Published , by Shack Staff
Published , by Shack Staff
It's E3 season and it is taking on many forms this year. Whether it's the core E3 convention, Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest, or the slew of individual direct presentations, this is the time of year for game announcements. A lot of those are surprises that nobody sees coming, so for this week's Shack Chat, the staff is going to go all out. We're putting out our dream E3 2021 announcements, things that may seem far out there, but hey, stranger things have happened. Let's take a look.
Question: What's your dream E3 2021 announcement?
What an amazing couple of years this has been for Insomniac Games. What's next for them after arguably their best Ratchet & Clank game ever? It's time to swing back to the Marvel Universe, of course.
Insomniac already has a pair of Spider-Man games under its belt, putting out one of the best games of the PS4 generation with Marvel's Spider-Man and kicking off the PS5 generation right with Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Rather than have to choose whether to follow Peter Parker or Miles Morales for the next game, why not do both? Unveil a play on Brian Michael Bendis' mini-series and introduce PlayStation owners to Spider-Men, allowing players to follow-up on several plot lines introduced over the past two games.
At this point, I'm hungry to explore all five boroughs of New York and I hope Insomniac is ready to unveil their Marvel opus at this year's E3.
If we're talking “dream” announcements, then let’s have some fun with it. I'd love to see somebody take a crack at the Percy Jackson franchise in the video game world. This universe is rich with interesting characters, locations, and enemies. You could either follow the story of Percy throughout the books, or let players create their own character and experience their own unique journey.
Also, I don’t care that Assassin’s Creed and Immortals: Fenyx Rising just did Greek mythology-themed RPGs. Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus series have the potential to dunk all over them.
I feel like a broken record here. The last couple of years that we’ve had to answer this question for the various E3’s that have come and gone I’ve predicted that Nintendo will grace us by including the one and only Crash Bandicoot in Smash Bros. Why do I desire it so? Well, you see, I’ve lived through the console wars up to this point (it doesn’t rage on in the same way it used to, but it still rages on) and for the longest time the concept of a game that had mascots from across all consoles was something that could never be dreamed of. The fact that Mario and Sonic hang out at the Olympics is still a major trip for me.
While Crash isn’t necessarily associated with just the PlayStation anymore, there was a time where him, the plumber, and the hedgie being on the same console, let alone in the same game, was a thought that would’ve gotten you laughed at. The idea that you could have them literally face off in a brawl would be a monumental moment in games, at least for us old folks. I do feel the sentiment would be lost on newer or younger gamers who didn’t grow up during the trying times that were the console wars, but this isn’t about them. This is about me and what I want. And this is basically my last chance to get it. There aren’t very many DLC characters left to be announced for the current iteration of Smash Bros. but here’s to hoping Nintendo puts a nail in the coffin of those long-fought wars and declares itself the victor. My dream of massive mascot mutilation in one game to rule them all must manifest!
I’ve been around this hobby long enough to know that my personal E3 dreams will never come true. In lieu of that, I will now put my hopes into a different kind of basket and simply pray that we get a decent assortment of good video games that don’t have their progression directly balanced around microtransactions, battle passes, and the like. I may sound like an old fart, but I miss the days when big-budget games could be bought for a single price and didn’t have to exist as a soulless live service in eternity. I understand that games cost more than ever to produce and I’m 100% onboard with paying much more than $60 for quality if it means I’m not forced into countless hours of grind designed by a team of psychologists to break my spirit until I’m willing to use my debit card to escape the pain.
If there was a gun to my head for this and I was required to give a more conventional answer, I guess I’d love to see something new from Monolith that isn’t tied into a license and maybe a Forza Horizon game that is not hamstrung by the requirement to boot up on Xbox One hardware.
I’ve written before that I wish Microsoft would announce more Backward Compatibility games. While I still hope that happens, there is one franchise I’ve basically given up on entirely and that is Splinter Cell.
You see, Ubisoft seems to have no idea what to do with the Splinter Cell franchise. There’s not been a new game in almost ten years. What I fear, though, is that Ubisoft will do what Ubisoft does, and turn it into a bloated open-world game. That’s the last thing I want to happen to Sam Fisher.
Ideally, I'd love Ubisoft to announce that Splinter Cell is going back to its roots. I want it to be a linear game, with levels and missions, where each encounter is designed tightly and the story is slick and modern. I don’t need to faff around with approaching levels in unique ways, just create a puzzle and let me solve it with the moves and technology available to me.
Enough is enough. Stop putting Sam Fisher cameos in your other games, Ubisoft. It’s time to deliver another solid entry in the franchise. Or just, remake the original trilogy.
I'm an open-world guy when it comes to my video games. More often than not I tend to dig the freedom and exploration provided by games like Red Dead Redemption 2, The Long Dark, or even The Witcher 3. All of these are games I’ve mentioned in previous editions of our beloved Shack Chat. However, I’m craving a very specific open-world experience that I’m almost certain we’re not getting any time soon.
Fallout 5 would be my dream announcement for a video game at E3 2021. Fallout 4, for all its bugs and faults, is one of the most rewarding worlds to explore in a video game. The environmental storytelling on display keeps me engaged long after the main quests are finished. There’s also the fact that my favorite E3 presentation of all time was the Fallout 4 announcement in 2015, which I watch at least once a year if not significantly more.
