Phil’s E3 Pick – Fan Service

I’ve spent countless hours reviewing tons of trailers and conferences trying to find that one game that towered above the rest, that one game to be the Breath of the Wild Killer. While that journey led me to believe that Mario Odyssey could be that game, wasting your time rehashing ideas that have already been presented to you here at Handsome Phantom would be a disservice to everyone.

So, I present to you my pick for the winner of E3 2017. You, The Fans.

I was fortunate enough to attend the Sony Experience in the theater live with a room full of my friends and Sony fans and it was a blast.  I found the moments featuring Asad to be the most fun, but left the theater feeling underwhelmed at first. We witnessed trailers for God of War, Uncharted, Horizon, Days Gone, Call of Duty WW2, Detroit Become Human, and the big closer Spiderman.  While each trailer cemented the fact that all were worth a spot on any gamers shelf, there still felt like something was missing, notably a new title from Sucker Punch or any other big unknown world reveal.  The conference was great, but had not solidified itself as the clear cut winner of E3 that I anticipated it to be.

In the following days we would get a ton of new trailers and reveals none of which brought more smiles and giggles than Nintendo.  This was fan service 101.  From a company that had lost a lot of fans throughout the last five years, Nintendo made one thing clear – “We have been listening and we miss you.”  They hit every box that fans wanted checked off and easily won the show.

How about a Switch core Pokémon game?

Check.

Mario Odyssey gameplay?

Check and check.

They announced new titles for Kirby and Yoshi and the mother of all reveals, not one but two Metroid games, one of which is what everyone has been asking for since the Wii: Metroid Prime freaking 4!  The admission that it is real and will be coming to Switch was all that we needed to see at this point and everyone lost their minds over the reveal.

After the Nintendo presentation the thought came to me that though on the surface this E3 felt underwhelming in the way of big reveals, this E3 showed us that the next 12-24 months will be filled with love letters to us, the fans.  Even Microsoft has been in on this to an extent with Crackdown 3 will finally see light of day in 2017.  This may not be a huge money maker for Microsoft, or maybe it will. Time will tell. It is a game that their faithful have been asking for and Microsoft needs to please their fans now more than ever.

In the next year we will have more Uncharted, more Horizon, a new God of War, A call of Duty game set back in WW2, A new GT, and fan service to the Max, (see what I did there?) with a prequel to Life is Strange.  As gamers, can we ask for anything more?  These and so many more titles ensure that as 2017 continues and 2018 follows , we continue to build upon the foundation that has been laid in the first half of 2017.

Name a year that has been better in the video game industry than 2017, ever.  Can it be done?  That is very doubtful.  As we enter the possible Golden Age of video games and social media at it’s height one thing is certain, your voice can be heard louder than ever and the industry appears to be listening.

So here’s to you, the fans, for winning E3.  You deserve this honor. Now go play something. Stop reading and play a video game for heaven’s sake.