Thoughts on Everything Revealed At The Nintendo Conference

As the only company to premiere their games on Tuesday, Nintendo is always the odd duck of E3. But after a stressful Sunday and Monday, having some Nintendo goodness to look at often does a lot of good.  How’d they do this year?

They opened the show up by introducing the latest DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the Hero from Dragon Quest.  Which hero?  Apparently, just about all of them.  In place of different color palettes, players will be able to play as different lead characters from Dragon Quest, including the main character of Dragon Quest 11.  Effectively, this adds seven additional players to the roster, and give Dragon Quest fans the world over a reason to invest in one of Nintendo’s most evergreen titles.  This DLC will be added in Summer 2019.

Dragon Quest fans also have Dragon Quest XI S to look forward to.  Even for those who might have already completed the game, this version (called the “definitive edition” in the trailers) gives them a reason to go back and relive moments of the title.  Featuring an expanded storyline, more monsters that can be rode, a turbo mode for combat, and the ability to somehow travel to past Dragon Quest worlds, this game will once again test the Switch’s ability to lure people into double-dipping and buying copies of games they own.  Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age: Definitive Edition releases on September 27th.

For those of us who were lacking enough spoopy in our lives, Nintendo showed off Luigi’s Mansion 3.  This latest incarnation sees Luigi, his brother Mario, and their friends invited to a massive hotel.  Unfortunately for him, the hotel is actually haunted, leading to Luigi having to save his friends after they get kidnapped.  He’s given the new Poltergust-00, which has a number of abilities specifically designed to help him battle against the living impaired, such as Slamming ghosts, using a plunger for a Suction Shot, and a Burst of air pressure to blow ghosts away.  During the game, Luigi will work with a Professor E. Gadd, who will introduce Gooigi, an ectoplasmic version of Luigi which can walk through bars or on spikes…but who’s otherwise fairly vulnerable to water.  This opens the door to co-op, alongside an alternate version of co-op present known as the ScareScraper mode, where Luigi and Mario (and their Goo clones) battle ghosts in a time attack mode, while searching for missing Toads.    Luigi’s Mansion 3 still has no release date, other than a general 2019, though October sounds fairly obvious at this point.

In conjunction with Netflix, studio BonusXP is releasing a tactical RPG based on the world of Dark Crystal, in time for a prequel series coming out for Netflix in August.  Known as Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics, the game will see players team up to save Thra by working with Aughra to fight their way through 80 campaign battles.  The game will release later in 2019.

The Legend of Zelda’s classic Game Boy title gets a remake this fall with The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening.  A complete overhaul that uses cutesy, almost claymation-like graphics, the trailer goes out of its way to show it’s the same game fans knew and loved as kids.  But it’s not entirely old hat, as they’ve added a special feature where players can collect different chambers as they play to create their own dungeon that they can then raid and collect items from.  The game releases September 20th, 2019.

The third entry in the Mana series, originally referred to as Seiken Densetsu 3, never found its way to internatonal shores despite being acclaimed as one of the best titles in the series.  However, Square seeks to finally correct this by releasing Trials of Mana, a remake of the Super Famicom title.  The game releases in Early 2020.

Following up on that is the confirmation of a rumored release for all of the first three Mana titles, as Collection of Mana, available now on the eShop.   This brings “Final Fantasy Adventure”, Secret of Mana, and the Super Famicon version of Trials of Mana to the Nintendo Switch in a single collection.

One of the bigger surprises of E3 might’ve been the announcement of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition for the Nintendo Switch. CD Projekt has never been the biggest fan of super late ports, and Witcher 2: Assassination of Kings only came to the 360 because it was easier to port from PC than the PS3 was.  This won’t exactly have the same level of graphics, but considering it’ll bring one of the largest, most expansive titles of all time to a portable console, hopefully it’ll give more people the chance to give it the attention it deserves.

When Nintendo gave us our first extended look at Fire Emblem: Three Houses, we were all led to believe it was a title which would mostly take place in school.  This time around though, it’s revealed the school stuff seems to take place fairly early on, and the actual game will be a war involving the three royal houses.  This has the potential to be one of the better Fire Emblem installments, provided they can allow us to become sufficiently attached to all the characters before we watch them have to deal with the ravages of war.   Three Houses releases July 26th, 2019.

In one of the weirder announcements, Nintendo confirmed that both Resident Evil 5 and 6 are coming to the Nintendo Switch, available in the Fall.  They join Resident Evil 0, Resident Evil, and RE4.

Travis Touchdown returns with a look at No More Heroes 3, though the trailer is mostly style over substance and gives us little idea of what this game’s iteration of the gameplay would be like.  The title launches in 2020.

