I was pretty sure they were going to start their Direct by announcing their newest DLC character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I was right, but I was taken completely by surprise with who it was. It's the Hero from Dragon Quest XI. Everyone I've talked to speculating who would be the new character never brought up DQXI. How did no one see this coming?! Anyway, it doesn't look like it's just him, though. There were at least three other characters as well. How will that work in the game, I'm not sure. Will they be alternate versions of his character, or assist trophies or what?
Then there was another DQXI trailer. I think it seemed to be a different one from the SE conference. I got to be honest, I'm a bit tempted by it. I thought revisiting previous games in 8-bit fashion was a cool feature.
Yoshiaki Koizumi was on screen to introduce Bowser, who came on next wearing a tie, ready for business. But, there was a bit of confusion, and Koizumi meant to say it was Doug Bowser. The villain Bowser got really confused and walked off. I thought that was a humorous way to introduce Doug Bowser to his first Nintendo Direct. I like him better than Reggie already.
Next up is one of the games I've been waiting a long time for: Luigi's Mansion 3! This time, it takes place in a luxury hotel. It looks like the lovable ghost dog will be back. Luigi's Poltergust will have new features, such as a Slam that will knock one ghost into others, Suction, which will pull doors off the wall and such, and Blast for when you get ganged up on. Luigi will also get a copy ability that will make clone of Luigi made out of goop called Gooigi. Cute. Control will be then be passed over to it and will allow him to cross through gates and spikes but will be vulnerable to water. It will also provide some co-op opportunities. There's something called the Scare Scraper, which I don't remember what it was. There's some cool bosses as well. It releases sometime this year.
A new Dark Crystal game was shown, which took me by surprise. I'm currently getting back into the Dark Crystal universe. I've read the comics and am looking forward to the Netflix series. The game looks like it's a tactical RPG. I'm so on this! Age of Resistance Tactics is what it's called.
A new trailer for Link's Awakening was shown, and it looks to be turning out great. Still not really sold on Link's design. It's just too cutesy. but I'm still going to get it. There also looks to be a dungeon creator where you can build your own dungeons and explore them for rewards. It will be coming September 20th.
A trailer for a new Square Enix game played. The game's called Trials of Mana, which appears to be a remake. It's an action RPG and it looks pretty cool. I wonder if it's related to Secret of Mana. Speaking of which, a compilation was announced right after called Collection of Mana, which includes all three Mana games, including my favorite Secret of Mana and the third Mana game that was never released in English. I might have to get this.
There were rumors about the next announcement for months The next trailer finally confirms Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition. I got to admit, I am tempted. Seems that the Witcher will benefit from portability just as much as Skyrim did, but do I really want to play a downgraded Witcher, though... I'll wait for the benchmarks.
A new Fire Emblem Three Houses trailer played showing off beautiful animated cutscenes. I'm so far behind on Fire Emblem games, though, so it's low on my priority list. It releases July 26th.
The next video shows a couple teens walking into a spooky house. They pull out their Switch and begin playing the first Resident Evil game, which looks like the Remake. Afterward, they announce that RE 5 and RE 6 will be coming to the Switch. Thanks for tainting the Switch, Crapcom!
The next trailer showed a guy with a beard dressed in a robe getting out of his house due to a disturbance. I got a strange No More Heroes vibe from this trailer and suddenly, a suit of armor came over him Iron Man style and he took to the skies to attack a floating pyramid. He slashed away at enemies in the sky and yelled "GET SOME!" and that's when I saw his laser sword. IT IS! IT'S NO MORE HEROES III!
Next was a trailer for a new Contra game called Rogue Corps. I'm not sure about this one. It doesn't look like the rest of the Contra games, almost cartoonish in nature. Afterward, a Contra Collection was announced.
A new Daemon X Machina trailer was shown, but I played a demo for it last year and I'm not excited about it at all. They have a lot of work to do if they expect it to be a quality game. It releases Sept. 13th
And what the flying fuck?! A PANZER DRAGOON REMAKE IS COMING!!!!! Level of hype through the roof! I own the original on the Saturn but I don't think I ever finished it. This remake looks gorgeous! I can't wait to play it!
Shinya Takahashi took the screen to talk about Pokemon. I'm not really into Pokemon so I just kinda zoned out.
A new trailer was shown for Astral Chain and the game's shaping up very nicely. It releases August 30th. I'm hoping it turns out well, because I'm thinking of making this my game for August.
The next trailer showed a cinematic of what looks like a messed up casino having its chaos unfolded in reverse. It begins to show gameplay of an isometric shooter that looks like it could be cops vs gangsters. Maybe set in the prohibition era? It's called Empire of Sin and it will release in Spring 2020.
