E3: Nintendo debuts hit new games including Mario, Zelda, Wario and Metroid titles

Nintendo wasn’t about to let Xbox take all the glory at E3.

The Mario firm’s 40-minute showcase at the annual video game reveal festival was packed full of upcoming hit titles.

And the amount of impressive reveals were up there with Xbox as the rival firms go toe-to-toe in announcing a slew of future hits fighting for the cash in your wallet.

The debut of a new teaser for the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sent Switch fans into a spin as the 2017 original is still, for many, one of the best games ever. It’s due 2022.

Another huge announcement was for Metroid Dread, the first 2D side-scrolling Metroid game starring bounty hunter Samus Aran with a new story in 19 years. That will release later this year at some point.

Flagship hero Mario was back too of course in Mario Party Superstars, a new game in the series featuring classic boards from the Nintendo 64 era and a collection of 100 mini games from across the series.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, which includes the first two Advance Wars games rebuilt from the ground up was also announced for December as was WarioWare: Get It Together!, the newest game in the frenetic and funny WarioWare series. That’s out on September 10.

Last year’s super hit physical Game & Watch handheld also gets a sequel device, this time featuring The Legend of Zelda, which contains three of the earliest games in the Zelda series.

A slate of exciting games from third party development and publishing partners were also featured, including Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope from Ubisoft, a sequel to the hit game Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle; Shin Megami Tensei V, the next entry in the acclaimed role-playing series, developed by Atlus; and three games in the popular storytelling hit Life is Strange series from Square Enix, including the latest game Life is Strange: True Colors.

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cloud Version is coming October 26 and will see players fire up Star-Lord’s jet boots for a wild ride across the cosmos in this fresh take on Marvel’s hit movie franchise.

And in just a couple of week’s time Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 come to Nintendo Switch.

The two iconic skateboarding games are fully remastered in HD and pre-orders are now available in Nintendo eShop ahead of the June 25 launch.

A Nintendo spokesman said: “During its nearly 40-minute Nintendo Direct E3 2021 video presentation, Nintendo spotlighted a wide variety of new games coming to Nintendo Switch – with many launching this year.”