Compared to their big rivals, Nintendo’s conference was much
more modest and humble. Whereas Sony had a ridiculous arena full of people,
Nintendo used a much smaller venue to set the stage for the Wii U. This played
out pretty well for Nintendo as it felt a lot more homely and it allowed Reggie
Fils-Aime to do what he does best.
But before Reggie was allowed on stage, Miyamoto kicked
everything off with the revelation of the much anticipated Pikmin 3. I cannot
wait for this game! I’ve been waiting for Pikmin 3 ever since the Gamecube days
and I can confirm that it looks pretty darn good! There’s new additions to the
pikmin clan with rock pikmin and there seems to be some sort of team work
element with there being four characters shown on the screen at the same time.
It’s Pikmin, it’s Miyamoto, it’s awesome!
Once Miyamoto was done he whistled Reggie onto the stage to
show off more of the gamepad and Miiverse, both of which were also shown in the
Nintendo Direct a few days beforehand. The gamepad looks good, it now has
analogue sticks instead of the circle pads found on the prototype model,
features a gyroscope, rumble feature and also an NFC reader which they didn’t
really divulge much info on.
As for Miiverse, I have to say it looks quite interesting.
It’s essentially a social network for Nintendo gamers that will be available on
the Wii U and eventually on your PC, smartphone and 3DS. It’s strange how a
company who are so far behind in terms of online gaming have managed to develop
a proper social network before Microsoft who have gamertags and actually make
their users pay for the service.
It looks to me like Nintendo are trying to focus on
community while Microsoft seem to be moving away from it. A few weeks ago
Microsoft announced it was getting rid of Inside Xbox from their Xbox Live
service because they can get feedback from gamers in other ways. They’ve missed
the point; it wasn’t all about feedback, it was about community as well. Inside
Xbox offered Xbox Live users a community to be a part of, and now it’s gone,
but not to worry we can all watch ESPN 2 on our Xbox!
Anyway it wasn’t all hardware at Nintendo’s conference,
there was a fair few games put on show too. New Super Mario Bros U was revealed
by Reggie and it seems to be more of the same stuff we know and love only with
the added input of the Miiverse. You can now see how your friends are doing, or
get help from them if you’re stuck. It looks pretty decent, as all 2D Mario
platformers do and it looks to be a must have title for the Wii U.
Third party fun
As for the third party offerings Warner Bros were given a
bit of time in the limelight to show Batman Arkham City Armoured Edition,
Scribblenauts Unlimited, and Lego City Undercover. Although Batman looks pretty
good I won’t be getting it, simply because I’ve already played it on the Xbox,
getting it again seems like a bit of a waste of money therefore I can only see
this title being of interest to those who’ve never played it before. Scribblenauts
Unlimited however is a bit more interesting in my book. This will be the third
title in the series that has primarily only ever been on the DS. There’s also a
3DS version that I’m assuming will be similar and most likely connectable. I’ve
never played the others but I’ve been meaning to as they do look really fun to
play, as it says throughout the trailer for it, your imagination is your
biggest weapon. How’d you like them apples, Batman?
Lego City Undercover looks to be good fun too. Lego games
are always a laugh and this one looks no different. There are no known characters however (that I know of at least) such as Batman or Indiana Jones so it remains
to be seen if this game is any good. It is a sandbox game so it definitely has
some potential…
Ubisoft are also heavily involved with the Wii U just as
they were when the Wii first launched. The biggest title they showed off was
the Zombie U game which was also shown on Nintendo Direct. I’m not big on these zombie games so I have to admit I’m not as excited about it as everyone else
seems to be, but it does at least show that Nintendo are trying to make games
for everyone and not just the casual market.
Speaking of casual, Just Dance 4 was given a bit of
limelight as Reggie was given the opportunity to become puppetmaster for four
on-stage dancers. I’m not bothered about dance games so I wasn’t interested, at
least Reggie made it look good and still had a bit of time to drop a joke about
being the puppetmaster as President of Nintendo of America. Oh Reggie, you so
funny.
Assassins Creed 3 didn’t get as much focus on it, but then
again we’ve seen it at Ubisoft’s conference, what is there to say about it that
we don’t know already? There were a few other titles mentioned such as Rabbids
Land and a fitness game but nothing really to bowl you over with glee. Rayman
Legends was shown during the Ubisoft conference a few days before the Nintendo
conference and does admittedly look decent, though I’ve no idea what it’s all
about…
As for the rest Mass Effect 3, Darksiders 2, Tekken Tag
Tournament 2, and Ninja Gaiden 3 were all confirmed to be coming to Wii U. Also
confirmed was Tank! Tank! Tank!, Trine 2, and Aliens Colonial Marines which I
have no feeling for whatsoever… Seriously, what the heck is Trine?
