Last year all the E3 rage was on how awesome PS4 was going to be, coupled with all the Xbox One blunders it was kind of a slow show. Nintendo was in their own little world begging people to buy their Wii U but then sending mixed messages about their 3DS platform.
This year was so much better. PS4 still had a good show, Microsoft made amends for their early mistakes by announcing the game Halo fans had been waiting for since 360 came along, a full HD remake of the first two Halo games in a big Halo bundle. I didn’t spend much time on the Microsoft stuff because Xbox is a hard sell for a guy like me, I don’t care for shooters much and that seems to be most of what they offer and I am not a PC gamer so PC style games do not appeal to me much either. Fable is the only property they own that I am still remotely interested in and they are hell bent on destroying that so why bother. I liked, not loved but liked Killer Instinct on the SNES, it was a joint venture between Nintendo, Rare, and Midway Games, three companies who all tended to work really well together. The game was somewhat unique in that it was Nintendo’s take on the Mortal Kombat/Street Fighter craze of the day, it was not as good gameplay wise as Sega’s fighting games, but it was a fun game to add to the collection. Since then Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Soul Calibur, Street Fighter, and yes even still kicking is the good old Mortal Kombat series, all doing ten times better at what Killer Instinct was only barely good at to begin with. The shooters don’t impress me much and I hate sports games so sorry MS you haven’t won me over just yet.
Sony on the other hand is the ones sending mixed signals this year, they show a game everyone wants and should buy their system to get, then reveal it will be multiplatform across all their systems, Vita, PS4 and PS3, why bother upgrading now when all the best games are still on PS3 anyways and they don’t look that much better as of yet on the PS4 to justify the price. I am all for latest and greatest and yes I was sold on PS4 by the tech and potential alone, but I am still holding out for some games before I shell out my money. I want one, I never stopped wanting one and that is a good place for Sony to have me at right now, interested but looking at my finances makes me have to pick one at a time so this year I chose the REAL winner of E3…
NINTENDO
Nintendo blew me away this year, I was not just impressed I was anxious to get my hands on some of the games they showed off so much I went out and picked up a Wii U right then and there. No need to wait for the price drop that isn’t likely to happen.
Up till now all I was interested in getting a Wii U for was Mario and Luigi U, Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Country, and when it releases Hyrule Warriors, no where near enough to spend the money on a brand new game console, even if it is backwards compatible with a machine I had a love hate relationship with.
Here are the games that put me over the top.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
I loved Melee on the Game Cube, it was the best game in the series, one of the best games on the Game Cube and it had so much fanservice that the replay value of collecting those trophies was enough to keep it in the machine days on end. Brawl was a mess, it was just more of the same mixed with some odd choices, for me it was weekend rental and most and a throw away from there. I am not overly fond of the smash formula but there are things in the series that I do get excited for, especially the nostalgia stuff. With Brawl they broadened the appeal by including Sonic, well as a long time Sega fan I have had my fill of Sonic in recent years so I was kind of burned out on the character by brawl and wasn’t re interested until Sonic 4 came along. So seeing him in Brawl was not a big selling point for me and the online play was sloppy.
Wii U Smash is different, they added a few things that I just can’t refuse. First Mii characters are not playable in Smash, I was kind of tired with the Mii’s after about a year or so into Wii but they found a way to make them exciting again, think about it if you want a character in Smash Bros. but Nintendo doesn’t have the time, desire, interest, or money to make it happen, no worries make a Mii and you now have that fighter in the game. Sure Mii’s have limitations but they are fun and they add to the tone of the game which is all mixing everything from Nintendo’s past into one exciting game. Mii’s might still be relatively new but they are a part of Nintendo now like it or not so they do belong in the game.
THE REAL selling point for me was
Pac-Man as a playable character. Not only is is super exciting to be able to pit Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Mario all against each other in the same battle, with good old trusty Sonic or even Mega Man if you want, but it is also super cool they are including Pac-Man levels in the game. Pac-Man is one of my top video games of all time, it is usually the first game I get when I buy a new device, it was the first game I ever played as a kid and I put a lot of quarters into those machines over the years. Seeing Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and “jumpman”, all pioneers in the video game universe, all in the same game is too much for a guy like me I went from being interested in the game to being hyped at that exact moment.
