If there is one conference that can go ‘hit and miss’ its Nintendo. Deciding to step away from an onstage conference to do a pre-taped event known as “Nintendo Directs” has been the norm and has worked out for them. While it was the shortest of the three, I feel it provided the most killer with little filler. Seeing Rocket League on the Nintendo Switch was big for me, as I played the PC version and had a blast, so seeing this and Minecraft having cross network support is a win. Then, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was shown, and the gameplay looked amazing for what little was shown, as the massive open world reminded me, like its predecessor, I will not be able to finish the game and that’s okay. Yoshi and Kirby’s announcement caught me off guard, as I wasn’t expecting those games to come out this soon for the Switch. Only Nintendo can have the internet explode with excitement by showing the Metroid Prime 4 tease. All that is known is Retro Studios is not the developer but Nintendo, which means it has been three years since their last game (Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze). I will give them credit for being this quiet in this social media age of leaks.
Their latest trailer for Super Mario Odyssey has everyone going from “this is awesome” to “I must have this now.” Seeing this game go back to 3D exploration of Super Mario 64/Super Mario Sunshine may have me do my best to complete this game. I thought Nintendo had a good showing, though there were questions that went unanswered, in due time, they can host another Direct for another time. It was nice to see a conference where the trailers were gameplay footage and not pre-rendered scenes giving us an idea of how the games might look.
