SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE

It’s not like Sekiro is a game that is lacking in challenge- not by a long shot. It sparked a debate about how important accessibility is in games when it launched, after all. But there are some people who clearly felt it wasn’t challenging enough (somehow). Take YouTuber Caesium, for instance. They played Sekiro and beat some of the game’s hardest bosses- but they did so using a steering wheel controller. Yes. Sekiro. With a steering wheel.

Locking Donkey Kong Up

Ever wondered what Mario did after rescuing Daisy in the first Donkey Kong? Well, he lifts the primate away in a cage, imprisoning and likely preparing him for further torture. We get the whole aspect of Donkey Kong throwing barrels and stealing Mario’s girlfriend but do the King Kong references really have to go this far?

“Spartans never die. They’re just missing in action.” – Halo series

Spartans in the Halo series were treated as greater beings. Sure they were subject to horrible experiments but the Master Chief wasn’t just an enhanced soldier – he was a one man army, capable of turning the tide of war. As such, the death of Spartans following the SPARTAN-II program going public were thought to cause a loss of morale. So they were never considered to be dead – just missing from action.

Nintendo’s Second Mario Film

The Super Mario Bros. movie in 1993 was one of the most wretched things ever committed to film. Nintendo didn’t abandon the film industry entirely though – rumours have emerged of talks with Illumination Studio (of Despicable Me and Minions fame) to make a new Mario Bros. film. While not officially announced, this film won’t be live-action and instead goes the animated route. Interestingly, it’s already in production. We’ll have to wait for the reveal to get truly hyped but this is still incredible news.

Nintendo Announces SNES Classic

We knew it would happen, especially as Nintendo dashed all hopes and dreams of the NES Classic being restocked. But the SNES Classic was a thing and packed tons of our favourite titles into one awesome box. Even Star Fox 2 was included!

SAG-AFTRA Strike Resolution

Tucked away amidst the major announcements and crazy happenings was the news that the strike against video game publishers and developers by SAG-AFTRA would finally come to end. The strike was on behalf of voice actors across the industry and it became the longest strike ever for the organization before finally ending on September 23^rd. And thankfully, both sides came to an amicable agreement on the matter.

Metroid Prime 4

It never seemed like Nintendo would actually return to the Metroid Prime series. However at E3 2017, it finally confirmed what the rumours have said for so long – Metroid Prime 4 is coming and it’s for the Nintendo Switch. Who’s developing it? When will it be out?

Pokemon Switch

Probably not as tremendous or surprising as the Metroid Prime 4 announcement but Nintendo confirmed a new Pokemon title…for the Switch. Furthermore, this would be a core RPG title from Game Freak and the first in the series to ever debut on a home console. That’s big news, even if – once again – we have no information on a release date or even a name.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

We’ve said it enough time but it bears repeating – it’s simply unbelievable that a game like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds would come out of nowhere from a relatively decent-sized studio and perform as well as it has. The crazy part? The game accomplished all of this while in Early Access. It’s set to release version 1.0 for PC on December 20^th but still.

Xbox One X Reveal And Price

After a year of teasing, the Project Scorpio codename and plenty of speculation, Microsoft finally confirmed its new Xbox console’s name as the Xbox One X. Not only that but at E3 2017, it also announced a retail price of $499 and a range of impressive specs. The console still has a ways to go but the Xbox One X dominated its fair share of reveals at E3.

Nintendo Switch Beats Wii U’s First Year Sales

It’s no secret that the Nintendo Switch has been a rousing success this year, overtaking the company’s earlier Wii U console in every way. However, it’s crazy to put that first year of sales into context. When the Wii U launched in November 2012, it sold about 13.56 million units as of March 2017. The Nintendo Switch has already sold 10 million units and it hasn’t been a full year since its launch. Think about that, especially when most of us wrote Nintendo off completely at several points.

Bayonetta 3 Announcement

Reggie Fils-Aime accomplished two tasks at this year’s The Game Awards – he silenced host Geoff Keighley and debuted something we’ve all wanted since forever. That something was Platinum Games’ Bayonetta 3 which saw our favourite bullet witch returning. When and how has yet to be revealed but it’s Bayonetta 3 for the Nintendo Switch and that’s enough.

Soulcalibur VI Announcement

“Do your souls still burn?” With that announcement, Bandai Namco ignited the crowd at The Game Awards and announced Soulcalibur VI. Sophitia and Mitsurugi were showcased in the glory of their younger days. Ring-outs, eight way direction and all sorts of classic mechanics returned with some new ones. Soulcalibur VI will be out in 2018 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC and we can’t wait.