A new trailer for Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order was shown, but for some reason, it's not making me excited. It just looks generic. Maybe it's because I'm not impressed by the moves' special effects. Seriously, they look bad. Anyway, it will release on July 19th. I never played 2, so I'll probably never get to the third.
A trailer was shown for Cadence of Hyrule, which is this quirky little Zelda game where you fight to the beat of the music. It looks fun, honestly. It releases June 13th.
The next video unveiled a new Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. There will be plenty of new sports for them to play in. I saw some rock climbing in there, but is rock climbing even an Olympic sport? Anyway, it will most likely release during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
AND HERE IT IS! ANIMAL CROSSING! Just like SE's conference last night where the chat kept spamming Avengers, this chat was spamming Animal Crossing. Anyway, we learn what the theme of the game will be. You fly to a deserted island via plane where you immediately set up your tent. You'll use Tom Nook's workbench to craft items. Will this take the place of Nook's store? Not sure. You can also set up campfires when you want to relax. One new feature I thought was amazing was being able to pole vault across a river. Man, I can't tell you the amount of time I wasted running around rivers to cross the bridges. I'm going to absolutely enjoy this! You'll also be able to clear paths via the grass, which will be very welcome. Then, very bad news. The release date was pushed back to March 20th 2020. Koizumi even apologized for the delay, promising that they'll make it the best Animal Crossing they can.
I feel like someone held that wonderful meatball sandwich under my nose again, but instead of putting it down my shorts, they threw it over the neighbor's fence. Fuck... I mean... FUCKING NINTENDO! I usually don't get upset at delays, but this one hurts. I had plans to play it THIS YEAR. I bought my mom a Switch and bought a family plan with the intent of putting people on it to play AC with them THIS YEAR. Had I known it was going to slip to 2020, I would have just waited. I know the reason for the delay... but it doesn't make it sting any less.
There was a montage of games being shown, but honestly, I was in too much of a fugue about the AC release date, and I just didn't care to pay attention. I don't remember a single game shown during that montage.
Another Smash trailer was shown, and I caught a glimpse of a golden puzzle piece bounce across the screen. Some Smash characters in a cabin rushed to the window to see what was going on, and there was a silhouette of what looked to be Banjo-Kazooie, but it turned out to just be the Duck Hunt dog with a duck. Great troll. But then, Banjo-Kazooie actually dropped down from the sky and landed on them! Haha, great! So we got a second DLC character reveal, Banjo-Kazooie! Could this lead up to an actual Banjo 3? Here's hoping.
Koizumi bid adieu, but not before showing off one last teaser. It showed Link and Zelda with torches walking down a very dark path. I'm guessed at first that this would be a new Zelda DLC, but as it turns out, it will be a sequel to Breath of the Wild. It also showed what looked to be a zombie corpse of a king. Not just any cutesy zombie you'd see in a Zelda game, but a really terrifying zombie with glowing eyes. Plus, the music that played was very chilling. I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it. Wow...
To say Nintendo won the show this year is to say a sober person won a dancing competition while everyone else was drunk. MS was passed out at the punch table. EA was throwing up in the bushes, while Bethesda fell over them at the same time having his pants pulled down by SE, who somehow managed to stay on their feet all because of one game. Nintendo just walked into the dance hall and claimed their trophy, but they did so in such a gleaming fashion that they knew they'd win it even if their competitors showed up on the floor.
Nintendo has had one of their best showings in my recent memory. There was a lot of excitement to be had this time. It started and ended off with reveals of new Smash characters. We got to see new footage of Luigi's Mansion 3 and Link's Awakening. We got a few surprise announcements with the Dark Crystal game, a Panzer Dragoon remake and of course, NO MORE HEROES 3! That NMH 3 reveal was the height of the show in my opinion, even surpassing my hype for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Speaking of Animal Crossing, I loved all the new stuff that I saw, but even though I understood the reason for the delay, that slippage into 2020 took a good portion of my enjoyment out of the show. An entire letter grade just for that. I'd have rather them never gave me a release date this year and instead just kept it at TBA 2020. I wouldn't have been so disappointed. Also, the fact that they showed us a little bit of what the follow up to Breath of the Wild would look like was a great way to end their show. I mean, that dark aesthetic though...
FUCK! I was so impressed with this showing, I forgot that they STILL didn't show a new F-Zero! I should flunk them for that... Naw, I'm not THAT bitter...
Overall grade: B
No comments:
Post a Comment