Now that we’ve had almost a week to sit on E3 2021, it has become glaringly obvious: Nintendo won E3 2021. Not only did they win the trade expo, they dominated, absolutely decimating their competition with their announcements for the Nintendo Switch. It wasn’t even close. Whether it’s because Nintendo understands the digital format or other companies simply did not have that much to show remains to be seen. The only company that could come close is Microsoft, who had some impressive announcements, but nothing they did was unexpected. And arguably, most of their presentation was to showcase the Xbox Game Pass. There’s nothing wrong with that, and they did have games, but it was nothing compared to Nintendo. They didn’t give anyone a reason to own an Xbox Series X right now. Though, I will say, the fact that Halo Infinite multiplayer will be free-to-play is a gamechanger, and Forza Horizon 5 looks incredible and may be the game of the show.
Ubisoft’s “Ubisoft Forward” event had Mario + Rabbids Spark of Hope announced, as well as Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Mario + Rabbids and Avatar are both planned for a 2022 release window. For Spark of Hope, this makes sense, as Nintendo’s 2021 lineup is already jam-packed. If the films are any indication, who knows if we’ll ever get Avatar: Sparks of Hope. Despite this fact though, the game looks stunning. These were the only note-worthy announcements that Ubisoft made, which was very disappointing.
As disappointing as Ubisoft’s E3 2021 presentation may have been, Square Enix was a million times worse. It would not be an understatement to say that it was terrible. They began their presentation with roughly 20 minutes devoted to their upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy game, which releases this October. Okay. No one really cares besides hardcore Marvel fans, and if their track record with their deal with Marvel is any indication, there’s no reason to be excited about this game. If they dedicated maybe five minutes to the game, that would have been fine. But close to 20? It was too much and set a sour tone for the rest of the presentation. If that wasn’t enough, they announced new DLC for Avengers, which is a dying game. Once again, no one cares.
Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster is a remaster of all the Final Fantasy games up until Final Fantasy VI for mobile platforms in pixel format. It’s boring at best. Square Enix also showed Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Once again Final Fantasy is moving even further away from everything that makes the franchise great after the incredible Final Fantasy VII Remake. It’s not even being developed by Square Enix; it’s being developed by Team Ninja. Life is Strange: True Colors was shown, as well as a remaster of the previous Life is Strange titles. While the former looks somewhat interesting, it wasn’t enough to get gamers excited. There was nothing in the presentation that got gamers excited, and Final Fantasy Origin has been universally panned. All Square Enix had to do was show Final Fantasy XVI or a glimpse at Final Fantasy VII Remake II, but, they lacked the basic self-awareness to do that. This was quite possibly the worst presentation in the history of E3, and that’s saying something.
Nintendo came prepared for E3 2021. Everyone expected it to, essentially, be a Zelda-centric presentation because of the series’ 35th anniversary. This was not the case. Nintendo, as they always do, defied all expectations with some incredible announcements, almost all coming out this year. It was game after game after game. Each game was shown off in a splendorous fashion, yet each segment was very concise. Not too much time was devoted to one title. The presentation was thorough yet concise. They’ve done this before and are the only gaming company that has perfected the digital format when it comes to presentations.
It was game after game after game, with some very unexpected announcements. Some of the games may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but, E3 is supposed to have a universal appeal. Nintendo is also a Japanese-centric company, which means that many of their games will cater to that market. Here were the highlights, as we’ve already posted about many of the games in previous news stories.
- Kazuya Mishima joins Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. There will be a deep-dive on the character on June 28 with Masahiro Sakurai.
- WarioWare Get it Together!, which will launch on the Switch on September 10.
- Mario Party Superstars, which will launch on the Nintendo Switch on October 29.
- Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania, which comes out on the Nintendo Switch on October 5.
- Metroid Dread, the first 2D Metroid game in 19 years, which will launch on October 8. There will also be a special edition of the game, featuring a 190-page artbook, a steel book, and five special cards featuring artwork from the five games in the 2D franchise. There will also be an amiibo of Samus in her Metroid Dread uniform, as well as an E.M.M.I. amiibo that comes alongside it. These will be available at launch.
- Shin Megami Tensei V, an RPG and Nintendo Switch exclusive (and one of our most-anticipated games of the year), which will launch on November 12.
- Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, which will launch on the Switch on July 9.
- Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, remakes of the original two games, which will launch on the Switch on December 3.
- Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water, part of the Fatal Frame series and a horror-adventure game, which will release sometime this year.
- Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, along with the Boss Battles set “A New Power Awakens”, comes to the Switch on September 24.
- The DLC for Age of Calamity, which releases on June 18 (three days ago) and by the end of November for part two.
- A Legend of Zelda Game & Watch system, which includes The Legend of Zelda, Adventure of Link, and Link’s Awakening. This will release on November 12.
- Breath of the Wild 2 was finally shown off in stunning fashion with a brief trailer, building even more hype for the game. It will release next year in 2022.
We listed 13 titles that were shown by Nintendo, with all but one coming out this year, and that’s not even the full list. Nintendo has a jam-packed second half of 2021, and they didn’t even show Pokemon, which will be another system seller. There is no comparison between What Nintendo showed and what every other company showed. Their presentation was polished, concise, showed an understanding of what the fanbase wanted, as well as opening the door to newcomers to their hit platform. The majority of these are either exclusives or first-party titles as well. As disappointing as it was to see that Zelda will be releasing in 2022, we have Skyward Sword HD in less than a month (which seemingly connects directly to the Sky shown in Breath of the Wild 2, which shows why Nintendo decided to bring that game specifically to the Switch), Mario Golf Super Rush, which comes to the Switch this week, Disgaea 6 coming on June 29, NEO: The World Ends with You coming on July 27, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles coming that same day, and No More Heroes 3 coming out on August 27. Nintendo had more they could have shown, but held back and stuck to, for the most part, new announcements to showcase.
The amount of content coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2021 is staggering though. Metroid Dread will sell systems and was the surprise announcement of E2 2021 as a whole. When taking their other announcements into account and the sheer amount of high-quality content they had to show, it becomes obvious: Nintendo won E3 2021.