Nintendo Direct for E3 2019 — The Wild Spooky Heroes

E3 2019 has been far from the most impressive iteration of the convention in recent years, but that was good for Nintendo. The bar for them was low after Microsoft’s serviceable conference and Sony’s lack of attendance. That didn’t mean they were guaranteed to put on an impressive showing, but it was bound to be enjoyable given what we already knew about their upcoming lineup.

It started with the reveal of not one, but several heroes from the Dragon Quest franchise for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Rumors suggested that only Dragon Quest III’s hero would be added, but the main characters from IV and VIII are also coming, with Dragon Quest XI’s hero as the main face. The entire crew will arrive by the end of the summer.

Speaking of that: Dragon Quest XI S for Switch, confirmed earlier this year, will arrive on September 27th. The trailer shown was a little different compared to the version shown at the Square Enix Conference the night before.

Notably, this Direct featured Doug Bowser in his first Direct as Nintendo of America’s president, following Reggie Fils- Aimé’s resignation. They had to do this with a Bowser joke, which somehow hasn’t become tired since the time Bowser (the exec) arrived at Nintendo as VP of sales.

Luigi’s Masion 3 was announced on last September’s Nintendo Direct, but skipped the one from earlier this year. It had to resurface here, considering it’s planned for release this year. The game’s tale begins when a dream vacation involving Mario characters goes wrong when most of them are kidnapped by King Boo. Luigi has to team up with Professor E. Gadd again to fight the ghosts and save them. For this installment, Luigi can create Gooigi, which can travel through parts of the hotel Luigi can’t, but will melt in the water. It can also be controlled by a second player. The game will also have a multiplayer mode where eight players can compete on four Switches to complete tasks within the time limit. Nintendo didn’t provide a firm date for the game, but it’s still due for a 2019 release — likely in the fourth quarter.

In one of the more unlikely announcements: A strategy RPG based on The Dark Crystal is coming called The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics. The game will take place over five territories, and contain around 15 classes that players can choose from to fight the Skeksis with. It will be published by Netflix and En Masse Entertainment when it arrives later this year.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening resurfaced, the biggest game announced from the Direct earlier this year. It looks as beautiful as it did then, which takes a style similar to A Link Between Worlds in HD, and I feel compelled to ignore anyone who insists otherwise. The game will arrive on September 20th.

Rumors that said Seiken Densetsu 3 would be announced at E3 as Trials of Mana were true after all, and it’s coming in the form of a full remake, similar to what predecessors Adventures of Mana (originally Final Fantasy Adventure) and Secret of Mana received before it. It will release in early 2020 (also on PS4 and PC). As another bonus: The Collection of Mana, including the first-ever officially localized version of the original Trials of Mana, is now available. A retail release is coming on August 27th.

The rumors of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Complete Edition coming to Switch were also true (quite a noticeable trend we have), meaning a team unbelievably got the game to run on this platform. It should be a technical marvel when it arrives later this year, provided it runs well — even if it looks inferior compared to its performance on other systems.

This was a new opportunity for Nintendo to show Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which detailed how its story will involve former friends facing each other on the battlefield as enemies after a five-year time skip. Not much of it was shown here, but it will be featured on the Treehouse demonstrations throughout E3 and in the time between now and its release date. It will arrive on July 26th.

Capcom recently released several expensive Resident Evil ports on Switch, including the Resident Evil 1 remake, Resident Evil 0, and Resident Evil 4, all at $30 — $10 more compared to other platforms. Now, Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 are coming, though how expensive they’ll be remains to be seen.

All those teases from Goichi “Suda51” Suda since late May were done for a reason, as No More Heroes 3 is coming to Nintendo Switch. The teaser showed Travis Touchdown and featured Silvia’s voice, but no other details were provided. It will arrive sometime in 2020.

Konami’s core announcement was Contra: Rogue Corps, a 3D run-and-gun game that resembles PS2 title Neo Contra the most. It doesn’t look that great in motion, especially thanks to some peculiar animation work, but hopefully it’s fun. It will arrive on September 24th on all current platforms.

