Did Nintendo even give a press conference at E3 this year? No. But did they win this year’s E3? Yes. Yes, they did. There was a strong showing from Bethesda, Square Enix and Microsoft Xbox (be sure to catch up on anything you missed with our recap articles). But Nintendo knocked it out of the park with their surprise announcement of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel, Banjo & Kazooie in Smash and just a ton of very exciting games. My personal favourite the new Animal Crossing and Pokemon Sword and Shield *squueeeee*! If you don’t have a Switch by now you’re going to need one for these upcoming games. 3DS who dat?

 

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2

Who saw this even coming?? The Legend of Zelda no matter how amazing their games are hasn’t made a direct sequel to a world ever. According to the team, they had too many ideas for new DLCs, so the studio elected to make a sequel. Not that they needed any reason to do this really.

Breath of the Wild 2 is set in the same Hyrule world but will incorporate new gameplay and story. The trailer above is pretty mysterious and doesn’t give away much, but we do see Princess Zelda on an adventure. As well as the mummified corpse of Calamity Ganon. If you look closely the designs and the glowing blue energy resemble some of the magic from the Twili. Midna is a Twili from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. And her race was trapped in the Twilight Realm after their ancestors challenged the gods of Hyrule. IWe have no idea when the game will be releasing, but I think it’ll be in 2021.

 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

We knew a new Animal Crossing was going to be happening but my oh my did the gameplay exceed my expectations. It looks amazing and from what we know New Horizons focuses on crafting and lets you design your own island from scratch.

The game begins typically with good old Tom Nook. He’s sold you a Nook Inc. Deserted Island Getaway Package, which comes with – a tent, a lamp and a camper bed. Definitely not luxe. Borrowing mechanics from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, you’ll be finding and harvesting resources to build furniture, tools, clothes and other things as you colonise the island. It looks so wholesome, I can’t wait! Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be coming out on March 20th 2020.

 

Panzer Dragoon: Remake

If you haven’t heard of Panzer Dragoon you may not have been gaming back in the 90s. Panzer Dragoon is a series that follow the tale of a lone hero or heroine fighting atop a Dragon. Now Sega and Polish publisher Forever Entertainment are remaking the first two Panzer Dragoon games for the Nintendo Switch.

The first game Panzer Dragoon follows the story of Keil Fluge, who one day encounters a fight between two dragons. The rider of the blue dragon is mortally wounded in the battle and entrusts his mission, as well as his dragon, to Keil. Whilst the second game follows the story of Jean-Luc Lundi who discovers a mutant coolia, whom he names Lagi. Together, Lundi and Lagi take revenge against the great airship who has destroyed his village. Gameplay wise the Panzer Dragoon series follows an on-rails shoot-em-up style.

Forever Entertainment calls the games “refreshed version[s]” of the Panzer Dragoon games. There will be completely new graphics compatible with today’s standards and several modifications of the game, making it more attractive to modern players. While remaining faithful to the original in terms of story.

 

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening 

The remake train is still chugging along, not that we’re complaining. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is a remake of the 1993 GameBoy classic and it looks great! While most Legend of Zelda games takes place in the familiar kingdom of Hyrule, Link’s Awakening leaves players stranded on a mysterious island. To escape the island Link has to wake a mythical creature called the Wind Fish to find his way home.

The Switch version of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening was built rebuilt from the ground up. Even though everything is in this 3D Pixar like world, you’ll still be playing in 2D. There are fun mini-games to play, quests to solve and even a build-your-own dungeon mode. The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening will be arriving on September 20th 2019.

 

Collection of Mana & Trials of Mana

We’ve got more RPG nostalgia with The Collection of Mana that released in Japan back in 2017. This includes Final Fantasy Adventure and its sequel Secret of Mana as well as the third game in the series, Trials of Mana that until now has never been released outside of Japan. This bundle of iconic games from the Mana series is now available to download from the Switch eShop worldwide.

Trials of Mana, originally released in Japan as Seiken Densetsu 3 back in 1995. The remake is a modern-day action RPG not only in looks but in the design, too. The Mana series is set in a fictional world where Mana represents an ethereal, but finite, energy source. Sometime in the past, the Mana Goddess created the world by forging the powerful Sword of Mana and defeating eight monsters of destruction. She sealed right Mana Stones in the Benevodons—”God Beasts”, before turning herself into the Mana Tree and falling asleep. The game is set in a time when Mana has started to fade and peace has ended. Several people plot to unleash the Benevodons from the stones so as to gain ultimate power.

Trials of Mana will be coming to the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC in 2020.