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As LA slumbers ahead of the first day of E3 2019, us Europeans are already up and hyped for this evening's Nintendo Direct. We've already seen some presentations, with big ones from Ubisoft and Square Enix last night providing some Switch-based announcements, as you can see from the main page of the site. After two years of Nintendo love and tie-in projects at their presentation, the Ubisoft show was curiously light on Switch content, although the Square Enix presentation offered plenty for Nintendo fans to chew on.

That's all peripheral though - tonight's the big one! For approximately 40 minutes we'll be getting proper introductions to previously announced games coming this year such as Animal Crossing, Pokémon Sword and Shield, Link's Awakening and Luigi's Mansion 3, plus a whole lot more (hopefully). We'll also get a proper introduction to NOA President Doug Bowser as he assumes the role previously occupied by another primed body, the now-retired Reggie Fils-Aime. The former President is being represented at the show by a familiar face, though:

Yep, cross promotion or not, we like to believe that Samuel L. Jackson and Reggie are besties.

So, there are plenty of known quantities in the show already, but what else are you hoping to see in this evening's presentation? Well, there's not much room for big names, but the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild team has been quiet for a couple of years now, and that game was teased in 2014, nearly three years before release. If we're expecting a new Zelda three years from now, a tiny little reveal seems plausible.

There are still a few low-hanging fruit to be plucked from the Wii U tree, too, and with the Super Mario 3D World 'skin' or 'style' appearing in Super Mario Maker 2, we wouldn't be surprised to see that game ported to Switch. Regardless, the plumber will undoubtedly feature in some capacity, whether he's golfing or karting or throwing pills around as a medical practitioner. Oh, how we'd love another round of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC...

With the final Splatfest having been announced for Splatoon 2, it's possible we might see the next entry in the series, although it would arguably need a fresh spin on the formula to avoid feeling like a retread - certainly more than the jump from the original game to the sequel. We'd love to see some truly fresh IP amongst the returning faves, and we're eager to see how Game Freak's Town is coming along.

There's also plenty of room for returning franchises that have yet to receive an airing on Switch (and that's besides all the dormant Nintendo franchises we looked at over the weekend). We'd love to see a Rhythm Heaven or WarioWare game on the console, for example. This writer has a particular love for Pocket Card Jockey, but there's a multitude of smaller possibilities in amongst the megatons.

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Too soon for Splatoon 3?

Finally, even though we've got our SNES Classic Mini lined up next to our NES Mini, we'd still like to see Super Nintendo games debuting on the Nintendo Switch Online service. After all, it's tough to play a SNES Classic Mini on a train.

But that's enough wittering from us - what are you hoping for in today's Nintendo Direct? We took a look back at last year's presentation yesterday, and this year's is already shaping up to be a lot more varied. Share your Nintendo-related hopes and dreams below as we prepare for the Nintendo E3 2019 presentation. The E3 Hype Train is arriving at its destination! Join us later today at 17:00 BST / 18:00 CET (or 09:00 PT / 12:00 EST stateside)...