Something went wrong. Try again later

Giant Bomb News

207 Comments

Nintendo's E3 2012 Press Conference: Still Chasing Dads After All These Years

You couldn't have asked for a better opening to a Nintendo conference. You probably could have asked for a better, or at least more consistent remaining 45 minutes, however.

It looked promising. Opening on a smiling Shigeru Miyamoto (as if any other kind exists) and a bunch of CG cartoon Pikmin skittering around the cheerful designer's press conference dressing room, Nintendo had seemingly set the tone for what was to come. As Miyamoto bounced out onto the stage to introduce Pikmin 3 for the Wii U, it looked as though we were in for a fun ride. Maybe, just maybe, Nintendo was going to come at us with a slew of interesting games. We knew third-party stuff was there, and we knew there had to be other Nintendo originals kicking around. Maybe Nintendo was going to wow us. Maybe they were going to be able to punch through the cynicism and skepticism and actually show us something awesome.

That feeling did not last.

Pikmin 3 looked really great. I mean, it's Pikmin, but it's not like we've had one of those in a while.
Pikmin 3 looked really great. I mean, it's Pikmin, but it's not like we've had one of those in a while.

Miyamoto was on stage demonstrating Pikmin 3 for maybe 5 minutes. The game looked great, in that it looked like an extremely crisp-looking Pikmin game. Then Reggie came out to regale us with the myriad games Nintendo planned to show us for the Wii U. 23 games, he said, would be shown to us. This number sounded fantastic, we of the Internet-watching audience were pumped to see what they'd bring us.

Then he started talking about Hulu and Netflix. It all kind of went downhill from there.

The apps were not the problem. Of course the Wii U was going to have apps, and it's good that they have them. It wasn't the awkwardly explained revelation that the Wii U can totally support two GamePads now, (translation: Hey guys, you can buy another one of these things!) It wasn't even Reggie. Despite talking in his frequently parodied stilted tone, Reggie was pretty much the expected Reggie, outside of a few strangely dark moments. The problem was, Nintendo didn't deliver on the promise. They showed games, but they didn't show very many that offered anything beyond the expected, or the inexplicable. Some of these games looked reasonably fun, but Nintendo games aren't supposed to be reasonably fun. They're supposed to be cheery rays of sunshine that put permanent grins on the faces of all the company's fans. There didn't appear to be too many smiles in NintendoLand today.

Let's deal with the obvious stuff first. Yes, there is a New Super Mario Bros. game for the Wii U, and it looks...like a New Super Mario Bros. game. To be fair, it did look really sharp. If that had been one among several big game announcements, then I doubt people would have been so critical of it, but beyond NSMB and Pikmin, Nintendo had surprisingly little to show for its own work on the platform.

Instead, Nintendo put the focus on third-party support. This has, for many years, been the proverbial football that Nintendo's Charlie Brown has thus far been unable to kick. So Nintendo doubled down on the third-party action, bringing out Ubisoft and WB Games reps to show off a few scattered new games, like Scribblenauts Unlimited and ZombiU, and then showing us a whole lot of Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition. You know, that game you played last year, except without touch-screen controls shoved in there for fun and profit but let's be honest it's actually mostly profit.

If you're going to make Mario obsessed with collecting gold, why not just make a new WarioLand?
If you're going to make Mario obsessed with collecting gold, why not just make a new WarioLand?

The expected montage showed yet more games we have already played, or at least will have possibly played by the time the Wii U launches. Darksiders II, Ninja Gaiden 3, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and yes, Mass Effect 3, will all be there at launch. But are any of these system sellers? Do you look at this slate of games and say, "Yes, this is why I will buy a Wii U." More likely, you're saying to yourself "Well, I already own hardware that plays these games, and enhanced boomerang control isn't really enough to get me to plunk down on a new console." If I am mistaken in presuming this, by all means say so in the comments. However, if the general reactions I've been reading following the conference are any indication, if anything, I'm being polite.

There will assuredly be better third-party games post-launch, of this much I am certain. But Nintendo is not in a great position to be waiting around for great games. Remember the 3DS launch? And if they are going to be waiting for third parties to get on board, they needed to show more than a New Super Mario Bros. game and Pikmin. For as fun as those games look, NSMB has kind of been worn down at this point (case in point, the OTHER NSMB game shown for the 3DS at the same conference), and Pikmin is perhaps a bit too niche to get the mainstream audience on board.

