Sam’s E3 Summary and Review of NINTENDO [Updating Periodically]

This post will be covering my comments on the various events that happen regarding the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS during the E3 Expo. This does not cover everything that occurs during the event of the expo, and instead things that just interest me and/or have relevance to this blog. This is by no means an up to date ticker on the events (I live at the other side of the world), thus the event is held at night for me.

Summary and Review of the Nintendo Press Conference

The stage for this game consisted of a primarily blue theme. Personally considering the Wii, I would have chosen white, but no hassles with the stage design and it was good to see them making use of the door behind the speaker at times during the presentation.

First thing up, as one would have guessed is The Legend of Zelda: The Skyward Sword, which is the latest game in the Zelda franchise that has been teased forever and ever with just a few pieces of artwork. Now, I did like the bit where Shigeru Miyamoto (That was him right o_o) gave the overall blurb about his thoughts on it, and the way they added the sword and shield into it was really good.

So they start off with a simple gameplay demonstration in which, originally the presenter has difficulty controlling link, having Miyamoto appear on screen explaining the correct way how to hold the controller (Holding it more like a sword and shield). Whilst I am sure this seemed very clever to some, I am not all for starting off a demonstration by purposefully making it seem buggy, and the hold it like a sword and shield properly…. I hope they have a means of just normally flailing your arms around since after a repeated length of time, you just want to flail your arms around….. Overall, the gameplay seems the same as ever and the graphics I am not so keen on in comparison to what I expected…. I was hoping for something a bit more serious and cutting edge then what they showed. Still, the cell-shaded graphics worked for Wind Waker so I will not make a definite judgement until it is finally released.

Mario Sports Mix was showcased next…. and it is just like the other many sports games they have out for the Nintendo console…. just a casual game to be picked up by fans of the sport and/or Mario Bros characters. I suppose they have already exhausted the supply of sports games they can release by themselves on the console so might as well merge a large number of mini-sports in the one game. So….  it is great if you have a bunch of friends coming over, otherwise not really something that seems fun in the long run.

I am a big fan of Mario Party games, heck I own every single one that has been ever made except the crappy GBA one which I think barely passes as a game in its own right. Anyway, I am interested to see how Wii Party goes…. it seems to have a good number of features and HOPEFULLY it will carry the Mario Party charm, else this Mario Party fan will be severely disappointed at the end of a great, long-running franchise.

Nintendo’s answer to DDR and Para Para Dance, and heck, I really did enjoy the first game….. until I ended up unable to move for the next three days due to *Goes into the chemistry behind it*. I am really excited to see the lineup and hopefully it features a wider array of music! Just Dance 2 is definitely something I shall be checking out. After this, they advertised a new Golden Sun game for the DS which I couldnt get a decent image of…. looking good through, but hopefully they release a DS compilation of some of the past games since they are just impossible to get nowadays.

GoldenEye…. what I can say but VERY EXCITED FOR THIS GAME! After the trailer, they turned kid focused into a Mickey Mouse game which seems to be, in my opinion, a game that I will easily pass over. Heck, it took me ages to get into Kingdom Hearts because of judgement by others that I was playing what seemed to be a kids game.

Kirby’s Yawn whatever game. I have no idea why they chose to use Yarn, and I think it might deter some gamers who would otherwise enjoy this game, but overall looks like a decent platformer, and who doesnt want to see cute little Kirby turned into a tank! Also advertised was a new game in the Metroid series which I cannot comment on because I never played the series and still doesnt really interest me.

*Gives Nintendo a standing ovation* Finally Nintendo decided to take a smart move and release a new Donkey Kong game titled Donkey Kong Country Returns. It has been forever since a decent Donkey Kong platformer has been released (Since the N64 days), so now that they have decided to release, even a side-scrolling one, is definitely something worth cheering!

So then they arrived at the 3DS presentation, which I shall share my thoughts at the end of the article. First up, they showed the only real full length game trailer which was of a new Kid Icarus game which actually seemed like a lot of fast paced fun. Definately a worthwhile game to show. I am pretty sure they also showed a Metal Gear Solid game for 3DS but I couldnt find it in my video file whilst taking screenshots of it… weird…. More boring talk continued afterwards about the specs and the normal company talk about how our new 3D idea will make us the leading company.

Also they are advertising the fact the the 3DS will eat you during gameplay. Yea, didnt really get this since it is supposed to be about the 3D aspect not virtual reality, but heck, was fun to watch.

To conclude the conference, they sent out numbers of women with 3DS’s attached to themselves for the press to have test plays on. Now, I feel sorry for these women as I am sure for the next hour or two, they would have to stand there either having to endure one of two scenarios:

1. Getting completely ignored whilst they have members of the press play with the consoles.
2. Getting bombarded with questions which they may or may not be able to answer.

I kid, I kid, I am hopeful that it wasnt that bad. At least there was a time limit so there wasnt a brawl between the press about one person taking so long with the console.

Okay, I have a few opinions of the 3DS I would like to get out now, some might seem a bit cruel, but hey, I never said I was going to be nice with these reviews:

1. Why dis using glasses to play 3D Games? There is definitely a big difference in screen size and functionality between using a TV Screen… I doubt it would be possible to expect glasses-free TV’s to be available anytime soon.
2. This remains the same for any technology from any company, why get people from your own company and people who are set to publish titles on your console to endorse a product that the general public hasnt seen yet. Bias just screamed from that segment, regardless of if it was true or not.
3. There were a lot of classic titles seemingly announced for the 3DS and how much should people expect to pay for them? Games like Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time have been released so many times that it hardly seems worth the full price of a normal DS game.
4. What will be the ratio of 3DS Games to Normal DS games be? I have a normal DS and I enjoy getting games for it, however I dont want to render my purchase useless after this game is released by having 3DS exclusive games.
5. GBA Slot back in please please please!?!

Overall, it is clever technology and I do hope that it works out well, but given the track record of “shovelware” to the hardcore gamers, I do hope that the 3D games they release live up to the expectation, since what they showed so far seems great, but they need to keep releasing excellent first-party 3D games to gain my interest.

Overall, the conference ran for an hour and a bit, contained a lot of content and I was overall happy with the content, despite my pickyness of it all.

Once again, credits to Gamespot for the footage.