Nintendo Presentation at E3

While Nintendo might not have had the best presentation, they were the “sleeper” of E3.

I went in to the Nintendo presentation not expecting much. While Nintendo has had huge success both with the Wii and Switch (we won’t talk about the Wii U) I have not gotten either one. Looking at their game library, I didn’t see anything I felt like I needed to play. Sure there were game that I thought “Hey, that looks cool.” But right now, in this day and age there are so many card games, board games, role playing games and video games that you can’t play them all. Even if you stayed up twenty four hours a day for a full year you still wouldn’t have play them all and you would probably go insane. So Nintendo was the first system to get cut. (It also doesn’t help that I have no one to play with, which seems to be a big thing for games on the Wii.)

With all that being said I was hoping to find something from Nintendo to make me say “Hey, I need to get a Nintendo.” I have heard what everyone has said about the new Legend of Zelda game. But I have never been a fan of that game series. So I was hoping to find something but not really expecting it. Like when you get home from a con and hope you didn’t spend too much even though you know better.

The first twenty two minutes was a video of the president of North American operations of Nintendo, Zeggie Fils-Aime, the General Manager of the Entertainment Planning & Development Division, Shinya Takahashi, the president of The Pokemon Company, Tsunekazu Ishihara, and the series producer and manager of The Legend of Zelda, Eiji Aonuma introducing games. This was disappointing. A video? Really? So they aren’t presenting anything in person? Do they have that little faith in their products? I almost turned it off but I thought “No, wait. Let’s see if there is anything of interest.” And I am glad I did that. After the video they did go to a live feed from E3 where they showed off some pretty cool stuff.

First let’s talk about what was in the video. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will be released for the holiday season 2017. I am on the fence of this one. The graphics aren’t bad. But I’m not fond of the voice acting. And the story line is a bit confusing. But I guess that is why you play the first one, right?

Next was a Kirby game named Kirby that will be released in 2018. It’s a cute game that would be great for kids to play or parents could play with their kids. I am neither of those. So unless they show me something else, I will be passing on this one.

After that was a teaser trailer for  Metroid Prime 4. I will be looking forward to more news of this game.

That was followed by a new Yoshi named Yoshi which will be released in 2018. Just like Kirby this looks like a kid’s game but there a unique feature. It’s a side scroller that you can flip. So you can be playing from left to right, then flip it and now you are playing on the other side, playing right to left. But this is not enough to make me want to get this game.

Then they showed a trailer for Fire Emblem Warriors which is coming fall 2017. This is just like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in that the voice acting is dry and forced. Although I will say of the two I would rather pick this one.

Now let’s talk about something more interesting. Mainly the two up and coming DLC packs for Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The first one will be called The Master Trials and should be released June 30^th 2017. The next one will be The Champions Ballad and it will be released for the holiday season 2017.

When I saw the beginning of the trailer of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle I thought “Oh man. Another Mario game. Pass.” But I kept watching the trailer and it actually looks like fun. People might say “But wait. Isn’t Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle just like Kirby and Yoshi?” Not really. From what I have seen, Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle looks to be more stupid fun where Kirby and Yoshi are more kid fun. I won’t go so far as to say this is a reason to get a Switch, but if I do get one this will be in my library. And it will be released August 29^th 2017.

Finally, they announced Rocket League which will be coming out during the holiday season 2017. Plus, it will have exclusive customization items and battle cars. You will also be able to play with people on every other platform. PC, console it won’t matter.

The rest of the hour they focused on just two games. Yes, that doesn’t seem like much but there was a good reason for it. The first game they talked about was Super Mario Odyssey. Now the trailer seemed simple and like something for kids. But when they started playing it, it actually looked like fun. Plus, in some areas there are part where you can go from a 3D environment to a 2D environment. That means you can play original Mario in a new Mario game. That type of technology in a game is great. Another thing I loved was the mixing of animation. By that I mean you have highly refined animation right next to “Mario” animation. All this can be yours October 27^th 2017.

The last game they revealed was also another great game. In fact it might be the reason I finally get a Nintendo 3DS. Metroid Samus Returns is a kind of remake of the older Samus Returns that came out on the original Gameboy. I say “kind of” because this remake is actually better than the first.