Densha de Go! Hashiro Yamanote Line E3 Hype Train
Image: Square Enix / Taito

All aboard the E3 Hype Train! Choo-choo!

Yes, after a year off, E3 returns this weekend. We’ve already seen the opening show of Summer Game Fest and with Nintendo’s Direct coming up next Tuesday, we’ve got our fingers crossed for megatons.

In other news, some Switch owners reported problems with the latest system update and a particular error code, we highlighted twelve community-recommended Switch eShop games that passed us by, and Game Boy Advance celebrated its 20th (North American) birthday.

It's now time to unwind a little and discuss our weekend gaming plans. A few members of the Nintendo Life team have done just that below, so feel free to give our entries a read and then join in with your own via our comment section. Enjoy!

Thomas Whitehead, deputy editor

There'll be a lot less gaming time this weekend with various streams and whatnot, but I'll probably get back into Resident Evil: Village for short spells at night; I fell away from it over the last two weeks so want to make sure I finish.

On Switch I've been revisiting an eShop gem that I never actually finished when it came out - Golf Story. I was spurred into playing it when I saw a little tease about Sports Story and I decided to go back and restart the first game. It's a quirky, funny and very relaxing game to play, perfect for snatched moments of downtime.

Gonçalo Lopes, reviewer

Ask any of my fellow journalists what is the single absolute worse time of the year and there will be a single ominous reply: E3. Here we go again: trailers, announcements, new games, live presentations, endless PR mailbox flooding… a deluge of information that makes us skip sleep and sometimes forget how lucky all of us truly are because we chose to be, first and foremost, gamers.

Future game announcements aside, a fresh new new take on The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is on the cards for this weekend. Game of the week is Mighty Goose. I am taking my sweet, sweet time playing this Metal Slug homage to completion because this one truly is a honking good time.

Gavin Lane, editor

There are far too many video game event streams to be watching this weekend to have time to actually play a video game. In fact, my only game-related activity which isn't watching YouTube or writing about it will likely be a) enjoying my personal podcast highlight of the year, the excellent pre-E3 8-4 Play podcast, and b) stroking my latest retro acquisition — a Pearl White GameCube.

It's still in its package at the time of writing. I'm hoping I'm not going to open it up and find a yellowed husk of a console; the pics looked good on ebay, so fingers crossed. This brings my GameCube total to a marginally ludicrous five now, and I fully intend to take some hot pics and unleash my finest Captain Planet/Power Ranger references on social media.

Look, it's been a tough year. Just leave me to my giddiness and have a great weekend, okay?!

Ollie Reynolds, reviewer

Hello! Hope everyone's doing well. It's E3 time, baby! When I'm not sitting in front of the TV with a big bucket of KFC and checking off my predictions, I plan on jumping back into Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. It's been a good while since I last played it, and I think it's genuinely one of the strongest platform games of all time!

On other systems, I'm still working my way through the Halo campaigns (currently halfway through Halo 3), and I've just taken delivery of the PS5 Digital Edition, so will be playing through Astro's Playroom when I have a chance.


As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave us a comment below with your gaming choices over the next few days...