E3 is almost upon us once again, the yearly ritual of the video game industry where developers, publishers, and console manufacturers put on their best face, brag about themselves, and make wild promises about their upcoming games and systems they may or may not be able to keep. Where gamers flock every year in Los Angeles to stand in line for hours to play a single game, and watch dozens of CG trailers from developers.
Despite Sony not even attending the show this year, and more and more publishers eschewing the barely-controlled chaos that is the Electronics Entertainment Expo, there is still a lot to look forward to. Nintendo has had some legendary E3 appearances in the past, and they have an exceptionally strong lineup for the Switch going into the rest of 2019.
Nintendo’s formula for the last few years has been a nice change of pace for E3. They’ve eschewed the glitz and bluster of the traditional press conferences for a more personable ‘hey let’s sit down in front of the TV and we’ll show you our upcoming games’ approach. The people at Nintendo of America who work in the Treehouse only seem to get let out of their top-secret game development cage once a year for E3 to show off games, and they always do a great job.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and the new Pokemon RPG should all be there this year. It will be interesting to see how they’ve turned out.
The Super Mario Galaxy games and the The Legend of Zelda games are prime candidates to come to Switch. We already know Nintendo has these games running on the system’s hardware, and Zelda: Link’s Awakening is on its way as well.
Beyond that, it would be great to see the first two Xenoblade games get released for Switch. Monolith Soft has been growing significantly in recent months, and they have multiple teams now. While they’re probably working on the follow-up to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 , having all three Xenoblade Chronicles games on the system would be a welcome announcement for Switch-owning RPG fans.
Also, some sort of announcement for Metroid Prime Trilogy would be welcome. Since Metroid Prime 4 is years away still, and Nintendo is likely going to use Trilogy as an appetizer and prep for the release of the game, a 2019 Trilogy release might be too soon – but a clue, hint, or some sort of talk that it’s coming sometime in the future would be great.
Some Switch owners grumble about the amount of ports of old games the system gets, but as long as it’s balanced with new games, I don’t see that as a negative. The Switch is a great platform for classic games. Keep ‘em coming.
Nintendo does seem to be making some effort to improve the value of Nintendo Switch Online. For example, the voucher program they’re putting in for Super Mario Maker 2 is a good start for those that have the service already, but as it stands right now, Nintendo Switch Online is still an inferior online service to what Wii U owners got for free.
The best way to improve the service would be to make more classic games available, especially GameCube games. (Or if Nintendo wants to sell GameCube games separate from the service, that would be great too.) However, there’s no reason we shouldn’t at least have Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 games available by now.
Once again, Nintendo is drip-feeding their classic game lineup to their user base. They still don’t get it. It’s unlikely Nintendo will address this in any meaningful way at E3, but it would be great if they did.
Retro Studios hasn’t released a game in five years. We know they’re now working on Metroid Prime 4, but we don’t know what else have they been doing since they released Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze in 2014. Maybe this will this be the year we finally get to see something from them. It’s been so long that rumors have been circulating that there’s internal strife at the studio. It’s doubtful we’ll get to see anything related to Metroid Prime 4 at E3, but they should have something to show by now.
Nintendo knows how to unveil a big game. Whether it’s their epic unveil for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Switch last year, or Zelda: Twilight Princess for GameCube at E3 2004, Nintendo knows how to surprise us. At E3 2017, Nintendo announced both Metroid Prime 4 and Metroid: Samus Returns simultaneously, which no one saw coming. It’s unrealistic to expect all of these things, but it would be great if it happened. It’s always best to keep your expectations low for E3, but here’s hoping.
The Gamer's Standard 