E3 2011 Nintendo Thoughts

As you probably know, E3 has just concluded and there is a lot of post-show news buzz going around regarding what was announced. I know I have other updates to blog about but I wanted to get my thoughts out while this E3 talk is still relevant. I'm only going to focus on Nintendo because it's the only press conference I watched attentively and fully, and it's the one of the big three that I know the most about.

The Legend of Zelda: 25th Anniversary

Nintendo started off strong with a live orchestra and all news relating to Zelda's big 25th, led by the one-and-only Shigeru Miyamoto. The games discussed were both well known about before: Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time 3D. What we learned was that Skyward Sword would ship with a limited edition golden Wiimote and that the first Club Nintendo members who register Ocarina of Time 3D would get a never-released soundtrack for free. In addition to the Nintendo 3DS update that went live the night before the press conference, Miyamoto-san announced that Link's Awakening DX would be available worldwide on the eShop Virtual Console by the end of the day. Miyamoto-san also announced that there would be orchestral concerts around the world commemorating the anniversary starting this fall. This Zelda portion of the show was short and concise but shed some light on Nintendo's plan to celebrate the Zelda series' 25th milestone.

Games!

Nintendo announced a stellar line-up of 3DS games releasing before the end of the year. I found myself adding almost all of them to my "must buy" list during the show. A lot of them were announced at last year's E3 but were discussed in more detail. These games include Mario Kart, Star Fox 64 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Super Mario. There were also some subtle announcements of known games, like Animal Crossing and Paper Mario. The big surprise for the 3DS though was the trailer for Luigi's Mansion 2, a sequel to the GameCube launch title. Although the 3DS is Nintendo's current handheld focus, they also quietly announced Kirby Mass Attack and Professor Layton and the Last Specter for the DS.

On the Wii side of things it was fairly quiet. Wii Play: Motion will be releasing this month and Skyward Sword will be out this Holiday season. Also announced were the long awaited Kirby Wii title, a console outing of Rhythm Heaven, and the possibly dreaded Mario Party 9.

All these titles and more can be viewed temporarily on Nintendo's annual E3 page. Trailers for these games can be viewed on the site as well, and trailers for the 3DS games can be downloaded on the eShop and viewed in 3D on the system!

Wii U

Nintendo's big reveal this year was the brand new console, the Wii U. Rumors have been going around for the past few weeks about it being more powerful than the PS3 and 360, having a touch screen in the controller, and more. Nintendo confirmed a lot of speculation and focused mostly on the new controller, which is like a Classic Controller with a tablet, mic, gyro sensors, and camera built in. Some were confused about the whole thing, wondering if the controller was just an add-on to the Wii or what. Nintendo has confirmed that the Wii U will be a stand-alone HD console and will be backward compatible with Wii games and Wii Remotes. The new controller will also not be sole separately, giving the impression that the system is only compatible with one and the other players would use Wii Remotes.

During the reveal, I definitely had mixed feelings. I was excited for some new Nintendo innovation but I was a little skeptical (as I can assume many were) about how successful it would be. As the press conference continued, I began to understand what it could do and became comfortable with this new addition to the Nintendo family. I would definitely like to have one at some point, but probably won't be getting one at launch. One thing I'd like to see is a "DS Player" that allows you to play DS games on the system using the controller as a touch screen and TV as the top screen. The SNES, N64, and GameCube all had Game Boy playing capabilities, and I always thought it would be nice to play DS games on the big screen. I'm sure Nintendo, as well as third parties, will come up with some amazing uses of the technology.

On the show floor, Nintendo had several tech demos showing off the Wii U's capabilities. There were play style demos as well as a beautiful HD Zelda demo. Since the system won't be released until at least mid-2012, no concrete titles were shown or announced during the reveal. Iwata-san semi-announced a new Super Smash Bros. that would be released and linked between the 3DS and Wii U, but development of the game hasn't even started yet. After the press conference at a Nintendo roundtable discussion, Miyamoto-san also announced that Pikmin 3 would be released on the Wii U. Nintendo still has time to convince the public that they want this new console, so we'll just have to wait and see what's in store for us.