Top 10 Best Moments From E3 2019

After Isabelle’s reveal for “Smash Bros. Ultimate” in September 2018, Nintendo gave us a brief teaser for a new “Animal Crossing” on Switch, slated for a 2019 release window. Since then, Nintendo has been suspiciously quiet about the game’s development. Thankfully, the silence was broken in the E3 2019 Direct, showing off gameplay for the upcoming “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”. This time around, you’re not just the mayor of a town - you own a whole freakin’ island! With the ability to play with your friends in local AND online multiplayer, “New Horizons” is shaping up to be the best in the franchise. So, we certainly don’t mind the pushback to March 2020!

Tired of all the battle royale shooters? The market has gotten so saturated that they’re all starting to blend together. Although, Devolver Digital is planning to bring us some fresh air with a new battle royale game called “Fall Guys”! We don’t know much about the game, but from what we’ve seen in the trailer, you and ninety-nine other players navigate wacky obstacle courses in a race for a golden crown. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to get our hands on “Fall Guys” until sometime in 2020.

The “Watch Dogs” IP went dark after a commercially dismal sequel in 2016. Despite seeing a hefty amount of critical praise, players were too burned by the first game. It’s been three years since “Watch Dogs 2”, and Ubisoft is ready for another round! For this year’s conference, they kicked things off with an extensive look at “Watch Dogs: Legion”. Aside from seeing an elderly woman kick some ass, “Legion” allows players to not only recruit NPC’s for their rebellion but also play as them! The reveal showed that Ubisoft has found an interesting concept for the franchise, and we’re eager to get our hands on it in March 2020!

Bethesda’s conference wasn’t exactly...great. However, they still managed to end things on a high note with “DOOM: Eternal”. We were already sold on the game back when it was shown off at QuakeCon 2018. So after seeing more of the single-player campaign and the new Battle Mode, we just wanted to throw our money at developer id Software. The only question that remained was “When do we get to play it?” While we were anticipating a 2020 release date, id took us by surprise - November 22, 2019! Looks like we’ll be slaying the forces of Hell a lot sooner than we expected!

Ever since Square announced their “Avengers” project with Marvel, we’ve been dying to know everything about the game! Details didn’t start leaking out until a couple of weeks before E3, and square finally lifted the curtain at this year’s E3. While the character designs aren’t exactly what we were expecting, there’s plenty of reason to be excited for “Avengers”. For starters, the game boasts an excellent cast with Nolan North as Iron Man, Troy Baker as The Hulk, Laura Bailey as Black Widow, Travis Willingham as Thor, and Jeff Schine as Captain America. On top of that, the game will be getting more playable heroes after launch for FREE. No microtransactions. No paywalls. No bulls**t. It’s a straight-up video game!

We have quite a number of “Zelda” titles coming out. “Cadence of Hyrule” is out this summer, and the “Link’s Awakening” remake launches on September 20, 2019. So, it caught us off guard to see Nintendo teasing with ANOTHER brand new “Zelda” game at the end of their Direct. That’s right, folks! We’re getting a sequel to “Breath of the Wild!” The trailer’s creepy tone has some speculating that this game will act as a “Majora’s Mask” style adventure, and seeing Princess Zelda side by side with Link has some hoping for co-op as well. What made the first game so great was its vast open landscapes, challenging puzzles, and compelling narrative. We’ll be expecting great things, Nintendo!

Most of the time, new game announcements are made by executives with some corporate talk and marketing buzzwords. Rarely do the developers themselves get to talk and just be themselves, which is why Ikumi Nakamura of Tango Gameworks broke the internet during Bethesda’s conference. From the way she talked, you could tell Nakamura has a deep passion for video games, and her directorial debut, “Ghostwire: Tokyo” looks intriguing with its eerie atmosphere and mysterious characters. Her pose said it all - Nakamura is here to set the world on fire, and she’s starting with “Ghostwire”!

Last year, we were disappointed not to see “Final Fantasy VII Remake” at Square’s press conference. Now, we can see why they held off, and the new footage was spectacular! In addition to getting an in-depth look at the new combat system, we finally got to see the updated designs for Tifa Lockheart and Sephiroth. Tifa looks great in the updated art style! As for Sephiroth...well, damn! Dude looks sick! If you couldn’t tell from all the screaming, fans were happy with the redesigns, too. Only ten more months until release!

This E3, we witnessed a historic moment. Banjo and Kazooie have finally made it into “Super Smash Bros Ultimate”! For years, fans have been clamoring for the bear and bird to be added to Nintendo’s fighter. Even Phil Spencer has expressed a strong interest in making this happen! And finally...here we are, and they’ve never looked better! Between the duo’s animations and the beautifully constructed Spiral Mountain stage, you can tell Masahiro Sakurai cares about “Banjo-Kazooie” just as much as we do. The best part is that Grant Kirkhope is composing music for Banjo’s fighter pack!

Our wallets have been barking for “Cyberpunk” since that 48-minute demo was released last year. With a vibrant world and interesting concept, we’re incredibly eager to play CD Projekt RED’s newest game. So, what other reason do we have for dropping sixty bucks? Well, we found a new one at Microsoft’s conference - Keanu Reeves is in it! As you would expect, the crowd went nuts when Keanu took the stage. Reeves could barely get through his script without the audience freaking out. The best part, though, was when Reeves was describing the “breathtaking” environments… Best. Xbox conference. EVER.