While there’s still plenty of Treehouse Live gameplay coverage going on for those who want a real taste of what the Switch has to offer over the coming months, Nintendo’s annual E3 Direct presentation has concluded. So, was this year’s showing a success?
For me? Absolutely. While the long-rumored “next-gen” Nintendo Switch console didn’t make an appearance—though I’m sure that won’t stop the speculative clickbait—the Big N managed to tick a lot of boxes for longtime fans.
Ok, admittedly that opening image of a defeated Ganon that turned out to be not a proper Legend of Zelda tease but the reveal of Kazuya Mishima from TEKKEN coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was, in a word, brutal, but I give Nintendo full marks for playfully thumbing its nose as the overenthusiastic fanbase.
From there we were treated to more Rabbids, continued DLC support, and lots of other fun, out-of-left-field announcements. While ports of the newly revamped Tony Hawk Pro-Skater, the mysterious Danganronpa, and story-driven Life Is Strange weren’t exactly earth-shattering, Nintendo more than made up for it with a wonderfully unexpected return of WarioWare and a Switch revamp of not one but two amazing entries in the long-neglected Advance Wars franchise.
Joining the HD remake of the Wii’s Skyward Sword is also a port of the spooktacular survival horror/photography-fighter Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water—keeping that string of great Wii U titles made even better on the more accessible Switch system alive and kicking.
But that wasn’t all of The Legend of Zelda coverage. Alongside a closer look at the Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity Expansion Pass, we received word of November’s Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda, a three-game (plus one mini-game and some clock features) celebration of the series’ 35th anniversary that looks just as enticing as its Super Mario precursor.
And then, of course, there was the proverbial mic drop; the sequel to landmark Switch launch title Breath of the Wild is coming in 2022. Better yet, we got to see some fresh gameplay showing Link using an entirely new suite of special powers and abilities.
Zelda hype aside, though, the real winner here—in addition to the diehard fans—was Samus Aran. The first 2D Metroid game with a brand new story in nearly two decades, Metroid Dread, is coming this October, and it looks spectacular! A direct sequel to 2002’s Metroid Fusion, this fifth chapter in the Metroid saga promises new adventures, new amiibo (naturally), and a brand new enemy in the form of the E.M.M.I. robots. I think that more than makes up for the relative silence re: Metroid Prime 4, though I may be in the minority here.
Suffice it to say, I skipped over a lot for the sake of brevity. If these isolated trailers aren’t enough—or if you missed out on the event earlier this afternoon—you can watch the Nintendo Direct in its entirety via the official Nintendo of America YouTube channel.
