Switch Weekly - My thoughts on Nintendo's E3

Hey, Chris here with issue #237 of Switch Weekly, your Nintendo update. Hope you're doing well. Real big issue this week.

E3 has come and gone! The Direct last Tuesday (linked below) gave us plenty to chew over. Here's some of my personal highlights/takeaways:

• Kazuya of Tekken fame coming to Smash wasn't on anyone's radar, but is a sound choice broadly. Personally adding more fighting characters to Smash isn't very exciting to me — the moveset seems fairly predicable when compared to any potential crazy character choices. Expect an in-depth character presentation soon.
• Three Life is Strange games on Switch - nice to have.
• I'm hyped for Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania — the first two games (included here) are so very good.
• I think we all thought Mario Party Superstars was DLC at first. But nope. 
• Metroid Dread is real. Crazy to think we've been talking about this game in one guise or another for what must be 15 years? The real big surprise of the show.
• Very, very, very pleased to see Wario Ware on Switch. What took 'em so long. 
• I really love the look of the Advance Wars remasters. If you've never played these you need to get on it.
• Nintendo are going to sell us another Game & Watch. Zelda this time. Looks nice enough.
• The show ended on the Breath of the Wild 2 trailer. Plenty to dig into and analyse here. As suspected this is currently slated as a 2022 release. The trailer didn't feel particularly impactful to me, but it's early days, and we just know Nintendo are going to knock this out the park. 

One of the wider trends that I think E3 this year has really highlighted is that big ‘AAA’ (urgh, not a fan of that term, but we all understand what it represents) releases are noticeably lighter in volume. While 2020 was challenging for the industry at large, I think we’re now seeing the long tail impact of COVID across the gaming landscape. Now, this isn’t particularly a comment on Nintendo as such (they seemingly have a stacked end to 2021 now, with a solid monthly cadence), but after E3 week it’s something I picked up on from across the gaming space. The release schedule is far from being a wasteland of course, but it does feel broadly lighter from a third party perspective.

Anyway, E3 to one side — we've got just under 30 games hitting the Switch next week, and there's a fair few big games, including Alex Kidd, Mario Golf, and Tony Hawk's. The full list is below as ever — hit reply and let me know if you're grabbing anything (I've got Mario Golf ordered). 

That's all from me. How did you like Nintendo's E3 showing?

Thanks for reading,
Chris ✌️
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🎮 Currently Playing — Breath of the Wild, Traffix

Monday, June 21

• Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights — Dark fantasy 2D action RPG.

Tuesday, June 22

• ⭐️📦 Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX — HD remaster (and you can switch back to retro mode).
• ⭐️ LEGO Builder's Journey — This minimalist geometric LEGO puzzler looks neat.
• 📦 Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 – The Official Video Game — 18 sports to play here. No Mario, but it does have Sonic. (Jun 21 in U.S.)
• 🎮 Super Magbot — Precise magnetic 2D platformning, with no jumping.

Wednesday, June 23

• Bitmaster — Twin-stick shooter with a paired back polygonal look.
• Cyber Hook — Fast 3D platformer. Think parkour inside a neon 'retrowave' world. (Jun 24 in U.S.)
• Ninja Buddy Epic Quest — Basic platformer in which you save Princess....Zebda.
• 📦⭐️ Worms Rumble — Worms but as a real-time arena shooter. Cross platformer multi too.

Thursday, June 24

• BeeFense BeeMastered — Protect bees (we should!) tower defense. (Already available in U.S.)
• CarX Drift Racing Online — Drift sim with online.
• Cube Blast: Match — 3D spatial puzzler.
• Empire of Angels IV — All-female team tactical RPG.
• Farm for Your Life — Time management farm sim, with a side of zombies.
• Kirakira Stars Idol Project Nagisa — Another idol text adventure.
• ⭐️ Legend of Mana — HD remaster of the 1999 Square Enix RPG.
• Sakura Succubus 3 — Manga romance adventure.
• Summer Paws — You have to find sleeping cats hidden across tropical islands. Cute.
• Super Cable Boy — Retro inspired platformer with a trippy look. Has two player local co-op.
• 📦 The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos - Chicken Edition — Tactical RPG.

Friday, June 25

• #1 Crosswords Bundle — You're getting both crosswords and anagram puzzles here.
• 📦 DreamWorks Spirit Lucky’s Big Adventure — 3D horse adventure. (Already available in U.S.)
• Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek — Age old mystery to solve in this hidden object game.
• Loopindex — 70 levels to get through in this robot puzzle adventure game.
• ⭐️📦 Mario Golf: Super Rush — Run on the fairway in this new Camelot golf game.
• Promesa — Wander through dreams in this slow, relaxing 'contemplative experience'.
• Sweet Sugar Candy — Think Candy Crush puzzler. Handheld only.
• ⭐️📦 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 — HD remasters. Super replayable, iconic games.

Saturday, June 26

• Bocce — Similar to boules / bowls.