And instead of showing interesting, broad-spectrum games, they showed us NintendoLand.

NintendoLand is, of course, Nintendo's hub for small-scale gaming experiences with a theme park, er, theme. There are going to be several of them at launch, including a Zelda-themed game, an Animal Crossing-themed game, and a Luigi's Mansion game, which we got a very, very lengthy demo of. By the end of said demo, I was not exactly chomping at the bit to take a trip to NintendoLand.

Maybe NintendoLand is great. I have no idea based on the demos showed today.The lengthy demos shown on stage today just didn't seem to inspire excitement in anybody. Granted, us journalist types rarely get excited about "family gaming experiences," AKA the kind of minigame focused stuff Nintendo pretty much predicated the Wii on. But even as someone who liked Wii Sports and subsequent iterations of it, I found myself increasingly disinterested as Nintendo went deeper and deeper down this theme park rabbit hole. The Luigi's Ghost Mansion demo, which lasted for several minutes longer than it needed to, somehow managed to become less informative as it went along. It's as if it was sucking knowledge out of my brain as it continued. After reading about it elsewhere, I understood it--players are being chased by a "ghost" character controlled by the GamePad, while also trying to track down the ghost with flashlights--but watching it on screen, my eyes just kind of rolled back into my head. It sucked the life out of a show that was already breathing with some distress. And that was the closing segment.

Do with this image what you will.
Do with this image what you will.

I'm quite sure I'm being branded a negative nelly in the comments by now (possibly in more profane terminology), so for the sake of positivity, here are a few things I did genuinely enjoy besides Pikmin.

The 3DS actually made a good showing at the conference. In addition to the other NSMB (in which Mario somehow catches Wario's gold obsession), a new Paper Mario game, subtitled Sticker Star, was shown, and it looked pretty cool. Plus we got more Luigi's Mansion 2 footage. That's one I've been looking forward to since last E3, and seeing it get a bit of highlight time was great.

And then there was that one other Wii U third-party game. The one you may recall being titled Lego City Stories. It's not called that anymore. It's called Lego City Undercover, and it looks bonkers. Like, Lego parodying Grand Theft Auto bonkers. It's a hard-boiled open-world crime game with Lego people. Watch the demo for it when it goes up on the site. You have to see it to understand it.

It's distinctly possible that after getting my hands on more of these NintendoLand minigames and third-party endeavors that my mind may change altogether. Maybe the conference just didn't highlight the strengths of the system properly, and maybe my disappointment here will ultimately be for naught. If that's the case, I'll be the first one to yell it out to anyone who will listen. I want to like the Wii U. There are games I want to play on it. But few of them grabbed me strongly enough to shake me into an excited state. Little of what I saw today thrilled me, or even really put much of a smile on my face. I know my cold, callous heart is still capable of being warmed, because in the early goings, during that first Pikmin demo, I was all smiles. I want those smiles again. Hopefully after I hit the show floor, I'll get them.

Random Thoughts:

  • If you missed the post-conference live stream with Satoru Iwata, you missed some high comedy. Expect "Dad Chasers" and Iwata holding bananas to be this year's major E3 memes.
  • I didn't talk about the Wii U fitness stuff because I hate health. If it doesn't make me slower, fatter, or stupider, I don't want it.
  • I genuinely don't know what got up Reggie's craw today, but his interactions with the other business guys on stage seemed...a little brusque? He seemed especially harsh on that Scott guy, who had to go through all the 3DS stuff. Scott looked the kind of nervous that only a man who fears a severe beating can look.
  • Reggie's association of two GamePads being supported as being "like the original Nintendo Entertainment System" is either a brilliant piece of shady nostalgic marketing, or the rantings of a lunatic. I really don't know which.
  • They really pushed the black Wii U GamePad today. The future is black.

No more conferences, but stay tuned for plenty more commentary from us during our live broadcasts and during our wrap-ups from the show floor. There will be much to discuss!

Alex Navarro on Google+

207 Comments

Avatar image for danteveli
Danteveli

1441

Forum Posts

735

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 7

User Lists: 30

Edited By Danteveli

Don't get why Project P-100 wasn't on stage.

