Louis’ E3 2018 Nintendo Showcase Thoughts
Nintendo would be the final conference before E3 got underway. As with Nintendo, expect the unexpected somewhat. The show started with a new game, Daemon X Machina, that looked amazing and crazy, as with all mech games to be released early 2019. After a quick Reggie intro, it went back to showing more games, while the first sting came from learning that Fire Emblem: Three Houses while amazing, has been pushed back from this year to spring 2019. Getting a surprise with Super Mario Party is nice since the last good one to me was back on the GameCube.
After the sizzle reel of upcoming games this year and more Pokémon information for the Pokemon Let’s Go series, (and Mew being exclusive with the Poke Ball Controller) we were treated to the main course. Learning almost everything about the latest entry into the franchise, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Sakurai gave a lot of information, like the game containing all the fighters from the series including third party characters such as Ryu, Pac-Man, Snake, and more. What surprised me about the presentation is how he talked about advance tactics in the game, as he stated that Smash Bros. should be played for fun and not competition.
While I thought the E3 Direct was good, Andre brought up some good points about the lack of other Nintendo games such as Yoshi, Metroid Prime 4, Bayonetta 3, and whatever the heck Retro Studios is working on. My guess is with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate being ‘Nintendo’s Infinity Wars,’ they didn’t want any game to be overshadowed and that it will be shown later on a Direct or the games have been pushed back to 2019. [UPDATE: As I was writing this, Nintendo has confirmed that Yoshi has been delayed to 2019.] I wasn’t surprised that the most of the show went to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as Nintendo stated the show would be focused on Smash and Pokémon.
Overall, I thought it was a good showing from Nintendo, mainly because most of the games they showcased were first and third parties that are coming out this year.
