They Call Me Geen

Nintendo’s second [third?] conference just ended. Tonight focused only on 3DS, which is fine with me. Nothing, that I can recall, was revealed at this conference, which is a bit strange, but they showed a nice bit of gameplay, and a few new things that weren’t shown before in those games. 

Anyway, here are some quick impressions from what I remember seeing… 

Castlevania - Looks like a lot of fun mechanically, even though it’s a bit bland graphically. Swinging with the whip and the overall pace of the game look great. 

Luigi’s Mansion 2 - This is one of my favorite games being displayed this year. The personality of the original looks intact and it just looks like they are really expanding the original game in the right places. I just hope that “3 mansions” doesn’t translate into “a game that over stays it welcome.” A few years ago I would’ve said, “Nah, it’s Nintendo, you can trust them!” but today I just get flashbacks of Spirit Tracks.

Epic Mickey - I can’t put my finger on why, exactly, but this looks like a lot of fun. I think I’ll be waiting for it to hit the $20 bin before I pick it up, though.

Paper Mario 3DS - This is up there with Luigi’s Mansion as my most anticipated game of E3. The diorama presentation is still extremely charming. I love that they ditched the traditional battle system and have gone in a completely new direction. Also interesting that the leveling system is, basically, the “find an item - you’ve leveled up!” mechanic that Zelda basically uses. 

New Super Mario Bros 2 - Still looks good. Still looks like Mario. Multiplayer Co-op through the entire game looks as frustrating as it did on Wii. 

Kingdom Hearts - It looks like the PS2 Kingdom Hearts. I’m glad people still really enjoy this series, but I’m done and this is not showing me anything to win me back. Well, nothing except Olivia Wade’s character from Tron being in it, but that’s only because I love Olivia Wade. 

Lego Batman 2 - zzz

Rabbid Crap - Rabbid crap. 

Heroes of Ruin - I want to like this, but that trailer looked incredibly dull.

And then there was other news - the top five downloads on eShop are all free downloads (Is that a good thing?), Pokemon Black & White 2 is coming (we remember)… and I’m sure other tidbits where mentioned, but I’ll be damned if I remember them right now. 

What wasn’t shown was a 3DS remodel, which is very disappointing. Hell, I’d even take a new color. But, if nothing else, this reinforced that there are some incredible games coming for 3DS, even if the conference as a whole seemed unnecessary. Why did they show any 3DS titles yesterday if they were just going to show them again today? Why not spend that time showing P-100 or the other Wii U games that are on display on the floor but didn’t get any time yesterday? Only thing I can figure, which I’m pretty confident is probably the fact, is that this show tonight was for us, the gamer. Retail buyers were not going to make their way to a second showing after spending an hour yesterday with Nintendo. Tonight was to show us gamers, “Here are these great looking games that we wanted to show you more of!” and for that I appreciate it. Would it have been nice to see Animal Crossing get a date or for Nintendo to reveal a completely new title? Yeah. But, they could have just shown what was shown yesterday and called it a day. I appreciate the extra effort on their part. 

My friend is working until 5pm but wanted to know what happened at Nintendo’s E3 event today. Here is my series of text messages that spammed his phone, now with added comments!

Here’s a quick run down of Nintendo E3. Keep in mind, tomorrow they are going to do a 3DS conference, so I’m sure (hopeful!) there will be more on 3DS at that time.

Wii U:

Pikmin 3 (Looks rad, although it just looks like more Pikmin)  

[Side note - More Pikmin isn’t a compliant. I thought it looked like fun, it just looked like what I would expect from “Pikmin 3.”]  

New Super Mario Bros U (Besides the awful title and the fact that this is the FOURTH “New” Super Mario Bros game, it still looks good, even if it looks like more traditional SMB - Funny how I’d clammer for years about wanting more “real’ Super Mario Bros and now I’m like, “Yeah, I’ll play it, but I’m not doing backflips.”  

[Side note to that, I really dug the presentation for New Super Mario Bros U and will most likely buy a Wii U and this at the same time.]

Wii Fit U - Zzzz

Ubisoft’s ZombieU - Actually looks pretty awesome.  

[I probably should have gone into more detail with that one, but I’ll let him figure it out.]

Shit, I’m drawing a blank on what else they showed… Oh!

New Super Mario Bros 2 (3DS) - Looks good, I’ll buy it, but, again, too much of a good thing? I dunno.

Paper Mario 3DS - Looks incredible.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 (3DS) - Looks incredible. This and Paper Mario are the system sellers, I think.   

Back on Wii U, Lego City, I think it’s called, looked pretty awesome. I want to play it more than I want to admit.  

[I really do. ;_;]  

I think the only other thing that was shown was “Nintendoland,” which is a collection of Nintendo themed mini-games. It looked like it could be fun with a group, but, to quote my twitter,

“If Nintendo charges $50 for Nintendoland no one will be able to deny that they have the biggest balls in the industry, video games or not.”

Some other quick flashes of games included Tekken Tag Team 2, Ninja Gaiden 3, Mass Effect 3…

[He’s a big Mass Effect fan, or else I wouldn’t have even mentioned that one.]

 Happy about Tekken. They also showed a game called “Tank! Tank! Tank!” which has my eye - looks like a fast paced Battlezone with multiplayer.  

[Actually, Battlezone always had multiplayer, didn’t it? That was stupid of me to say.]  

The only other game that caught my eye wasn’t even at the show. On e3.nintendo.com they have a video for “P-100,” which is being developed by Platinum Games and is what the child of Pikmin or Katamari Damacy & Battletoads would look like.

I’ll stop spamming your text messages now.    

And, that’s pretty much my opinion on this conference is in a nutshell. I don’t think anyone was shocked or surprised by what was shown, but I think there is enough there that I’m sure I’m going to really enjoy.

I wrote up a professional looking article about tonight’s presentation, but that’s no fun. Here’s my bullet point rant that is too long for Twitter. 

Wii U Gamepad

• Analog sticks instead of 3DS style circle pads - Good! 
• Analog sticks click like every other system’s analog sticks - Good!
• NFC Reader/Writer, which sounds identical to Spyro Skylander’s “Magical Portal” to communicate with cards or figures, built into the gamepad - fascinating and horrifying! There are going to be so many figures for Pokemon and Smash Bros, I can feel it. 
• That fucking right analog stick is still above the face buttons. Maybe I’ll feel differently once I use it, but that looks incredibly awkward to me. 

Wii U Pro Controller

• Looks like a 360 pad - good…
• Expect the face buttons and right analog stick look like they are in each other’s spot! Again, awkward looking. 
• Glad it looks like it has a rechargeable battery and doesn’t need to be tethered to a Wii-Remote to function.

Social Network Crap

• Looks like Twitter, acts like Twitter, would probably rather use Twitter. Hopeful I’m wrong, it is cool, and people actually use it but, fuck, if I can’t get people to use “GroupMe,” which requires no set up on other’s part, I’ll be shocked if they decide to pluck away on an onscreen keyboard to communicate that they hate Bowser. 

Miiverse

• Love the idea of seeing what friends are playing when I turn on the system.
• Hope it doesn’t turn into the majority of my friends drawing penises for their comments (Hint: It will).