Avatar image for vibratingdonkey
vibratingdonkey

1238

Forum Posts

1219

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 8

User Lists: 2

Edited By vibratingdonkey

I don't know. Nintendo lost me around N64 time, never really had that reverence and nostalgia for most of their franchises. And if you don't care a whole lot about those then a Nintendo console is kind of not an entirely convincing investment. Don't know if me getting tempted enough to return to Nintendo is an achievable goal. Either way, this conference didn't achieve it. Feel the same for the WiiU as I did the Wii.

Avatar image for wintersnowblind
WinterSnowblind

7599

Forum Posts

41

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 4

Edited By WinterSnowblind

Pikmin 3 looked amazing, I'm very happy to finally see that. The 3DS stuff was also pretty impressive and I'm really looking forward to that show tomorrow.

But what on Earth where they doing with the Wii U? A new Mario game would be great, but why another New Super Mario Bros. title, that looks like it was quickly hashed together? What happened to the big 3D adventure games, with a lot of exploration? They had a big opportunity to easily steal the show, but dropped the ball even harder than Sony did with the Vita. I didn't expect another Zelda so soon.. but Metroid, Starfox, F-Zero, Pokemon? Where are all their big franchises, what is there to make me give a damn about this console?

It didn't have as much nauseating nonsense as Microsoft, but it was still a complete and utter failure of a show.

Avatar image for penguindust
penguindust

13129

Forum Posts

22

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

Edited By penguindust

No date or price on this thing. It's hard to get excited when you don't know when you're going to be able to get your grubby little hands on one. I would assume holiday 2012, but is that world-wide of just Japan? If it stretches too far into 2013, then it runs the danger of being overshadowed by Microsoft and Sony's new platforms next year.

I thought Pikmin 3 was cute but nothing made me say "I need one of those now!"

Avatar image for thekeenan
thekeenan

80

Forum Posts

580

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 5

Edited By thekeenan

Thanks for the round-up Alex.

I am really enjoying reading your E3 conference articles as I have missed watching most live due to work.

Avatar image for nevi
Nevi

70

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By Nevi
Avatar image for mushi
Mushi

22

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 2

Edited By Mushi

Was Chris Kohler from Wired in the front row jerking off?

Avatar image for umdesch4
umdesch4

787

Forum Posts

135

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By umdesch4

For me, a really odd thing was right at the end of the presser. Reggie said they were going to show more from NintendoLand, so I was expecting some kind of montage of the other dozen mini-games or something. Instead it was 15 seconds of fireworks, and poof...show's over.

Avatar image for arrested_developer
Arrested_Developer

855

Forum Posts

180

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

Don't think I saw one thing I'd actually buy during the whole conference. Sure, Pikmin looked decent, but I havent played the series up till now and that trailer didn't do anything to make me reconsider my positition.

Avatar image for mjhaylett
MJHAYLETT

490

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By MJHAYLETT

I was so bored during the Nintendo Conference that I near slapped myself to stay awake. At least during Ubisoft there was awkwardness and laughs (at them) to be had and some good demos. EA just showed some games - it was painless enough. Microsoft started well but was mostly a snooze fest (COD BLOPS 2 at the end went on forever) and Sony had a new Quantic Dream game, some kick ass Demo's and then The Last of Us which was awesome.

Sony's was the best as far as games went, Microsoft at least had a Halo game but Nintendo - zzzzzzzzzzzzz after Pikmin 3.

Avatar image for isomeri
isomeri

3528

Forum Posts

300

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 26

Edited By isomeri

@BooDoug187 said:

No Caption Provided
No Caption Provided

Yes, perfect, thank you.

Avatar image for boodoug187
BooDoug187

494

Forum Posts

5378

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By BooDoug187

@isomeri said:

@BooDoug187 said:

No Caption Provided
No Caption Provided

Yes, perfect, thank you.

Here have one more

No Caption Provided
Avatar image for fishiebuddha
FishieBuddha

56

Forum Posts

652

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 4

Edited By FishieBuddha

Here's the thing I don't get - they've had a solid year since last year's e3. There had to be more footage of Nintendo properties. What the hell are they doing? Why weren't there a ton of games that make your jaw drop and pull your wallet out? No Metroid, no Zelda, no Smash, no 3d Mario, no Animal Crossing, no Pokemon. Come on. What the hell were they doing for a year?

Avatar image for algertman
algertman

871

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By algertman

Pikmin was amazing. Everything else was flat. Still better than Sony or MS.