The reason this is a dream announcement, though, is because I can’t see Bethesda worrying about a single-player Fallout game when they are currently invested in Fallout 76, selling things through microtransactions and their season pass. I do think we’ll get a Fallout 5 eventually, but the reality is it’s probably not happening this year. I would be more than happy to be wrong, though.
So back in 2017 Nintendo went to MercurySteam (Castlevania: Lords of Shadow and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate) and they made the original Metroid 2 into a 2.5D remake: Metroid: Samus Returns. It was a stellar if not late title in the 3DS’s lifeline and I’ve longed to see it come to the Switch.
Now fast forward to E3 2021. We’ve been asking for new Metroid games for years upon years and we keep hearing, “Metroid Prime 4, Metroid Prime 4 someday. Blah blah…” Yeah, that’d be fine and all, but there’s another rumor I’ve heard whispered and it’s one that has me far more interested. I’ve been hearing that Nintendo brought MercurySteam in to do yet another Metroid 2.5D game.
Now, it could be a couple things. Maybe we see Metroid: Samus Returns get a port over to the Switch where we can play it some more? Or maybe… Maybe MercurySteam moves forward past Samus Returns. What’s next then? Freaking Super Metroid. And if you told me MercurySteam was giving a Super Metroid remake the same 2.5D love they gave Samus Returns, I might have a sheer heart attack from joy.
Then again, all these rumors could be just smoke. That’d suck. Please give them wild-eyed MercurySteam folks the Metroid reins again, Nintendo. They know what to do with it.
I feel that I was lucky enough to live through the video game generation as a GEN1 gamer. It takes a lot to get me pumped or excited for something, and I honestly don’t have a dream E3 announcement. I’m just enjoying what comes at a slow pace and don’t want to get over excited only to be let down.
It’s summer and that means one thing, it’s going to get really hot. It also means that the hottest video game news is coming fast from the Electronics and Entertainment Expo. However with Covid-19 happening the last two years haven’t been normal as if they were, we would be in California for the convention. That being said, E3 is my favorite convention of the year and you never know what to expect from developers. It was at E3 that we got Banjo Kazooie for Super Smash Brothers Ultimate. It was at E3 that we got to play Breath of the Wild for the first time. You never know what’s going to come out of E3.
It begs the question, "What would be my ideal E3 announcement?" When I was a kid, there were a few days I would play hooky from school. Those were the New York Mets home opener, the NHL trade deadline, and when Nintendo would have their E3 press conference. I would love to see a brand new Mario game similar to Odyssey. I know someone here is begging for a new F-Zero game but I’ll take it one step further. I would love to see a brand new Snow Brothers game. This is my hail mary game that if it ever happens, I will be so happy. I have the original NES game and it’s one of my favorite games.I know it won’t happen so if Nintendo wants to appease me, they can just show off a new Mario game, a new Donkey Kong game, and info on Breath of the Wild 2 and I’ll be happy.
When it comes to dream E3 announcements, you have to swing for the fences. For me, that takes the form of Classic hardware from Nintendo like the NES and SNES, but this would be celebrating its longest running and arguably most influential handheld ever made, the GameBoy. After the Switch took off like a rocket and showed no signs of slowing down, Nintendo put their Classic consoles on the back burner and put NERD to work on NES and SNES Online.
I would love for the team at Nintendo European Research & Development to be able to flex their skills with another well designed physical throwback to the past with a Game Boy or Game Boy Advance Classic. Maybe it’s the hype from the Playdate still clouding my judgement, but I really enjoyed the Classic consoles with their wonderfully authentic controllers and cheery menus. Nintendo Switch Online and it’s classic game services are fine and another extension of those like Game Boy Online or N64 Online is far more likely.
A physical Game Boy or GBA SP replica with newer screen tech, a solid library of iconic games, wireless multiplayer connectivity, and that NERD magic would be so amazing to me. It would be far more feasible than a N64 Classic but it’s a pipe dream for sure, with Nintendo not wanting to take any sales momentum away from the Switch unless we’re talking about a Switch Pro. A retro gamer can always dream.
In the world of fighting games, there are plenty of thriving franchises and around this time of year, we hope for a few surprises. Marvel vs. Capcom 4 would be my epic choice for an E3 announcement but given the fact Capcom has already shared their E3 slate for the most part, I don’t see it happening. So this made me think a bit more about what fighting game not currently on any radar would blow my mind at E3 this year and it’s gotta be a Bloody Roar revival. The franchise was one of my favorites as a kid, I wore out a copy of Bloody Roar: Primal Fury on my Gamecube because it was one of the only 3D fighter’s available on the system as Tekken was still a Playstation exclusive at the time and Dead or Alive was on Xbox.
These game’s focused on characters that could morph into different animals, and had unique movesets for their human and animal forms. With the power of next gen consoles, these transformations could look awesome and it’s a unique gameplay mechanic that would still translate well in a 3D fighter. I won’t lie, I don’t remember much about the storyline of these games but they definitely had some style. There’s more folks out there who are nostalgic for this franchise than you might think. Even a remaster similar to the recently released Virtual Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown could breath some life into a franchise we haven’t seen since 2003. Let’s cross our fingers that Konami makes the rare return to a video game IP that’s not Metal Gear and brings back this fighter.
Those are our dream E3 2021 announcements. Now it's your turn to give us yours. Join the conversation and let us know what you want to see out of this year's many, many events.