It's funny, although I love Nintendo, most people didn't expect for them to do much this E3. Not only were they defying customer's expectations and throwing another non traditional Direct instead of the yearly Big Three conference, but sales had been bad and a lot of journalists and gamers have already counted Nintendo out of the running.
That isn't something you really should do.
See Nintendo has been "doomed" for the better part of 15 years now yet they have been in the black most of that time and just recently posted real losses. So they seemed to have come to E3 with something to prove and they did so with a new approach to E3 and one that I think worked exceedingly well.
Let's talk about the big Nintendo Direct itself shall we?
Nintendo's Direct approach allowed them to take time to produce their show and they took that time to poke a little fun at themselves with genuinely clever and funny skits that call to mind Robot Chicken. They addressed the elephant in the room of not having a conference, gave a wink to Mother 3 beggars the world over, and even poked a little fun at their Mario franchise milking by having the mustachioed plumber himself mention Mario Ballet.
We saw Smash Brothers and a fan favorite request the Mii was announced. The Mii has three different move-sets you can choose from to represent your Mii and since you can create literally anybody to star we are going to seeing everything from Reggie to Master Chief competing in Smash.
NFC tech (think Skylanders) was announced and it's every bit of what I had hoped to see from Nintendo. Instead of putting up a paywall with the figures for Smash (which they EASILY could have done and made tons of money off of) they decided to make it a fun sounding side thing that you absolutely don't have to have to enjoy the full game. This was smart in and of itself, but then they announced that the figures would work with every game that Amiibo (the odd name for the figures) supported. This included names like Mario Kart 8 and Mario Party 10, though what they would unlock there is unsure. Could we finally get other Nintendo characters in Mario Kart? My heart only dares to dream, but they pulled off the figures in the best way they could have. I for one will be buying all of them regardless, because they just look so damn cool.
A constant stream of games followed after this, some we knew about and others that were complete surprises. Toad finally is getting his own game with Captain Toad, Yoshi is getting the yarn treatment and the game looks extremely promising, Xenoblade Chronicles X looks like a godsend to RPG geeks everywhere and Hyrule Warriors has the most sensible use of the gamepad I've seen letting a second player join in without having to split your screen with them.
Of course the star of the show, and indeed the entirety of E3 for myself, was a absolutely stunning in-engine look of the new open world Zelda that was quite literally jaw dropping. The art style is magnificent and I don't care what your Xbox One and PS4's have in them, this games looks next gen even if Wii U doesn't have the tech. Just goes to show you once again that a better graphics card does not next gen make and that art style can make up for a lot.
Splatoon was my surprise game of the show that I really want to get my hands on. Like the recent Plants vs Zombies multiplayer shooter game, they take a cute veneer and paint it over what seems like utter fun wrapped in a slick game with a great mechanic. The idea is that you are these squid creatures who can also turn into human like characters to essentially paint the stage with ink. Your goal? To cover the stage in your team's color while splattering the other team and taking out the competition. Since the "bullets" are made of ink it's easy to know when you are getting fired at and by who and even without a kill/death count you know who is winning based on what color your stage is. The ink serves a separate purpose though, by facilitating travel in squid form and to speed up your traversal of the stage. I just can't wait to get my hands on this game.
Mario Maker, Fantasy Life, Project Guard, Project Giant Robot, a new Star Fox: I could literally go on and on about the announcements and games shown. However, there are plenty of sites covering all that already and I'm sure you could find complete lists. Nintendo's own site looks pretty snazzy and has everything announced up there though. The Direct had all gameplay shown (no abundance of CG trailers as common in other conferences), bunches of surprises, and more on games we all can't wait to play.
That alone would have been a success, but then Nintendo streamed on Twitch all day showing off their newly announced titles while interviewing developers and generally having a good time. The coverage made you feel like it was Nintendo's day, and I'd be lying if I said that I didn't check in almost all day just to watch the Tree House coverage.
Then to top it all off Nintendo put on a fantastic tournament that was just complete fan service through and through. The competitors were competent and skilled, even the celebrity ones, while the announcers clearly knew what they were talking about. I'll admit I don't watch much e-Sports as I just don't really usually enjoy watching other people play games, but there was a enthusiasm and love of the franchise here that was hard to resist.
There is even more to come this week as Nintendo takes their biggest game this year, Smash Brothers on Wii U and 3DS, and brings it to the people across the country at Best Buys. You can go, hang with fans, play the new game and even get some cool swag: a little piece of E3 for those of us who can't be here.
All of this adds up to an E3 that not only felt almost intimate, but showed clearly that Nintendo understand it's situation and is willing to do what it can to change. I feel like their approach to the show this year was the best way they, or any company, could have shown off their games and I'll be shocked if we don't see copycats next year throwing Halo tournaments or something of that nature with an unreleased title.
I really enjoyed Microsoft's conference, feel like Sony's while standard was solid, but I have to give the win to Nintendo. They went out and showed us once again what games are supposed to be: fun.
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