Nintendo at E3 2019: what we want to see from the special Nintendo Direct video

Nintendo will be at E3 2019, once again opting to host a special Nintendo Direct E3 livestream rather than holding a live press conference.

Last year saw Nintendo dropping big announcements, such as the official reveal of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Super Mario Party, alongside news that Fortnite was coming to the Nintendo Switch. And we’re expecting the House of Mario to have a bigger and better livestream at E3 2019.

So what are we expecting? Mainly, we’re hoping Nintendo will offer more solid details on titles which have already been announced such as Pokémon Sword and Shield, Link’s Awakening Remake and Luigi’s Mansion 3 – not to mention Animal Crossing on the Switch.

But we’re also hoping there’s a few unannounced titles on the way too, third- and first-party alike. If we’re being really optimistic, there could even be news about the new Nintendo Switch – but it’s not super likely given the lack of concrete rumors.

Nintendo’s livestream usually lasts between 45 minutes and an hour, but that’s not much time to cram our entire wishlist in. So we’ve gathered together a list of the things we would most like to see from Nintendo at E3 2019.

• Keep up to date with all the latest E3 2019 news

Pokémon Sword and Shield

Nintendo has already announced that Pokémon Sword and Shield will be hitting the Nintendo Switch in late 2019, with the next generation of Pokémon games seeing players traversing the brand new region of Galar (based on Britain).

While we already know the new core Pokémon games will bring with them fresh Pokémon to train, we don’t know much about these outside of the starter options. We also don’t know much about the game’s new features (or which will be making a return) or how Sword and Shield will differ, if at all.

Therefore, we’re hoping Nintendo will fill in all these details during E3 2019, including providing us with a firm release date for the games.

Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch

Nintendo has remained pretty tight-lipped since announcing last year that Animal Crossing will be coming to Nintendo Switch sometime in 2019.

While we did get a lovely trailer to accompany the announcement, it didn’t actually give any details of new gameplay mechanics, or even which characters would return from previous games.

Now that we’re halfway into 2019, we think it’s about time that Nintendo spilled the beans on Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch – and it probably will. We’re expecting Nintendo Direct at E3 2019 to offer a heap of details about the upcoming Animal crossing game, as well as a firm release date for the highly-anticipated title.

Link’s Awakening Remake

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake was announced during a Nintendo Direct earlier this year. Nintendo revealed we’ll see the remake of the 1993 GameBoy classic on Nintendo Switch in late 2019 but, once again, didn’t confirm a solid release date.

Apart from dropping an announcement trailer (that sees Link and friend’s rejigged into 3D), Nintendo didn’t give any more details about the remake. What will be the same? What will be different? We don’t know yet, but we’re hoping Nintendo will use E3 2019 to reveal all the juicy details.

Luigi’s Mansion 3

Luigi just doesn’t learn his lesson when it comes to haunted houses – and we’re very glad. Nintendo announced last year that Luigi’s Mansion 3 will be hitting the Nintendo Switch in 2019.

No solid details about the spooky new installation of Luigi’s flagship franchise have been released as of yet. However the announcement trailer showed Luigi creeping through a haunted mansion with ghosts bursting out from behind cleaning supplies as he battles them with his trusty new Poltergust G-00.

Much like with Pokémon Sword and Shield and Link’s Awakening, we’re expecting Nintendo to confirm the release date for Luigi’s Mansion 3 at E3 2019 as well as offering up a few more details about what we can expect from the long-awaited sequel.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was revealed at last year’s E3, taking up the majority of the Nintendo Direct livestream. Following a successful launch in December last year, Nintendo is now focusing on DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

We’ve already seen Piranha Plant and Persona’s Joker added to Smash’s roster as part of DLC, but who is next on the cards? We’re pretty in the dark about which character will join Smash’s lineup yet, but we’re expecting Nintendo to shed some light on this at E3 2019.

While we’re hoping for Doom’s Doomslayer, Banjo Kazooie and Crash Bandicoot, we’re not holding out hope…

More third-party games

More and more third party games are emerging on Nintendo’s hybrid console, and we’re expecting even more to be on the way. This will likely be in the form of some indie favorites, AAA titles and even newly announced games fresh from E3 2019.

Skyrim and LA Noire were examples of ports done right, making last-generation games feel fresh thanks to some interesting Switch control integration and the sheer novelty of playing them on the go. We’d like to see some more beloved games make their way to Switch this year – a Grand Theft Auto title seems to be a popular request that we can get on board with.

Nintendo Switch 2?

Color us optimistic, but we’re hoping Nintendo will announce the new Nintendo Switch at E3 2019. It is very, very unlikely but we can always hope.

New Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Switch Pro, Switch Mini, or a pair of new Switch consoles – whatever the new handheld from Nintendo is called, there’s going to be at least one other Switch model coming down the line at some point soon. Not necessarily at E3 2019, but maybe.

Mostly all we have to go on at the moment is rumors but, with the PS5 and next Xbox on the horizon, a Nintendo Switch 2 announcement at E3 could really steal this year’s show – and Nintendo is pretty good at surprise announcements…

Metroid Prime 4

Metroid Prime 4 has had a rocky development road since it was announced back at E3 2017 with a logo and little else. A brand new Metroid Prime title for the Switch got fans hyped, but they were disappointed to find out Metroid Prime 4 is even further away than initially expected as Nintendo scrapped the project and decided to start again with the help of developer Retro Studios.

We’ve not heard anything about Metroid Prime 4 since then, so we’re expecting Nintendo to provide a development update during its Nintendo Direct at E3 2019 – even if it’s just a short one.

• Read more: Here’s how to watch the Nintendo Direct E3 2019 livestream