We Talk Over: Nintendo Direct E3 2021

Nintendo seems to be a company incapable of shifting resources. When Sony realized they had only Demon Souls at launch, they went hard with PS4 -> PS5 framerate updates. When Microsoft realized Halo was a big nope, they pushed Game Pass hard. Nintendo doesn't even mention their best selling game of last year. They seem to always fall short of making the obvious moves.

I feel like Nintendo's biggest announcement being a new 2D Metroid game really says a lot about this E3. The ESA really beefed it with the whole "E3 is back!" schtick. You have awoken it too soon, Executus!

@witch32long: I don't even know their best selling game from last year!

Anyway this really wasn't an E3 conference in the traditional sense, and these Directs have not been for awhile but a lot of this looks great - Metroid, Zelda, and WarioWare I'm very interested in especially.

As for the absent Switch Pro, I feel that it has been rumored for so long I'm afraid the console itself will have old specs when it finally releases. My bet is on it arrives with the BotW sequel, that did look very good in the trailer and if they're aiming for that to look great and run well you would need hardware that was a step up in overall power.

I was also so excited to think they'd put Nintendo characters into Tekken and was also heart broken when finding out they're just putting Tekken characters in Smash Brothers. I blame Dan Ryckert for this. At least he'll get some new Smashy Bet action .... sigh

It's alright Jan, you'll always be welcome in the J.J. Gang.

The lead up to the Switch Pro is exactly like the Switch Lite. That was still unannounced at E3 of 2019, and then a completely separate direct/announcement was made in July of 2019 announcing the release date a couple months later. They were also extremely adamant about there being no existence of a Switch Lite even weeks before the announcement. So at this point, everything seems par for the course.

MARIO PARTY BOARDS!

....wait, they still decided to not update "SUPER" Mario Party??

What fucking bullshit.

Allstars should have been a free content pack (I know that wasn't going to happen). I would have even paid upwards of $20 for it. Instead they went the route of re-releasing old shit, probably for full price ($80cad). Seriously, my view of Nintendo sours more and more, every year.

Metroid Dread is a name with history attached to it. Rumors of Dread were swirling as early as 2007.

@witch32long: Nintendo never seemed to care about being a nimble company. With the pandemic slowing everything down, they seem content to match pace with that.

@savutano: Looking at the store page for Mario Party Superstars, they are certainly charging full price for an HD remake of 5 old boards and 100 old minigames. Heh heh! Also, the pre-order and data size is up which typically means that the game is done or practically done. That's if the hearsay that you can only have a pre-order on the Nintendo eShop if you have final code still rings true.

Animal Crossing: New Horizon people in despair for a game they see as unfinished. Nintendo, apparently, disagrees.

DREAD IS REAL! Developed by Mercury Steam, so I hope they improve on their work from Samus Returns.

The Advance Wars 1+2 remake is being made by WayForward, which is interesting. It does make me wonder what Intelligent Systems are up to.

No Bayonetta 3 has me worried. Platinum Games is probably fine business wise, especially since they got a Tencent investment. But... I can't help but be worried.

I had fun with this showing.

However, there are some big question marks as to what Nintendo's internal teams (EPD, Monolith Soft, NLG, Retro, etc) are doing. Granted, there's Splatoon 3, Metroid Prime 4 and the BOTW sequel, but that can't be it.

"It's my own fault for getting excited."

^My reaction after checking out this video to see how they felt about Kazuya in Smash

Good stuff guys, enjoying this new dynamic 👍

LMAO! Mario Party is back just in time for Dan coming back to GB.

Metroid Dread is pretty cool. Love the original gameplay style, and Super Metroid definitely still holds up. One of the greatest 2D adventure games ever made.

Mario Golf seems real Hot Shots heavy, but that's a good thing.

Was never big on the Wario Ware games, I actually want another Wario World game.

Never played Skyward Sword, but I'm not spending 60 bones to play it.

BOTW2, will get delayed.

Don't expect a Switch Pro anytime soon. Maybe 2023, and by then it will be called Switch 2.

And Bayonetta 3? Forget about it.

Finally, Jan surprised me. Not only does he follow Max on twitch, he dissed Danragronpa. Sad...

"J"iant Bombcast?

Is the video super choppy for anybody or is this my internet being a problem?
EDIT:
I switched to Youtube and the chop went away.

@savutano: I agree, but also I'm absolutely paying $80 each for a new 2D metroid and a WarioWare so I guess they win.

I don't care about Smash, but that remix of Tekken 2's Devil Kazuya theme!!!

Nintendo's E3 show was all right. Them reviving the Metroid Dread project and new WarioWare game were what I enjoyed the most from this Direct. Also got a big chuckle from Kazuya dumping a bunch of Nintendo characters into a volcano at the start.

I like that they follow Maximilian Dood on Twitch. I know Jason played something with him back in the day (FF11?). Would be awesome if he did something with them.

@ank2112: Fair enough.

been 3 years since the last mario party, that isn't 'just released'

The cynicism here is just... boring. Listening to them complain about every release while they're each literally quarantined inside their homes is ridiculous. We've all had to stretch our patience a bit the last year—including with Giant Bomb—for completely understandable reasons.

Most of those games looked super fun to me and like excellent stopgaps while normal development ramps back up. A ton of those games most people will have never played, and at least with stuff like Advance Wars they did the work to rebuild it rather than just dumping a ROM on the eShop and selling it for $10.

Chill tf out and start actually having some compassion for how much harder game development is. Y'all think it's harder being a game journalist? Yeah, it is. Now magnify that tenfold for lots of other professions, including development.

Nintendo did solid by me. 2D Metroid has been on my wishlist for a very long time. Would still prefer some crisp HD sprites to the 2.5D look they are going with, but I will not complain about it at this point.

Finally got some more info on SMTV. Was hoping that we would hear about it now that the Nocturne remaster is out so I'm glad to finally have a date and see it in motion. I think the modified UI from Tokyo Mirage Sessions looks a bit busy, but it makes sense that they would reuse some of what they learned porting that game to the Switch for this.

Is Fatal Frame from the Wii U a great game? No, but I am glad to finally see that series coming back. It's my personal horror franchise of choice so the fact that it is coming to pretty much everything gives me hope that we will start seeing new games in the series. They've been locked to Nintendo systems since FF4 (still need a proper English release) and the DS game. Would love to see what a brand new entry would look like on the new consoles.

Jeff doesn't like it

Mario Golf still looks neat.

Mario Golf's story mode was with a human character as you played golf, upgraded skills, and took on more matches, so it looks like this Mario Golf game is finally doing what fans have wanted since the first game.