NintendObs Thinks: Nintendo Switch in trailers each year since 2017.
My favorite Nintendo Switch trailers for the past five years and the impact they have left on me and you.
I got this idea from the Nintendo.com article I covered on Thursday where Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Director Masahiro Sakurai reviewed each Super Smash Bros. fighter trailer delivered starting with the previous installments of the game on Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. I have to admit, Nintendo videogame news these days aren’t really exciting, so here I am now bringing the fun again by looking back at the Nintendo trailers that moved me the most for each year since the release of Nintendo Switch in 2017, meaning five trailers in total one by one for 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. You’ll be able to find all of them, and then some, linked at the bottom within the source materials.
For 2017, my pick is just about everyone’s pick which is the Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017 trailer for The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild. Before I mention the context, this trailer is the moment when Breath of the Wild distinguished itself from its Wii U roots to become the game that would go on to define the future of Nintendo Switch. At the time in January 2017, two months before launch, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild was the key item missing from Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017 before aptly closing the show with a bang. The end-of-the-world feel of what is arguably Nintendo’s most prestigious franchise within the gaming community at large perfectly corresponded with the hit-or-miss gamble of Nintendo Switch, and it is in no small part thanks to this trailer that we’re enjoying the radiance of Nintendo we have today.
When it comes to 2018, I am choosing the E3 2018 reveal trailer for Fire Emblem Three Houses. In similar fashion to the Breath of the Wild trailer I’ve just mentioned, this one was designed with a music piece specifically composed for it, which in no doubt participated in its magic. Telling the full story, a Fire Emblem title for Nintendo Switch had been announced since January 2017 as well, so fans like myself had been dying to see what it would be all about. What really made this trailer glorious and emotional is that, here was this little franchise, which before Fire Emblem Awakening was on the brink of disappearing, and yet, after remaining on Nintendo handhelds for so long, Fire Emblem was returning, in 3D, in HD, with a concept at the scope of the new platform it was meant to take advantage of. Such a shift truly felt like anything was possible, and if Nintendo could do that for our beloved and niche Fire Emblem, one could readily believe they could do that for any of their IPs.