Round Table: Conference Thoughts

As the dust settles on Nintendo’s E3 press conference, the staff collect their thoughts.

By Katharine Byrne. Posted 06/06/2012 09:00 4 Comments     ShareThis

The Meh:

Maurice Tyler

Let’s see, where do I start… First and foremost, Nintendo should hire actors/actresses to MC their shows. Listening to Japanese and an English translator at the same time can be a little distracting. Also Reggie, while likeable in some respects, doesn’t seem as natural when glued to a teleprompter. Although at its core E3 has always been a trade show, today it’s all about marketing and presentation.

Anyways, onto the games/console. I must admit that I was a little underwhelmed. After all, this was a hardware launch event. Though, it didn’t seem like it. The WiiU console appears to have simply caught up to the competition in terms of capability and the GamePad doesn’t present anything newer than what we’ve seen on the DS for years. I realize that Nintendo may still be holding an ace or two up its sleeve, but they have a lot riding on the success of this console. The momentum needs to start now if they intend for sales to be healthy in the Fall. With every major console launch, Nintendo has always been transformative/disruptive. I’m really not getting that vibe with this generation. Having said that, I’m excited to see the return of core games to a Nintendo console. The question is, will it persist? I was also happy to see the strong support of Ubisoft. They seem to be taking the same approach that Acclaim took with the N64 – which benefited them greatly in terms of profit and market penetration. Ultimately, I guess I will be taking a wait and see stance. With all of the strong development houses under the Nintendo umbrella, surely there will be more product announced. Console exclusives will determine the outcome of this cycle.


Michael Contino

Nintendo began strong with the impressive Pikmin 3 and soon after, New Super Mario Bros. U. We all know Wii U’s first 3D Mario platformer is in the works and Nintendo will probably focus on that, the first The Legend of Zelda on Wii U, and the future of Super Smash Bros., next year and beyond. In regards to the conference itself, it was pretty decent. Unlike other companies’ attempts at humor, it worked here. From the Pikmin to Reggie acknowledging the meme you all know and love. Unfortunately, my body was left wanting more than what it got. Although I am really looking forward to Ubisoft’s ZombiU, I could not help but think, as the trailer was playing, why not partner with Valve to make a Left U4 Dead? I barely played Batman: Arkham City on 360 but I may give Armored Edition a fighting chance.

Overall, the games shown were not bad at all but I was expecting, at the very least, a sizzle reel at the very end, showcasing Retro Studios’ project and sneak peeks at one of the following Nintendo franchises: Metroid, Star Fox, and Zelda. I know last year’s E3 was very Zelda-heavy but after we saw that demo, the game could at least have been alluded to. I will have to see more of Nintendo Landbefore I gather a real opinion on it but so far, I like the idea of Nintendo shipping a launch game (pack-in?) with references to our most beloved series’.

To wrap up my thoughts, I honestly am not convinced to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on Wii U at launch. I could just as easily, use my money for a 3DS and Paper Mario: Sticker Star. As I see more Wii U footage online, I am sure I will come around and put Wii U on my wish list. Nintendo has entered the HD realm and that entices me alone to buy into Wii U. I just wish they showed a Metroid Prime 4 or a peek at The Legend of Zelda U. Coming out of E3, my top five games from everyone are: 1. Halo 4, 2. Tomb Raider, 3. Star Wars 1313, 4. ZombiU, 5. New Super Mario Bros. U. What can you derive from that list? Nintendo did not impress me nearly enough and if it were not for Ubisoft’s awesome footage and HD 2D Mario, I would have had a mountain of disappointment to leap over. In closing, I give Nintendo at E3 a ‘B-‘. The conference was decent but underwhelming. And one final shout-out to Pikmin 3!

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4 Responses to “Round Table: Conference Thoughts”

  • 156 points
    Linkrevenge says...

    Yeah, it could so be better with Retro Studios chiming in with a new game. I heard a bit about ZombiU on spike e3 coverage and is more interesting then you think it is.

    • 576 points
      MegabusterLegends3 says...

      Well, at least we can look at it this way. If this E3 didn’t have Retro, you can be sure that they WILL be at the next E3. And by next E3, we can be sure to see the next 3D Mario game, at least, if not new entries in some other franchises. By then we will probably see a bit more support from third parties as well. Hopefully, once the Wii U has had its launch Window, the next E3 will be Nintendo’s true hard-core first party showcase. Still, I can’t help but feel like Nintendo still hasn’t quite dipped their toes into the HD era quite yet. Pikmin looks, beautiful, as does Nintendo Land, but at the same time, these games lack the scope and cinematic quality we were hoping to see in Retro’s new game. Pikmin and Nintendo land, in terms of processing power, probably could have been done on the Wii, and the same goes for NSMB U and Wii U Fit. (I understand that the controller makes a difference, but I’m taking that out of the equation). We were hoping for a Mario, or a Zelda, or a Star Fox, that would have the scope of Uncharted or Skyrim and give something for Sony and Microsoft Elitists to chew on. I was hoping this conference would prove the other fanboys wrong. Really, all Nintendo seemed to deliver First Party-wise outside of Pikmin 3(a known quantity) for the Wii U (and 3DS as well) was Mario (NSMB U and 2, Paper Mario, Luigi’s Mansion) and Minigame collections (Wii Fit U, Game and Wario, NintendoLand). ZombiU has promise, but an ancient Amiga game from Ubisoft’s primitive past doesn’t have the same pull at a Conference like E3 as Lara Croft or Naughty Dog. And the demo wasn’t quite as impressive as Watch Dogs or Splinter Cell, either. ZombiU should have been a highlight, but maybe not a main attraction.

  • 201 points
    NintendoDad says...

    Truthfully, content wise they have plenty of games coming out. They just delivered the info horribly. If they had just ran through the order of games shown backwards, it would have made a big difference. Start with Nintendo Land (and geez, cut out about 10 minutes of the explanation…it’s a bunch of fun mini-games, we get it), go to your games you feel you have to talk about (Sing, Wii FitU), go to your third parties, and then finish with Mario and Pikmin 3. Nintendo Land just left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. They tried to force it way too much. If they would have announced it as a pack in, maybe we wouldn’t have been too skeptical.

    But anyway, after the disappointment of the conference, I went about making a list of games releasing between now and launch window for the WiiU for the Wii (I’m still looking forward to Epic Mickey 2 and The Last Story), 3DS, and WiiU. I have a list of 12 games I’m very interested in and that’s more than enough.

  • 393 points
    James Stank says...

    It’s been a while, but as per usual Lewis, I agree with you. Boy do I love a “next gen” (though Wii U is current gen) console launching with current gen games. I love how Nintendo showed off so many games coming to Wii U that are already out, and showed no killer app. They are so desperate that they are playing it safe and developing two 2D Mario games at the same time that still look just like the original “New” super mario bros. on DS. What’s so new about these anymore? It’s more of the same or stale now. No game made me say, “I have to buy a Wii U.” Then all the 3DS games at the 3DS show today we already knew about! How cool is that!? No surprises or announcements. I can’t just blame Nintendo as every show was pretty sad, but I think Nintendo has the most to lose. With the next-gen Square-Enix engine revealed, and Sony’s “We aren’t always first to the market, but we’re always the best” comment, it shows that Nintendo’s competition isn’t scared, and from what we’ve seen, why should they be? While it’s true we still don’t have specs, it seems doubtful that Wii U can run SE’s engine in full, though maybe a weaker version, and with games like Star Wars 1313 supposedly being developed for “next generation consoles” it seems like we are in for Wii all over again, and that is not a good thing.

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