Nintendo loves to make game announcements in rapid succession, and even a day notorious for literally unbelievable news isn't enough to deter a parade of updates and trailers. The most recent Nintendo Direct just aired on April 1, with a slew of new info and reveals that shouldn't be missed. But what if you don't have an hour to spend scrubbing through the looking for the breaking news? That's where we come in.

What follows is a list of the biggest announcements from the Nintendo Direct, with all the really good stuff front-loaded for your convenience. Check out what you might've missed, then let us know in the comments which games and new amiibo you're personally pumped up for. You can even imagine us speaking in the same dulcet tones as Satoru Iwata or Bill Trinen, if you like.

We still don't have a title for the new Fire Emblem game on 3DS, but we do know that it's . Alongside the release window, Nintendo revealed a ton formation about the game's single-player campaign, which casts your created character as the star (rather than as a companion to the real hero of the story). That doesn't just mean more dialogue - your character will literally determine the entire course of the campaign.

Early on, you must make the choice between fighting for the peace-loving Hoshido faction or the warlike, revolutionary Nohr faction. Striving to preserve peace with Hoshido will provide a more traditional Fire Emblem experience that's also more welcoming to newcomers, while fighting for glory with Nohr will make for difficult battles and a more complex narrative. Sounds like a pretty awesome excuse to play the game twice, whichever side you decide to start with.

The Nintendo Direct had no shortage of updates on and 3DS. First off, the Mewtwo DLC will be out this month. If you registered both games on Club Nintendo, you’ll be getting a download code on April 15. Everyone else will be able to buy the character on April 28, costing $4 on either version, or $5 if you want the Legendary Pokemon on both platforms.

But that’s not all. This June, Mother 3 protagonist Lucas will join the game as a downloadable fighter for a yet-to-be-named price. Additionally, new costume packs are coming for the Mii fighters, all as paid DLC on April 15. There are themed costumes for Legend of Zelda and Mega Man, plus cute animal outfits that are 75 cents separately, or $6 in a bundle.

Ready to write a 500-word treatise on why Ridley absolutely, positively belongs in the Super Smash Bros. roster? Get your thinking cap ready, because Nintendo is about to let fan demand influence who might be the next DLC character.

By hopping over to , you can fill out a survey suggesting who deserves to join the Smash Bros. cast next. Who knows how long it'll be until this survey is botted out of control, but it's a nice sentiment for Nintendo to let the fans make direct suggestions. If we all type in Goku, do you think it’ll finally happen?

After it was teased more than a year ago, we were told little about this crossover game beyond a few facts: It's on the Wii U, is being developed in tandem by Atlus and the Fire Emblem team at Intelligent Systems, and brings together two of the most hardcore series in gaming. The was finally shown during the Nintendo Direct, and it blends the SMT and Fire Emblem influences into a dazzling, anime-riffic display.

As in most Shin Megami games, the main characters are Japanese teens with special abilities, and they look to be battling monsters in a near-future version of Tokyo to the tune of a catchy theme song. From the Fire Emblem side of things, the turn-based battles show classic FE characters helping out the the team. No official date or title has been given to the game in North America; it’ll be out this year in Japan with a title that roughly translates to Illusory Revelations#FE. The rest is still a mystery, but hopefully we’ll hear more around E3 this year.

Amiibo are fun and all, but Marth and Wii Fit Trainer break way too easy when you try to cuddle with them. Thankfully, Nintendo plans to get out ahead of the snuggle issue with a new line of amiibo planned to release alongside - one green, one pink, and one light blue.

Aside from being oh-so soft, squishy, and lovable, the Woolly World amiibo will let you play as Double Yoshi when you tap their little bottoms to the GamePad. You control both characters at once, letting you slurp up the second Yoshi into an egg, toss him to new areas, and run around with him once you get there. You'll also be able to swap between the difficulty-determining "Classic" or "Mellow" modes in the middle of a level, the latter of which gives your Yoshi wings… if you can ever stop cooing at the figures long enough to play, anyway.

Because people will buy up amiibo figurines faster than bottled water before an impending earthquake, you know Nintendo isn't about to stop making them any time soon. The newest wave of Smash-themed amiibo is now know, with Dark Pit and Palutena coming this July, and Olimar, Zero Suit Samus, Bowser Jr., Ganondorf, and Dr. Mario set to debut in September. That noise you just heard was your wallet screaming, by the way.

