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.

PAX East (Just a tad bit late...)

Yeah, so I totally didn't post at all about PAX East during PAX East. It happened almost a month ago... My bad. Instead of relying on my awful short-term memory and trying to remember everything that happened and put them all in a loooooong post, I'm just going to put up links to my Facebook photo albums for all three days and give you a highlight-reel list of things that were awesome. Then I will try to regularly update my blog. Well, I'll get dinner first and then proceed to regularly update my blog.

PAX East was probably the best thing I have ever attended. Ever. There were so many people that all came together for one reason: Because they love video games. Or because they are the parent of someone who loves video games. Or because they were dragged to the event by their significant other who loves video games. But you get the point. Although I won't be able to make it to PAX Prime in September, I will most definitely be attending the next PAX East.

Photos!

> Day 1

> Day 2

> Day 3

Highlights!

> Hung out with fellow WPI mates. Also got to show my sister the wonders of the video game culture that she could only dream about.

> POKéWALKERS! EVERYWHERE! I got between 30-40 people each day, most of them unique encounters. Lots of good items and lots of watts.

> Tried out Picross 3D, WarioWare D.I.Y., and the DSi XL at the Nintendo Booth. I might get Picross 3D (because I loved Picross DS), slightly less might get WarioWare because of the shear depth, and the XL was actually pretty nice.

> Team Fortress 2 Tournament! We won the first round and then were destroyed in the second round...

> Mario Kart DS Tournament! I won first place! It was great.

> Swag! Lots of swag, including 2 Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver drawstring bags (he gave me an extra one on accident).

> Networking and talks/panels: Said hi to Ichiro Lambe from Dejobaan Games. The I HAVE A GREAT IDEA FOR A GAME panel he was on, along with Darius Kazemi (both WPI grads!), was hilarious and very informative. I also enjoyed the Memes and Microcultures talk (seeing as how I'm going to be in Japan in a few months).

> Video Game Orchestra was fantastic, although I had to leave halfway through. Their performance of the Wind Garden theme from Super Mario Galaxy was amazing.

I think that's about it. But, again, I have a terrible short-term memory and only remember the overall experience rather than specific instances. Maybe we should make games that focus less on super-realistic graphics and more on the player's experience... But that's a topic for another post. ;)