The name of the game
I think we can all agree that E3 2015 was pretty amazing. From unexpected retro games dominating the announcements to incredible VR demonstrations, this year's convention has been one for the books.
Still, just like every year, there's always a few things we all wanted to see on the stage and didn't. No matter how many games our favorite developers and publishers wow us with, more is always better. (I'm looking at you, Nintendo.)
Here are 10 of the games we missed the most at E3 2015.
The Legend of Zelda - Wii U
Oh, Nintendo. I know it was an "off" year, and I know that we are a long ways away from hearing anything about the Nintendo NX, but a sneak peek at the next Legend of Zelda game would have saved the entire press conference.
After the Star Fox Zero trailer, many Nintendo fans were squealing with excitement and held hope that Nintendo was mounting a Muppets-style takedown of the rest of E3 with a break-the-internet trailer of the next Zelda adventure game. Instead, we got The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes, an existing Wii U game that's coming to 3DS…(yawn.)
To make the game's no-show status even more painful, Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind Zelda, Mario and the rest of your childhood, told IGN on Tuesday "We have some really great Zelda footage and, at some point we will be showing that off, but not today."
Sigh.
Red Dead Redemption 2
"While there are guns and money, there won't be any freedom."
This, and many other epic quotes from outlaw John Marston were sadly absent at this year's E3 conferences.
Folks first fell in love with the open-world freedom of Red Dead Redemption by Rockstar in 2010 and have been jonesing for a follow-up ever since, and I consider myself top of that list of people.
Even though there is no official indication that Red Dead Redemption 2 is happening, a few leaks here and there seem to show that the busy bees at Rockstar have been working away on a new shoot-em-up western game. That may be true, but unfortunately the game, and the developer were no-shows at E3 2015. Bummer.
Scalebound
A trailer for Platinum Games' epic monster slaying RPG for Xbox One was unveiled last year at the Microsoft E3 2014 conference. Since then? Not a peep.
Everyone could pretty much agree that this game looked like an extremely exhilarating adventure from the trailer, and most were anticipating a look at the gameplay this E3.
Fortunately, Microsoft's head of Xbox Phil Spencer said that noticeable omissions Scalebound, the new Crackdown and Quantum Break will make appearances at Gamescom this August. Still, it would have been nice to see them hit the screen at E3.
Animal Crossing - Wii U
I'll be honest, this franchise is near and dear to my heart. I have been a faithful citizen/mayor of various Animal Crossing towns since the franchise first arrived on GameCube.
The latest iteration, Animal Crossing: New Leaf for 3DS is my personal favorite, so I had high hopes for Animal Crossing to (finally) come to the Wii U. Instead, Nintendo pulled the proverbial rug out from under my feet.
Rather than a full-fledged new installment, Nintendo delivered an Amiibo-driven old-school Mario Party knockoff in the style of Animal Crossing. This probably sounds harsh, but I'm not alone in my disdain for the idea. Nintendo's trailer for Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival has over 7000 thumbs down to just over 1000 thumbs up on YouTube.
Here's to hoping a real Animal Crossing game is on the horizon.
PS Vita Games
Is Sony giving up on its handheld darling? It could be.
I'll admit, Sony blew me away with its line of games, from The Last Guardian, to Shenmue 3 and that Final Fantasy remake, but PS Vita was noticeably absent from the show.
Sony's President of Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida told IGN "To be honest, I wouldn't say we will have big AAA Vita games from first party."
Essentially, Sony just had too much cool stuff to make it through to worry about delving into Vita details, which is both great for Sony because of its stacked line-up and awful for its handheld gamer.
He did clarify that the new World of Final Fantasy game announced would be making it way to the hands of PS Vita gamers. So, yay, I guess.
Mario Galaxy 3 - Wii U
Oh, man. We weren't necessarily "expecting" this one, but how amazing would this announcement have been? Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 were easily two of the best titles to ever hit the Wii, with Mario Galaxy 2 shockingly etching out a 10/10 on IGN and a 5/5 on Metacritic.
Titles like Mario Galaxy remind me that Nintendo does simple adventure better than anyone else in the genre, and has for a long time. Since completing Mario Galaxy 2, I've yearned to see the galaxy with Mario again on the glorious HD picture of the Wii U, but alas, it doesn't look likely anytime soon.
Still, reminiscing on just how great Nintendo games are when it stays in its wheelhouse make me forgive the company for such a lackluster E3 appearance. We'll see how forgiving I feel when we come to Metroid...
Deep Down
Capcom's PS4 exclusive was one of the talks of the town at E3 2014, but hasn't made too much noise since then.
The Dark Souls-esque dungeon crawler features single-player and 4-player co-op gaming with the normal monster battle/artifact hunting we have grown to know and love.
The trailer revealed at E3 last year was extremely exciting with some excellent early-stage graphics. Hopefully, Capcom will be able to meet its release window of 2015.
Amplitude
Amplitude was easily one of the most unique and exhilirating music games of all time.
Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, Harmonix is reimagining the original PS2 game for the PS4 and is set to release it this summer, even giving us a trailer earlier this year. The original was critically beloved, but never could translate that to sales. With the popularity of EDM and dubstep music now however, the game's unique electronica feel and sci-fi gameplay could mount a comeback.
Sadly, the game didn't make it on Sony's stage at E3 2015. Perhaps its story was too similar to this years successful Kickstarter funded game, Shenmue 3.
Harmonix is still planning on a summer 2015 release, so hopefully we will be grooving to some new tracks in a totally inventive way again soon.
Metroid Prime - Wii U
Come on, Nintendo! No Zelda, Animal Crossing, Mario Galaxy 3 or Metroid Prime?!
Okay, I admit I'm being a little harsh on Nintendo, who did technically deliver a new Metroid game for 3DS called Metroid Prime: Federation Force. But is it the Metroid Prime we wanted? Not by a long shot.
In fact, in many Nintendo loyalists' minds, the new Metroid was the most heinous part of Nintendo's entire Muppet-stacked digital presentation. The like to dislike ratio on the release trailer for the newest Metroid Prime on YouTube is a staggering 1 like to every 10 dislikes. Ouch.
In fact, a petition for the cancellation of the new game was formed after its announcement, saying the new game has "no elements at all of what Metroid is about and it's a disrespectful manner to old and new fans of the series."
In response to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to basically everything other than Star Fox Zero that Nintendo unveiled, CEO Satoru Iwata tweeted, "We take opinions of this year's Digital Event seriously and will work to better meet your expectations."
Maybe soon enough we can return as Samus Aran to the epic Metroid Prime GameCube days.
Final Fantasy 15
Don't get me wrong, we got a lot of Final Fantasy love this E3. From the new World of Final Fantasy game to the remake of everyone's favorite Final Fantasy game. Even with all of this Square Enix joy poured out, I can't help but feel greedy and wish for some Final Fantasy 15 action.
We technically already knew that Final Fantasy 15 was skipping out on E3 to appear at Gamescom, probably to not overshadow all of the other announcements, but still, it would have been such a pleasant surprise to see. Overall, I can't complain too much with Final Fantasy's part in E3 2015, I mean, just look at this trailer for Final Fantasy 7.
