Hey gamers!
The most magical time of the year is almost upon us, E3. For those that don’t know what it is, E3 is the time of the year where we all the big names in the gaming industry gather together and reveal what they have planned for the upcoming year. For us gamers we either get very excited or extremely disappointed and heartbroken. One of the biggest names of E3 is, of course, Nintendo over the years, Nintendo has graced us with many awesome memorable moments like the reveal of Super Smash Bros Melee and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, while they have also their share of blunders with the whole Wii Music performance and the first ever gameplay demo for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. A couple years ago Nintendo shocked everyone and announced that they would no longer be holding their usual conferences at E3 but instead an E3 Digital Event. At last year’s E3, Nintendo was probably one of the most entertaining and exciting presentations they have had in a long time and this year will hopefully be just as memorable.
The question now is what exactly are Nintendo showing off this year? Unfortunately the fate of Zelda U not being at E3 is pretty much confirmed. However, we still have a rather good chance of excellent titles showing up like Xenoblade Chronicles X, Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem, Yoshi’s Woolly World, Fire Emblem IF, and the new Star Fox. But what about the games that Nintendo have not announced yet? I think a lot of Nintendo fans can agree that it is time for some franchises to come back.
The first obvious one that comes to mind is F-Zero. Over the past year F-Zero has been getting a ton of love from Nintendo through Mario Kart 8. From two courses based off the F-Zero games, an unlockable Captain Falcon costume for your Mii that you got with the Captain Falcon Amiibo, Captain Falcon’s Blue Falcon as one of the many vehicles in the game, and the new 200cc mode which pretty much turns Mario Kart 8 into F-Zero, it really seems like Nintendo know that a lot of people care about this series. The last F-Zero title to be released was F-Zero GX for the Gamecube back in 2003, and since then F-Zero was just left to collect dust. However, now having all this F-Zero love in the past year could be Nintendo’s way of hinting that F-Zero could finally be making its return. Fans of the incredibly fast racing series have been itching for something new out of the franchise that Mario Kart can’t quite scratch.
Another franchise that desperately needs to make a return is Metroid. The last Metroid title, Metroid Other M, was released back in 2010 to a mostly not so happy reception from fans. With wanting to get that awful taste out of their mouths, fans have been wanting a new good Metroid title for years. There have been rumors of a new 3DS Metroid floating around for a while but never got anywhere with that until recently where Next Level Games revealed that they were in fact working on a new Metroid title for the 3DS that was unfortunately canceled. I have to say, having a new 3DS title that played for example like Metroid Fusion or Super Metroid would be a wonderful dream come true. What we Metroid fans are really hoping for however is for Retro Studio’s next game to be the long awaited Metroid Prime 4. Although at this point we will take anything as along as we can get some of that good old Metroid goodness. Just not another pinball game please, we do not want that.
The last obvious one would be of course a new Mario game - not Mario Maker, or a new sports title - but a new 3D Platformer and namely Super Mario Galaxy 3.This one is a bit of a no brainer. Multiple new Mario titles get pushed out yearly and are generally well received and loved like Mario Galaxy 1. There is also a lot of fans even saying that they are the best 3D Platformers around. When Super Mario 3D World was first announced a lot of people were expecting Galaxy 3 so the first initial reaction from fans was lukewarm at best. Although 3D World was being made by the same team that made the Galaxy games, it just felt underwhelming compared to the epicness of those games. It also did not help that Super Mario 3D Land for the 3DS had just come out around that time and 3D World just pretty much looked like an HD version of that game. Super Mario 3D World, while not a bad game at all, in fact it was a fantastic game, just did not live up to the hype that Galaxy 1 and 2 had. Miyamoto has actually gone and stated that another Galaxy game is very likely to happen so seeing at this year’s E3 is entirely possible.
Knowing Nintendo there is probably a lot more that could possibly appear that is not listed here and that’s actually a huge part of what makes E3 so exciting and special. Who knows, maybe they will announce another new Donkey Kong, Kirby, or a new Paper Mario game. Heck, with Lucas announced for Smash 4, there is actually a glimmer of hope that Mother 3 could finally be coming to North America. Just don’t ask Reggie about it, he may destroy you with his laser eyes.