Nintendo Direct E3 2021 Roundup

Now, that's one satisfying Nintendo Direct, if you're a Zelda and Metroid fan. It's probably not the hype machine that many have wanted, but it was very much on par with my predictions from two weeks ago. There was a new trailer for the Breath of the Wild sequel, the first DLC for Age of Calamity, the next Super Smash Bros. Ultimate challenger and even a new 2D Metroid title, called Metroid Dread.

Let's go over all of these topics briefly, with follow-up posts about the bigger topics coming later today and tomorrow.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate x Tekken

Well, that was actually one of the biggest surprises of the Nintendo Direct. Just earlier today a completely different character had been "leaked", where I was mentally getting ready for that, but then Kazuya came and stole the show.

This certainly wasn't one of the wildly speculated characters, mostly because we already got the Heihachi Mii outfit together with Min Min earlier in this Fighters Pass. Why didn't they save this Mii costume for Kazuya? Well, it feels like a weird decision, but this certainly shifted the speculation scene away from Tekken, though getting another Bandai Namco character after all their work for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate seemed always likely. It's just that people were expecting a Dark Souls or Tales Of character instead.

It's another classic fighting game rep after Ryu, Ken and Terry, where this inclusion is absolutely well deserved and it's glorious to see all these fighting game icons coming together in Smash. But at the same time it's somewhat boring, where this is not a fighter for me personally. The trailer was funny, though, especially when he dropped Min Min and Kirby. And it was really smart to start with Ganondorf to tease all the Zelda fans right away.

Metroid Dread

Well, here is our 2021 title, Nintendo game of the year. It's good to see something in the quality of Metroid: Samus Returns on the Nintendo Switch, but I already dread the game (pun intended) for its E.M.M.I. enemies, just like I dreaded being hunted by the SA-X in Metroid Fusion or the Space Pirates in Metroid: Zero Mission.

But the game looks very cool overall and there will be a follow-up post coming up!

Age of Calamity – Pulse of the Ancients

As expected, we got out first look at the first DLC wave for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and it's even coming out later this week. The content isn't really what was expected, though, where there really is only one new character and it's not Robbie or Purah, but a playable Guardian. And Link gets the "flail" made out of Guardian parts.

The only expected thing here was the Master Cycle Zero, but even that came as a surprise, because like the Sheikah Slate, this doesn't get used by Link this time, but by Zelda. It does make sense, though, and was a cool surprise. More on this topic later this week.

35th Anniversary of Zelda

This was easily the biggest disappointment of the Nintendo Direct. I didn't expect them to say much about the 35th Anniversary, mainly because the focus will be still on Skyward Sword HD and Age of Calamity for now, but Aonuma downright confirmed that they don't have any major plans for the 35th Anniversary. There will only be another Game & Watch thing for Zelda, which is basically just copying one of the things they did for the 35th Anniversary of Super Smash Bros. – lame! It doesn't even have the actual Zelda Game & Watch game for some reason...

Well, anyway, maybe Nintendo wants to focus on Metroid's anniversary for a change? That would be something... Maybe they could do a Game & Watch system for it? And it seems like Aonuma's team is too busy with the sequel to Breath of the Wild to deal with anything else. Speaking of...

The Legend of Zelda: Uhm... Skyward Sword for Real?

They saved the best for last with a new trailer for the sequel to Breath of the Wild, without revealing its actual title or release date, just a generic 2022. This should tell us that the game most likely won't be released before E3 2022.

But the trailer was a surprising change of direction from the first one in 2019.. quite literally. The game seeks out to be what Skyward Sword could have been with its new expansive sky world, which is really cool. There will probably multiple posts coming up about this new trailer, so stay tuned!

About Skyward Sword HD... nothing new here was announced yet, so the remaster really might only offer the new control scheme and the teleportation amiibo as new features and nothing else. But let's wait for Treehouse to show it.