Avatar image for baltimore
baltimore

406

Forum Posts

344

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 4

User Lists: 4

Edited By baltimore

Anyone else notice that Reggie seem a bit angry? I wonder if the entire press event got changed by the Japanese overlords from what the USA team originally wanted. Other than that, I didn't count 23 games. Unless each and every Nintendo Land game counted.

Overall, C

Avatar image for zeushbien
zeushbien

821

Forum Posts

13

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By zeushbien

I pretty much agree 100% with your article Alex, I was feeling all giddy as the show started and miyamoto unveiled pikmin for us, but yeah.. After that it got pretty dissapointing, I mean, what was with all the time spent on Arkham City? I get that they want to show us that third party will matter this time around, but why not show us one of the upcoming games, like Darksiders II more indepth for an example?

I agree though that the 3ds stuff looked pretty neat, so thats something for sure.

Avatar image for wjist
WJist

330

Forum Posts

5087

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 4

User Lists: 7

Edited By WJist

@wafflestomp said:

Not to pile on but Nintendo is out of their damned minds. They had an opportunity to change perceptions on Nintendo but instead curled back up into the ball of mediocrity that they have been living in. The 3DS has some kick ass stuff coming for it, yet their new machine that we are supposed to pay money for has almost no games I am interested in or have played already.

Where is Zelda? Where is Metroid? Where is Earthbound? Where is a true Mario 3D game. The "New" SMB was cute the first time, okay the second. Now you give me 2 of the same game?!!! BOO YOU.

I want adventure, excitement and whimsy of Nintendo of old. Not this watered down version of my childhood.

Fix it, Reggie. Fix it now.

THIS x 1,000,000. Where is the adventurous company that did new things with old characters? Like Mario Picross or Tetris Attack? All that experimental stuff is just reserved for Kirby.

Avatar image for isomeri
isomeri

3528

Forum Posts

300

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 26

Edited By isomeri

@hoodedrobin said:

Here's the thing I don't get - they've had a solid year since last year's e3. There had to be more footage of Nintendo properties. What the hell are they doing? Why weren't there a ton of games that make your jaw drop and pull your wallet out? No Metroid, no Zelda, no Smash, no 3d Mario, no Animal Crossing, no Pokemon. Come on. What the hell were they doing for a year?

They actually haven't had a solid year since last year's E3. Nintendo is bleeding money like a stuck pig. As a Nintendo fan you are supposed to buy the WiiU, play some party-games for about six months. When E3 2013 rolls around they will show Zelda, Mario and so on to try and answer the next-gen onslaught from Microsoft and Sony.

Avatar image for mordeaniischaos
MordeaniisChaos

5904

Forum Posts

-1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 5

User Lists: 5

Edited By MordeaniisChaos

Nintendo out-bored me over Microsoft, and Ubisoft was awesome? Well, other than the hosts, who only avoided being worse than caffeine by not insulting a demographic.

Avatar image for spilledmilkfactory
spilledmilkfactory

2085

Forum Posts

13011

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 75

User Lists: 23

That conference was absolute garbage. Really, your headlining game is one that's been out for seven months on real consoles, only with shit-looking motion controls shoehorned in?

Your console is as powerful as the 360 and PS3, and yet all of your first party games look like they just jumped off of the Nintendo DS or N64? (Seriously, Yoshi's Story for the N64 looked about as nice as that NSMB demo.)

Your two big hitters are both NSMB games, and the way that you choose to differentiate them from one another is by color-swapping a few things in one of them to be gold?

And, worst of all, you choose to close out the presentation with an overlong NintendoLand demo boring enough to send an insomniac deep into sleep? No release date or pricing info to close out on? Isn't that thing supposed to be coming out in 4 or 5 months?

Oh Nintendo, how you've fallen. If I didn't have to play that next console for work, I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole, at least not with how things are shaping up now. Who knows, maybe in the future it'll begin to realize its potential, but as of now... I just don't know about you anymore, Nintendo.

Avatar image for zleunamme
Zleunamme

1082

Forum Posts

1740

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 9

Edited By Zleunamme

The photo of the guy sitting on the board. Is that suppose to be a way for parents teach their kids how to use the potty?

