Wii U getting Yoshi game, Shin Megami/Fire Emblem crossover

Aside from the teasers for new Zelda and Mario titles, Nintendo announced a few other franchise surprises during its Nintendo Direct presentation today. Among them, the company revealed a new Wii U Yoshi game, a party game, and a couple of interesting RPGs.

Yoshi is getting his own game from the team that created Kirby's Epic Yarn, and the fabric look shares more than a passing resemblance. Yarn Yoshi is being supervised by Takashi Tezuka, the director of Yoshi's Island and Yoshi's Story.

In the realm of RPGs, Nintendo is collaborating with Atlas to produce a crossover of the Shin Megami Tensei and Fire Emblem franchises. Meanwhile, Tetsuya Takahashi and Monolith Soft, the creators of Xenoblade Chronicles, are working on a new Wii U game. A short trailer (see below) looked very similar to Xenoblade, but much prettier in HD.

Finally, Nintendo is working on a new installment in the Wii Party franchise, set to launch this summer on Wii U. It will feature a variety of minigames using the GamePad alone or in conjunction with Wii Remotes, or even having two players use the GamePad together. This is a distinct title from Game & Wario, a similar potpourri of minigames that is also slated for the first half of the year.