However, the presentation wasn’t wall-to-wall home runs. Some of the games announced were of a smaller scale, or for a niche audience. A couple of announcements were for other, more focused presentations in October. And some games got no time to breathe because they came out immediately. Indeed, an aspect of the September Direct that not many have honed in on was its batch of announcements for games coming out later that day. Mario Golf: Super Rush got new characters and courses in an update later in the day, and that wasn’t even the biggest shadow drop of the show. In fact, three of the biggest instant releases came back-to-back.

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Castlevania Advance Collection

There were a definitive “big three” shadow drops at the September Direct, and this was the first. The Castlevania Advance Collection was announced and released on multiple platforms and features the Game Boy Advance titles Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. The SNES game Castlevania: Dracula X was also included, seemingly because it didn’t fit anywhere else. These games feature rewinding, quick saves, and button mapping functionality alongside a gallery full of obscure Castlevania artwork. This is a great collection and a must-have for any Castlevania fan.

Actraiser Renaissance

Not content to rest on its laurels, the Direct immediately followed up that surprise release with another: Actraiser Renaissance, a remake of the classic SNES ActRaiser. Like the original title, this game is a hybrid of a city builder, a tower defense RTS, and a 2D action game. It’s a very unique experience, and Actraiser Renaissance comes with rearranged music from Yuzo Koshiro and new bosses to sweeten the deal. This game is also on multiple platforms, so hopefully, many people will be able to experience what made the original ActRaiser so special.

Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars Demo

It was revealed that Yoko Taro’s card-based RPG Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars will be released for Switch on October 28. The game represents a traditional RPG experience, including fights and environmental exploration, entirely through a set of cards laid out on the screen. A demo came out after the Direct to give players a chance to experience this unusual game format for themselves.

Deltarune: Chapter 1&2

The last major game release right after the Nintendo Direct was the Switch and PS4 versions of Deltarune: Chapter 1&2. As announced by a trailer featuring a dancing dog that may have been Toby Fox himself in costume, this surprisingly straightforward trailer gave a quick look at the various challenges Kris, Susie, and Ralsei will encounter in this iteration of the Dark World. Until Deltarune’s next few chapters release, these two will be free, so anyone interested can pop in and give this Undertale pseudo-sequel a spin.

Arcade Archives PAC-MAN and Arcade Archives XEVIOUS

The last two games to drop on the same day as the Nintendo Direct were a couple more arcade classics, namely the original Pac-Man and the classic shoot-’em-up Xevious. These are part of the multiplatform Arcade Archives, a series of emulated games from various developers curated and released by Hamster Corporation. This round of releases comes courtesy of Namco, and it certainly doesn’t hurt to have another version of Pac-Man around to enjoy.

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