The hype is off the charts for the latest Nintendo Direct, set to premiere at 9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET on June 15, 2021. We at Shacknews like to practice a little mysticism and dabble in the dark arts in order to invoke the wildest predictions, rumors, and leaks surrounding the E3 2021 fervor. Come closer and gaze into our crystal ball and let's conjure up some complete speculation.
Open up your eyes and see
Let's address the Pro-sized elephant in the room and take the Nintendo Switch Pro right off the table. The announcement for the E3 2021 Nintendo Direct specifically states that the roughly 40 minutes of information will focus exclusively on Nintendo Switch software. The Switch Pro is hardware, people! The chance of Nintendo announcing a new Switch SKU during this Direct might be greater than zero, but it's not a bet I would be willing to take. Nintendo started the trend of digital direct presentations and they follow the letter of the law pretty closely. If the announcement says software only, don't be surprised when the show is over and there was no word of a new Switch.
Sure, the existence of a new Nintendo Switch model is basically the worst kept secret in the video game industry right now. We all know about the Switch Pro. It's been debated and discussed, it's been analyzed and scrutinized. It's basically a dead horse at this point and the thing hasn't even seen the light of day yet! If I can make any prediction with certainty, it's that we won't see the Switch Pro at E3 2021.
Get to the games
So, what are we going to see from the Nintendo Direct at E3 2021? One game that was leaked and already confirmed by Ubisoft is Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, the follow-up to the XCOM meets the Mushroom Kingdom spin-off. This was leaked mere hours ahead of the Ubisoft Forward showcase and was announced soon after. Mario + Rabbids was a great use of the Mario and Rabbids IPs and more of that is good to see.
Of course, the game everyone is waiting to see is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2. Word has been quiet from Hyrule since the last time we saw a BotW 2 trailer, will E3 2021 be the event to finally reveal gameplay from the sequel to the influential open-world Zelda? The crystal ball is slightly hazy but I think chances are good. The Zelda 35th Anniversary only counts in 2021 and - like in Majora’s Mask - the clock is ticking.
Zelda might be one of Nintendo’s leading ladies but Samus will never be forgotten. Metroid fans are absolutely ravenous for news on Prime 4 or the oft-rumored Super Metroid Remastered. You don’t have to be a soothsayer to see that Nintendo needs to give the space-bound bounty hunter some love this year. After only getting a logo for Metroid Prime 4, even an in-engine teaser would set the internet ablaze. Thirty seconds, Nintendo, that’s all we’re asking for here.
Let’s cap off our fortune telling by listing ten game predictions that are just too good to be true.
- F-Zero NX
- Mother 3
- Golden Sun 4
- Kid Icarus Reboot
- Adventures of Lolo 4
- 2160° Snowboarding
- Ultimate SNES Remix
- Mario & Luigi 6
- Elite Beat Agents 2
- Fatal Frame 6
What would be the Nintendo game announcement that would make you do a double-take? Let us know in the comments section below. We have tons of news and announcements from E3 2021, have you seen them all? We’ll also be co-streaming the Nintendo Direct, so keep it here on Shacknews to follow along when the show begins.
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replyBryan Lefler posted a new article, Nintendo Direct E3 2021: Game rumors, predictions, and leaks
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I'll throw my hat into this ring.
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I think 2022 is the big year for Switch. We already know that there are sequels to Splatoon and Mario + Rabbids coming that year, five years to make two of the big 2017 games. Its possible that we see the same for Zelda, and its reasonable to expect Metroid Prime 4 given the time since its reboot.
I'm super excited for Shin Megami Tensei V this holiday, might end up being GOTY if its as big a jump from SMT IV as I'm hoping it is, but otherwise I'm keeping my expectations way in check for this year. -
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Yeah Bowser's Fury felt like a test of some concepts that would fit in to another Odyssey style game.
But I believe it was also done by a different team than the Odyssey team. So it could have also just been a situation where they took inspiration from Odyssey.-
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Oh for some reason I thought the team that did Galaxy/Odyssey was different than the team that did new/3d world.
Although the rumor is that the team that made Odyssey either is making a Donkey Kong game, or split in to 2 teams to work on Donkey Kong and Odyssey
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And in case https://i.imgur.com/o2w76Yp.jpeg
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Are they doing a Switch port of the 3ds game?
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I really hope that there is no Switch Pro and it is really a Switch 2(a new console not an upgrade, but it is basically a mega Switch).
I have both the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X and I really think they where pointless even if they severed their purpose to assure full native backwards compatibility for our PS5 and XBSX.
Honestly at that point that is all I want from Nintendo, then is like "Field of Dreams" and "if they build it they will come".-
We are in a post-smartphone world and in-line upgrades are the expectation. Not getting that would suck.
Eternal backwards compatibility is the entire point. A new console that breaks that would need insane justification via form factor. It would have to be a something that breaks things as much as the transition to dual screens, and I can’t imagine what that would be.
Otherwise if its like a PC or smartphone where everything is faster with a similar foundation, then yeah, its pointless to break that just for the sake of something “new”
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I expect this to be a relatively slow year, with nothing ground-breaking to show.
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Masem kind of buried the lede, so far only the official Japanese Nintendo account has asked for no re-streaming a full day before the event. There’s less than 3 hours to go and Nintendo of America and Europe have said nothing similar.
I would say this has more to do with Japanese co-streaming rights since that is the only region to say anything about it so far.-
yeah it is either that, or there might be some licensed music. Does Japan have a DMCA like law?
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Let me play breath of the wild at 60 FPS on the new switch and I will buy it.
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