Avatar image for mocbucket62
MocBucket62

2688

Forum Posts

1106

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 7

Edited By MocBucket62
@mnzy: Okay, I forgot about that when posting my message. Man Nintendo wants NintendoLand to be the next Wii Sports and this comes with the system,
Avatar image for coldwolven
Cold_Wolven

2583

Forum Posts

3

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Cold_Wolven

I love how the 3DS is getting the games I would've rather played on the Wii U but instead all I'll be getting is 3rd party games that would have already come out. This has to be one of the most disappointing E3's overall as really nothing about next gen was announced and the Wii U that is coming out has a launch that could rival that of the 3DS launch in terms of lackluster games. I've officially outgrown Nintendo and that makes me sad : (

Avatar image for fishiebuddha
FishieBuddha

56

Forum Posts

652

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 4

Edited By FishieBuddha

@isomeri said:

@hoodedrobin said:

Here's the thing I don't get - they've had a solid year since last year's e3. There had to be more footage of Nintendo properties. What the hell are they doing? Why weren't there a ton of games that make your jaw drop and pull your wallet out? No Metroid, no Zelda, no Smash, no 3d Mario, no Animal Crossing, no Pokemon. Come on. What the hell were they doing for a year?

They actually haven't had a solid year since last year's E3. Nintendo is bleeding money like a stuck pig. As a Nintendo fan you are supposed to buy the WiiU, play some party-games for about six months. When E3 2013 rolls around they will show Zelda, Mario and so on to try and answer the next-gen onslaught from Microsoft and Sony.

Like other people said - this was their year. They had the stage, no other companies were putting out hardware. This was it. They should have leaned hard on people like us with their properties, or just gone full Wii U whimsy Nintendoland. This half and half shit doesn't cut it. When e3 2013 comes around, it's too late. By then they've lost their huge splash.

Avatar image for admordem
admordem

518

Forum Posts

2256

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 15

Edited By admordem

"If it doesn't make me slower, fatter, or stupider, I don't want it."

Made me laugh!

Avatar image for tackchevy
Tackchevy

292

Forum Posts

12

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 10

User Lists: 0

Edited By Tackchevy

I typed like three different rants, deleted all of them. All y'all need to be less cynical. There are more awesome games that come out all the time than a person can play while also doing other things while awake. I'm in my late 20's but feel like an old man... I wish I could go back to when people didn't expect to know and have everything at their fingertips all the time. Did you not just get a huge console Zelda a few months ago? Fuck.

Internet fatigue. Minor rant over, please carry on. Sorry, everyone here is being much cooler, I accidentally subjected myself to the IGN live feed comment thread for too long today and I haven't recovered all the way.

Avatar image for gunslingerpanda
GunslingerPanda

5263

Forum Posts

40

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By GunslingerPanda

Nintendo highlight first party stuff: People complain.

Nintendo highlight third party stuff: People complain.

Avatar image for magzine
MAGZine

441

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By MAGZine

I'm not sure why people were expecting Zelda at all.

Two Zelda games just came out last year (One new, one rehash, excluding VC releases). You know, to celebrate Zelda's 25th anniversary? It's Zelda, not Call of Duty.

Yes, some of the games they chose to focus on were unexciting or lackluster... I think there might be an undue amount of hate though. I thought Lego City: Undercover looked like fun, as did Pikman 3, ZombiU and Luigi's Mansion. I was also happy about ACIII and Darksiders II making appearances... it just shows that 3rd party is coming to Nintendo, which is exciting. I think what will be interesting is if we'll see new games with graphical capabilities exceeding the PS3/360 (as might be expected), or if games will simply get a direct port, with little done to enhance.

@Lucidlife: AFAIK, the console is HD, it has a Pro controller ("for simplicity") and it will now be seeing more games from 3rd party, along with 1st party releases. I'm not sure what Nintendo could've done to please you, really.

Avatar image for kfizz
kfizz

41

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 2

Edited By kfizz

I just felt to fucking safe its like I was in a comma or something.

Avatar image for dad_is_a_zombie
Dad_Is_A_Zombie

1244

Forum Posts

877

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Dad_Is_A_Zombie

I figured Microsoft would come out of E3 with no sizzle whatsoever, but Nintendo? How do you debut a new console and generate virtually no buzz? Quite a disappointment...

Avatar image for geirr
geirr

4166

Forum Posts

717

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 5

Edited By geirr

I feel weirdly empty inside after this conference.

Avatar image for probablytuna
probablytuna

5010

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By probablytuna

Damn I missed it. Though by the look of things it seems I didn't miss much.

