Nintendo E3 2015

It was a good E3... well not so much for Nintendo fans. I'm not going as far as some others and loose my shit, but the Digital Event was pretty disappointing. Even for someone like me, who already had low expectations. But I was a little right with my predictions. We got a new Metroid, a new Paper Mario and a new Animal Crossing. Just not the way the most of us wanted.

But let's talk about the Digital Event in General. After the strong start with the Smash Bros. Micro Direct and the World Championship, many were pretty hyped for the Digital Event. After the strong showing int 2014 the people were expecting the same for this year. Even after Nintendo announced they would focus on games that launch in 2015 or early 2016 many expected some bombs to be dropped. This however didn't happen. The Digital Event was disappointing. It was not awful or the End of Nintendo, as many are claiming, but it was nothing special. It was not E3 worthy.

Let's talk about the Event in General first, before glossing over the individual games. Because it showed one thing clearly. Nintendo is playing it as safe as it can with 3DS and Wii-U now. Also the don't seem to understand E3 at all. Or at least E3 Press Conferences, which the Digital Event is the replacement of.

First about the playing it safe. All the new announcements we saw for the Wii-U were safe bets. We got a new Animal Crossing Game, even though it's only a Party Amiibo nonsense. But now the Wii-U has an Animal Crossing. It probably will sell well and doesn't need to much effort, because it re-uses the engine of Mario Party 10 by the looks of it. The same can be said for Tri-Force Heroes and Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam. Altough I'm sure both will be excellent games, they are also very cost efficient to make. Mario and Luigi just re-uses many assets from Paper Mario: Sticker Star and Mario and Luigi: Dream Team Bros. The concept would have been much more interesting on the Wii-U, but of course would have needed much more work.

This is a trend that was clearly visible through the Digital Event. Nintendo is going the way with the least resistance. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but if it's this blatantly obvious, it creates a problem. It creates the image of Nintendo just riding out their consoles on their last breath. This may even be true, but you shouldn't rub it into your consumers face. Consumer confidence and trust is the most important thing in business. It is a thing which is lost easily and hardly regained.

As for Nintendo not understanding E3... E3 is the place for Hype. I know I have spoken pretty critical about the culture of Hype in Video Games, but if there is a place to create Hype with the Hardcore Crowd, then it's E3. And Nintendo had the perfect opportunity to bring both worlds, Hype and Reality, together. Give us a great show during the Digital Event (more games, less Developers talking) and then show us an in depth look at these games (with Developers talking) during the Treehouse Live Stream.

It would have been so easy to make this a great event. Showing Star Fox was a great start. Just don't announce it last year and end the Show with Metroid U (if it's in development, which I truly hope) and bam you have a great Digital Event.

This E3 just once again showed that Nintendo doesn't understand Marketing... or that they don't understand at least half of the time.

But well let's talk about the games that they did show.

Star Fox Zero:

It looks ok. I don't hate the graphical style. It reminds me a lot of The Wonderful 101 and Platinum is also developing this game, so it makes sense. It's pretty clear that it won't be as impressive, as say Bayonetta 2, because the console has to render the image two times. Once on the big screen, for the cinematic view, and once on the Gamepad for cockpit view. But Corneria was really lacking details. I hope they polish the game till release, because, while not looking bad, the worlds seemed rather empty. But apart from that the game looks like a lot of fun, but I'm not certain that this will be the system seller Nintendo is hoping for. However I will surely get it.

Hyrule Warriors Legends:

Well we already knew about it, and I'm not a huge fan of it. I agree with http://touriantourist.blogspot.co.at/ that a full fledged Hyrule Warriors for 3DS would have been better. I'm just not a fan of these remakes only one year after a game has released. Still we get two new characters and all the DLC ones, so the package is really nice for someone, who doesn't own a Wii-U. Still a full fledged Toon Hyrule Warriors with characters from the Handheld Zeldas, would have been better.

Tri-Force Heroes:

Cool game and I'm looking forward to it. Never had the chance to play a lot of four swords during the days, because link cables were a nightmare, but with Online Play this should be a lot of fun. Nothing more to add really, cause I'm pretty happy with this announcement and I'm looking forward to it. Oh and the costume idea is great, but some of them are rather strange.

Metroid Prime: Federation Force:

Well that was a bit of a bummer. At least with no proper Metroid Title going along with it. Honestly it looks like an original IP that just got Metroid tucked onto it, so that it would sell more units. I have no problem with a Metroid spinoff like this, where you don't play Samus, but you can't leave your fans hanging 5 years and then announce this. Along with Metroid Prime 4 this would have been nice, but as it is I can understand the backlash against this game, even if it get's more hate than it deserves. The Gameplay looks nice and all, but nothing all to special. At least this shows that the Metroid Prime brand is still alive, so bring this back into the canon and cross out Other M.

Fire Emblem Fates:

Haven't played any Fire Emblem Games yet, but Awakening is on my To-Do List. This looks like a great sequel. I'm not a fan of the seperate games for separate storylines approach. If the games themselves have enough content I may forgive it though.

Genei Ibun Roku #FE

Batshit Crazy Japanese... that sums this game up pretty nicely. Looking forward to it. I haven't played a Persona game yet, so this will be a first for me. But I like japanese RPGs, so this should be fine. Still all of the non-important characters beeing 2D cutouts, seems like a weird design choice to me.

Xenoblade Chronicles X:

It arrives much later than I have anticipated, but at least still in 2015. The game looks absolutely massive though, so most of the christmas holiday is already booked out I guess.

Animal Crossing:

I'm just glance over these two games, because I'm not and will never be an Animal Crossing fan. But I can understand the disappointment of the fans. After the teases from the developers, everybody was expecting a full Animal Crossing game for Wii-U and instead we get this Amiibo.. thing. It's a huge wasted chance in my opinion. Animal Crossing could have been a big system seller for the Wii-U (at least in Japan) and with this Home designer game they could have pulled of some nice interconnectivity. Design a house on the 3DS and see the same character inhabit this very house on the Wii-U version. Like Metriod Prime: Federation Force it's a nice to have title, but not replacement for a full installment of this series. Oh and also it seems like this bullshit requires Amiibos to actually play the game. So fuck you Nintendo on this one.

Yoshis Wooly World:

Great game. Comes out next week. Expect a review.

Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam:

Mario and Luigi are good games. Paper Marios are good games. So both of them together should make for a good game. Presentation wise this games reeks of a lot of re-used assets, but I don't mind if the game itself is new. Again it's not a Wii-U game, but the 3DS needs love too.

Mario Tennis Ultra Smash:

I would have preferred a new Mario Strikers, but Tennis is fine too.

Super Mario Maker:

From the first announcement of this, I was hyped for it. And, like many other Nintendo games, this one got better and better with each showing. The Levels at the Nintendo World championship really did show the absolute craziness that is possible with this game. So many Kaizo Mario levels will be made and I'm looking forward to try my luck as level creator.

All in all this Digital Event was pretty weak. It was not terrible, but also not exciting in the slightest. It definitely wasn't worthy for E3. Maybe Nintendo will fix this in the coming months with some good Nintendo Directs, but for now they fucked up.

But at the same time I'm not sure that this already means they have abandoned the Wii-U. In an interview they stated that Zelda U will still release on the console in 2016, and maybe they have more up their sleeve. As for now we still have a pretty good 2015 in front of us, and if they don't announce anything till the end of the year, then we can start to worry.

But what was your take on this Digital Event and E3 in general? Are you looking forward to any specific games?

And as always

thanks for reading  

source of all pictures: Nintendo