Konami continues of alternating between making good games (Super Bomberman R) and seeing which franchises it can pump out low-effort titles for with Contra: Rogue Corps.  A run and gun shooter, it features multiple different characters battling against an alien invasion.  The game launches September 24th, 2019.  On the bright side, they also confirmed Contra: Anniversary Collection for the eShop, and it’s available now.

Daemon x Machina returns, looking even more polished than it did when we last saw it at E3 2018.  This time around, we get a bigger glimpse at the story.  I’m happy to say they’ve gone full-blown anime here, as we get to see some of the characters involved in the story, and even a bit of on-foot battles, confirming that this isn’t just a game where you’re trapped inside of a mecha the entire time.  Combine that with them having taken all the criticisms players had for the demo to heart and this is looking like the ultimate game for mech-heads everywhere.  The game launches on September 13th, 2019.

It was announced a while back that the 1995 SEGA classic Panzer Dragoon would be receiving a remake, and now Megapixel and Forever Entertainment are giving it to us. Hopefully this does well enough for the remakes to continue, and we can eventually get Panzer Dragoon Saga.  But for now, everyone has to count their days until the original returns in Winter 2020.

Nintendo continues down the path of anime with another trailer for the upcoming Platinum title, Astral Chain. This trailer gets a bit more into the crisis the world is under which leads to the formation of the special unit responsible for fighting off extra-dimensional threats.  Astral Chain is launching August 30th, 2019.

A new game from Romero Games and Paradox Interactive, Empire of Sin is a strategy game set during Prohibition-era Chicago.  The focus is as much on strategy as it is on combat, as players climb to the top of the underworld.  Empire of Sin launches Spring 2020.

Team Ninja’s continuation of the Ultimate Alliance series in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, got to make another appearance here. This time around, we get a look at some of the villains we’ll encounter in the game, including Doctor Octopus, Hela and the Destroyer armor, Mysterio, MODOK, Mephisto, Magneto, and Kingpin.  We also get a glimpse of some additional playable characters: Ghost Rider, Elsa Bloodstone (!), and Elektra.   Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order launches July 19th, 2019.  Later in the fall, the game’s expansion pass will begin to release characters from Marvel Knights, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four.

Crypt of the NecroDancer gets a crossover with The Legend of Zelda to become Cadence of Hyrule, a game where players must match their movements and hits to the beat of the background music.  Cadence of Hyrule will allow players to select Cadence or Link or Zelda to battle their way through levels.  This game is out now.

With the Olympics not only next year, but being set in Japan, it’s no surprise Nintendo decided to announce Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. The game will feature both iconic characters alongside their allies working their way through a number of Olympic Games series, and will release November 2019.

Nintendo finally gave gamers a glimpse of the upcoming Animal Crossing: New Horizons video game, but it came with a cost.  Though the game was once set up for a 2019 release, Nintendo has pushed it back to come out on March 20th, 2020. Still, it certainly looks like all the gameplay Animal Crossing fans know and love is still present, only this time players will be able to take it on the go.

Banjo Kazooie is coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.  Easily one of the most beloved titles from the N64 era, that Nintendo was able to work with Microsoft and Rare to place these characters back onto their console is a testament to their desire to keep the fans happy.  The character will come to Smash Ultimate in Fall 2019.

The final surprise of this Direct was the announcement that Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 is currently in development. This wouldn’t be a surprise for most series, but Zelda isn’t generally known for direct sequels, with Majora’s Mask and a Link Between Worlds being the occasional exception. There’s no release date for this yet, but it’s a safe bet this game is a long way off.  They didn’t tell us much of anything about it, though after the show there were people from Nintendo claiming this would be a “darker” game than the original title, whatever that ends up meaning.

Post-Show Thoughts:

If Nintendo proved nothing else this E3, it’s that the Direct format is superior to any other way to hold a video game press conference.  Where Ubisoft had issues with pacing and Microsoft had issues with organization, Nintendo came through and showed off a large list of games, showed a ton of first-party support for their console, and kept a ton of gameplay present.  They didn’t need two hours to show off sixty games, they just needed 42 minutes to show off thirty-plus. It never felt like we were being short-changed, and every thing felt like it got just enough time.  If we were particularly curious about a title, they had twenty minutes to an hour worth of gameplay for many of them at their Treehouse.

As someone that’s not even the biggest Nintendo fan, it’s hard to ignore just how perfectly they’ve mastered E3 from the perspective of gamers watching.  The messaging is rarely ever mixed up, and anyone truly interested in how Nintendo does things almost always walks away happy. This was a solid A performance, and it’s only not an A+ because I really, really wanted something from Monolith Software.