When I introduced myself, I said that I would talk mainly about art here, taking some liberty to talk about other topics eventually. That being said, it's a little bit strange that my first post after that will not be necessarely art related, but by chance, this very week is happening (probably) the greatest event video game's related of the year, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (a.k.a E3). I'm a huge enthusiastic of the event, and have been accompaning it for some years, considering it a huge part of my year (almost like a holyday to me), and I sincerelly dream of participating personally in one some day.

Since I'm also a huge Nintendo fan, I would be covering here most of its presentation and performance this year, though I'll probably share some thoughts on other presentations as well. So, let's get started?

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The "Spotlight"

For some years now Nintendo, instead of doing the classical E3's press conference has choose to do a "Nintendo Direct" video style, which is just a pre-recorded presentation with some Nintendo's staff talking about the games, consoles and future releases followed by a "Nintendo Treehouse" showcasing some of the content shown at the Direct (mostly gameplay). From my perspective, I really miss the good and old one hour long press conferences with thousands of people on the crowd, making some noise and reacting in real time to what have been just shown. It was an awesome feeling and helped building a lot of hype (something that Nintendo is slowly learning how to do, but still far away from some it's competitors).

The girl on the bottom left scared me a bit when she appeared fixedly staring at the screen

Although the format has been working (not being a huge success though) so far for them, this year they choose to do something a little different: the "Spotlight". A 25 minutes long presentation (very small, compared to the past years) full of inconsistency and promisses. I believe they made it this way due to the lack of content to be shown, which for me is a more reliable option than putting Mr. Miyamoto playing a guitar and some Mario tribute for almost 15 minutes long (some of you may know what I'm talking about).

Nintendo started they'r 2017 presentation by showing a bunch of movie clips of random people in random situations playing with they'r Nintendo Switch while boxing, staring at the nothing or doing some tricks with a soccer ball, all normal situations where one would take out his Switch to play. The bizarre introduction showed some already announced games being played, like ARMS, Splatoon 2, Fifa 18 plus a new revelation like the Switch version of Rocket League to be finally followed by Mr. Reggie Fills Aime.

"[...]But in the end, is not just where you can take your game, it's where your game can take you."
I must admit those where some beautiful words told by Mr. Reggie

After the brief Reggie's introduction, they jumped to some games.

The "Games"

The first big appearance of the show's existence's purpose was Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a title that was shown the first time at the Switch's introduction early this year. Very little was shown that time, but now they expanded our knowledge of the game and it's beautifull combination of anime style characters and realistc enviroment and enemys. I LOVE the original Xenoblade Chronicles as it is for me the best JRPG I've ever played and I encourage you to give it a try, for it's history is amazingly well developed with a lot of plot twists and revelations along the way. Even though so far the actuall third installment on the franchise looks to have every shounen anime cliche ever, I still looking forward to it since I know Monolith Soft is a very competent company. The only true critic so far is concerning the characters voice over which laks emotion and quality. Hope they keep the original Xenoblade's option to change to japanese voice over.

For my surprise, the game wasn't delayed either and looks almost finished, to be released this holidays

After that, some classical Nintendo inconsistence kicked up. First, they showed a new Kirby game coming to Nintendo Switch (that looks visually pretty, but doesn't seem to be more than the avarage Kirby experience) with release date planned to 2018. Then, Mr. Shinya Takahashi appear praising the Switch and it's community just to pass the bar to Pokémon's company Tsunekazo Ishihara, who talked about Pokkén Tournament DX (a game already announced before) and a promise of a future Pokémon main series game, which development just started and shouldn't be expected not even a year from now. Back to Mr. Takahashi, who says Nintendo will be focusing on the E3 mainly on games that are coming on 2017, just to do what in te sequence? Tell the public that another game is being developed, with just a tease and no more information.

Metroid Prime 4 was a delightful announce even without a single game image. It's good to see Nintendo hasn't forgotten Samus after all, but surpriseling isn't being developed by Retro Studios

After showing 1 game for 2018, 2 games far from the near future and said they'll be showing mostly stuff for 2017 (?), Nintendo showed a new Yoshi game (that, guess what? is also planned to 2018) that appear to share some similarities with Yoshi's Woolly World. They have been put Yoshi under the "spotlight" (pun not intended) for quite some time now, although I don't really see way (don't know if the Woolly World franchise is actually this popular).

Fire Emblem Warriors was showcased on the sequence. The game looks okay if you are a fan of Dynasty Warriors game style (which is not my case), but was at least at the 2017 launch window. Then, Mr. Eiji Aonuma appeared to talk about the Zelda Breath of the Wild DLC, which was already showed ages ago and took another good portion of the 25 minutes presentation (at least, they showed some new amiibo of the Champions from the game) to be followed by Reggie talking one last time before the three last videos they had to share.

Again, nothing new here. First video was about Mario + Rabbids Kingdom battle, which was previously announced at Ubisoft conference the early day, Rocket League which was revealed in the begning of the presentation already, so was no surprise, to finally come to the real "cherry of the cake", Super Mario Odyssey, that nos not a new announce, but like Xenoblade 2, came to share more light about the game content, finishing the presentation.

The most promising Mario's franchise installment since Galaxy

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Wrapping it up

Was that a disappointing presentation from Nintendo this year? I would say no, but was a really mediocre one. And in that point, it wasn't a Nintendo exclusivity either. Sony, who is used to do outstanding presentations with big shows, orchestras and what not, this year held a very modest presentation with the majority of games already been revelead previously as well, with not so bright new ones e a reamke of one (even though Shadow of the Colossus is a great game, it still a remake nonetheless).

This year E3 was overall weak, and despite the bizarre intro from Nintendo (Which is understandable, for they are going with this "cool", "radical", "young" approach since the Switch's reveal trailer. Whether it's good or not is another history) and inconsistences, they are trying to reach a broader audience of gamers and it have been proving wealthy to them since the Switch launch, whitout even talking about the Treehouse that kicked right after the spotlight with some new content, reveals, gameplay of the showcased games and tournaments.

Nintendo didn't promissed a lot for this E3, and they give us most of what was expected plus some welcome surprises. Surprises for an uncertain future, but at least some good ones that will be worth to look forward.

@Famp