E3 2021: Nintendo

Well Nintendo, you’ve done it again. You’ve saved E3 from mediocrity. I’m just going to get right into this, Nintendo stole the show by a county fucking mile. Not that it was hard to do. Let's be honest, outside from Microsoft’s somewhat decent showcase, every other event has been a complete wash. I didn’t even both covering Capcom’s event because there was barely anything there, and as for Take 2...

But Nintendo, they brought and then some. The only announcement that I didn’t care for was the Life is Strange ports, and that’s only because I frigging hate Life is Strange. Everything else I either loved, or at least looked interesting enough that I might give it a shot. My wallet is likely going to commit seppuku at this rate.

But let’s get the big reveal out of the way. Metroid is finally back. Not with Metroid Prime 4, but with a brand new 2D game called Metroid Dread. This was rumoured to be a thing a little while ago, but to see that it exists makes me very happy. I’m not even a Metroid fan, I’m just happy for the fans.

That said, it does look fun. It looks like it’s taking the classic Metroid formula but updating it with modern mechanics. It also feels like there adding some survival horror elements into it, which fits well with Metroid. And the best part, it’s coming out this year. So Metroid fans, your long wait for a new game is over.

That was the big surprise of the show, but it wasn’t something I'm personally looking forward to. I’m actually more excited for the new Wario Ware game, Wario Ware Get It Together. I’ve been a huge fan of this series since the original, and this looks like a cool take on the formula. Co-op is the big feature, but I’m more interested in how they’re going to intergrade the different playable characters into the classic micro game formula.

Then there’s Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania. This is a remaster of the first two Monkey Ball games for modern platforms. These are the very best Monkey Ball games, none of the others come close, so I’m super happy to see them back. But the real reason I'm excited, is because Monkey Target is coming back. If you haven’t played Monkey Target at all, make that your selling point for this. It's one of the most fun party games ever made.

Speaking of parties, there’s a brand-new Mario Party coming out. Mario Party Superstars is what Mario Party the Top 100 should have been. A collection of classic boards and minigames from the Nintendo 64 era with spiffy new graphics and mechanics. I’m disappointed the GameCube era isn’t being represented, but maybe they’ll add some of that stuff later. Can’t wait to play this with my family.

I could go on folks, but I think you get the point. This event was just hit after hit. Even the ports were interesting. I now have no excuse not to try Danganronpa, and seeing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 on Switch is awesome. Even Advance Wars is getting some love with remakes of the first 2 games. That one I did not see coming.

But let’s go over some of the bigger titles and reveals since I could go on all day. The presentation started out strong with the reveal of Kazuya Mishima as a playable character in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. I’m surprised Kazuya made it in and not Heihachi or Jin, but I’m happy to see Tekken get some love. He looks super fun and there’s a proper showcase for him on the 28th to look forward to.

They also showed off some gameplay for the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei V. Never played one of these though I might still give this one a shot. Looks like post-apocalyptic, demon summoning Pokémon and that sounds awesome. Plus, it won’t have any of the elements that keep me away from the Persona series, so that’s a bonus.

Of course, they saved a banger for the end. We finally got to see some gameplay for Breath of the Wild 2. that wasn’t all they showed off for Zelda. Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity is getting some new DLC, and they’re releasing a special Game and Watch for the original Legend of Zelda to celebrate the series 35th anniversary.

They didn’t announce the rumoured Zelda collection, but I'm guessing there will be a special anniversary direct for Zelda like they did for Mario where something akin to that will be shown. As for Breath of the Wild 2, well it looks like more Breath of the Wild. Not a bad thing at all and they look like they’ll be exploring more of the skies of Hyrule in this game, so the scale is even bigger. And now you know why Skyward Sword is getting remastered.

So yeah, Nintendo won E3. No contest. And that is it for my E3 coverage, I mean there is the post E3 EA show, but who honestly cares. Honestly, E3 this year was pretty meh. Nintendo aside, most of the conferences were mediocre or bad.

Granted, Microsoft’s show was decent, and even the Ubisoft and Square Enix shows had some games that looked ok. So it wasn’t a total washout this year. At least we got plenty of games to look forward to in the future. Now if only Nintendo could get around to fixing the recent Switch software patch so I can actually download some of them.