Nintendo at E3 – potential and confirmed lineup
Samual Gilliland ’16 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
With their release of the ink-stained, third person shooter Splatoon on May 28th, the release of Xenoblade Chronicles 3d for the 3ds on June 10th and an impending release of Yoshi’s Woolly World slated for June 25th, it seems Nintendo has made it their goal to dominate the video game market this summer. And as E3 edges close, the Nintendo hype train is giving no indications of slowing down.
Although Nintendo has always been rather secretive with their agenda, there are a few games that they will be sure to present, most of them stemming from some of their already popular franchises.
Pokken Tournament is an upcoming arcade style fighting game that is being produced by Bandai Namco and The Pokémon Company. It will feature many fan favorite characters such as Pikachu, Gardevoir, Gengar, and Lucario duking it out in family friendly arena style combat to the death until they faint.
As far as the world of Zelda is concerned for this year’s E3, may be surprisingly barren. They will most assuredly mention the Hyrule Warriors port to the 3ds but what everyone is waiting for is news on The Legend of Zelda for Wii U (Nintendo needs to fire the guy who names these things because really). Yet, unfortunately, with the delay of the game until 2016, Nintendo of America has decided not to discuss it this year; news that has broken one of our many hearts (get it? because the Zelda games have a system that uses hearts to – you got it).
Another game that will most likely be highlighted is Star Fox Wii U (We swear to god, someone needs to be fired). Revealed at last year’s E3, the world got a brief and delicious taste of some of what the game has to offer and we’re excited for seconds. Also Miyamoto himself has stated that the game will be available before Legend of Zelda for Wii U is released in 2016 so the math does check out.
Venturing away from their prize franchises though, Nintendo of Canada has confirmed that there will be announcements of partnerships with third party developers both large and small. Terraria has already been confirmed for the Wii U but it will be thrilling to see who else has signed on.
Moving more into speculation territory, there seems to be strong evidence supporting the announcements of Super Mario Galaxy 3 (or a new Mario game entirely) and even a new Metroid that will probably have some zany, wacky title like Metroid for Wii U. Also there hasn’t been talk of Pokémon Z for a bit, maybe it’s high time? We’ll see soon enough.
That about covers all our speculation of Nintendo’s plan for E3 but don’t forget to check out the Super Smash Brother’s Nintendo Direct event on June 14th! Accompanying the release of Lucas and a couple DLC accessories, there may be some exciting news of a newcomer. I’m hoping it’ll be the character I voted for in the Nintendo poll, but I don’t think either Nintendo or the world is ready for Mecha Jesus.
Watch the Nintendo E3 conference on June 16th, at 9am PDT, 12pm EST at the E3 site or on Twitch.