With Nintendo having brought us some announcements in the run up to E3, such as Pokkén Tournament coming to the Switch, we weren't sure how much 'newness' there would be in Nintendo's Spotlight presentation. As it turns out, there was a fair bit, so here's the best bits. The big gameplay addition this time is that Mario's hat has been possessed by a ghost-like entity called Cappy (above), giving him the ability to take over enemies and objects to gain different abilities for a short time. So far we've seen him turn into posts, rockets (complete with moustache) and tanks as he explores the open world areas. The one you'll remember being heavily featured in the reveal trailer is New Donk City, a version of New York City with some serious verticality in its design. There's also the Sand Kingdom, which is heavily inspired by the Mexican Day of the Dead style with its more traditionally Mario-like inhabitants, compared to the human-like ones in NDC. The aim of the game is to collect moons this time, which power Mario's ship the Odyssey to reach new worlds, but there's not too much detail on that just yet - other than the fact that you'll be able to customise the inside with in-game items. One particularly nice feature is that some warp pipes transform the game back to 2D Mario, which has quite a surreal look when surrounded by a lush, 3D world. The game overall is looking extremely good and rest assured we'll be picking this up in a few months time. Metroid Prime 4 & new Pokémon title are in development There's not much to say about this announcement just yet, but it was one of the 25-minute presentation's biggest surprises. Fans have been longing for a new Metroid Prime title since 2007's Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and so Samus' return was extremely well received. On the Treehouse afterwards, it was also announced that MercurySteam, the team behind the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow series and the upcoming Raiders of the Broken Planet, would be releasing Metroid: Samus Returns on 3DS on 15 September 2017. The game is based on Metroid II: Return of Samus and will include "features like actions never seen before in the Metroid series, a stunning recreation of the planet SR388 and classical Metroid gameplay elements," according to Yoshio Sakamoto, senior officer of Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning & Development Department, and the producer of the overall Metroid franchise. There was also a very quick message from Game Freak to confirm that a full RPG-style Pokémon title is now in active development. Hardly the confirmation of Pokémon Stars which gamers were anticipating ahead of the Pokémon Direct a week ago, but a glimmer of hope for something in 2018/19. Yoshi and Kirby are back in... Yoshi and Kirby Both slated for 2018, two titles featuring similar B-level Nintendo heroes - Yoshi and Kirby - were announced. Kirby (a working title, according to Nintendo) looks to be more of an action platforming title with some pace, similar to the recent iterations of Rayman but in full 3D, and featuring a plethora of items and costumes. You can zap some NPCs too and get them to join your team to take down larger foes, or work together with friends. Yoshi meanwhile seems to be a more specifically co-op orientated experience with shades of Paper Mario, as the world can be flipped to unlock different areas and secrets, and has a charming, children's primary school craft aesthetic (above). The trailer tells us there are two sides to every story, and every stage in the game, meaning there could be a fair amount of replay value to the levels to unlock their secrets. Get your animé on with very Japanese-looking titles Despite being a Japanese company, many gamers might not look at Mario and immediately point to Eastern influences, but the footage we saw from Xenoblade 2 and Fire Emblem Warriors on the other hand had big swords and over-the-top characters abound. Xenoblade 2 sees you explore an ocean of clouds, where the last remnants of civilization live on the backs of colossal beasts called Titans. You follow Rex and Pyra, who is a mysterious creature known as a Blade. The game plays like a simple, third-person RPG game, something akin to Phantasy Star Online or even Final Fantasy XII, thanks to its style. Fire Emblem Warriors on the other hand is more of a brawler, and features Marth, who you may recall from Super Smash Bros. titles. Two siblings must face an evil dragon and so have called for help from a variety of heroes, as you take on dozens of enemies at a time in some cases. Fire Emblem Warriors will arrive in the Autumn, while Xenoblade 2 is due at some point before the end of the year. Zelda's DLC Pack 1 dated & more details on DLC Pack 2 We already knew that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild should expect two DLC Packs this year, one this summer and one around Christmas, and now we have a date for Pack 1: The Master Trials - 30 June, including Trial of the Sword, which seems to take away all your items and put your combat skills to the test. There were also some details on Pack 2, known as The Champions' Ballad, which seems to be focused on the four champions you meet by visiting the four Divine Beasts in the game. In celebration, there are now Amiibo figures for each of the four champions, which will have as yet unannounced functionality in the game. You can pick up the Expansion Pass for £16.49 from CD Keys. So that's what Nintendo had on offer this year, on top of several days of streaming from Splatoon 2, Pokkén Tournament and ARMS, what was your highlight of the show? Let us know in the comments and we hope you've enjoyed all of our E3 coverage. You can re-watch any of the E3 streams, including Nintendo, from our E3 guide.
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