By Luca Newton
Finally, Nintendo's E3 2021 Direct is upon us, after a weekend of back to back flops from the other companies, with exception of Microsoft. I'm here to share my thoughts.
Nintendo finally dropped their Nintendo Direct for E3 2021, and with that ends a very underwhelming E3 season. However, was Nintendo also very underwhelming? Did they knock it out of the park? I'm going to go over the highlights of the presentation and come to a conclusion on how good this year's Direct was, after a year away from E3 in 2020.
Kazuya Gets Ready For The Next Battle
To open the show, we saw a Smash reveal. Before going in, I was expecting Crash, as I said yesterday. Whoever it was, I was confident that only one would be dropped today. Honestly, Nintendo always finds a way to completely throw me off my predictions. They chose a character that I probably would never guessed. Kazuya Mishima from Tekken is the next fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
I got Steve. I got Steve last year. Ever since then, I've honestly not cared who gets in. Like I'll have an opinion, but won't be too bothered. Kazuya, to me, elicited no reaction to be completely honest. As a series, I've never touched the Tekken series in my life. However, I was pretty confident that the Heihachi mii costume was a death sentence to any Tekken content in Smash. Nintendo said fuck it, and added a Tekken character anyway. He looks fun, especially with his demon form or whatever that is. I don't care about him, but Tekken is a big deal, and Bandai Namco were overdue another rep.
First Batch Of Headlines
Life is Strange Collection + Life is Strange: True Colours Coming To Switch
It's pretty cool to see these games come to the Switch, especially True Colours, which I definitely didn't expect. I remember watching the first one on YouTube and loving it. Personally I won't get these because they're not the kinds of games that I would actually play myself to be honest.
Guardians of the Galaxy Coming To Switch.. As A Cloud Version
This one was originally really hype - however, it being just a cloud version is pretty lame, but I guess that's the only way to put it on the system, until the inevitable Switch Pro that will probably release with a native port of Guardians of the Galaxy.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania Announced For Series' 20th Anniversary
Another cool reveal. The Super Monkey Ball series is pretty beloved, however in recent years, it's been pretty dormant besides a remake which people weren't fond of. So to see a bunch of remasters of classic games people actually liked, is a great thing. I am very happy for fans of the series. As for me? Probably never touching this collection.
Mario Party Superstars
While part of the the batch of headlines, Mario Party Superstars is significant enough for me to count it as a separate section. I honestly did expect a Super Mario Party 2 to show up this year. Seemed like a good timing after it being 2 years after the first one, which had no updates until a random online update this year. The game ended up differently to how I expected to be honest.
Mario Party Superstars is like Mario Party: The Top 100 but it looks way better. Instead of being 100 of the best minigames, it's along with 5 popular boards fully remade. The game looks gorgeous visually, and looks really fun. The best part is that it has online play. I'm not sure if I'll get this game, but it seems like the perfect next step for the series. Hopefully the next entirely original Mario Party will include online too.
Metroid Dread
Next, they showed what was probably the biggest, second biggest reveal of the entire Direct for sure. Metroid Dread. The 5th Metroid game in the lore and story of the 2D Metroid games. I'm not going to pretend like I have ever been a Metroid fan, or that I know the games in any capacity, but I was absolutely blown away by this game. I think it looks awesome. After, what was apparently, 19 years of waiting, Metroid fans finally got a brand new, wholly original 2D Metroid entry. And it looks glorious.
I think the title is really badass, and I remember hearing that the original Metroid 5 was going to be called Metroid Dread too, but was cancelled. Resurfacing the title is not only really cool, but also smart because Dread is an awesome subtitle. I've never been into Metroidvanias if I'm being honest, but this game looks really fun. I love the aesthetic they're going with, with robots in a white modern glint. Also Samus' suit is my favourite one she's ever had. The colours really do it for me. I'm curious to play this game - and even as a non-Metroid fan, I am excited just by intrigue. It's a great October 2021 title. I'm glad this E3 focused on new titles for this holiday as that time was looking very bare.
Second Batch Of Headlines
Dragon Ball Z Kakarot Coming To Switch
Just added this one here because Zay won. If you know you know. But seriously, it's cool to see that here.. even if the framerate looks like it tanks.