In addition, Iwata assures us that amiibo toys for Smash Bros. DLC characters like Mewtwo and Lucas are also on the way, alongside the aforementioned Yoshi's Wooly World and Splatoon amiibo sets. You'll also be able to boot up demos of classic games with the amiibo tap: Nintendo's Greatest Hits app, which releases this spring on Wii U as a free download. By tapping your amiibo to the GamePad, you'll gain access to a limited demo of a randomly selected game from Nintendo's storied archives. It's basically like a , only better.

For Western fans of Fatal Frame, who haven't seen a localized release in the snapshot-happy horror series for ten years, it may feel like this franchise has one foot in the grave. But apparently Nintendo has a resurrection planned, with a U.S. localization of Fatal Frame 5: Oracle of the Sodden Raven set for release later this year.

Little is known about the title as of yet, aside from the standards common to every Fatal Frame game: you play as a (presumably) teenage girl stuck in a haunted locale and use a camera to protect yourself against homicidal specters while trying to solve the mystery of their deaths. What makes this Wii U release special is the use of the GamePad, with the inlaid screen functioning as the only access you have to your life-saving camera. And you thought these games were nerve-wracking before.

If you've had your fill of space battles, planting flowers, global conquest, and battling ghosts, Nintendo has a pair of new games to freshen up your StreetPass Plaza. Ultimate Angler sees your Mii travelling to the StreetPass Islands to bag more than 150 varieties of fish, using bait that they receive from fellow travellers. Meanwhile, Battleground Z lets you engage in action combat with hordes of zombies using weapons pulled from each Mii's hobbies.

The two games will be available on April 16 together for $7.99, or separately for $4.99 each. "StreetPass Mii Plaza Premium" will also launch on April 16, letting you store designated Mii characters in a VIP room and set StreetPass birthdays for your virtual travelers on a new calendar. StreetPass Mii Plaza Premium will be sold separately for $4.99.

Do you enjoy collecting amiibo, but wish they were easier to fit in your pocket? That’s what the upcoming amiibo cards are for. They function similarly to the figures, meaning the cards are scanned via NFC to unlock features, and the first set is themed around Animal Crossing. As it so happens, a new Animal Crossing spin-off will launch alongside the cards by the end of the year.

Called , the game focuses on the series’ indoors action, making players do some interior design to the desired specifications of their animal neighbors. And you get unique assignments by scanning different amiibo cards for characters like Isabelle. The game and cards launch this fall, along with the long-promised NFC add-on that allows non-New 3DS handhelds to scan amiibo and add the content to their games.

Go-karts are fun, but as far as racing goes, they're not actually all that fast… unless you drop an even bigger engine and some Super Mushrooms in there. Nintendo plans to add a 200cc racing class to in a free downloadable update on April 23, enabling a new, super-speedy mode on all tracks. Get comfortable with tapping that brake button, because taking corners at full speed is about to get a whole lot trickier.

The free update will release alongside DLC Pack 2, which adds three new characters (Animal Crossing's Villager, Isabelle, and Dry Bowser), four new vehicles, and eight new tracks, giving you plenty of new wheels and pavement to tear up as you zoom around at ludicrous speeds. You do have to pay $8 for the DLC pack, mind you.

It may not have the established fanbase of series like Smash Bros. or Fire Emblem, but is shaping up to be a fun, inventive shooter that still retains Nintendo's classic sense of whimsy. Two online modes were shown off during the Nintendo Direct: Ranked Battle, with 4v4 matches that determine your (what else) rank, and Splat Zones, a king-of-the-hill style melee where everyone's fighting over one central location. Offline multiplayer will also be available in the Battle Dojo mode, a 1v1 skirmish that puts one player on the TV and the other on the GamePad in a race to pop balloons.

Being that it's a relatively big game for Nintendo, you knew there had to be some amiibo involved. Three Splatoon amiibo will be available starting on May 29th: an orange humanoid Inkling girl, a blue humanoid Inkling boy, and a green Inkling in squid form. You can buy the humanoids separately, or pick up all three in one convenient pack.

Super Mario Bros. is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and Nintendo revealed has a bunch of surprises in store for the occasion. Thankfully, Mario Maker's release date is no longer one of them: it will finally democratize the piranha plant placement process in September.