Avatar image for jazz_lafayette
Jazz_Lafayette

3897

Forum Posts

844

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 14

Edited By Jazz_Lafayette

@bricewgilbert said:

You just don't get it Alex. New Super Mario Bros 2 is Nintendo getting into the gold craze. It's an important statement from Nintendo about the gold standard. Ron Paul for president! Lizard People.

Gooooooold! Gooold! Ahahaha! Gooooold!

Avatar image for thepilgrums
ThePilgrums

529

Forum Posts

20

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 1

Edited By ThePilgrums

@kfizz said:

I just felt to fucking safe its like I was in a comma or something.

You were inside a comma? Do you mean "coma"?

Avatar image for vincentvendetta
VincentVendetta

560

Forum Posts

20604

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 5

User Lists: 5

Edited By VincentVendetta

And all they had to do was annonce F-Zero on WiiU... like... F-Zero UV?

Avatar image for roger_klotz
Roger_Klotz

841

Forum Posts

317

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Roger_Klotz

Iwata's leather suit jacket and the awkward cuts to him holding a banana and him as zombie did it for me.

Avatar image for dan_citi
Dan_CiTi

5598

Forum Posts

308

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By Dan_CiTi

WHY ISNT POKEMON IN NINTENDO LAND, IT HAS WARIO AND STARFOX AND ANIMAL CROSSING.....Rhythm Heaven would have been cool too.

Also I want Propellerhead and Nintendo to make a music game together combining all the random weirdness of Wii Music, the fun sequencing of Mario Paint and Propellerhead's easy to use, fun, and surprising powerful iOS app Figure, and of course elements from Reason.

Anyway, the console looks nice, and I hope it has more UI and stuff going on just the system than just that damn plaza. In addition, I hope it has at least a significant step up in performance than the 360 and PS3 in the long run. Also I hope Capcom does good on that system, and a part of me wants the best/fullest version of SSF4 and UMvC3 on there (like all of the DLC and Vita features, even a little few features added in SFxTK), along with P4A and Skullgirls. I hope fighting games can be serious on that console. The short reel of Tekken Tag 2 was awesome! As well as 3rd parties just being more serious, broad, and experimental on the platform in general. And with all the fancy ports/versions, where is SKYRIM?! Wouldn't that be nice to have a fixed up version of that game with Dawnguard built-in to it? Hopefully the GOTY version shows up on Wii U.

Also yeah, they are not gonna show that many new major franchises or establish new stuff at this E3, the next year will be the start of that, they need to get the broad, safe things and all the nice WiiU versions of existing 3rd party stuff on there with a few perks like Pikmin 3 and Scribblenauts Unlimited.

Avatar image for jfetch
JFetch

124

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By JFetch

If Reggie had pulled his pants down and taken a dump on stage, it would have been a better conference than what they did. Come to think of it, it would probably make a better game than some of what they showed. They were the only ones launching a new console and they blew it. How is that possible? Not even a price and launch date.

Avatar image for cybexx
Cybexx

1697

Forum Posts

1458

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 9

Edited By Cybexx

I'm quite mixed on this conference. I was super happy to see Pikmin 3 officially announced and the game looks great but it is kind of weird that you can just play it with a Wiimote and Nunchuck, I guess that just speaks to all its time in development as a Wii game. It feels to me like the WiiU controller will offer a different but not essential experience with Pikmin 3, which probably means its not going to be the game to live up to the promise of the Wii U, but its probably going to be a fantastic Pikmin game.

I'm oddly more intrigued by the MiiVerse features of New Super Mario Bros Wii U than the game itself, but I'm sure it will be a solid, if predicable, game. NintendoLand seems like it could be an okay mini-game collection, I'm hoping it is a pack-in and basically acts as a sampler for both WiiU features and Nintendo properties. If it is a stand-alone boxed product I don't know if I would buy it.

Lego City: Undercover looks both funny and fun. The whole minifigs talking thing that Travelers Tales has in all their new games is starting to grow on me and becoming less sacrilegious by the day. Zombi U looks like it has a couple neat ideas but I'm not expecting the most polished or deep game in the world from that one.

Nintendo really needed either a Mario Galaxy successor, a surprise Zelda game or a new game from Retro Studios. Pikmin 3 is kind of serving the same role as Twilight Princess did for Wii (delayed upgraded previous generation port) but its not going to excite the core gamers in the same way. I feel being an early adopter of every major system over the last decade hasn't bit me in the ass too much so far, so I'm at least going to get a WiiU for Pikmin 3 and Lego City but my threshold for purchase is a lot lower than most people. I feel that over the lifetime of the system it will be worth it but I probably won't be making any recommendations to friends in the short-term.