Mario Golf Super Rush Reminder And Future Updates Teased
Honestly, only included this specific headline just because of the future updates section, which is one of the times in this Direct I genuinely popped off. Mario Golf looks really good, but I'm unsure if I'll get it. However, the updates already look great, with a New Donk City stage confirmed, which just looks incredible. That alone tempts me for the game..
WarioWare: Get It Together!
I did tell you guys it would be here! WarioWare: Get It Together! looks great. I've never played a WarioWare game, but one of my friends showed me one of the games, and it sold me on any future instalment. Going in I was hoping and expecting WarioWare, and it was delivered to us. It's coming as soon as September 2021.
I think it looks so good. It literally looks so weird and whacky in the same nature we come to expect with the series. It's cool seeing the whole Wario cast here, and all the microgames look fun. Additionally, it's cool how this game includes multiplayer. Co-op with friends for WarioWare would be just so much fun from what I've seen.
Shin Megami Tensei V
A detailed trailer for SMT V was featured in the middle of the Direct. At the time this was on, I was honestly annoyed it was taking up time because I figured we'd already seen the game and knew about it - but looking back, it looks pretty good. I might pick it up, I don't know. I just honestly, at the time, wish it didn't take up so much time, so I disregarded it. But the game looked pretty impressive for the Switch.
Third Batch Of Headlines
Danganronpa...
Dread it, run from it. Destiny arrives all the same..
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
This game is legitimately my most anticipated game out of this entire presentation. It was revealed in Ubisoft's E3 presentation. I put this here as an excuse to talk about it. Sparks of Hope gives me Sparks of Joy. It's not only a new game for the Mario + Rabbids crossover with a new story, new characters and not much else. It has actual ambitions, and I am absolute ecstatic about it - with its space exploring theme it is going to be massive. I CANNOT wait.
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp
Alright, I did not expect this one in a million years. I'd heard about Advance Wars in passing, as a series that was long dead and that Nintendo would never bring back. While we aren't getting a brand new game, they are fully remaking the first 2 games in a toy-like aesthetic, with the characters and the cutscenes being very anime. Game looks aesthetically brilliant, but personally I don't really care for it. I hope fans of the series - all 2 of you - enjoy the remakes.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sequel First Trailer
Oh yeah before this there was some reminders on upcoming Zelda stuff, and a Game & Watch Zelda Edition, in true Zelda 35th fashion. What the real highlight was; the first gameplay revealed for Breath of the Wild 2, with 2022 release confirmed. Which is probably late 2022 due to the official title still not being revealed yet.
What we did see.. it was beautiful. It was quite brief, but it teased at enough new stuff to be genuinely exciting. We saw the fact the game is going to have sky islands to explore which change up Hyrule enough. The game also looks gorgeous from the few screenshots we've seen. The other major thing we saw, was Link's new hand, which seems to be basically an advanced Sheikah Slate. We see Link not only slow down time, but then he pushes it back. Even weirder, we see Link phase through the bottom of solid ground, onto the top of the bridge. It looks so wild, and fun. I am so excited to see how all that works, and what else you can do.
Even after all that, there is still so much that we still don't know, and won't until next year. Like if Zelda is playable, if caves are also explorable, what is the actual title of the game? I'm excited to find out. It was an amazing trailer.
Overall Thoughts On Nintendo E3 2021
This year's E3 was very solid in my opinion. A lot of really nice announcements, especially in terms of first party games releasing later this year. That was something that we knew suspiciously little about considering we knew a lot about 2022 already before most of 2021. And the schedule is now mainly filled, with some really cool titles. Although, there was no major holiday title, I assume they're betting on Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl for sales, and Metroid Dread as their major release, even though it won't probably sell holiday game levels.
The Direct was very well paced, better than the previous 2 E3s in 2018 and 2019, which both had horrible pacing and structure. 2019's show overall I felt was pretty overstated how good it was. This year had its best announcements distributed over the 40 minutes, making it constantly interesting. The individual announcements were good, but a lot of them were expected, leaving little big surprises here. The Smash fighter was good, but not exciting - at least for me. Overal, it's probably my second favourite Switch era E3, behind 2017. But 2017 is miles ahead.
That's all my thoughts on this year's E3 for Nintendo. The other companies had it so bad that I'm not sure if E3 will be a thing next year, but whatever happens, it's great to have this Direct this year, to bring back E3 hype after so long, and it delivered in my opinion.
Thanks for reading.
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