The Wii U game / level-creation workshop will feature four different visual themes pulled from across the 2D Mario canon: the original 8-bit goodness of Super Mario Bros., the classic look of Super Mario Bros. 3, the SNES-talgic Super Mario World style, and the 3D-rendered visuals of New Super Mario Bros. You'll be able to swap between the four at will and easily share all of your creations online. No better way to celebrate Mario history than by making some of your own, right?

If you've been pulling your hair out waiting for for the day you could play Super Mario 64 on glorious new-gen tech, then yank no more! , starting with Super Mario 64 and Yoshi's Island DS, which are available immediately - yeah, right now! Go get them! Other titles you can play on your Wii U in the coming months will include Donkey Kong 64 and Mario Kart DS, and we can undoubtedly expect more nostalgic goodness in the future.

In addition, Nintendo has shown off a slew of games for the eShop that'll be released throughout the next year. The headliner is Pokemon Rumble World, a free, simplistic brawler starring toy versions of pocket monsters. And in addition to previously announced games like Don't Starve: Giant Edition and Runbow, games like forma.8, Dementium Remastered, and Starwhal will join Nintendo's collection of indie offerings.

Phew! Of all those announcements, which are you the most excited for? Do you plan on diving headfirst into the JRPG goodness of Fire Emblem and SMTXFE (the best acronym ever, pronounced 'smit-ze-fee')? Or are you gearing up to take part in the battle for those precious amiibo? Let us know in the comments below.

And if you're looking for more, check out .

When Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China was announced last year as part of Unity’s cancelled Season Pass, it looked like a pretty addition to the franchise but perhaps something that would sit better on mobiles than the intended PS4, Xbox One and PC. Side-scrolling 2.5D stabbing? Really? The AC universe is surely all about exploration and freedom? But, now part of a trilogy that also travels to both India and Russia, it transpires that this is a much more substantial affair than we thought. Going hands on with Chronicles: China and Chronicles: India proves that the series fits 2.5D like the arm of a certain Italian nobleman into a Da Vinci designed gauntlet.

Developed by Climax Studios in association with Ubisoft Montreal, the key pillars of the series haven’t been forgotten. The main focus is on stealthy super-sneaking, but the stylised environments are far teractive than they first seem. Neither has all-out combat been forgotten, watercolour blood spatters spraying the screen during many a satisfying throwdown . Let’s take a look at the ways Chronicles keeps to the Creed without that pesky half dimension. Because it does a very convincing job indeed.

Those familiar with the series will feel instantly at home with Chronicles control scheme. The ol’ free running sits happily on the right trigger while the left is on crouching and sliding duties. The flowing movement of the Brotherhood hasn’t been forgotten here. Protagonist Shao Jun is nimble. Climbing between ledges before yanking an enemy off his feet with a rope dart is effortless and delightfully slick - wait, sick, that should be sick - experience. Sliding under timed doors is consustently fun, and there’s a particularly nifty new slide-and-assassinate motion that looks more than a tad painful for everyone involved.

The side-scrolling action flows nicely into the series' existing play-style, and the lack of a third-dimension almost entirely eradicates any of awkward the ‘Oh Arno/ Ezio/ Edward/ Altair’ climbing moments we’ve all encountered over the years. Shao Jun jumps neatly and happily in and out of windows, and she can leap between hiding spots with a simple tap of a button and slide of the analogue stick. Meanwhile in India, reminiscent of the Ezio trilogy, Arbaaz Mir takes on perilous environmental hazards as he leaps between stalactites crumbling under his weight.

Yes, never fear, haystacks and haycarts clearly have their place in 16th century China too. Climax Studios has intently focussed on stealth - which makes complete sense for Chronicles’ more focused, side scrolling design - and that means plenty of hiding spots to pick off guards. Under ledges, inside shadowy doors, behind pillars, in the long grass like a Lost World velociraptor… Shao Jun can make herself invisible in all of them and pick off enemies with a snap of the neck. Hiding bodies is essential too, and it’s in the little moments where you snatch a corpse just in time before plonking it into the shadows that the stealth shines.

It’s also worth noting how satisfying it is to finally know exactly what guards can see too. Every enemy has an awareness cone, a simple beam of light that means you can stay just out of eyeline if you play your sneaking right. Carrying forward Assassin’s traditional colour coding, get spotted and this goes yellow before quickly turning red if you don’t hot foot it out of sight.

