The Best Nintendo Announcements of E3

Ever Oasis

brand new look

Four new Pokemon

caught a Rattata live on stage

Nintendo opened their E3 with a brand new look at the next Legend of Zelda on Wii U and Nintendo NX. We saw the first glimpses of gameplay mixed in with some picturesque shots of wildlife and the environment. We also hear a fully voiced character for the first time in the series, and at the end the game’s full title was revealed, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The only other thing on Nintendo’s Treehouse Live stream besides Zelda, was the first gameplay look at Pokemon Sun and Moon. We saw about 30 minutes of gameplay featuring battles, exploration and an updated UI. Four new Pokemon were seen too; Yungoos a ferret Pokemon, Pikipek a Woodpecker, Grubbin a bug type and an in-game look at the mythical Pokemon Magearna.  Nintendo also showed a new multiplayer mode called Battle Royale that pits four trainers against each other.

A couple amiibo announcements came out of nowhere during Nintendo’s streaming event, one of which was three new Legend of Zelda amiibo. The figures are from the new game, Breath of the Wild, with two versions of Link and a Guardian enemy. The Guardian will be the very first amiibo with flexible parts. We also found out that the Wolf Link amiibo will summon the wolf into Breath of the Wild when used, to help players fight enemies and hunt.

An announcement that may have flown under the radar today in light of everything else, was a brand new wave of Super Mario amiibo. The new line launches this November and features some character who’ll be getting their first amiibo figures. The full lineup includes; Wario, Waluigi, Daisy, Rosalina, Boo, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong.

Another announcement floated a bit under the radar, as Nintendo announced a release date for Paper Mario: Color Splash. Thegame will be hitting Wii U on October 7 tasking players with restoring a world that Bowser has sucked all the color out of. After not hearing anything about the game since it was announced back in March, it was nice to have an update.

The highlight of Nintendo’s E3, was the overwhelming torrent of information about Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Nintendo spent nearly six hours streaming demos of the game showing us the enormous open world, new weapon and inventory systems, cooking, weather and a wealth of puzzle solving. Breath of the Wild looks very different for a Zelda game, but everything Nintendo showed seemed to work very well together. It’s a gorgeous game, that seems easy to sink tons of hours into.