E3 Round Table: Pre-Show Wishes!

On the eve of Nintendo’s big E3 Direct presentation, the staff discussed their big hopes for this year’s show. With Switch continuing to impress at retail and a number of major software releases slated for this year, it will be interesting to see what E3 2018 has to offer!

Marc Deschamps

Going into this year’s E3, I really don’t know what to expect. It’s rare that I feel like I get to say that, but it’s true this year! Nintendo has kept fairly quiet of late, and I’m really curious to see what gets announced. In terms of first party support for Switch, the company has some pretty big already announced titles that we can expect to see: Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Let’s Go, Eevee! and Super Smash Bros. will likely take the majority of the spotlight this year. Considering how excited I am for both those titles, I’m more than okay with seeing them get most of the attention!

After multiple years of (incorrectly) predicting that we’d finally see Retro’s next project, it’s growing increasingly likely that we’ll finally get to see what the team has been working on, especially with the recent Star Fox rumors bouncing around. Hopefully Nintendo will also give us a glimpse at Metroid Prime 4, though I’m inclined to believe that the title won’t release until the back end of 2019.

In terms of things I hope to see, there’s plenty! I’ve got a good feeling we’ll get more on Switch’s currently untitled Yoshi game, and the inevitable N64 Classic Edition seems like a safe bet, as well. I feel fairly confident that both will release before the end of the year. Oh, and we’ll likely see Animal Crossing Switch in some form.

As far as long shots go, I really want to see HD remakes for Kirby’s Epic Yarn and Super Mario Sunshine. Both are underrated Nintendo titles that could use the increased exposure Switch would provide. Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection also makes me hopeful we’ll see a similar grouping of Capcom’s Marvel fighters. The publisher re-released Marvel vs. Capcom and Marvel Super Heroes on PS3 a few years back, but I’d like to see those two alongside X-Men: Children of the Atom and X-Men vs. Street Fighter all in one package. Those fighters are classics, and I’ve got some really great memories of playing them in arcades and on PS1. It seems like a long shot, but a guy can hope, can’t he?

Hmm… I have to say, I really don’t know what to expect from E3 this year. I feel like (potentially) quite a bit has been spoiled at this point. In fairness, a lot of what is being bandied about as “legit” are third-party titles like Fortnite, but still, I get the sense that I’m not going to be very surprised this year.

Part of that can be blamed on endless, rampant speculation about things like the much ballyhooed Nintendo 64 Classic that is all but an inevitability, at this point. Not that I’d object to it, of course. I’m just saying, there are games and products that are so fleshed out in the rumor mill that right now that I’m just waiting for the foregone “yes, it’s real” to come. It kind of kills some of the fun for me.

I say that because I want E3 to surprise me. I want to walk into it with a vague idea of where Nintendo will go, but then have it completely pull the rug out from under me. My absolute favorite E3 in recent memory was E3 2010. So many games came out of nowhere that year, including Donkey Kong Country Returns, one of my all-time favorites. I’m hoping that I’m dead wrong and that E3 2018 is another home run year that pulls out all the stops.

So what could make that happen for me and my unreasonable expectations?

I’m down for Marc’s idea, for starters! All those Marvel Capcom fighters on one cartridge? Can I get a “please make it happen for the love of everything decent in this world?!” Beyond that, though, I’m going to make an odd request: bring me more Wario Land. That series is so good. I’d be thrilled to see it come back with the look it developed in Wario Land 4 on Game Boy Advance. Heck, I want more pixels from Nintendo, in general!

One more thing, though, that has to happen is a celebration of Ocarina of Time‘s 20^th anniversary. I would be ecstatic to see the game remade like it was on 3DS but with even better, more realistic graphics, or I’d be mollified with at least a port of Ocarina of Time 3D on Switch, Maybe upscale those visuals, or something. Oh! Last bit: Switch needs a 2D Mario game, but I don’t want another “New Super Mario Bros.” installment. That look has come and gone. A new visual style with classic gameplay and I will be a happy man.

Jon Stevens

We know about a couple of big titles that Nintendo will be showcasing, but the Switch’s next 6 months are still shrouded in mystery.

As such, I expect Nintendo will have plenty of surprises for E3 alongside Smash Bros., Pokémon and Metroid Prime 4.

I’m really interested to see what the third party showings will be though. Switch has been out for over a year now and it’s shown that third parties can be successful there. It’s time that we started seeing more original titles though, and platform-specific features instead of just straight out ports of games from years past- fingers crossed we get this.

Oh, and I still need more information on exactly why this online subscription will be worth it!

It could have something to do with the fact I’m older and wiser, or it could just be that I’ve been incredibly busy recently, but for the first time in as long as I can remember, I’m entering E3 with no real expectations. Not low expectations, but no expectations.

For so long, us Nintendo fans eagerly awaited E3 hoping it would provide something earth shattering because, let’s be honest, Nintendo has had it tough for a while. Yes, Wii was a big success, but it was also the system that allowed for the profoundly horrific Wii Music presentation back in 2008. The next generation brought us Wii U and, while that console delivered plenty of amazing games, its failure to find an audience left us hardcore fans wanting for such an impossibly brilliant E3 showing that it would somehow completely reverse the system’s fortunes. Now Nintendo has an incredibly successful system that in just a little over a year has already received multiple generation defining games.

Of course another issue is that Nintendo has already spoiled some of the thunder. We already know what the next two years look like for Pokémon and that a mainline entry won’t be coming this year. Metroid Prime 4 has already been announced so it won’t exactly be a surprise reveal. And let’s not forget that we already know about the next Smash Bros., and baring a shocking addition like a dating sim, the only real surprise they can pull out of their hat is the roster and maybe the return of a true story mode.

This doesn’t mean I think Nintendo doesn’t have at least some sort of surprise in store, but I don’t really care what it is; and I mean that in a good way! Nintendo is in such a good place that I don’t really think any big reveal is somehow going to shift the opinions of myself or the industry at large. Switch is already a big success and Nintendo has been at the top of its game since the system launched, so whatever they announce will probably just be more of a good thing. And, if Nintendo fails to announce something huge, then I already know we have a new Metroid, Smash Bros., and Pokémon on the horizon so it really won’t be a big loss.

How will the staff’s predictions and hopes shake out? Stay tuned to Nintendojo for our E3 coverage here and on our social media pages!