Nintendo brought the fire this E3 and packed their Direct with just about everything they could! From weird Indies to massive ports, Nintendo brought the energy and the hype necessary to make a big splash at E3!
They had a tough job in front of them because we already knew about most of these projects due to leaks and previous announcements. Despite that though, I was glad that we got some deep dives regarding their big release titles. In addition to that, Nintendo Tree House is going to cover most of the major points they didn't cover in this Direct.
They started out the presentation by adding The Hero to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! He includes three alt skins that you can play as.
So if you were sick of Dragon Quest or wanted something else, too bad! Dragon Quest 11 is never leaving us, and this song is never getting out of our heads!
We also got a release date for DQ 11: September 27, 2019…finally!
Then, after introducing us to Doug Bowser (I like that they embraced his name), the new head of Nintendo America, we jumped right into Luigi’s Mansion 3 and learned all about the gameplay mechanics, multiplayer, story and game modes! You can slam ghosts, jump over obstacles, and even clone yourself with some sort of weird goo substance to make – Gooigi!
Then Nintendo announced a game tie-in to the Netflix show Dark Crystal with a game called
…I have no idea what any of this is about and I was lost…
Now something I do know more about…Link’s Awakening!
Releasing on September 20, 2019, this game looks absolutely perfect! In addition the whole story looking great, there’s also a dungeon maker in this game! Just like in Super Mario Maker, you can make dungeons and challenge your friends! Just another perfect element to a, presumably, perfect game.
Next Nintendo unveiled Trials of Mana coming to Switch in early 2020. I’m surprised this wasn’t as Square Enix’s conference though. Additionally, there’s a Mana Games Collection coming to Switch later today!
Then…my favorite announcement (regarding things coming out this year)!! Witcher 3 on Switch! The rumors were true!! I am going to play this game everywhere and I cannot wait until later this year when it finally comes out.
Next, we get a reminder that Fire Emblem: School Reunion (it’s actually Three Houses but still…) is coming out later this summer on July 26, 2019. Every time I see this game, I actually get more interested in it. At first, I had none but they’ve done a good job of selling this game to me.
Then we get some more big ports! Resident Evil 5 and 6 are both coming to Switch later this Fall and RE0, RE, and RE4 are all available on Switch now…in case you forgot!
Then we got more announcements and dates for games that we saw in previous Directs. These games included: No More Heroes III (coming 2020), Daemon X Machina (9/13/19). We also got a trailer for Contra: Rogue Corps coming to Switch September 24, 2019. The Contra collection is also available on the eShop by the time you read this. The release of the collection is mainly the news I care about from this trailer. Rogue Corps doesn’t look that great though unfortunately…
We also got a small trailer (mainly a gameplay one) for a re-imagining of Panzar Dragoon. It looks pretty simple, and the flying looks very robotic, but its looks like it’ll be fun to play and it’ll satisfy fans who need a Star Fox clone. That game comes out this Winter.
We also got a reminder that Pokemon Sword and Shield are coming out in November along with the reveal that the Pokeball walking feature (like in Let’s Go and Soul Silver) is coming back for Gen 8! We also learned about a new Gym Leader, Nessa: the water type leader (I’ll have more about all the Pokemon news later on).
Next! Astral Chain got another big trailer and learn some more about the lore of the world including who the humans are fighting against, how we can use our enemies (legions) as allies(?), and how you can play as both characters which seems to affect dialogue options and the story as a whole. The release date for that game is 8/30/19. This game was one of the “one more thing” reveals from a Direct back in February so I’m glad that this game is coming out so soon!
Next Nintendo showed off a noir, crime game called Empire of Sin with a release date slotted for 2020.
Then we got a reminder that Marvel Alliance 3: Black Spot is still coming out June 26, 2019 along with the announcement that an expansion pass in coming Fall 2019.
This trailer showed us that every Marvel character ever is available whether as an expansion character or main game character. I noticed there were still some bad frame rate issues in huge scenes with a lot going on. That’s still a concern for me going forward so I’m going to hold off initially on the release of this game.
