Jun 162015
No matter what anyone else thinks, last year Nintendo’s digital presentation was the best of all the press conferences. Although I couldn’t watch it live, I was hopeful for another exciting show… and if we were really lucky, Ace Attorney news.
(Spoiler: neither came true.)
Table of Contents
Nintendo World Championships
Bethesda
Microsoft
EA
Ubisoft
Sony
Nintendo
Square Enix
PC Gaming
Nintendo Treehouse
Nintendo’s E3 2015 Digital Event
Oh Nintendo… It started out so well…
Similar to last year’s claymation silliness, this year’s show took advantage of its digital format to present the Nintendo leaders as puppets in a quite entertaining opening. It then plunged into one of the Wii U’s most anticipated games, Star Fox Zero.
I haven’t played a lot of Star Fox, just a single playthrough of Star Fox 64 3DS. Still, I really liked that trailer. It was exciting, looks fun, and prepared me for a great E3 show.
Then they showed more of Mario Maker, which has been renamed to Super Mario Maker. I didn’t care about it last year, and I still don’t. Up next was Skylanders, which I’ve never gotten into, and the new Amiibo characters created for it.
The next game, though, caught my attention, a new Legend of Zelda game for the 3DS! Well, a Zelda game intended to be played co-op. The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes could be fun, but it didn’t quite convince me yet. I’ll see as more details are revealed.
As for Hyrule Warriors Legends, I haven’t even played Hyrule Warriors yet, so I don’t know yet if I’d be interested in a 3DS version or not, even if it does include one of my favorite Zelda characters (Tetra). And then, once they finished with The Legend of Zelda, it was the moment Nintendo fans have been waiting for, Metroid!
……a cooperative multiplayer Metroid game… with no Samus and presumably no lore… called Metroid Prime: Federation Force… and the soccer game shown the other day, now known as Metroid Prime: Blast Ball.
What was Nintendo thinking? Fans have been begging for a new Metroid game… and this is what they get?
Nintendo decided to troll its fans this year.
That was the beginning of the end.
From there, they showed a trailer for Fire Emblem Fates, which seems to be the English name of Fire Emblem If. It appears there will be two versions of the game, just like for the Japanese release. They also showed another trailer for Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem (which is now called Fire Emblem Shin Megami Tensei?), but it wasn’t much more informative than the version shown in the Nintendo Direct. I’m not even really sure what it’s about.
Xenoblade Chronicles X got a new trailer and a release date! It will be out on December 4.
Yay! Though I have my concerns about Xenoblade Chronicles X due to its open-world nature, I’m still fairly excited for it. There’s a chance it’s one of the few open-world games I care about enough to play.
Nintendo followed that with more of the previously-announced Animal Crossing spin-off, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. And then, even though I’m not an Animal Crossing fan, I cheered a little as Nintendo started to unveil its Wii U Animal Crossing game, because I knew how much fans wanted one…
…but it turned out to be Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival, some sort of Amiibo-driven Mario Party with Animal Crossing characters. Really??
Yoshi’s Woolly World was up next, as cute and endearing as ever. After that, they moved on to a game I’ve been very excited about, Yo-kai Watch. We already knew it would be localized, but it was still great to see. (And if you prefer your Japanese monsters darker, please check out my yokai-themed horror story, “Rokurokubi,” found in Wicked Words Quarterly.)
And then, finally a surprise I care about!
I was hoping for a new Paper Mario game, and I love the Mario & Luigi series. The two together should be a good thing… although I’m still a little scarred from the last Paper Mario travesty, and I’ve yet to play Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. Nevertheless, I can’t wait to learn more about Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam!
However, I don’t care about Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash any more than I cared about all the sports games shown by EA, and I couldn’t believe they chose to end with more Super Mario Maker (which is getting a special 8-Bit Amiibo).
I finished Nintendo’s E3 2015 digital event feeling disappointed. While last year they were on top their game, this year they missed the mark. Despite a few great moments like the Star Fox trailer, Xenoblade Chronicles X’s release date, Yokai Watch, and the surprise Paper Mario/Mario & Luigi crossover, the rest of the show didn’t live up to expectations.
Especially for Metroid and Animal Crossing fans.