The Craziest Announcements From Nintendo’s E3 Direct
After what’s been a lackluster E3 even by post-COVID limited-resources no-time-to-prepare-anything standards, everyone was looking to Nintendo to save the day. Did they do it? Well…their Direct this morning wasn’t a series of slam dunks, but they scored enough times to leave us pleased. Here are the things that intrigue us most:
METROID DREAD: We didn’t think they could possibly drop a bomb bigger than a BOTW 2 trailer, and yet here this was in the middle of the presentation, strolling around like it hadn’t been rumored since 2004. A trademark for the name “Metroid Dread” had been discovered around that time, and everyone believed it would be the next game — and then, nothing.
And now, suddenly, this. Dread will be the first original 2D Metroid in quite a while, and involve Samus fighting a bunch of androids (that’s all we know at this point). There will also be an amiibo set you can’t own, which you can’t use to restore your health at certain points because scalpers will never let you have one.
ADVANCE WARS 1+2 RE-BOOT CAMP: Speaking of things that haven’t been seen in 20 years….man, I missed Advance Wars. This is just a remake of the first two but I’ll freakin’ take it. The characters look great both as modern cel-shaded polygons and as fully animated cutscenes. This one comes out December 3.
WARIOWARE GET IT TOGETHER: Wario’s microgames business hasn’t seen any action since the early days of the Wii U. This time, Wario himself will be getting into the one-second activities, flying around the screen. All the other employees like Ashley, 9-Volt and Monica are playable too and the game supports multiplayer. It’ll be out September 10.
LEGEND OF ZELDA GAME AND WATCH THING: Everyone assumed Nintendo was going to make an All-Stars for Zelda that combined Link’s greatest adventures into one reprint collection. It’s weird how fan demand is often as simple as “sell me the thing I already bought” and yet Nintendo can’t even do that. But this is somewhat close: another Game and Watch recreation, this one celebrating Zelda’s 35th birthday. It plays Zelda 1, Zelda II: Adventure of Link and Link’s Awakening (original Game Boy version complete with green-tinted screen). Extras include a Link-skinned version of a classic G&W game and a playable clock. Price will be $49.99.
BREATH OF THE WILD SEQUEL TRAILER: If Nintendo failed to show us any footage from either Bayonetta 3, Metroid Prime 4 or Breath of the Wild 2, fans were ready to complain. Fortunately one of those demands was satisfied: we got a one-minute glimpse of BOTW 2. It contains….areas in the sky! Link with a weird cyber-arm! The implied ability to rewind items through time! Even a release window: 2022. See you then, hopefully!