[Let’s Talk] Predicting Nintendo announcements at The Game Awards 2018

Nintendo has been present at The Game Awards almost every year. In most cases, the company comes along with multiple announcements. Last year was arguably the biggest with the reveal of Bayonetta 3, the news that Bayonetta 1 + 2 were coming to Switch, and the proper unveiling (and subsequent release) of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s story DLC.

The Game Awards 2018 are less than two weeks away. It’d be very surprising if Nintendo didn’t have at least one announcement for the show, or at least a look at something new. Could we get a better look at Bayonetta 3? A first look at Metroid Prime 4? Share your predictions with us in the comments below.

Highlights from last week’s topic: Pokemon: Detective Pikachu reactions

DonSerrot

At first I thought all the Pokemon looked really weird. Oddly enough, the only Pokemon that I thought looked right on first viewing was Mr Mime. After a second viewing I thought Pikachu looked spot on and I took the time to look harder at the Kanto starters who I also felt looked great. Greninja looks fine, though it’s hard to see clear details with how much they moved around. I still think they overdid the scales on Charizard. Not by much, but enough to feel off to me. Psyduck still feels a little odd, though I still can’t put my finger on exactly where the problem is for me. And finally, Jigglypuff needs the hair around it’s ears trimmed and some slight smoothing of the hair swirl. Over all I have to say I’m impressed with what they pulled off. It’s not far off from the mark that’s for sure. The story sounds like generic buddy cop, but I have a soft spot for that kind of thing so for me it’s not really a bad thing. There’s enough there for me to be interested in seeing this when it hits theaters. This’ll either be good, or good for MST3K style riffing. Either way I expect to be entertained.

MagcargoMan

Just looks like a typical forgettable movie to me. You’d think with how controlling The Pokemon Company is (no sound effects for the Pokemon amiibo costumes in Mario Maker) that they’d want to do something a bit more special. I kinda think it’s weird that for the first ever live-action Pokemon movie that they’d base it off a very recent spin-off rather than the main series.

I also think the Pokemon look really weird and out-of-place. Even with realistic textures most of them still look far too cartoony. I think Pikachu works and looks fine, but I can’t say the same for a lot of the others (Jigglypuff basically looks like that meme of how people draw “realistic” Pokemon as really disturbing and grotesque).

Petri

First movie trailer in a long time to actually intrigue me.
Don’t know if I’ll watch it on theaters though.

Mark

I’ve got some reservations, but altogether I think they have what it takes to be a successful movie. I’m getting some real “The Lego Movie” vibes from this one.

It’s got a number of great things going for it – brand with an intense amount of current love and nostalgia, excellent actors (Ryan Reynolds killed it as Pikachu, and Justice Smith seems like an excellent natural actor) and the Pokemon aren’t overplayed – they’re just *part* of the world, but not the entire world. The humor reminds me of Shrek, in a way – in which there was a certain amount of humor that *everyone* was going to get, and another level of humor that just *some* people will get – only in Shrek, it was kids/adults, as opposed to everyone/fans.

As long as the writers don’t forget the rules to a good mystery, a mystery is excellent for drawing an audience in; it provides an excellent macguffin for the characters to chase around while they character develop, and it helps keep the audience guessing. So altogether, I think that the ducks are in a row here.

Except… I’m a little concerned about the director, to be honest. Rob Letterman could totally pull it off, but his past work leaves something to be desired. The Lego Movie had the directors who did Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs; Detective Pikachu has the guy who did Monsters vs. Aliens. One is a comedy genius, the other is a comedy dud. I’m just a little concerned that we’re looking at a situation where the trailer has all of the best parts of the movie.