For the last few years, I’ve been doing the same sort of thing for most of Nintendo’s digital presentations: listing each game that is shown and typing my knee-jerk reactions to them. For the E3 presentation that they did today, it’s going to be a lot simpler:
I want to buy all of the games.
But in all seriousness, the three games that I was most impressed by are curiously all strongly connected to the Game Boy Advance.
Metroid Dread, the sequel to Metroid Fusion that has been rumoured for like 20 years now, is finally becoming reality. And it looks stellar. Like, this is easily the most excited I’ve been for a video game since… I don’t know, Smash Ultimate, I guess? It looks so slick and so smooth. I just want it so bad. I’m fine waiting for October, since that’s right around the corner, but I wouldn’t say no to having it in my grubby little hands right now.
Wario Ware: Get It Together is another sequel that’s been long overdue. Sort of. Wario Ware is not the sort of thing that you just squeeze out a new installment every other year. Each release needs a good hook, and the hook for this one seems like a lot of fun: you actually control a tiny character in each microgame. It looks like you can play the same microgames with different characters as well, which will result in being able to complete them in different ways. Plus there’s a co-op mode that I’ll probably never use, but hey that’s fine it’s nice for people with partners. The fact of the matter is that I’m ready for more Wario Ware. Gimme gimme. Kind of a bummer that it comes out exactly one day after my birthday.
I won’t lie, I’m a little sad that Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is not a new game, but the complete overhaul of these two incredible games is more than enough to satisfy me. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this series because it’s so good but also so unforgivingly difficult, but man oh man it’s been 16 years since I last played an Advance Wars game so I’m more than ready to give it another go. December release date is A-okay with me, as this is the perfect kind of game to receive as an Xmas gift.
A lot of the other games shown were exciting to me as well, but didn’t really turn my crank to the point where I feel the need to write so many words about them. Mario + Rabbids 2 will probably be awesome because the first one is awesome. I’m elated that Life is Strange (and it’s prequel, and the new one) is finally being ported to Switch, but also disappointed by the 2D animated teaser not being a real thing. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot looks like a really fun game, even as someone who has never been even remotely interested in Dragon Ball anything. I may finally play the Danganronpa trilogy now that they’re coming to Switch.
And of course, let’s talk Zelda briefly. Sykward Sword HD is a known quantity, no big news there. The Zelda Game & Watch is something I feel a strong, almost instinctual need to own, but will probably pass on because… I just don’t actually need it. And I would have liked at least a little bit more information for the Breath of the Wild sequel. A minute and a half of no-context footage is nice, but like… maybe just a little more, please? If this is all they can show, I’m thinking that we’ve got well over a year left to wait for this one. There’s not even a real title yet. Oh well! It looks cool at least!