Rivals Direct is a series of videos promoting new content related to the Platform Fighter Rivals of Aether, inspired by Nintendo's Nintendo Direct videos.
Oh, and they're released each year on April Fools' Day, so expect lots of jokes and misinformation alongside the real announcements.
The Directs are:
- Rivals Direct 1
(2018) - A standard parody of Nintendo Direct, lacking any specific theme. - Rivals Direct 2 (2020) - After skipping a year in favor of releasing the joke game Lovers of Aether, the entire Rivals team has gathered at Dan Fornace's house to present new features coming to Rivals of Aether's Definitive Edition, as well as future works set in the Aether universe.
- Twitch Plays Rivals Direct 3 (Good version) (Bad version) (2021) - Adam Carra uses Hollywood Hacking to enter the world of Lovers of Aether and pursue information about the 3D models seen at the end of last year's Direct. As the title indicates, the video is presented as a Visual Novel, with the viewers being able to influence Carra's actions by voting.
- Rivals Direct 4 (2022) - Dan Fornace wishes for the announcements to be taken more seriously, so he hires a professional film crew to put on a Puppet Show titled Puppets of Aether.
- Rivals Direct 5 - Rivals World (2023) - As the rest of Aether Studio lacks motivation to create a Rivals Direct, Dan Fornace brings in an AI to help him announce new Aether content, including cross-promotions with other indie games.
Rivals Direct contain the following tropes:
- 555: The home shopping parody in Direct 2 has the phone number 1-800-555-0127.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: At the beginning of Rivals Direct 5, Dan Fornace creates an AI partner with instructions to keep the studio's best interests in mind. She determines that removing Dan as the head of Aether Studios is the best way to do that, and releases neurotoxin to kill him.
- April Fools' Day: All the videos are posted on April 1st, but contain real announcements.
- Artifact Title: Only the first two videos are parodies of Nintendo Direct, but later videos still keep the "Direct" in the title.
- The Triple: Rivals Direct 3 has a few gags of this sort relating to class names:
- Aether University's top-rated classes are Psychology, Cryptozoology, Applied Astrology, and Taxidermy.
- Clairen's classes are Aetherian History, Abyssthrapology, Sylvan Expressionism, Hyperborean Philosophy, and Math 2.
- What Were They Selling Again?: The Milestone System trailer in Direct 2 is incredibly vague, even after it gets two additional spots to "clarify" what it's supposed to be.
- You Wanna Get Sued?: In Direct 4, Adam Carra interrupts the puppets when they sing a very obvious rip-off of The Muppet Show theme.Adam: (on the phone with Dan) Dan, we can't do this. We're gonna get sued.Dan: Nah, we're cool with them. We already got our game on the Switch and everything.Adam: That's not what I was talking about.Dan: Alrighty, it sounds like you've met the team. Remember, I'm counting on you, okay? Bye!Adam: No, Dan, wait! (Dan hangs up)
