After several months without a proper Direct, Nintendo at long last debuted a presentation without any prior warning. For some reason, it decided to call it a “Nintendo Direct Mini,” which is especially strange given the glut of news it delivered.

First up, several Switch games dropped today, including Panzer Dragoon: Remake and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, along with demos for upcoming titles such as Bravely Default II. Nintendo is also rolling out a Ring Fit Adventure update today, which should come as welcome news if you managed to snag the fitness game before it started selling out everywhere.

The app is free to download, but if you want all to take advantage of all of its features, you’ll need to subscribe to Home’s Premium plan. The subscription will set you back $3 every 30 days, $5 every 90 days or $16 once a year. While you can use the app for free through the Basic plan, it limits you to storing only 30 Pokémon. You also can’t transfer any monsters you may have on some of the older 3DS (as well as DS and Game Boy Advance) games because the Basic plan doesn’t support Pokémon Bank.

Even if you don’t plan to use Home much, it’s worth downloading. The first time you launch the app on iOS and Android, you’ll get one of the Kanto starters — Charmander, Squirtle or Bulbasaur — for free. On Switch, meanwhile, you’ll get a free Pikachu. Oh, and there’s a wacky new Professor Oak to guide you through using the app.

Nintendo sold 10.81 million Switch consoles last quarter, bringing lifetime sales to 52.48 million. That’s a 15 percent increase on the 9.41 million units it sold in the same quarter 12 months prior, and the best three-month period since the console launched in 2017. With over 50 million lifetime sales, the Switch has now surpassed the iconic Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The console’s next target is the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which managed 61.91 million sales back in the 1980s. With one quarter to go, Nintendo is also 250,000 units away from hitting its financial year target of 18 million Switch sales.

Hardware sales were undoubtedly buoyed by the Switch Lite, Nintendo’s cheaper and handheld-only system. The Nintendo 3DS family, though, is effectively retired — it managed just 260,000 sales during the quarter.

New releases such as Ring Fit Adventure, Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 probably helped, too. Nintendo highlighted Pokémon Sword and Shield in particular, which have already sold 16.06 million units since their release last November. They’re now the fifth best-selling Switch release of all time, behind The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. These titles, alongside smaller games such as Little Town Hero, pushed software sales to 64.64 million during the holidays.

With the holidays far behind us, Nintendo’s momentum will slow down again. The Switch faithful have plenty of new releases to be excited about this quarter, though. The company has just published Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore, an updated version of the Japanese role-playing game that originally came out on Wii U. The company is also prepping Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, a remake of two games, Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team, that were released for the Nintendo DS and Game Body Advance respectively in 2005. Finally, Nintendo has the highly anticipated Animal Crossing: New Horizons dropping on March 20.

In a twenty minute Nintendo Direct this morning, Game Freak showcased two DLC for Pokémon Sword and Shield. Two new areas were showcased, bringing with them 200 Pokémon not seen before in the Galar region but well known to fans of previous games. Players who connect their Sword and Shield games to Pokémon Home will now be able to bring over some of their older Pokémon from the 3DS games (via the Pokémon Bank) or Let’s Go Pikachu and Let’s Go Eevee, provided those creatures are among the roster being reintroduced via the expansion pack.

While we finally have a release window for Pokémon Home, not much else was said about the service, other than it will be paid. More information should be released within the next month before it’s launched.

Fans had been clamoring for Sword & Shield leading up to their release. The games mark the first mainline entry into the series on a flagship Nintendo console; all previous ones were exclusive to the company’s portable offerings. With the ability to play console-quality games both on a TV and in portable mode, the Switch unified these two markets on one platform. So while gamers can get an immersive experience on the big screen, they can also take their Switch with them to trade and battle with their friends — a major component to the series.

Engadget’s review of Pokémon Sword & Shield found the games to tread a familiar path but are still excellent titles on the whole. With six million units sold, Sword & Shield are already the eighth best-selling Switch game (if treated as a single title). As time goes on, the pair will likely reach the ranks of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which have sold 19.01 million and 15.71 million units, respectfully.

Cramorant is a Flying & Water type Pokémon that will swallow absolutely anything that looks hearty enough. It also has its own exclusively ability, Gulp Missile. Watch it use Surf or Dive in battle as it rises from the water, along with its catch. pic.twitter.com/LL9L7pRfXL

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 4, 2019

Pokémon Sword and Shield will also give you a way to hang out with friends in Pokémon Camp, where you can play with your creatures and cook various variants of curry rice. The results of your cooking will depend on the ingredients you use, and you can fill up your Curry Dex by finding the right combinations for over 100 recipe variants.

Pokémon Camp is also a great place to cook a well know Galar region dish: Curry Rice. The result of your Curry Rice will depend on the ingredients you use. With more than 100 types, each one you cook will end up in your Curry Dex! Cook them all to be a Curry Master! pic.twitter.com/C8NQJdEzko

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) September 4, 2019

Finally, the game gives you a way to remain stylish while traveling to fill your Pokédex. It has a wide variety of outfits you can collect, and it allows you to change your hairstyle and even put on some makeup.

Whichever version you buy, you’ll have to deal with yet another new mechanic: Gigantamaxing. Unlike Dynamaxing, which ‘just’ makes Pokémon bigger and boosts their stats, certain creatures (such as Corviknight and Drednaw) will change appearance as they grow and gain access to a special G-Max Move. You won’t just want to stick to your familiar battlers, then, as you might miss out on some particularly effective attacks.