Splatoon
You will need to Google some videos of this to see how fucking amazing it looks. Normally I refrain from swearing in my blog posts because I try to remain somewhat professional and at least moderately civil but this game looks fucking amazing. It is a tactical squad based combat shooter like oh so many others, but with the Nintendo magic formula applied to it. Instead of space marines or generic US soldiers, this game is a cross between paintball and everything fun about Nintendo. The players are squid-human hybrid things that run around squiring paint on everything. the game looks colorful, bright, fun, and intense game play all mixed into one big bag of Nintendo awesome. Once a generation Nintendo makes a game that stands out and reminds people why they are still the number one game developer in the world, the ONLY software company whose games alone can sell a system with little to now third party support. Sure Mario and Donkey Kong games are always fun but its nice to have something fresh and exciting for a change too. This game looks like it will be tons of fun and I can’t wait. I am not super fond of shooters but I do play them, especially the ones that stand out, this one stands out like a golden ticket in a batch of bad chocolate.
Captain Toad Treasure Hunter
I love Mario games but Nintendo tends to over do it with their plumber mascot. Toad is like Luigi one of the side characters that everyone likes but never gets his own game. Seeing Toad star not only in his own game but a completely fresh take on the Mario formula is awesome. I always liked Toad especially in the Mario Party games. I mean who doesn’t? He was my favorite character to play as in Super Mario Bros. 2 even. What I like about it is Toad is an actual Mushroom person so seeing him doing something in the Mushroom Kingdom is actually exciting, Mario is fun and all but he is human he looks out of place in the Mushroom Kingdom but Toad he is from there he fits right in. The game play looks amazing and the graphics look top notch as usual for Nintendo. This is the game I bought my Wii U for today, it doesn’t come out till latter in the year and most of the games I want are next year releases but I wanted to get a machine now to play Super Mario 3D World, the game that introduces the Captain Toad levels, before I play the full game this holiday season. Yoshi’ has always had his own games Princess Toadstool has had her own games, but I am sure this is Toad’s first and it looks fun, so much fun.
Mario Party 10 is it?
Damn I lost count but are they really up to TEN Mario Party games? Anyways this looks like more of the same for the most part but it added one special thing that really got me interested, playing as Bowser, oh yeah that looks like a whole lot of fun.Not much to say it’s Mario Party one of those games you play but you don’t get too excited for.
Hyrule Warriors/Zelda U
Both of these games look amazing and truth be told Zelda is always a jumping in point for me, as with most Nintendo fans and gamers all across the board, but his last couple of games had me losing interest in the series. I never played Skyward Sword and I didn’t care too much for Twilight Princess and yes I was one who hated Wind Waker, loved the art stile but not so much the Pirate stuff that felt out of place in a Zelda game. Anyways these two games look to be the type of Zelda a non-Zelda Zelda fan has been crazing. As Someone who liked Zelda 2 on NES I am always open for change in the Zelda universe as long as that change is not too radical like Wind Waker or turning into a damn dog. Hyrule Warriors is a hack and slash action game that pits Link and friends in an epic battle against thousands of enemies at one time. These games are rare and and especially rare on a Nintendo console, so this is a welcome change.
Little is known about the main Zelda except that it is “open world” and the puzzle solving will be less traditional but the trailer made it look super amazing and the interview revealed that the game will play more like a modern open ended game than a sandbox Zelda game of years past. It sounds promising and I hope they can pull it off.
There are also new Yoshi, Kirby, Wii Sports, and a bunch of other games coming but those are the ones that had me most interested. There are three very interesting games from the Mario creator Shigeru Miyomoto who is Nintendo’s top game designer, one of which is an episodic Star Fox game that might be cool. There is also a game called Art Academy that looks really interesting.
The final game to mention is something called Mario Maker which is basically a level editors for Super Mario Bros. games that lets you take Mario Bros. blocks, enemies, power ups, pipes, vines, etc and place them in your own design and share with friends. I am not too excited for this one but it might be kind of fun. For now give me Zelda, Hyrule Warriors, Toad, and Splatoon, and I will be fine. I am also somewhat interested in the Amiibo figurines picture above but I don’t know enough about them to really comment other than the collector in me is dying to get my hands on some of those guys.
Stephanie Bri 