Top 10 Worst Moments From E3 2021

Famously, Nintendo is merciless when it comes to leaks and copyright infringement. That’s why it’s so funny that the popular crossover franchise, “Mario + Rabbids”, had its next entry leaked by Nintendo itself seemingly by mistake. Days before Ubisoft announced the game during its conference, the game was listed in full on Nintendo’s website, cover art and all. “Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope” was easily the best thing Ubisoft showed and they didn’t even get the drop on it. Was this an accident, or is there some kind of secret feud going on between Ubisoft and Nintendo?

People had high hopes for Bandai Namco after we finally saw a trailer for “Elden Ring” during Summer Game Fest. However, when it came time for their showcase, it turned out they’d just thrown together a ten-minute presentation about “House of Ashes”, the next game in “The Dark Pictures Anthology”. Bandai Namco didn’t say the conference was going to be entirely about “House of Ashes” until that same day, leaving gamers who missed the schedule update extremely disappointed. We didn’t even get to see the “Elden Ring” trailer for a second time, and few people are that interested in “House of Ashes” anyway.

We got to see all kinds of exciting things at Nintendo’s conference, which was easily one of the best; a new “WarioWare”, a new “Metroid”, and of course, “Breath of the Wild 2” gameplay. But many things were conspicuously absent from Nintendo’s conference that many people were hoping for. Chief among them was “Bayonetta 3”, a new “Pikmin” game, or any news on “Pokémon Arceus” – and frustratingly, before the announcement of “Metroid Dread”, they told us specifically that we weren’t going to see anything from “Metroid Prime 4”. Finally, there was no small number of people hoping for a Switch Pro reveal, but we got no hardware announcement whatsoever.

Despite promises that “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla” was going to be less bloated than 2018’s “AC Odyssey”, the game is actually longer with far more content; and yet, Ubisoft is still adding to it. They spent a lot of their E3 showcase talking about “Valhalla’s” success and how the game was going to be getting even more DLC, this time focusing on the ninth century Siege of Paris – one the Siege the Vikings actually won, specifically. It’s an interesting choice considering we’ve already had an entire “AC” game set in Paris. Though some people will like it, this is a game that just doesn’t need more content, and especially when we’ll probably get another Assassin’s Creed sequel before you know it.

Another disappointing panel came from Capcom. Popular as “RE Village” is, it definitely would have been good to see some more new game announcements; as it stands, the only highlight was seeing “The Great Ace Attorney”. But Capcom lost the goodwill of fans by promising at the beginning that they were going to talk about fighting games. People took this to mean they might announce a new “Marvel vs. Capcom” or another updated entry in their many fighting game franchises, but no; they just talked about “Street Fighter” eSports for ten minutes. They didn’t even mention the inevitable “Resident Evil 4” remake.

For some reason, Take-Two Interactive thought it would be a good move to book out an entire conference at E3 and then not show a single game. Increasing diversity and representation in the video game industry is obviously a good thing, but nobody signed up to listen to a bunch of executives from Take-Two’s many subsidiaries talk about this for forty-five minutes. It was a resounding disappointment, especially from a publisher with so many IPs; they didn’t even show anything about the new “Borderlands” spin-off, “Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands”, let alone “GTA 6” or a true, next-gen port of “Red Dead 2”. This definitely didn’t need to be a full E3 event.

Xbox and Bethesda’s joint conference was definitely a highlight of E3, but something nobody was hoping for was another “Fallout 76” expansion. Yes, “Fallout 76” has been greatly improved since 2018 and has a strong and dedicated fanbase, but it’s definitely disappointing to see that this “new content” is just going to be a complete rehash of “Fallout 3’s” “The Pitt” DLC from 2009. “The Pitt” might be one of that game’s best expansions, but do we really need to do it all over again? For a second, it looked like a new “Fallout” was on the horizon, only for this to be announced instead. Just remake “Fallout 3” already!

For the handful of “Avatar” superfans in the world, this game looks pretty cool – the problem is there aren’t all that many people who care about “Avatar” anymore, despite James Cameron still trying to get its many planned sequels produced. And even if you’re excited about the sequels, this is definitely a bad time for a huge, open-world “Avatar” game to hit shelves. That’s why it was absolutely baffling that Ubisoft decided to make this game in the first place. Sure, the graphics will be great, but “Avatar” just isn’t that relevant anymore and this could go very poorly for Ubisoft, especially if the movies keep getting delayed.

Hopes were high for Square Enix this year. With the “Final Fantasy VII Remake” becoming one of 2020’s best games, and “Final Fantasy XVI” on the horizon, it looked like E3 2021 could be a home-run for the publisher. Unfortunately, they discussed almost nothing of note, wasting time putting out a remastered collection of “Life is Strange” that absolutely nobody was asking for. They also spent a ridiculous amount of time talking about yet more content updates for “Avengers”, a game with very few fans, and showing off a single-player “Guardians of the Galaxy” title; while this could be cool, the fact you can only play as Starlord is a huge bummer for “Guardians” fans.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few Dishonorable Mentions:

Verizon Ad
Nobody Wanted to See a Commercial From One of the Worst Internet Providers.

Xbox Mini-Fridge
Microsoft Can Make Xbox Mini-Fridges, but You Still Can’t Buy an Xbox Series X.

NFTs have taken the world by storm in 2021, and of course, there’s a video game primed to take advantage of the craze. “Blankos Block Party” went into its open beta this summer, with its developer Mythical Games putting out an entire E3 conference just to talk about it. The premise of the game is that you collect “Blankos”, which are all completely unique and tied to you individually. It’s a bit like if you could design your own Funko Pops but keep them virtually. Suffice it to say, most people aren’t happy about this, and particularly not that the game appeals to kids; trying to get young children into cryptocurrency and blockchain isn’t a good look.