Throw in new Pokémon like the dessert-inspired Alcremie, Yamper the corgi, the coal-like Rolycoly and the steel Duraludon and there should be a healthy variety in the series’ first proper Switch titles, even if some of your critters won’t carry over. It may just be a question of whether or not the gameplay translates well to Nintendo’s current console.

That’s not to say there was nothing new. The demo was my first opportunity to get acquainted with Sword and Shield‘s new starters, Grookey (Grass), Scorbunny (Fire) and Sobble (Water). They’re all pretty cool-looking — I’ll be using Scorbunny, mostly because I’ve picked fire every time since Charmander. Fingers crossed it doesn’t turn into a gross fire-crotched abomination like Litten did.

Incineroar, the aforementioned abomination.

As you’d expect from a gym, there were plenty of grunts hanging around waiting to challenge me. One neat hold-over from recent Pokémon games, which if you haven’t been following you might not know about, is the “focus” indicator that pops up when you’re about to walk into another trainer’s line of sight. It’s a great quality-of-life addition that I’m happy to see return here.

Once I did walk in front of a trainer though, I discovered that battles themselves are beautiful. The extra power of the Switch is used to amp up the graphical effects, yes, but it’s actually the frame rate that stuck out the most. The 3DS, which has played home to the series since X and Y, isn’t really capable of what developer GameFreak has been asking it to do, especially in Sun and Moon, and battles often have slowdown at the merest hint of a special attack. The extra real estate also seems like it’s going to have a positive impact on the menus, if the revamped battle options are anything to go by.

It was very easy to navigate around the starters’ move sets — or at least, the four moves Nintendo had selected for the level-50 representations of their first form. There are no major surprises here, but one interesting trait all three share is an attack that changes the target Pokémon to the attacker’s type. These sort of moves aren’t unheard of in the series, but I’ve never really incorporated them into my team before because I’m picky with which Pokémon get a spot. The fact that they’re going to be available to the starters is going to make their use much more common. Twenty minutes against some fairly easy-going opponents isn’t really enough to dig into the strategic implications, but I’m excited to explore that in November.

Outside of the starters, Nintendo left a couple more friends in my party. First up was Wooloo, a new sheep Pokémon, who looked pretty cool but didn’t really have much in the way of an offensive spread… or much in the way of anything. Cute, though!

And then there’s Yamper, the clear star of the show. Yamper is many things. It’s an electric-type Pokémon, it’s a corgi… Okay, it’s two things, but those things are more than enough. It feels like there’s always a hopelessly adorable Pokémon (see: Emolga, Togedemaru) I need to carry in my team for aesthetics’ sake, and I’m pretty certain Yamper is Sword and Shield‘s. Oh, there was also “Impidimp,” who I encountered in a trainer battle. Like Yamper, not much is known about the unannounced Pokémon. I can say it was a Dark/Fairy type that’s bright pink and purple and, unsurprisingly, looks like an imp.

As I made my way past the gym’s puzzle, I found myself in a tunnel. Not the sort of tunnel you’d use to navigate around a sleeping Snorlax, but the kind you’d see soccer players walking down as they head out to the pitch. Befitting its Britain-inspired location, Sword and Shield‘s gym battles take place in giant stadia, with thousands of onlookers. It made for a pretty spectacular set piece, and provided ample space for Sword and Shield‘s party trick: Dynamaxing.

Dynamaxing is a more splashy take on a feature that’s been around for a while: Mega Evolution. Essentially, in certain battles, you press a button, your Pokémon gets jacked up and temporarily evolves again into a “mega” form of its fully-evolved state. In this state, moves are stronger, allowing you to finish off a tricky opponent. Where Dynamaxing differs is that your darling little Pokémon, instead of evolving, turns into a 50-feet-tall version of itself, and it stays that big for three turns.

I knew, in my time-limited demo, I would have to flip the switch at some point. What better time than against Nessa, the water gym’s new leader? After knocking her first Pokémon down to its last few hit points, it was time. There was only one Pokémon in my party that I wanted: Yamper.

I’ve played some great games at E3s past. The past few years have given me The Last Guardian, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Civilization VI, and loads more. I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced the level of joy I felt seeing Yamper grow a couple of stories tall. A swift electric attack later and Goldeen was in pieces. Out came her second monster: Drednaw, a Water/Rock type Pokémon that’s new for these games. It was pretty clear that a grass type was in order, but I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to my new building-sized puppy. Why would I?

Yamper is a bIG. POWERFUL. BOY.
#pokemon pic.twitter.com/0IOFczRw0I

— TAHK0, but @ E3 (@TAHK0) June 11, 2019

Well, one attack later and Yamper had fainted. Heartbroken, I took my revenge on Drednaw and won my first gym badge, and the demo ended. Clearly there’s more to Dynamaxing than choosing your favorite Pokémon and making it huge. And a lot more to Sword and Shield than Nintendo let me try out today. But what I have played has left me very excited for November 15th.

Pokémon Sword and Shield will launch November 15th worldwide on Nintendo Switch. I can’t wait.

Switch owners, assemble! Nintendo has a special Direct presentation dedicated to Pokémon Sword and Shield today. If you’ve been living under a Geodude for the last four months, these are the proper, all-new Switch RPGs that fans have been clamoring for. We’ve already seen the new starter Pokémon (the grass type, Grookey, is clearly the best) and the clearly UK-inspired Galar region (hopefully it won’t morph into a Brexit wasteland), but that’s about it. We know little about the story, combat tweaks, mini-games and potential compatibility with other Pokémon software, including Go, the Let’s Go titles, and the recently-announced Pokémon Sleep.

For all the juicy details, watch the stream here at 6AM PT/9AM ET.