E3 2016 is almost upon us, and once again Nintendo is marching to the beat of its own drum. We run down what we think we'll see from the house of Mario.
We shared our predictions for Sony and Microsoft this weekend, but Nintendo is once again a unique case this year. The company has already made a number of announcements about its E3 plans. For starters, Nintendo will be forgoing a press conference for a series of streamed Treehouse Live events. The Legend of Zelda will be Nintendo's only playable game at the show, and the mysterious NX console won't be making an appearance. That said, we do expect Nintendo to sprinkle in some additional reveals and info during its live stream events, as it did last year. Here are our best guesses for what we might see.
Mother 3 Coming To
Virtual Console Right Now!
Last year at E3, Nintendo announced
and released Earthbound Beginnings, a localized version of the first
Earthbound/Mother game, on the Wii U Virtual Console. The NES classic had never
been released in North America before then, and the surprise release delighted
fans. It seems only logical that Nintendo would try to capture the excitement a
second time with a release of Mother 3, the third title in the trilogy that has
also never made Stateside. Rumors of a Western localization of Mother 3 surfaced
back in April, making it a solid guess for a surprise E3 release.
A Splash Of Color
Nintendo has already announced a few of the games it will be
highlighting in its Treehouse Live events, including Monster Hunter
Generations, Pokémon Sun and Moon, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten
Past, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. With a targeted release date of later this
year, we're guessing Paper Mario: Color Splash will also make an appearance –
it is, after all, one of the few major titles remaining for the Wii U, and
continues to be a
popular spinoff franchise among fans.
Time For A New Fire
Emblem?
Speaking of Intelligent Systems – the developer behind the
Paper Mario series might just have another surprise in store for this year's
E3. Intelligent Systems' biggest and most successful franchise by far is Fire
Emblem; including remakes, the developer has released 15 games in the series over
the years. While the
latest entry released just this past March in the U.S., Intelligent Systems
wrapped up development of the Japanese version nearly a year ago. Nintendo has
called Fire Emblem a "major IP"
for the company's platforms, so the odds of Intelligent Systems working on a
sequel are high – what better time to announce it then during E3?
Another Amiibo
Invasion
Nintendo unveiled a
new wave of Amiibos at last year's E3, and we don't expect this year to be
any different. After all, why not? The coveted figurines are
still super popular and rake in a
ton of money for Nintendo. The real question is whether Nintendo will
create enough of them to actually meet the demand of fans this time – we're guessing
not. The other question: Who is even left to Amiibo-ize at this point? Maybe
the new starters of Pokémon
Sun and Moon?
We'll Learn About The
NX...But Not From Nintendo
Nintendo has explicitly
stated that it won't be showing off the NX until later in the year, but the
company doesn't operate in a vacuum. While any third-party developers have
undoubtedly been sworn to secrecy, with the entire gaming industry descending
upon L.A. for a week of revelry, we expect more leaks and rumors to surface
about Nintendo's new system. Just be sure to take any potential news with a grain
(or handful) of salt.
Coming Up Next: What we expect from Link's next adventure, the latest installments of Pokémon, and more...