What to expect from Nintendo at E3 2015: Mario, Pokémon, and more

We’re just about a week away from one of the biggest gaming tradeshows of the year, so it’s time to get ready and set our expectations.

Nintendo always has a nice presence at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, using the event to showcase and announce upcoming hardware and software. This year, the Japanese gaming company will stream a digital event on June 16 and have floor space in the Los Angeles Convention Center.

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So, what will Nintendo show this year? We have a pretty good idea.

The sure things

A few games that we saw from Nintendo at last year’s E3 still haven’t come out, so expect to see them again. For the Wii U, we’ll see:

• Mario Maker, which lets players use the GamePad’s touchscreen to make their own 2D Mario levels.
• Yoshi’s Wooly World, a 2D platformer starring Mario’s dinosaur buddy. The entire game also looks like it’s made from wool.
• Xenoblade Chronicles X. The sequel to the Wii’s Xenoblade Chronicles (which also recently had a 3DS port) is a Japanese role-playing game with a large open world.
• Star Fox. Famous Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto showed a bit of this project last year, but we haven’t heard much since. Expect Star Fox for the Wii U to be a big part of Nintendo’s E3 this year.

And on the 3DS side:

• Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, which focuses less on the life-sim aspect of the series and more on decorating.
• Fire Emblem If, the next installment to the turn-based strategy series. The last Fire Emblem game, Awakening, is one of the 3DS’s best-reviewed games.
• Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, which has players exploring randomly generated levels as they control the popular pocket monsters.

Also, expect Nintendo to show off some new Amiibos, its popular line of character figures that interact with Wii U and 3DS games.

The maybe

Now, we have to use our brains a bit to think about what else might be coming.

• Metroid. We haven’t had a new game in the sci-fi series since the divisive Metroid: Other M came out in 2010 for the Wii. We’re due for an announcement for either the Wii U or 3DS. Wouldn’t it be nice if Retro, the studio behind the excellent Metroid Prime series, returned to the franchise?
• Pokémon Z for the 3DS. Pokémon X and Y came out for the 3DS back in 2013. For most generations of the monster-collecting series, a third version comes out a couple of years later with some new content and improvements.
• Zelda Wii U. We had a peek at this game last year. However, while it was originally going to come out in 2015, it was delayed to 2016. Now, Nintendo claims that it isn’t bringing the game to the show. But it’s hard to believe they don’t show at least a small trailer to please fans.
• A new, main series Mario game. Mario 3D World came out in 2013. New Super Mario Bros. U was release in 2012. Those Mario teams have to be working on something, right?

And the “yeah, right!”

Now, let’s talk about what you shouldn’t get your hopes up over.

• The NX. We know Nintendo is working on a new console. However, it already told fans and investors that it won’t be talking about it at E3. That makes sense, since it would undermine the Wii U’s performance for the next year.
• Nintendo on mobile. Again, Nintendo already said that this won’t be at E3, and the show usually isn’t a great place to showcase mobile development anyway.
• Pokémon Wii U. People keep hoping for a main Pokémon entry on a console. Some even want a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. That’s not gonna happen, since Pokémon is such a sure thing on portables. Nintendo won’t want to mess with it. The Wii U is more likely to get a Pokémon Snap 2 than a full-on role-playing game.