So,
E3 is over for another year. The hosts have all returned to their
Cryopods and game publishers everywhere are breathing a sigh of
relief. One thing that struck me at the end is that this E3 is the
first to go off without a hitch. Bar a couple of glitchy trailers,
everything seemed to run according to plan. It was my intention to
host a funny ‘In Memorium’ section at this point; a tribute to
all the presentations that wanted to be here with us but couldn’t.
However, despite it all being completely digital this year (something
that usually spells disaster), this year was seamless. Unfortunately,
this year also left a lot to be desired. I understand that we’re
coming out of a global pandemic and video game companies are just
finding their feet again, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Bandai Namco is the prime example of this, everyone was looking forward to seeing what they had to present and it became pretty clear halfway through the day that all we would be seeing from them was a ten minute interview about their upcoming installment in thee Dark Pictures Anthology series. Sigh.
However, my biggest disappointment came in the form of a Nintendo Direct. If you remember back to my E3predictions piece, most of my excitement stemmed around Nintendo and the possibility of A) A Switch Pro announcement, and B) Finally acknowledging The Legend of Zelda 35th anniversary. Well, they acknowledged it alright…
Nintendo Direct & Nintendo Treehouse Live
Given Nintendo had a five-hour slot, I really was expecting something big. It started off well, with the announcement that Tekken’s Kazuya was coming to Smash Bros. This was followed by the news that the new installment in the Life is Strange franchise as well as the newly announced Guardians of the Galaxy game would be coming to Switch on release.
Super Monkey Ball will also be getting an anniversary release of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania. This is the point where I began to grit my teeth in frustration. Followed by the announcement of not one, not two, but three games in the Mario franchise… I’m amazed that I didn’t break anything. We’ve just had months and months of Mario anniversary releases; do we really need three more Mario games this year? Especially when one of them is a golf game…
But then, a glimmer of hope. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is getting a DLC expansion, the first part of which releases in two days’ time. I moved forward in my seat in anticipation. We talked about Skyward Sword HD for a minute, at this point my nose may as well be pressed against the TV Screen I was that close. And then, the moment I had been waiting for, Zelda 35th.
A Game and Watch Zelda peripheral.
A…what?
Okay, I mused, they released one of these for the Mario anniversary as a little cheeky bonus, but my £45 is better spent on a remaster of something greater on the switch, which they are surely about to announce, this is all a big prank by Nintendo to make us think they’ve forgotten.
Thus ended the anniversary talks. They had nothing else. I could barely concentrate on the new look at Breath of the Wild 2, my anger was that blinding. I will stop at this point and say, having been back today to watch Breath of the Wild 2 again, it certainly does look impressive. I wasn’t expecting to see the beginnings of game play, nor was I expecting to see new mechanics. But also, what the actual fuck, Nintendo?!
What followed from this segment was three hours of them playing Mario Golf, Advance Wars 1 + 2 and the new 2D Metroid (Which looks super cool, but you can’t distract me from the lack of updates on Metroid 4 by trying to convince me this is what we were missing in the franchise). At this point, I was defeated, I closed my laptop where up until this point I had dutifully been making notes and decided to take a nap.
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I woke a couple of hours later to watch some more indie showcases, and it became very clear that the indie scene is where it is at this year. Hardly surprising, with much smaller dev teams, it must be far easier to finish working on a game from the comfort of your own home.
Some interesting titles to look out for include:
Yooreeka Studios and Gamespot’s Play For All Showcase
Minds Beneath Us – Big Doki Doki Literature Club vibes with this sci-fi trailer. A supposedly ‘story-rich thriller’, the trailer for this title really piqued my interest.
El Paso Everywhere – Doom meets Silent Hill, fight your way through Hell (Which happens to be located in the basement of a hotel) with this glorious nostalgia-inducing FPS.
Rain on Your Parade - Play as a cardboard cloud determined to ruin everyone’s day in this comedic schadenfreude simulator.
Lab Rat – Isometric Portal. Need I say more? I’m signed up for beta testing on this particular game so expect to hear more from me on this.
She Dreams Elsewhere – A Surreal RPG centered around dreams. This game gives me big Undertale vibes and was made by one single man. Talk about dedication…
The night rounded off with the annual E3 award show, this is usually something that I get heavily involved with, but this year I was still filled with bitterness by this point, so instead I’m going to give out my own awards:
Most Anticipated Game of E3 2021 – Guardians of the Galaxy
This game looks absolutely stunning and I am itching to get my hands on it.
Best Presentation of E3 2021 – Xbox and Bethesda
With an impressive 31 games announced, with 27 of them coming to GamePass on Day One, I’m seriously rethinking my Playstation 5 purchase.
Most Anticipated Indie Game of E3 2021 – Gloomwood
This was an incredibly difficult choice for me, with so many games being added to my Steam Wishlist over the duration of the week, but Gloomwood just cinches it.
Most Surprising Moment of E3 2021 – Xbox fridge
I didn’t cover this at the time, but at the end of the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase they announced that the promotional Xbox mini-fridge that was sent out to influencers is becoming a full-scale tangible purchase. I kind of want one…
So that’s it for E3 2021, I’m still hopeful that as we recover from the Dumpster fire of 2020 that E3 will be back in 2022 and better than ever. I’m still hopeful that we might get more Zelda news before the year is out. But most importantly, I’m hopeful that there are still plenty of indie releases in the meantime that I can empty my wallet on…
Preferring the company of fictional characters to living, breathing people; it should come as no surprise that Hannah is a connoisseur of all things geek. Whilst their body resides in the capital of Wales, their heart resides in Middle-Earth and their mind remains firmly lodged in the memory of that embarrassing thing they did when they were eight.
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