My body was ready.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard about Wii Fit, and this
year it was brought back in to the limelight as it was confirmed there would be
new games coming to make use of the Wii Balance Board. Wii Fit U is the latest
game in the Wii Fit franchise and strangely I’m quite interested in it. It
features some new games as you’d expect and some new additions to the exercises
as well as the trusty old routines. There’s also a new fit meter that lets you
know roughly how many calories you’ve burnt off. You can play the game with
just the gamepad using the touch screen and there’s also a neat little device
that you can run with and upload to your fit meter. All in all pretty sweat, I
mean sweet.
This was mainly the part
where Nintendo turned their attention towards more casual games. Sing was
revealed which is, as you might have guessed, a game centred around singing.
Again, this is something I personally have little interest in and there are so
many sing-along games out there I fail to really see the relevance of this
particular title. Who knows it might do something majorly different that
revolutionises the genre but the chances of getting me singing into a Wii
microphone are pretty slim…
A walk in the theme-park
Nintendo finished their conference with an exclusive title
that’s aimed at being a big selling point in the casual games market. This
title was Nintendo Land, a theme park based game which involves mini games
based on the several franchises Nintendo have going.
Of all the mini games on offer, one was shown during the
actual conference and others were shown in an online video. The one given a
hands-on during the show was one based on Luigi’s Mansion where four players
control characters on screen and one player, using the gamepad, controls an
invisible ghost that hunts them down. The players can’t see the ghost but feel
a vibration when it’s near, meaning they need to work as a team in order to
find him and get catch him. It’s a decent game but it was given WAY too much
coverage on the stage for what it was. That being said though the other handful
of games shown afterwards looked pretty fun. It’s casual stuff of course but if
this comes bundled in with the Wii U I won’t be complaining one little bit.
3DS showcase
That was it for the conference, but what about the poor
neglected 3DS? Well as promised the 3DS was given its own showcase hosted
mainly by Scott Moffitt the very next day.
The main games shown during this showcase were Luigi’s
Mansion Dark Moon, Paper Mario Sticker Star, New Super Mario Bros 2, Epic
Mickey: Power of Illusion, Castlevania and Kingdom Hearts 3D. Of them all I was mostly interested
in the first party titles. Luigi’s Mansion looked great, I know some people are
less bothered about this game but I loved the original on the Gamecube so I’m
pretty excited to see it on a portable console.
New Super Mario Bros 2 looks to be more of the same from Mario
once more. It’s a platformer, I suppose that’s all you can expect from it. The
Tanooki suit is back allowing you to fly, and there’s a co-op mode that
promotes teamwork and competition in equal measure. The aim of this game is all
about collecting as many coins as possible and then trying to beat your friends
as fast as you can, it looks good and I can safely say I’ll be purchasing it at
some point…
But my favourite of all the 3DS titles shown was Paper Mario
Sticker Star! I am really excited about this game seeing as I love the series
and this looks to be going back to its roots. Super Paper Mario on the Wii
wasn’t as good as its predecessors and didn’t have any RPG element to it
either. This one however does and in a unique way too. In this new Paper Mario
you collect stickers in the game world and use them as attacks against your
foes when in battle mode, it’s an interesting way of doing things and something
I’m keen to see more of. Paper Mario games are always a great laugh and this
one seems to have got the gameplay back to its very best! Needless to say I am
very excited about this game!
And that just about wraps it up for Nintendo at this year’s
E3, they did things a little differently than usual and overall I thought they
were pretty good. As far as the one conference goes it was decent, but add to
that the 3DS showcase and you’ve got a pretty well-accomplished showing from
Ninty.
One thing that will always be an advantage for Nintendo over
their rivals, especially in situations such as E3, is the personality both of
the brand and the people who carry it. While Sony and Microsoft send out
businessmen to talk about their games, Nintendo send out gamers which helps
them gain an advantage tenfold. When you watch a Nintendo conference, no matter
how good or bad it is, you always get the feeling that the people on stage
really care about the games being shown off, I really can’t say the same for
the other two.
It really will be interesting to see what Nintendo will be
showing off in the coming months regarding the Wii U. I know not everyone is
too bothered by the Wii U but I am; an official price tag and release date
would be nice so I know just how much cash I’ll need and when I’ll need it!
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