Did ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ Win E3?
E3 2018 was a far more reserved affair than previous years. Could this mean a specific game, rather than a major publisher, have taken the crown? And what does it even mean to “win” E3?
E3 is the epitome of hype and expectations for the gaming community. Publishers from every corner and crevice of the industry — indies to the major hardware manufacturers — come to show off what they’ve been working on, making for (usually) a surplus of content for the gaming faithful to salivate over.
The conversation that typically follows the gaming expo is an obvious, albeit important, one to have: Who won? Determining who “won” E3, however, is a question that I have found, over many years of following the industry, to be more subjective than it seems. Not subjective in the sense of critiquing the quality of what demos and reveals were made, but subjective in the sense of what “winning” E3 actually means.
The conventional definition would revolve around judging the press conferences — from the big-3 of Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft to other publishers like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Bethesda. There’s merit to that, for sure, but it often seems as though one or two specific game announcements, not the conferences as a whole production, are what people use to judge which of the presentations were most captivating. This tends to incite silly conclusions, like the people who (foolishly) believed that Ubisoft won last year almost entirely predicated on the announcement of Beyond Good and Evil 2, or how I (also foolishly) believed Sony won in 2012 just for that The Last of Us gameplay reveal.
Point being: When it comes to the conferences, there tends to be heavy amounts of bias involved since everyone’s favorite game, or series, can vary drastically. For one person, Beyond Good and Evil 2 could be the equivalent of Rockstar announcing the next Grand Theft Auto game; for others, it could be a new Mario Party announcement. Everyone is different, so objectivity is especially askew.
It’s years like the one we just got that especially lend to my belief that the winner of E3 is entirely different than which conference was the best. While I would say that Microsoft had the best conference — with it’s excellent presentation and eclectic array of titles that all kinds of gamers would be interested in — I’m not so sure they did anything that particularly brought the house down.
After all, many of the promising games showcased — with the exception of Gears 5 and Halo Infinite, two franchises that are certainly past their prime, I might add — weren’t Xbox exclusives, so the casual consumers aren’t going to necessarily be blown away. It was a fantastic showing from them overall, but I suspect it will pay dividends more so in the future than now and, let’s be honest, it’s a lot more fun to be excited about the now in context of this “Who won?” conversation.
Furthermore, this year’s E3 didn’t seem to have a true, clear-cut winner in the traditional sense. In actuality, there were specific games that stood out the most and might be better suited as the winner, so to speak. What title has inspired the most conversations? What set the internet ablaze?
The answer: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and The Last of Us Part 2, both for their own distinct reasons.
The former of the two is easy to understand, and is certainly the title that wins at this point in time. While Nintendo was obviously expected to showcase the game heavily during their presentation, they somehow managed to instill a tremendous amount of excitement into fans aside from simply showing a new Smash Brothers. With the announcement that every character in the series’ history would be back, Nintendo might have salvaged any of the shortcomings the previous segments of it’s presentation procured. The Ice Climbers, Solid Snake, heck even Pichu: They’re all coming back. It’s the pinnacle of fan service, which is something Nintendo has had trouble exhibiting over the past few years (e.g., NES and SNES classic systems, Youtube creator programs).
That’s not even mentioning the numerous other quality-of-life updates the game will have or the brand new fighters that will surely be announced over the coming months. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate could have simply been a port of the previous game released on Wii U, but Nintendo instead decided to actually make a truly massive title and have it ready just in time for the holiday season. Something tells me it’s going to sell quite well.
Then, on the other end of the spectrum, there’s The Last of Us Part 2, which had a gameplay demo that kicked off Sony’s press conference. It’s presence was the antithesis of what made Super Smash Bros. Ultimate so special, as it was a rather vague demonstration that threw us into the middle of an unknown point in time and wasn’t given any major new details like a release date or whether there would be any multiplayer component similar to the first game. Instead, we were given what I believe was the most violent, but equally beautiful, demo ever showcased at a press conference.
Perhaps saying as such will elicit a certain kind of homophobic response, but Naughty Dog choosing to show a moment of Ellie’s love towards another woman is special. It’s special because it wasn’t meant as something done to placate the mob and be politically correct, but because of the way it was handled. It was a statement, yes, but it was also a moment of brilliant storytelling; at one moment, we’re shown an innocent moment of love and affection, yet the next is a demonstration of pure hatred, the latter of which coincides with what director Neil Druckmann said the game would be about.
The way I see it, there’s two major conclusions from E3 2018. The first is that Super Smash Bro. Ultimate “won” the event in terms of it’s sustained relevance and ability to make headlines. The game is coming out soon, and is yet again another instance of Nintendo’s remarkable resurgence back into the forefront of the console race. The second conclusion is that The Last of Us Part 2 had perhaps one of the most memorable gameplay demos in recent memory, and one that people will bring up as being a historic moment for inclusivity in the gaming industry (as far as I’m aware, Ellie is the first openly gay protagonist in a video game, especially one as major as this).
But no matter which side you fall on, there’s one thing we can all agree on: Just like every year, us gamers are the real winners.
