E3 2017 Roundup: Nintendo Edition!
Nicole Smith ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Executive Video Games Editor
E3’s final conference came to us from Nintendo! Nintendo’s had a big year with the release of the Switch, so let’s check out the news on their end!
The Nintendo conference opened with a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 trailer, which featured a colorful cast of characters, some brief snippets of combat, and sprawling, fantastical worlds for the player to explore. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will see release during the holiday season of 2017, while a new Kirby title was given a release window of next year.
Nintendo had more to say about Pokkén Tournament DX, which will be playable at E3 with an open invitational alongside two of Nintendo’s other competitive games, Splatoon 2 and Arms. The Pokémon Company also announced that an RPG Pokémon title is in development for the Switch, but it’s still a ways out.
Metroid Prime 4 was announced with a brief trailer and logo reveal, which was followed by footage of a new Yoshi title which showcased beloved Mario character Yoshi platforming, battling villains, and escorting eggs.
Fall 2017 will see the release of Fire Emblem Warriors, which features new characters to the series as well as old, including Marth, Chrom, Ryoma, and Corrin, to name a few. Eiji Aonuma appeared to announce the first two DLC packs for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, individually titled The Master Trials and The Champions’ Ballad. These Breath of the Wild DLCs can be purchased in an expansion pack for $19.99, with the former releasing on June 30th and the latter during this holiday season. The four Hyrule Champions featured in Breath of the Wild will also all be getting their own Amiibo.
More footage was shown of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle after its coverage at the Ubisoft conference, and the Rocket League team announced that their game would be coming to the Nintendo Switch. Rocket League will see exclusive items and cars on Nintendo’s new console this holiday season.
Finally, the eagerly anticipated Super Mario Odyssey showed more gameplay in a fun, jazzy trailer with a release date of October 27th. That’s all for this year’s E3 conferences, but be sure to stay tuned for more news from the E3 show floor for the rest of this week!