Nintendo. What is your next move?
The two gaming giants Sony and Microsoft have been blessing the gaming community as of late. Sony hit the ground swinging with its Playstation 5 live stream showcase. While giving gamers many gifts of three big games: Final Fantasy VII Remake, The Last of Us Part II, and Ghost of Tsushima. Plenty of entertainment amidst a global pandemic surrounding us. Meanwhile, Microsoft had two showcases already shown. They were showing off game trailers and exclusives, including Halo Infinite, Crossfire X, Psychonauts 2, and Fable. Sony and Microsoft are letting the big guns out, creating a lot of buzz in the media. From speculation of pricing to release dates and, of course, the Craig memes online, Sony and Microsoft have captured our full attention. Along with Sony’s State of Play showcase on August 6th and Microsoft slated for another showcase in August as well.
One question is still left.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Min Min reveal. A couple of releases this year including Xenoblade Chronicles, Paper Mario: The Origami King, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. As well as the Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase that was shown last week. However, those reveals weren’t as big as the giant showcases seen from Sony and Microsoft. Here are five big reveals that should push the attention towards Nintendo moving forward to the fourth quarter year of 2020.
Breath Of The Wild 2
Let’s address the elephant in the room as soon as it walks inside, shall we? Nintendo dropped the teaser trailer of the highly anticipated sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at E3 2019. A brief video showing Zelda and Link perhaps awakening Ganon. This announcement got a ton of players excited and speculating what the future will hold for the franchise. Besides the trailer, there has not been much of anything besides crickets in the background for a year. With all the gaming buzz lately, a Breath of the Wild 2 trailer would be perfect for taking the Twitter trending labels from Sony and Microsoft. Even if its a pre-alpha build running on a PC, I am looking at you Halo Infinite. It just has to happen along the way.
We are curious to see what adventures we will part take in Hyrule this time. How would Nintendo top an already legendary first game? What dungeons will we explore? If any. What new trick will we utilize with our smartphone — I mean Sheikah Slate? Will we play as Zelda? I can go on and on about the possibilities. One thing is sure that an announcement has to be made sooner than later.
Metroid Prime 4
The same fate that Breath of the Wild 2 suffers is the same as Metroid Prime 4. We got an announcement trailer that got many players excited for a highly anticipated return of the Metroid Prime series. After that trailer at E3 2017, there was nothing but cricket noises again. For three consecutive years, there hasn’t been a trailer or essential news of a reveal—nothing past the “currently in development” sticker label. The only announcement made was the scrapping of the first development project and starting over from scratch with Retro Studios. So there is no word of how soon Nintendo will release this sequel. Best dust off the old Gamecube and Nintendo Wii and play the first three Metroid Prime games while you wait for the fourth. Trust me; it’s going to be a long wait.
At least Nintendo could give us a remaster of the first three games for the Switch to keep us preoccupied. However, there is no word of that happening anytime soon, either. The only thing Metroid related news of late is Brie Larson wants to play as Samus in a movie. At the same time, we are hoping to play as Samus in a new Metroid Prime game. At least we still get to play as her in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, I guess.
35th Anniversary Mario Collection
The plumber and everyone’s favorite mustached Nintendo mascot will be hitting 35 years this year. Wow, that’s older than I am. That’s a ton of Goomba stomping, fireballs throwing and thwarting of Bowser’s plans of Mushroom Kingdom domination. However, Mario couldn’t stop Bowser from taking over Nintendo. Get it? Doug Bowser. Anyway, there have been many rumors and speculations of a 35th Anniversary Mario Collection. A collection that will include remasters for Super Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy, Galaxy 2, and 3D World. Nothing has been confirmed as of late from Nintendo of this potential mash-up.
The only news of Nintendo of late, involving Mario, is the various Super Mario Lego sets and the NES Lego sets, which is excellent for all the Lego lovers out there. However, for fans looking to dive into the world of Mario once again, a Mario 3D All-Star Collection would be very appreciated.
Nintendo 64 Classic Edition/64 Online Service
(source image: Reddit: u/CyberWolfJV)
Remember when you scoured the internet for days or weeks of an available unit of the soldout NES or SNES Classic Edition? Nintendo remembers. I can’t think of a better opportunity for Nintendo to capitalize on this holiday by releasing a Nintendo 64 Classic Edition. Imagine the mini system including such favorite games as Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and of course, Superman 64. I’m kidding, that game was awful. It would be so awesome to relive the good old days of playing Nintendo 64 with friends. Becoming a photographer in Pokémon Snap, beating up Pikachu in Super Smash Bros., and kicking your friend out of your house for choosing Oddjob in Goldeneye. Ah, yes, good times indeed. Nintendo needs to bring those same memories with a classic edition.
Another alternative would be to release a Nintendo 64 Online catalog for the Nintendo Online. We have already seen this happen with the Nintendo Entertainment System and SNES. Nintendo should continue this trend with Nintendo 64 and add online play that would be perfect for games like Goldeneye and Mario Kart 64.
Nintendo Switch Pro
Perhaps Nintendo could go another route in bringing out a new system iteration. If Sony and Microsoft will be releasing their new consoles of Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X for the foreseeable holidays. Maybe Nintendo should too? We have already seen the influx of Nintendo Switch versions of late, including the Switch Lite and Switch V2 with longer battery life. Could we see a Pro version coming soon? We all know Nintendo is notoriously known for releasing multi versions of their handhelds. Given that Switch is considered a hybrid of both console and handheld in one, the likelihood is high. Will people be inclined to buy this version of the system? Well, it depends on the features. Can it support 4K resolution? Can it run games at 60 frames per second? Will the joycons not drift? These are plausible questions when upgrading essentially the same console.
Nintendo has not been a participant in the console wars race as of late since the Gamecube days. However, this doesn’t mean they can’t stay in their lane and be a secondary console. Perhaps an alternative for people not able to get the PS5 or Xbox Series X at launch? If anything, any Nintendo Switch would be great right now, because they have been sold out everywhere.
The ball is in your court now, Nintendo. Make us gamers proud.
