E3 Day 2 -Nintendo Conference
a review
Today was Nintendo’s day for their press conference and many people were expenting the greatest of the greatest things to come from them and their new console: The Wii U. Tensions flared as 11a PDT came closer and closer and then it started. We were treated with a wonderful little skit between Miyamoto and some pikmin, a wonderful way to open that not only gave us laughter, but immediately told us what the opener would be. Miyamoto then greeted us on the stage and, as best he could given English isn’t his native language, introduced us to Pikmin 3. A great attempt at trying to hold onto nintendo’s core audience and a solid opener as many nintendo fans have been looking forward to Pikmin 3 since last year’s E3 when the Wii U was originally announced.
Pikmin 3 looks to improve on the original Pikmin not only visually, but with new gameplay mechanics introduced through the use of the wiimote and nunchuck, as well as the Gamepad. With the Wiimote + and the motion plus sensor inside you’re more accurately able to aim your pikmin at your target and everything else, making for greater strategies and more accurate attacks. With the gamepad, you’re able to control 4 characters simultaneously and have a better view of the entire map you’re working over as a whole. This ends in a much more strategic environment for the game, allowing players to manage everything on more of an RTS scale with a lot of platforming built in. The game is also visually stunning, and a good indication of the power the Wii U has under the hood. Unfortunately, this game only really excites the fans of Pikmin out there, and while the title is great among it’s fans it holds little over the core audience and morme “hardcore” gamers. While that may be the case, The game definitely looks fun, and should it be placed in front of me I’d definitely give it a play.
Hype level: B
The conference continued after that and unfortunately, kinda went down hill from there. We were introdued to a odd segment where a generic announcer voice detailed all the buttons and what they’re used for on the Wii U gamepad... Which if anything, seemed insulting and completely unnecessary given the audience they were presenting to. We know what the buttons on the controller do without you having to tell us Nintendo. Even if we’d never had the chance to get in front of that controller or see it, if you take one of the gamers that was viewing your conference and put that controller in front of them, they will know exactly how to use it.
Following the weak presentation of a bunch of stuff that didn’t really tell us anything (more information about Wiiverse that was covered in the pre-e3 show, more information about the hardware we already knew) We had an executive from WarnerBros come to the stage to introduce some awesome new third party content: Batman: Arkham City Armored edition. There was then a display of how the game would use the Gamepad and it’s exclusive controls and content. This would have been exciting if this was announced around the game’s original release, but it wasn’t. We’ve all played this game before, and I doubt if any of us really want to trapse through it again (except for the hard-core fans of the series) just to get to the bits of extra content. They then went on to tell us about Scribblenauts unlimited and it fall sin a similar category: we’ve played this before, and while it’s cute and a very appreciated unique concept, it’s not fresh and new. it’s the same thing we played on the DS on a larger screen ‘now in HD’. Yves, CEO of Ubisoft, then came onto stage to introduce the Ubisoft segment of Wii U’s show (seeing as Ubisoft seems to be the only one really going balls to the wall to back the Wii U) and we were treated with one of the new titles that actually looks interesting: ZombiU. An interesting new take on the zombie genre we’ve all played to death, but one definitely worth taking a look at (granted you ever actually BUY a Wii U). The game takes the Genre and shows that Nintendo is definitely ready to take a more hardcore approach to games and isn’t afraid of mature content to launch with their new console. (more detail on this game in a future article)
Hype Level
Wii U General nonsense: F
Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition: D+
ZombiU: B+
The Ubisoft segment continued, showing us glimpses of trailers we’d already seen for games like Rayman and ACIII, and while refreshing as a reminder that the Wii U has third party support, left audiences limited in what to truly expect from the console.
Following Ubisoft’s segment we got... literally ‘a few minutes’ with the 3DS. We were confidently reassured that the 3DS will have it’s own hour long panel on wednesday and not to worry, but I couldn’t help BUT to worry considering that this conference in particular was supposed to be Nintendo’s Strongest rawr, and if they were leaving one of their shining glories for another day, perhaps they hardly had anything worth showing for it at all. My suspicions were 50/50 correct incorrect. They showed three games for the 3DS: New super mario world 2, Paper Mario: Sticker Star, and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon. All three are really solid titles but unfortunately we didn’t get to hear much about them. all judgements reserved for the 3DS show tomorrow evening. The show polished off with a few more unmemorable games and then Nintendo’s apparent crowning glory: Nintendoland, a game with the same premise to it as Wii Sports; to familiarize you with the new controller Nintendo has charged you for. Unfortunately the game doesn’t leave much to be desired. It’s more casual pandering to an audience that doesn’t want it.
Hype level:
3DS: ???
Nintendoland: C-
Overall Nintendo’s conference suprised us all as being a general dissapointment. We learned about a plethora of launch titles for the Wii U, which is good seeing as we all want to hear about games, but none of them were especially exciting or fresh. While being excited for ZombiU and looking forward to some fun with Pikmin, Wii U is looking to be hurting on arrival.
Overall Grade: C