The Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) is easily the biggest video game industry trade show of the year. The big console manufacturers and software publishers save some of their finest to collectively show that the future of gaming is bright.

As usual, a curious eye is on the Japanese company that only grudgingly participates, preferring to do things their own way. Even though Nintendo would rather do things on their own time, that doesn’t mean that they don’t take E3 seriously.

It’s been years since Nintendo adopted a hybrid system approach, but it still comes off as weird to me that they have only one main system to present upcoming software. But with what we’ve seen this year, it’s still going to be quite the system.

Considering this, I’ve decided to do less of an analysis and more of a trash-post about my opinions of software coming for Switch. After all, what would a person come to my blog for rather than my opinion? To regurgitate the observations that the news sites are making would be boring.

(Note: Not all these titles may have been shown at E3 this year)

Metroid Dread

This years surprise of the show is the long-thought-cancelled Metroid Dread, AKA Metroid 5! It’s welcome news that Metroid is returning to its 2D platforming roots. The trailer showed a suspenseful scene in which Samus encountered a robot that was immune to her weapons, leaving the hunter powerless to do anything about it but run.

The gameplay showed a chase scene reminiscent of the SA-X scenes in Metroid Fusion. I’ll be honest, I’m not too jazzed about this, as those were my least favorite parts of Fusion. But if Dread allows for plenty of exploration and sequence breaking, it’ll be interesting to see the playstyles that develop when people start speed-running this one.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 (tentative title)

A new trailer showed that the upcoming BotW sequel will have a heavy emphasis on being airborne, with travel to landmasses suspended in the air. It’s reasonable to suspect that this game would sell millions of copies if all it did was provide the same basic experience as BotW, but with a new scenario, so it’s great that they’re willing to go beyond. The trailer concluded with Hyrule Castle being lifted up by dark tendrils, reminiscent of Ganon’s malice.

The trailer showed a release date of 2022, which is still potentially a while away. Have you beaten Ganon on BotW’s Master Mode, yet?

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp

If all they did with this one was a couple straight ports of the GBA originals, that would have sufficed for me. Not only that, it’d be great to see one of my favorite strategy games getting some attention for the first time in years. But that in itself wouldn’t justify a $60 price tag.

So, they updated the visuals. And, to be honest, I’m not really that impressed. IMO, I think the anime portraits would have been just fine if they just presented sharper, less aliased versions of the originals. But I find how campy the new portraits look to be a bit distracting.

There’s a lot to Advance Wars to love, but $60 is a lot to ask for a graphically-souped-up bundle of two GBA games.

Metroid Prime 4

We still don’t have anything to show for this one besides its logo. I know Nintendo likes to throw out the assets and restart development on games that stall, with only the ideas of the game developers to go off of (a practice colloquially referred to as “flipping the table”). I’m suspicious that that’s what happened with this one, and it’s difficult to tell when we might see more of it.

Pokemon D+P Remakes, and Legends: Arceus

I’m still looking forward to the upcoming Pokemon offerings. Because of course. Even at it’s weakest, Pokemon is still fun to play.

As much as I’ve criticized the artistic direction of the D+P remakes, they’d be what I’m looking forward to. Having said that, they definitely could use outlining and cel-shading, so they’d look like the anime-style games that they are.

Splatoon 3

I passed on the first Splatoon, but when I broke down and decided to try its sequel, I found out I was missing out. Splatoon has the potential to rival Mario Kart as the Nintendo party game. But more people need to give it a chance.

And why not? If you bought a Nintendo system, why would something that’s weird and different be off the table?

Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny

I’ve already given an opinion on this one, but I’m a bit more open-minded about it now. The gameplay system doesn’t seem like it will change much, which is to be expected. But by the looks of it, you’d have far better animated character models to look at while engaging in hours of repetitive grinding to stand a chance against Tyrant Baal.

Why wouldn’t it be that guy again?

Axiom Verge 2

Thomas Happ is a total badass, and I recommend playing the original before the sequel drops. It’s been delayed multiple times, but I’m still looking forward to the sequel to one of the all-time best indie games.

Happ has pointed out that, if players desire, they could play the sequel first and still enjoy the first when they get around to it. Early material was vague as to whether the second game is in fact a sequel, or a prequel. With how clever Happ has proven himself to be, it’s reasonable to expect something special.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

This game is already out, so why the mention? Because they’re still releasing fighters for it (this time, Kazuya from Tekken). Also, believe it or not, I still haven’t gotten it. Even though they made my dream come true and brought Sephiroth to the fray. Maybe I need more money.

Guardians of the Galaxy

This multiplatform game is also coming to Switch. A noteworthy thing about it is that it will be a streaming game, like something you’d play on Stadia. Personally, I’m not that fond of that idea, as I’d prefer to have a version to play offline, and the knowledge that I’d have a copy of the game that survives the server that hosted the original.

I’m normally somewhat suspicious of licensed games, but I liked the movies, so I might find something endearing, here. Even if just for the duo of Rocket and Groot.

I doubt I’d buy all these games. To play through them all would be a tall order. Sometimes, you gotta choose, and the choice is not easy.