Tuesday, June 7, 2011

E3 2011 - Nintendo Conference

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I’d like to start this blog the same way I did the Sony one. Because of some backwards assed logic that I fail to grasp, people seem to think that Nintendo is the big, uncontested winner of E3. Unfortunately for them, that is far from the case. They mostly took the same path as Sony did with their conference. From beginning to end, they littered the conference with business. There was little to no crowd pleasing to be found other than some of the footage.  Where Nintendo went wrong though, is that they chose to take what they have, condensed all of the interesting stuff in to one quick video and go on endlessly about PR and things already discussed in E3 2010. They had nothing to show us besides their new “console” and one game everyone seems to be fangasming about, even though it’s the one single solitary game nobody has heard of yet.
No, Sony is the best out of the big three, with Nintendo coming in on a close second.

The Conference was opened with a cool Zelda montage of all the games. Playing is a badass version of the Zelda theme that … wait … yes, it is performed by a live orchestra. And thus, this is badass beyond belief. The video might have been on the long side, but that is perfectly okay with such a powerful song backing it up. Ending the video is a message saying that it was a tribute for the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda.

Myamoto comes on stage to talk about Zelda’s evolution, then moving on to talk about the music in these games. He asked the Orchestra to play some tunes of the game. It sounds very, very good. A very good way to open a conference, even if it did end up going nowhere.
He then said that for the anniversary, Nintendo had prepared a Zelda title for each of their systems. There’s Link’s Awaking as a downloadable game. There’s Ocarina of Time on the 3DS. There’s Four Swords on DSIware, for free. And lastly there’s Skyward Sword for the Wii, which will come with a special, gold Wii-remote for the people who register their copy of the game first.
Following this he talks about how there will be several Symphony Concerts around the world to commemorate the anniversary of the series.
Two soundtracks will also be released. One will be a Ocarina of Time soundtrack whilst the other will be a soundtrack of the Orchestra.
After a quick thank you to all of the Zelda fans, Myamoto splits and leaves us a last music cue.
By the end of this section, I was seriously fed up with it. It lasted way too long for so little announcements. Still, a free game was announced!

Iwata joins the stage, making a speech to build up hype for something. Cockteasingly enough, this resulted in absolutely nothing. Segways in to 3DS video showing new titles will be on it like Starfox, Mario, Kid Icarus and Luigi’s Mansion 2. The last game is the only new game announced so far. And the video was over way too fast.

Reggie Fils-Aime, the American God of Nintendo, comes on stage to show more 3DS titles like Mario Kart, which has a few new features like customizable cars. Star Fox 3DS that uses the D-Pad and Nintendo’s version of the six-axis and on screen videochat. Super Mario 3D, which is a 2.5 D sidescroller with 3D plat forming action as well.
Then comes a Wii title, Kid Icarus Uprising, which is very much like a Kingdom Hearts game. Ending with a teaser of a Kid Icarus Card Game.

In comes a 2 minute video of a slew of 3d party games for the 3DS. There’s a Resident Evil game, a Mario and Sonic game, an Ace Combat game, a Tetris game, a Cave Story game, Resident Evil: Degeneration, Driver: Renegade, Pac-Man, Tekken 3D and Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D. Impressive, but the fact that Nintendo is so blasé about it, doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Reggie announces classic Game Boy and console title for Virtual Console. Like a 3D version Exitebike.

And Pokédex 3D is coming! We learn as Reggie seriously is explaining to us what a Pokédex is. Da fuck …

Iwata comes back on stage for the biggest, and only real, revelation of the show. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Nintendo boys have a brand new console, and it’s the Wii U. Or is it? No, it’s a controller! No, it’s a console? WHAT IS IT?
Here’s the skinny that I had to learn AFTER THE CONFERENCE. (Fail): There is a new HD console on the way called the Wii U. It will have Internet and HD gaming. What it will also have is a new controller. This controller is what was shown on the floor. And only this. The console itself was nowhere in sight and confused the fuck out of everyone.
But, in the end, it’s the controller that makes the Wii U interesting. It’s shaped like a Giant Etch-A-sketch shaped PSP that acts as a controller and as an iPad with the screen on the controller itself. It will be able to connect to the console in a way that’s quite unique. You can switch the channel on the TV and get your Wii U console to wirelessly show the image on the screen on the controller.
In the end, it’s a very impressive piece of technology that is the best we’ve seen on any of the conferences so far. With the Vita coming in on a close second.
Also announced is a Smash Brothers title for both the Wii U and the 3DS

Reggie comes back on stage with a Tech Demo for the device. And here is where I noted down that the Wii U had better graphics than the console it’s for. Because NOBODY TOLD US THERE WOULD BE A CONSOLE FOR THE DAMNED THING. They kept on saying that it was a controller and then suddenly say console, but everyone assumed they meant controller. Anyways. The Wii U will also have Super Mario Brothers Mii, a SMB game that will allow you to play as your Nintendo Mii avatar.
Also announced is Lego City Stories for the 3DS and Wii U, which is an open world, action packed title.
And once again we get a magnificent video … in 2 minutes. The second most interesting things of the entire conference are these videos and they’re criminally short. It showed 3rd party Wii U titles. Like: Batman: Arkham City, Darksiders 2, Alien: Colonial Marines, Metro, Ninja Gaiden 3, Ghost Recon Online.

Following this is EA’s Recciitello (THAT WAS THE GUY’S NAME. Sheesh!) who talks about the many possibilities the Wii U has for EA titles. 
And then Reggie comes out to finish the show.

See what I meant at the beginning of this blog? This expo is for the investors. And Nintendo has shown 90% old E3 2010 news. Sure, the remaining ten percent is mind blowing, but come on. If all you have to show for a conference this long is 3rd party games and a new console (Both should have been realized years ago) then, I’m sorry. But, no. It’s great that they finally got their act together, but that doesn’t earn them first place.

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