Shao Jun redefines the idea of a hidden blade in one exceptionally delightful, not to mention nasty, move. Sneaking up behind an enemy until a skull indicates that an assassination can occur, she will shake a blade out of her boot and with a swift kick will embed it crunchily in her unsuspecting victim’s face. Nice. Meet the Footblade.

Jun is also armed to the teeth with a Jian sword, throwing daggers for snapping ropes - to drop items and distract guards - and an ultra-useful rope dart that can be used to gain access to the ceiling for Spiderman-style hunting of enemies. Jun also has a handful of firecrackers to throw in villainous faces as a distraction tool before creeping past undetected. In Chronicles: India, Arbaaz Mir has a different set of deadly toys including a traditional disc weapon known as a Chakram for throwing in the same manner as Jun’s daggers. In Russia, the less agile Orelov is armed with a rifle, which is certainly less stealthy but gets the job done when it comes to taking down foes.

The main focus for Chronicles might be on stealth, but that doesn’t mean these Assassins can’t murder folks hand to hand (blade to blade) like the best of them. Combat controls will be familiar to Creed aficionados but they’re not identical. None other than Ezio Auditore himself teaches Shao Jun to brawl in a handy White Room where you learn normal and heavy attacks, as well as how to dodge crossbow bolts, and a stylish leap over the heads of enemies.

The counter button must be pressed at the exact moment an enemy goes to strike, and combat overall keeps you more on your toes than ever before. The lack of that extra third dimension means it might look as though enemies are queueing up to strike, but Shao Jun’s overhead counter move is essential, and the relentlessness of enemies armed with crossbows makes for tough battles overall. Add in an exceptionally low health bar, soldiers armed with shields, and Reinforcement Zones where more guards will hurtle in from doorways, and sneaking in the shadows is far less stressful than a full-on brawl.

Even in 2.5D there’s no escaping the rather useful second sight that travels down the Assassin lineage. Eagle Vision in Chronicles is handy not only for clearly identifying enemies - that’ll be them in red as usual - but now has an essential indicator of enemy paths. Guards have set rotas and you can see their plans to make sure you map your movements accordingly. Enemies need to be predictable if you’re aiming to get by undetected sneaking into a hiding place.

Chronicles will reward you with a stealth rating after each encounter, which adds up bonus unlocks at the end of each level. Setting off distractions - such as cutting the ropes of wind-chimes or throwing a dagger at a caged bird (to make it chirp, you animals!) - work as nice ways to keep enemies busy if you don’t fancy getting blood on your footblade.

Assassin’s lore hasn’t been forgotten here. Despite no mention of the modern day aspect of the series, there are plenty of gentle reminders that you’re still in Animus territory. Those glittering fragments hide in hard-to-reach places for the collect ‘em all fans of the Brotherhood, and will unlock various pieces of Animus lore and juicy character information and history. Plus, in a nice touch and an attractive contrast with the 16th century art style, the awareness cone of enemies is represented by animus fragments.

And plot-wise, there’s no escaping the fact that we’re in the delightfully ridiculous realm of Eden Apples and giant laser temples. Shao Jun is questing not only to avenge the death of her Brotherhood in China, but also to get back an Artifact taken from her, while a section I played of Chronicles: India is set in one of the Vaults of the First Civilisation.

It was never going to be easy to transform the series into a side-scroller, but Chronicles currently seems to nail it. It not only manages to look like Ubisoft concept art come to life, but has managed to get in more than enough AC staples while making them feel entirely right in the new format. Sync points let you unlock extra items on the map - complete with an exclamation mark for your main mission - while Shao Jun’s leap of faith is complete with scattering birds.

This might be a 2D world in practical terms, but the camera glides smoothly around corners, adding new levels of perspective and extra depth as you swing or run cinematically between layers. Instead of the white of the original series, splashes of red show you where to go next, and there’s a surprising amount of choice in the ways you can explore (highlighted spectacularly as I get lost exploring the Great Wall Of China). The Chronicles trilogy looks to play with the conventions of the Creed just enough, and with a beautiful fresh art style for each entry, it’s going to be interesting to see how that feeds into differing gameplay in the different locations. .