This year’s E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) is underway, and it brings lots of news and announcements about games that are coming in the near (and sometimes not-so-near) future. I’m not going to list off all of the announcements, but I am going to discuss a few of the games that most interest me.
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The new Zelda game for Wii U (also coming to NX) now has a title…and a new trailer.
Even though I’m generally not a fan of the cel-shaded look in Zelda games, I have to admit it really looks great in Breath of the Wild. The world is huge, detailed, and…alive. Link can climb cliffs, trees, and buildings, and it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun just to explore.
Link can interact with the environment in a variety of ways. He can push boulders down a hill onto enemies below, cut trees down to make a bridge, set things on fire, cook food, and so on. That should be fun to play around with and try all sorts of things.
From watching some of the Nintendo Treehouse coverage, it seemed that weapons break rather easily, and that sounds like it could be annoying. But I’m sure that will be remedied a bit further into the game, when you can obtain higher quality weapons and shields.
The game looks amazing though, and I can’t wait to play it in 2017. At this point, I’m not sure if I’ll be getting the Wii U or NX version of the game…mainly because I still don’t know what NX really is just yet. But either way, I plan on buying Breath of the Wild on day one.
Stardew Valley
It was announced that the PC farming simulation is coming to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U. As a long-time Harvest Moon fan that hasn’t played a farming game since the GameCube days, I’ve been dying for some Wii U farming fun.
Stardew Valley looks like an old-school (2D) Harvest Moon game, but with more depth, customization, and options. It has marriage and mining like the Harvest Moon games, but it also has some RPG elements to give the game more variety. And the developer seems quite excited about utilizing the gamepad screen in the Wii U version. It’s due out this winter, and I can’t wait!
No-Shows
First of all, I am aware that Nintendo wasn’t going to be doing a “full” E3 this year. They originally said Zelda Wii U would be their sole focus, and then they added a second day of their Nintendo Treehouse stream to show other upcoming games. So I was not expecting any huge new announcements.
But with that said, I was still hoping they would at least talk about already-announced things like the Animal Crossing app that’s due this fall. Or Disney Magical World 2, which has an American release date of October 14th. I was also hoping for some Virtual Console announcements. But they will likely have a Nintendo Direct video at some point this summer to discuss these things and more.
And as far as I can tell, Natsume made no mention of Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memories, which they’ve said is coming to Wii U (and PC) this year. They already seem to be shifting their focus to a new 3DS Harvest Moon game, subtitled Skytree Village. That makes you wonder if Seeds of Memories is still coming, and if so, when? Natsume isn’t saying a word.
I’m not into Pokémon, but that Pokémon Go app does look like a cool concept. It lets you capture Pokémon in real life! There’s also a wearable accessory coming that will light up to let you know when a Pokémon is available nearby. You can then push a button to try to catch it without pulling out your smartphone.
I was more impressed with Pokemon Sun/Moon, Ever Oasis, & Paper Mario: Color Splash. LoZ:Bored of your World, looked like a Skyrim/Tomb Raider thing. If I wanted either I could look to Bethesda or Ubisoft..😑But yes, seeing a Disney’s Magical World 2 trailer, or something would have been great. I kind of doubt we’ll see any info on the AC mobile app until 2017 or so.
I’ve always been a big Zelda fan, but everyone’s tastes are different. The AC mobile app is supposed to be out this fall, so we should be hearing about it sooner rather than later. Unless it gets a fairly lengthy delay, of course. And that’s always a possibility when Nintendo is involved.
More like Zelda: Breath of Fresh Air. No lengthy dialogue or cutscenes to sit through, no hand-holding, just a beautiful world to explore freely. It really pays homage to the original Zelda in many ways without being frustratingly cryptic. I haven’t been this excited for a game in a long time.
I was hoping for a Mother 3 announcement, but alas. I guess this is what fans of the series have been dealing with for the past ten years. 😛
I agree completely. The good news is that Nintendo Directs can pop up at almost any time, so we might not have to wait a long time for more news. They’ll have to show off the rest of their fall lineup at some point this summer.
I’m so excited for Breath of the Wild. It gave me a Xenoblade vibe. Also voice acting.
I saw the PC version of Stardew Valley when it first came out and actually nearly bought it – it seems to be popular among the Nintendo crowd (probably because of Harvest Moon) and for good reason!
I always thought it would be perfect for 3DS, but I’m still happy it’s coming to Wii U.
Stardew Valley looks really cool. I was gonna buy it on Steam, but now I think I’ll just wait 🙂 I too was hoping for some kind of Animal Crossing announcement, but hopefully we’ll find out soon enough!