Daemon x Machina is still on the way from developer Marvelous, perhaps coming in a polished form after feedback was gathered from the demos. It will finally arrive on September 13th.

In another surprise announcement: A remake of the original Panzer Dragoon is coming from Forever Entertainment, which will include improved graphics and controls. It will arrive on Switch this winter, though whether it will hit other platforms remains to be seen.

Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield were detailed through last week’s Pokémon Direct, and will be featured on several Treehouse showings at E3, which shows why it wasn’t a big focus here. It was mentioned that the Pokeball Plus accessory that launched alongside the Pokémon Let’s Go titles can be used here. Sword and Shield will arrive on November 15th, but keep your eye on the Treehouse streams for more.

PlatinumGames Astral Chain received a nice new trailer, the first since its reveal on the Direct earlier this year. Given the style of action and the encounters it will have, it’s very visibly from the same team that worked on NieR: Automata. Platinum’s other games (Babylon’s Fall and Bayonetta 3) seem stuck in development limbo, but it’s good that one of their games is still coming — on August 30th, specifically.

Following The Dark Crystal game, another title that received a surprising focus was Empire of Sin, a strategy RPG that takes place in Prohibition-era Chicago, and pits criminal gangs against each other. It’s coming from the mind of John Romero, though he isn’t about to make you his bitch this time, and will be published by Paradox Interactive when it arrives in spring 2020.

Nintendo is publishing the Team Ninja-developed Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, which will arrive in a little over a month on July 19th. I couldn’t help but notice how much better this game looks in terms of art style compared to Square Enix’s Avengers game. Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Marvel Knights content will arrive as DLC down the line.

Cadence of Hyrule, a game representing a fusion between the worlds from Crypt of the Necrodancer and The Legend of Zelda series, was announced on the last Nindies Showcase for a spring release. Turns out, it’s releasing near the tail end of the season on June 13 — this coming Thursday — for $24.99 on the eShop.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is on the way from Sega, well ahead of the actual 2020 Olympic Games. Several events from previous games will return, along with four new ones: Skateboarding, Karate, Surfing, and Sport Climbing. It will release in November

Nintendo thankfully showed the new Animal Crossing game, since fans were going to riot if it wasn’t on the E3 Direct. It’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the most impressive-looking AC game yet thanks to being the first mainline title to grace an HD console. Despite previously being planned for a 2019 release, it’s been delayed until March 20th next year — making this yet another game coming during that already-packed timeframe.

The other games were relegated to a highlight reel, which included goodies like the Spyro: Reignited Trilogy on Switch (September 3rd), Doom Eternal (November), Wolfenstein Youngblood (July 26th), and a port of Alien: Isolation from Sega.

Yet another Smash Ultimate surprise was reserved for the end of the presentation. After giving the fake out another successful shot featuring the Duck Hunt dog and a duck, Banjo-Kazooie from, well, Banjo-Kazooie were confirmed. And here some people thought they would be ignored at E3 this year. Grant Kirkhope is composing a remixed version of their theme for the game, meaning he’s getting the special treatment despite being owned by Microsoft now. He’ll arrive sometime this fall.

The final announcement was also a nice surprise: Nintendo is working on a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Really, the surprise is how quickly they’re talking about this, a little over two years after BotW released, and before the Link’s Awakening remake is set to arrive. Very little was shown, but it was easily enough to get the speculation ball rolling. Given how vague this preview was, don’t expect it to arrive for a good while.

After the mostly-rote conferences for E3 2019 prior to this presentation full of inane cheering and screaming, this was exactly the anodyne needed. Titles like Bayonetta 3 and Metroid Prime 4 sadly didn’t appear, but it’s tough to complain about all the promising software shown. Keep your eye on the Treehouse stream schedule to see when certain games will be featured, since it will be constantly updated. Regardless, it already sounds like this is one of Nintendo’s better E3’s.

If you want to watch the E3 2019 Nintendo Direct, feel free to do so here.