They showed off Cadence of Hyrule right after and this game still looks awesome once again! The remixes of the Zelda soundtrack and rhythm-based combat have me incredibly excited for this game! It also releases in only two days (6/13/2019)!
Then…Mario and Sonic go back to the Olympics as Tokyo gets set to host the 2020 Summer Games about a year from now. I didn’t think the original Mario/Sonic Olympic Games were good for the Wii, but maybe they’ll be better this time around. Either way, I am glad that Nintendo is embracing the Olympics and building another game around it!
And finally…after 35 minutes!! We get the Animal Crossing news we’ve been waiting for! Animal Crossing: New Horizons is coming March 20,2020! Yes there is a delay, but after seeing how revolutionary this iteration for Animal Crossing is, I totally understand the delay and I’m perfectly okay with it. The graphics for this game look like night and day compared to the 3DS versions and it’ll be amazing! It’s also good to see your life is still indebted to Tom Nook.
THE SIZZLE REEL!
EVERYTHING IS COMING TO SWITCH!
The Spyro Remastered Trilogy comes September 13th. Silksong comes soon. Ni No Kuni comes September 20th. Minecraft Dungeons releases Spring 2020 and Elder Scrolls: Blades comes to Switch exclusively this Fall. My Friend Pedro is another game coming to Switch. Doom Eternal somehow is coming to Switch!
Frogwares comes Fall 2019, Wolfenstein 2 comes July 26, 2019 and Dead by Daylight comes September 24, 2019. Alien Isolation comes sometime in 2019, Dragon Quest Builders comes July 12th this year, Stranger Things 3 releases alongside the Netflix premiere, Just Dance is coming again, same with Catan and Super Lucky’s Tale. Dauntless and Super Mario Maker 2 finished off the Sizzle Reel and my fingers hurt by the time I finished typing all of that in like 60 seconds. My carpal tunnel is scheduled for about 50 minutes from now.
And now, TWO “one more things”! Banjo-Kazooie is coming to Smash Bros and these nothing we can do to stop him! He looks like Duck Hunt variant but I’m glad that he finally came over. Nintendo and Xbox have been playing nice with each other for about a year now and this cross-over is rewarding fans of both companies in many ways as a result. He’s coming to Smash Bros. in Fall 2019!
AND…at long last! Confirmation that we are getting a Breath of the Wild sequel! Could this be the Majora’s Mask remix that fans have been discussing for a year now? Or will there be new locations to explore? There are so many questions to be answered before this game comes out. We didn’t get any release date or release window which means that this game is still very far away. For me though, this game can’t come soon enough.
And with that, Nintendo’s E3 Presentation was a huge hit and a massive success overall. The release windows and dates for many of their games were in the perfect windows as they avoid most of the massive Fall release dates that Call of Duty and EA will take up.
Confirmation that there’s a Breath of the Wild sequel coming was huge for Zelda fans and in the meantime, Link’s Awakening will keep us all busy. Nintendo barely even covered Pokemon and Super Mario Maker in this Direct and those games are coming out this year! Nintendo has fully hit its stride this generation and this Direct is indicative of that. The only thing I’m surprised we didn’t get was an update on Metroid Prime 4, especially since the development of that game switched studios about a year ago.
The one disappointment I had from this Direct was that we didn't get anything about Nintendo Online. I thought they'd at least show off a whole bunch of SNES games coming to their service because I feel like they're running out of NES games to port.
Nintendo was able to have such an impressive E3 showcase because they don’t have to worry about transitioning from this generation to the next one. Instead, Nintendo could show off everything that will be coming out because they don’t have to worry about toeing a line regarding the future of the industry and competing with an incoming competitor in Stadia.
We also got the reveal of two Smash characters. So who will the final two be? It could be anyone!
Nintendo had an awesome E3 Direct and gave me so much to be excited about!