Winner: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

Over 25 million copies sold, a 24 hour concurrent player peak on Steam of 2.8 million players, 1 million copies sold on the Xbox One in 48 hours, the most popular game on Twitch – this year was simply dominated by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Whether you loved it and bought into the hype despite its performance issues or hated it but kept coming back, Brendan Greene’s magnum opus was the star of 2017 in terms of sales and headlines.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

Nintendo Switch Reveal

Nintendo was coming off of the Wii U, and very much had everything to prove. All eyes were on the January reveal for Nintendo to show us what they had, and luckily they came out of the gate swinging with a strong concept, still very Nintendo uniqueness with their 3 ice cubes and many amazing reveals including Super Mario Odyssey. It was a long road, but Nintendo’s return to prominence began here.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Bosses – Titan Souls

This one’s pretty obvious but only because the concept of Titan Souls is such. Basically, every boss – yes, every boss – dies in one hit. The catch is that you only have one arrow in these fights (oh, and the player dies in one hit as well). The overall challenge is in figuring out where to hit said Titan in order to kill it.

This is a very special week for everybody who is in to our hobby- Mario, gaming’s face and oldest icon, celebrated his 30th anniversary, an occasion that Nintendo celebrated by releasing Super Mario Maker, the game that will hopefully let all players design their own Mario courses.

However, the release of Super Mario Maker (a game that might just be the best game on Wii U yet, judging by early impressions) is certainly a fitting celebration on its own, Nintendo also released a brand new interview with Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka, the creators of Mario and the NES classic Super Mario Bros., with both of them looking back on the making of that game.

It’s two legendary developers, from a legendary company, for a legendary game, in a legendary franchise. There is no other game, series, company, or developer that has ever been as important or influential for gaming as Nintendo has been- seeing how all of that happened, the humble roots from which the modern gaming industry arose, is something else.

You can check out the interview for yourself below. Super Mario Maker is now available exclusively on Wii U.

8. Inversion: Nothing You Did Mattered!

Inversion follows two cops trying to stop some other-wordly dudes from doing something or the other involving gravity and guns. But the main character Davis, like us, didn’t care about that crap. After the death of his wife, he simply wanted to find his daughter, whom he still believed to be alive. Unfortunately not only did Davis not survive the final battle but his partner Leo reveals the truth at the end. While Davis was mourning the loss of his wife, Leo did some snooping around the apartment and found Davis’s daughter crushed by rubble. He didn’t tell Davis however, believing that she deserved avenging more than anything. In a game that tried to beat us over the head with fantastical reveals and ho-hum confrontations, this one tragedy stuck out the most.

7. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Goes Ground Zero

It’s not the first time that a protagonist has died in a game. But for reasons we can’t fathom, it’s been a while since we recalled any other popular first person shooter that killed off it’s player character. Now, Call of Duty 4 had two protagonists, who’s perspective you shifted between throughout the game. But the way our marine went out was nothing short of shock and awe: A nuclear explosion. That our guy survived the helicopter crash but eventually died from the radiation, crawling out of the wreckage to see his entire team laid to waste, was nothing short of horrifying.

6. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Introduces Alucard

The game begins simply as you, Richter Belmont, walk into Dracula’s castle and get all up in his business. Ignore for a moment that he looks like Bob Hope (trust us), and something odd happens. Suddenly, it’s 5 years later and you’re playing as Alucard, Dracula’s son. Considering that this goes against the entire process of having a Belmont as the protagonist of every Castlevania game, it was quite a shock at the time. We later learned that Richter was the protagonist of Rondo of Blood (also known as Dracula X) and the beginning of the game was actually the concluding moments of the former. Rondo of Blood only saw NA and EU release via virtual console nearly 17 years after it’s initial launch.

You can RSVP to the Nintendo @ E3 Expoon their Facebook app page, as well subscribe to updates on the main Nintendo Facebook page as well.

In addition to Facebook, Nintendo have also optimised their E3 web page for mobile phones, so you can even watch their presentations whilst on the go.

At E3 Nintendo plan to unveil the final version of the successor to the Wii, the Wii U, at E3 as well as a whole host of brand new titles on all of its platforms.

A new Super Mario Bros. and Pikmin 3 are already confirmed to be Wii U titles Nintendo will be showcasing, as well as rumours of Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios and Rayman Legends, as well as a plethora of third party titles.

Source: Eurogamer.

Nintendo has announced that a black Wii bundle will be available in America this holiday priced at $150. The bundle contains New Super Mario Bros. Wii game and a music CD of Super Mario Galaxy.

It will be retailing at $150. It will also contain black Wii Motion Plus along with a black Nunchuk controller. The music disc will not be available anywhere else and will be a part of the bundle only.

‘The Super Mario Galaxy music CD, which includes a selection of memorable music from the acclaimed video game, is available only as part of the new Wii bundle and will not be sold separately’.

The standard Wii bundle will be available for $150 as well but doesn’t contain the music CD. It contains all the other accessories. The bundle is a solid value for money at $150, so are you excited for it? Tell us in the comments section below.