nintendo released a more casual Partner Showcase today. The 25-minute video, which did not air live, instead highlighted upcoming third-party releases.

Nintendo's February Direct Partner Showcase has come and gone. This presentation was focused around third-party games so, as expected, there was no news on any homegrown Nintendo titles or the Switch 2's expected arrival in early 2025. However, the broadcast was still full of annoucements for games headed to Nintendo Switch from other publishers over the coming six months. Here's a roundup of everything which appeared during the 25-minute show.

The Hollow Knight community is trying something drastically new for the upcoming Nintendo Partner Direct Showcase: expecting nothing for Silksong. 

Throughout her illustrious career as gaming royalty, Princess Peach has been a jack-of-all-trades. She’s tossed turnips, driven karts, smashed tennis balls, and knocked the snot out of Solid Snake. Despite that impressive résumé, she’s rarely had the chance to be a leading lady outside of 2005’s Super Princess Peach. It was a polarizing release that failed to lock down the heroine’s identity. What could Peach be if she wasn’t attached to Mario?

Nintendo is set to make a bit of history withPrincess Peach: Showtime! on March 22. The upcoming Switch release gives gaming’s most iconic female character her own solo adventure for the first time since 2005’s critically dissected Super Princess Peach. It’s a dream moment for players who’ve spent the last two decades wishing Peach would get another shot as a leading lady.

The February 2024 edition of the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase is coming in hot, so you may be wondering where you can find the stream to watch it when the time comes.

A Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase has been confirmed for later this week.