Nintendo does not appear to have changed course yet, so I suspect we are in for the same game droughts that we've seen for the last three generations of NIntendo console hardware. Unless a couple third-party games manage to miraculously catch fire.

Avatar image for president_barackbar
President_Barackbar

3648

Forum Posts

853

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

@Cold_Wolven said:

I've officially outgrown Nintendo and that makes me sad : (

Don't be, there's plenty of good stuff out there that isn't Nintendo!
Avatar image for sopranosfan
sopranosfan

1965

Forum Posts

35

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 4

User Lists: 8

Edited By sopranosfan

The WiiU is supposed to launch in 4-6 months and stll no price or even official launch date? Not a good sign if you ask me.

Avatar image for prestonhedges
prestonhedges

1961

Forum Posts

42

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By prestonhedges

It's really hilarious how the gaming press completely forgets every other system launch ever when a new system gets introduced and is like, "But where are the games!!!" They're in the same place all those amazing launch titles for the 360 and PS3 were: nowhere. It's why only morons buy a system the moment it comes out.

Avatar image for shaanyboi
Shaanyboi

1804

Forum Posts

3224

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 5

Edited By Shaanyboi

@sopranosfan said:

The WiiU is supposed to launch in 4-6 months and stll no price or even official launch date? Not a good sign if you ask me.

They did the same thing with Wii. They'll wait until like... September.

Avatar image for wmoyer83
wmoyer83

1166

Forum Posts

1119

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 9

User Lists: 6

Edited By wmoyer83

Why buy a new system to play Darksiders 2 and Akrham City? The Wii U is the Dreamcast 2.0

Avatar image for mrpandaman
mrpandaman

959

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 1

Edited By mrpandaman

@GunslingerPanda said:

Nintendo highlight first party stuff: People complain.

Nintendo highlight third party stuff: People complain.

Since I haven't seen the conference, but the first party is the same old same old. Maybe it's time for something new, even at least one new IP from them?

From what I heard and read about the third party stuff is that it's not really different from what others are getting on the other consoles and that some of the games will have already been released before the WiiU comes out.

As long as people's complaints are valid and aren't being whiny, there's no reason to complain about the complainers.

Avatar image for shaanyboi
Shaanyboi

1804

Forum Posts

3224

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 5

Edited By Shaanyboi

@Krakn3Dfx said:

I'm kind of embarrassed for Nintendo that someone obviously thought 95% of this was stuff that people would give a shit about.

Their idea to beat back phone/tablet gaming is to add a tablet that has to be tethered to an upgraded Wii to work, and it's probably going to cost $350-$400 for this setup. There's nothing to see here.

And where's that new Super Smash Bros. we heard about last year at E3?

Ummm...just starting development? Especially considering Sakurai JUST finished Kid Icarus

Avatar image for drjota
drjota

741

Forum Posts

3863

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 6

Edited By drjota

NintendoLand sounds like that one theme park that had the one good rollercoaster,with shitty bumper cars.Then they bought out a local water park hoping that would boost summer profits,but had to pay extra to take out the piss.

Avatar image for paulunga
paulunga

3517

Forum Posts

176

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 5

Edited By paulunga

Okay, I need this cleared up or at least confirmation that I actually saw it: While showing off the NintendoLand hub there was this one scene panning around, showing off the different logos. I could've SWORN that one of them was Atlus' Jack Frost. Or did I mistake that for a Nintendo franchise I can't think of right now?

Avatar image for jonnyflash80
Jonnyflash80

531

Forum Posts

576

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 4

Edited By Jonnyflash80

Alex, you're being a bit of a negative nelly. IMO, the Wii U fixes the two major problems that the Wii had. 1. It has a standard control scheme with two thumbsticks and a standard button layout. 2. It can output HD resolutions

With these additions I think the third party AAA titles will come without the need for shitty mediocre ports. Of course this all hinges on if the Wii U hardware be powerful enough to keep up with the next consoles from Sony and Microsoft.

As someone else mentioned, why haven't they announced a price and date for the system yet? Another e3 mystery.

Avatar image for deactivated-590b7522e5236
deactivated-590b7522e5236

1918

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Regardless of where the wii ended up, it WAS pretty exciting when announced. wiiu had so much to prove yet it looks dead on arrival.