E3 2017: Nintendo Conference, Did They Bring The Heat?

     This year, Nintendo needed to bring the heat, and did they do it? Again, as is the trend this E3, yes, and no. After an interesting enough montage,showing a number of games, they moved right along with the spotlight itself. While the monologue by Reggie left a strange taste, that was immediately remedied by a trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles II, while the trailer itself was, okay at the very least it ended with a release window of holiday 2017, so that was good. Moving quickly from that a new Kirby game for the switch, simply titled Kirby was shown, and given a 2018 release window. 

     Then they shot themselves in the arm slightly, with an "impromptu" "announcement" for the next core Pokemon game coming to the switch, no logo, no launch window was given, just that it is "at least a year out." After that the interest was once again given a boost with the reveal of Metroid Prime 4 being currently in development for the Switch, with this one, not only was it an acknowledgment of the series, but they showed a logo. While more info would have been amazing, the simple fact that they gave fans the acknowledgment they wanted was more than enough, for now. After that, Nintendo then went back slightly again, with the announcement of a yoshi game, simply titled Yoshi for the Switch with no indicated release window for it. Another personally exciting game was shown with another slightly lackluster trailer for Fire Emblem Heroes, which received a launch window of fall, 2017. They also spent too much time talking about Rocket league, while that game is amazing to those who enjoy it, all it really needed was the release date, especially since this spotlight was so short.

     After another weird monologue by Reggie, and a thankfully short, if not otherwise pointless Skyrim on Switch trailer, they moved right along to Zelda: Breath Of The Wild DLC information. The first DLC The Master Trials, showed off its features, while receiving a 30, June, 2017 release date. The second DLC The Champions Ballad was given a trailer that showed the previous champions, along with Zelda, and no reall information was given, not even a release window, out of the already known "winter 2017," after that they revealed four amiibo of the original champions, with no indication of their in-game function. They ended the spotlight with an amazing gameplay trailer for Super Mario: Odyssey, which included some peeks into how the game plays, and some of the different hats and powers you have, along with a 27, Oct, 2017 release date. 

    Was the conference disappointing, no, was it as amazing as it could have been, no, but it is definitely a step in the right direction for Nintendo, and hope they continue to improve. They could have focused more on games that have not had much information given to them, and spent much less time on ARMS, and Splatoon 2 E-sports talk, and shortened the monologues given by Reggie. That said, while not chomping at the bit due to hype after this, it is a vast improvement over the last two years, so good effort Nintendo, keep it up.
~こゆうきあいはら「Koyuuki Aihara」