As is the norm, Nintendo chose to show off its games for the year via its Direct livestream instead of with a live show. For a relatively short show, it packed in a lot of content. This Holiday season will see a new Pokémon, Mario Party and, of course, Smash Bros. While most of the session was taken up by Smash, it's easy to see why, as it's easily one of the most impressive showings at E3 2018.
Daemon x Machina
Ever since From Software found huge success with the Dark Souls franchise, its other franchises have, understandably, fallen to the wayside. It looks like Marvelous is planning to pick up the slack with Daemon x Machina. The brief video showed some Armored Core-style combat with fast-paced mecha battles, including mecha designs by Shoji Kawamori, who's responsible for Armored Core's designs. We didn't get to see too much of it, but it looked quite interesting.
Xenoblade 2 DLC
Xenoblade 2's story focused heavily on a long-ago war between Blades, including two Aegises. While the story was largely glossed over in favor of the present-day story, it was a huge factor into the character's motivation and history. Xenoblade 2: Torna - The Golden Country is an expansion pack focusing on this long-ago war. Aside from a few familiar faces, most of the cast will be new, and it looks like both new and old locations will be present.
Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu/Let's Go Eevee
Announced a while back, the latest Pokémon game is a spinoff-slash-remake. What we've seen so far looks like a familiar trip back to the early days of Pokémon, but this time on a console and with some simplification. You'll also be able to buy a Pokéball-themed controller that can be used to play the game. Pokémon Let's Go comes out Nov. 16.
Super Mario Party
The #2 destroyer of friendships on Nintendo (second only to Blue Shells in Mario Kart) makes its return. The latest Mario Party looks to be very much in the same vein as the previous games, with a wide variety of silly minigames that challenge players to beat one another or team up to smash their friends. The most interesting feature appears to be a multiple-Switch mode that allows more than one Switch to join up to create unusual minigames that aren't available on a single screen. It will be out this October.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
The first console Fire Emblem since the Wii, Fire Emblem: Three Houses looks in many ways to be a traditional Fire Emblem title that focuses on the battle between two different countries in a fantasy world. The big new feature in this game appears to be entire armies. Previous Fire Emblem titles were all about one-on-one fights, but this one appears to give every character a small army of soldiers. We got a glimpse of special skills and formations.
Fortnite
Quite possibly the most popular game in the world, Fortnite is coming to the Nintendo Switch today, complete with online play.
A wide variety of titles
Nintendo made sure to focus on the fact that indie games were going to be big for them in the foreseeable future. This including a lot of niche titles as well as cult favorites, like Hollow Knight. This is buoyed by a large collection of ports and new games, such as Dark Souls, Dragonball Fighter Z, and The World Ends with You.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Of course, the star of the show was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The name is more accurate than you'd think. Ultimate will contain every single Smash Bros. character who has ever appeared in a Smash game, from Mario to Pichu to DLC fighters like Cloud and the surprise return of Metal Gear's Solid Snake. Quantity appears to be the name of the game, with almost every stage also making a return.
This doesn't mean the game isn't going to see tweaks. There has been an increase focus on speed and playability. A lot of characters have had their moves simplified, sped up, or otherwise retweaked to make them more viable in combat. Some tedious mechanics, like Pokémon Trainer's stamina system, have been removed entirely. Final Smashes have returned but are almost exclusive giant fancy cut scenes instead of more character-exclusive mechanics. A number of small tweaks have also been made to mechanics, like dodging and dashing, to add extra balance.
With a roster this huge, they warned us not to expect too many new characters, but there are going to be a few. Some of these are called Echo Fighters. Previously referred to as clones, they are characters who are similar but slightly different than other characters, like Lucina and Marth. One new Echo fighter, Daisy from Mario Land, was announced. She mimics Peach, but her moves have different properties. One big new fighter was also announced. Metroid villain Ridley, previously mentioned to be "too large" for Smash, has finally slimmed down enough to join the fight.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be released exclusively for the Switch on Dec. 7, 2018.