I take a look at Nintendo’s presentation from this year’s E3.
Script
C1: Welcome back to P Myth Gaming, E3 is all over, and Nintendo have delivered their presentation. It was a solid offering, without anything too mind blowing.
The big focus obviously was Smash Bros and boy did they go deep into it.
VO: The almost surgical dissection of each characters’ moveset and the various techniques that have been tweaked, resurrected or introduced, is the clearest indication yet that Nintendo are keen to push into eSports more, especially with their flagship fighting franchise.
C1: Early reports say that the action’s quite fast, and by and large it seems that Sakurai is trying to finally replace Melee as people’s number 1 Smash game
C2: Though for me personally, Smash 4 managed that.
C1: The concessions to the community weren’t just in the form of gameplay tweaks either, it’s been a running joke that fans have wanted Ridley for some time now, and Sakurai has even addressed it in the past saying that it just wouldn’t work. The fact he’s included him, is 100% giving the fans what they want.
Speaking of which, the biggest surprise of the whole Direct for me is the fact that he’s managed to include every single fighter from every Smash game. I even joked about it as I was watching it about him including everyone as they were reeling off the roster
C2: it turned out to not be a joke.
C1: The return of the likes Wolf, Snake, Ice Climbers, is another shot to try and replace Melee at the top of the Smash tree.
For us non-competitive players, I’m just really glad that the likes of Cloud and Ryu are returning. I was fully expecting them not to make it this time, and it’s awesome that they’re not just a one and done.
I was also pleased with amiibo training returning, and they did reveal during the Treehouse livestream that new characters Ridley, Daisy and Inkling Girl will be getting their own amiibo. There’s no word as yet on whether returning characters like Snake or Pokemon Trainer will get figures too.
C2: My heart hopes they do, my wallet hopes they don’t.
C1: Just quickly on the subject of Pokemon Trainer, it’s unclear whether there’ll be both a Trainer character and a standalone Charizard, or if Charizard’s return is as part of the Trainer’s team. If it’s just the trainer, does that mean my Charizard amiibo essentially becomes a Pokemon Trainer one? It’ll be interesting to find out.
Either way Smash looks great, with the new characters, 3DS stages coming in and so on. I was slightly disappointed that there weren’t any new third party fighters announced.
C2: Bomberman being relegated to a lowly assist trophy is heart-breaking
C1: But a roster this big is going to be a nightmare to balance anyway,
C2: we can’t be too greedy,
C1: And I cannot wait to get my hands on it.
Away from Smash and it was fairly run of the mill stuff.
VO: The new Mario Party looks pretty cool, and it seems to be a return to the classic board game set up of the original titles.
C2: In fact they said that’s the idea during the Treehouse Livestream.
VO: Fire Emblem too looks like it’s coming together well, The DLC for Xenoblade 2 will please fans of that game, and Pokemon Lets Go is looking rather pretty.
C2: Mew only being available to those who buy the Pokeball Plus controller, pretty much guarantees that I’m buying one.
C1: And that was pretty much it so far as first party stuff goes. There was no Metroid, no Yoshi
C2: Which has now apparently been pushed to 2019
C1: And no other new announcements for say Animal Crossing or Starfox. As a result the Direct did feel a little bit underwhelming, but it’s worth remembering that last year’s presentation was somewhat of an anomaly.
Nintendo rarely discuss games at E3 that aren’t coming out that same year, and by announcing Metroid Prime 4 and Pokemon last year, they were breaking their own rules a little. And Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has said as much since.
Once you get over that initial disappointment and look at the release schedule for the rest of this year though, it’s hard to be too downhearted.
VO: We’ve got Mario Tennis Aces, Crash Bandicoot and Wolfenstein 2 at the end of the month, Octopath Traveler and Captain Toad in July, August sees Okami HD, Monster Hunter Generations, and Overcooked 2, and Dark Souls is still scheduled for a summer release as well.
Then we’re rounding out the last three months of the year with Super Mario Party, Ubisoft’s Starlink featuring the Switch exclusive Starfox content
C2: How cool did that look by the way.
VO: And then Pokemon and Smash Bros.
That’s not a release schedule to sniff at, and a few years ago during the Wii U era, we would’ve killed for that slate of games.
So yes, did Nintendo knock anyone’s socks off, probably not. The inclusion of every Smash fighter ever in Ultimate is the headline takeaway and is awesome, lets not understate that, but it is fair to say there weren’t any real oh my god moments.
But you know what, that’s fine. There’s big games coming this year, and it means that in 2019 we’ve got Bayonetta 3, Yoshi, Fire Emblem, a new core Pokemon game, and possibly Metroid Prime 4 to look forward to.
2017 was an aberration, the monthly release of huge games that the Switch saw just doesn’t happen, but Nintendo needed to come out swinging for the Switch and that’s exactly what they did. It’s insane to expect them to keep that up throughout the console’s entire life-cycle.
2018 might not be quite as spectacular as last year
C2: You’re never going to top new Mario and Zelda games in one year
C1: But there’s plenty to be excited about for Switch this year, and between the games we definitely know are coming, and the ones that have yet to be announced, we’re looking at one hell of a ‘what to expect in 2019’ Direct later this year.
Thanks very much for watching guys, I’d love to know what your highlights are from Nintendo’s E3 presence this year, please let me know down in the comments. If you’re new around here, do check out some of the other videos and if you like what you see, give that subscribe button a tickle. I’ll be back again next Sunday, see you then!
Phil Myth 