Nintendo's E3 Presentation; Sort of Average Overall

[Nintendo 3DS Daily]

I mean, it was better than anything Sony or (especially) Microsoft showed off at E3, and some of the games looked absolutely fantastic, but they did make quite a few mistakes in my honest opinion.

Here are both the highlights and those mistakes:

Highlights

1. New Super Mario Bros U looked fantastic

Remember how back in the early days of the Wii U, that New Super Mario Bros Mii demo was seen as lazy and unimaginative of Nintendo?

Well it looks like they've turned that right round with the announcement of New Super Mario Bros U.  Gone is the lazy semi Gamecube style of the New Super Mario Bros series, in its place is a lush, detailed style which actually makes New Super Mario Bros look interesting again.  The hand drawn backgrounds are absolutely stunning:

In addition to the great looking style, I really like all the different things they've added here.  I mean, Miis might be a boring addition, but the SMW style overworld is a welcome addition, as is the new Flying Squirrel Mario form and the baby Yoshis with different abilities.

So New Super Mario Bros U was a nice thing to show at E3.

2. New Super Mario Bros 2 looks decent

Not as good as the Wii U game, but come on, Reznor returns.  That's worth something at least.



3. Pikmin 3 looks great

If any game on the Wii U shown yesterday was the best demonstration for why Nintendo needed HD, Pikmin 3 was pretty much it.  The world looks really lush and interesting to explore, the new modes look pretty neat and the new Pikmin type added was quite cool as well.

4. Third Party games are decent

As much as Nintendo focused a bit much on them (see below), the vast majority of the third party games shown off in Nintendo's conference did look good on the Wii U.  Now the only thing left is to hope third parties keep releasing such games on the system even after Microsoft and Sony's new games consoles come out in 2013...

The Mistakes Made

1. Too Much Focus on Third Party games

Nothing's wrong with them and games like Batman Arkham City did look good, but they took up about half the presentation. No one gave a toss about most of Ubisoft's library or what not, and while the better games could have been discussed a bit (maybe some Assassin's Creed, Rayman Legends, Scribblenauts...), no one cares about freaking Rabbids.

More to the point, people won't buy the console for the third party games, they can get them on every other system.  No, they care for the Nintendo ones most of all and the presentation underdelivered on this note.

2. Nintendo Land

Now from what I hear from people who actually played the game, Nintendo Land's mini games are actually rather fun to play.  But my criticism with the game isn't with the quality of gameplay, but how Nintendo presented it.

They spent way too long yapping on about it at a point in the presentation when people were desperately after a major new game reveal.  It was all leading up to something big and new like a Zelda game, Smash Bros 4 or Retro's new mystery project, then we got this mini game collection.

As a result the end of the presentation felt lacklustre, and it all just seemed to fizzle out near the end.  What they should have done is maybe save New Super Mario Bros U til that point then end on a high note, people might have been a bit more forgiving.

3. The focus on technology rather than games

I like the idea of the Wii U, but I don't really find a long discussion of its features interesting and neither do the fans or investors.  Considering that for nearly every game buyer on the planet systems are bought purely for the games, the amount of importance Nintendo placed on tech was a massive problem this year.

Then again, it's not the worst of it.  Microsoft and Sony both showed poorly thought out tech gimmicks, and nobody cared for those either.

4. The dull 3DS Game showcase video

Oh yay, third party 3DS games we all knew about!  Oh wait, including really crappy looking licensed games that have no business been shown off at E3 but are anyway. What's also bad here is how much of an opportunity this could have been to salvage E3 for Nintendo.

Imagine if they'd shown a 3DS Zelda game.  A new Metroid or Donkey Kong Country game.  Heck, maybe Kirby, Wario Land or F-Zero. Just something new that would have raised people's spirits a bit and made it seem like this video was worth watching.  As it is now though, the games shown look generally quite boring, or have been seen already in the main part of Nintendo's E3 conference (Luigi's Mansion 2, Paper Mario and New Super Mario Bros 2).

How was E3 overall?  Well I won't lie, I thought it was a disappointing show from pretty much everyone there.  Some games interested me, but there were a lot of times where I literally just changed tab, muted the volume and couldn't even be bothered to keep watching any of the presentations. The Wii U and it's games were good, but I might need some more good games to be confirmed for it before I plan to buy one, I can't buy consoles based on one or two games and some vague promises.  And I already knew about every 3DS game shown that I actually cared about, to the point I was already planning to buy Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon/Paper Mario Sticker Star/New Super Mario Bros 2 without being prompted.

E3 was pretty average I'd say.

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[Gelivable]

Imagine if they'd shown a 3DS Zelda game.

Um...Skyward Sword anyone?