E3 2015 - Nintendo Digital Event

All I could think when I saw the Roy news was "great, another Fire Emblem amiibo for people to destroy their lives over". @_@;

 

I don't like that there are now 5 Fire Emblem characters in Smash. That's too many.

 

Nintendo World Championships were addicting. Anyone watch?

 

Umm, yeah, so, that happened. I guess.

I mean, I wasn't expecting a whole lot. Certainly nothing big. They've told us as much beforehand. That's fine. Makes sense. You guys must be developing for NX by now, can't show that off. Any continued support for the Wii U and 3DS is really just good will toward fans, and I'm cool with that.

But, I dunno. The Digital Event was meh. Except for the puppets. That was great. Best part. Nice throwback to the original Star Fox boxart. Someone please meme gif the puppet cameraman's :O reaction. I also really enjoyed the developer retrospectives, they were nice.

Sunday was so strong with the Sm4sh Bros DLC event and then the fantastic World Championships. That really showed off the potential of Super Mario Maker in full force there. It was fun and crazy and all hype. And... long. We saw a lot of it on Sunday already, perfectly. Didn't really need to spend as much time on it today as we did.

Star Fox Zero. I think Platinum is a great fit for this. Would have been nice if you mentioned them during the video though! That's some key information there, Nintendo. Everyone was so excited when they were mentioned for Nier at Square's presentation shortly after, and you didn't mention them at all They're the hot commodity right now, come on. Anyway, it looks better than it did last year - which was basically Star Fox 64 3D with a haze effect. I like that bits of the cancelled SNES Star Fox 2 are being incorporated. I like the artwork. Fox and co doesn't look plasticy and weird anymore. The game itself looks fun, but fairly bare and graphically reminiscent of Hyrule Warriors (which is not good). At the same time, it is a little underwhelming when there's stuff like Star Wars Battlefront being shown off

Zelda: Tri Force Heroes. I'm pissed. What's with the space? Why is it "Tri Force" and not "Triforce"? You're spelling my name wrong dammit ;__; Zelda Four Swords 3DS essentially, but the Links dyed their hair. Built on the A Link Between Worlds engine, which is okay. It was a great game. Visually boring, so that's disappointing to return to, but a solid throwback "2D" Zelda title. I like that this has online co-op play and won't be impossible to play like the original Four Swords. idk. It's a Zelda game, so I'm excited of course They just showed weird stuff. Why was it fashiony? Also, Link with pom-poms.

Skylanders. idk. I have no interest in buying these toys, but I think it's pretty neat that one toy can double as a Skylander and an amiibo.

Hyrule Warrior Legends. Whatever. If you have the Wii U game, no real reason to get this. Looks pretty good for a 3DS game though. I enjoyed the Wii U game, it was a lot of stupid fun. Would play a sequel. No interest in a port.

Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival. Animal Crossing meets Mario Party with amiibo pay walls. I can see having a dedicated "amiibo game". They've hinted at it before. I was thinking a Nintendoland-type game, get all the franchise characters in via amiibo. But why drag Animal Crossing into it? Doesn't seem like a good fit. As for Happy Home Designer, I think it's a decent idea for a spinoff. I'm not the audience here, but I have no qualm with it. Would be a pretty nice mobile game actually. (EDIT: One of these, I don't recall which (amiibo Festival, I think) is free-to-play - with the paid aspect coming from buying amiibos. Another helpful bit of information Nintendo neglected.)

Yo-Kai Watch. Again, not for me. But glad to see this. Very big in Japan. The current Pokémon-like thing. Was a matter of time until Nintendo brought it here.

Xenoblade Chronicles X. I haven't played the original, so I don't have much to say about this one other than I'm glad it no longer looks like a PS2 game.

Metroid Prime: Federation Force and Blast Ball. Okay, seriously wtf. Animal Crossing amiibo Party Festival was already bad. But this? What is this? This is not Metroid. Where the hell is Samus? This doesn't look like Metroid at all. Why use that IP here? Why use the prestigious "Prime" sub brand here? O__o Metroid's been away for far too long and ended on a crummy note with Other M and to bring it back in this way... in an in-name-only spin-off is a real slap in the face to fans. This seems like a first year tech demo right now. Not something for this late in the 3DS lifecycle. A new Nintendo IP for a multiplayer online co-op shooter, would be cool. Why Metroid though?? Also, this is the Next Level Games project we've been wondering about, and again you don't mention the developer. I don't understand.

Fire Emblem Fates. I've only ever played the demo for Awakening, so again I don't have a lot to say here. Just pleased with the English subtitle of "Fates" before "if" was just loopy XD Also, I didn't realize FE was so cinematic. Or had anime cutscenes at any rate

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. Hazaaa! Saviour of the Digital Event. This is new and looks really cool and fun and I want to play it bad. Of course Nintendo could pull off a Mario crossover with... Mario lol Just seems like a really neat idea and I'm sure the writing will be great :)

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash. This was a nice little surprise. Looks good. I loved the N64 game. And lost interest with the GCN entry :( If there's a demo, and I like it, then maybe. But, Mario Tennis, really? We can't get F-Zero, but we're getting a new Mario Tennis?

Genei Ibun Roku #FE. I still don't know what the hell this is. But boy this random anime bit of the Digital Event was trippy

Yoshi's Wooly World. I am really looking forward to this game. We need it. A good Yoshi game after being burned with every single one since the original SNES game. This has Takashi Tezuka behind it, so I have faith. But like Super Mario Maker, we've seen a whole lot of this through the year. And I found Treehouse's coverage and level playthrough during the pre-show of the Championship on Sunday was better, again. I really got a better look of the game through that than I did today. Enjoyed the bit with the Yoshi yarn maker developer lady.

Nothing horrible, aside for Metroid-not-Metroid. It would make a pretty good normal Nintendo Direct. But for E3? Where everything is hype? I think they underdelivered compared to the other presentations. Nintendo in the recent past has hinted at:
- N64 and GCN HD remakes for Wii U. Would have been nice filler.
- More third-party partnerships and spinoffs
- Miyamoto's Project Guard and Robot
- Retro indicated they had something in store this E3. What happened?
- Where's Monster Games' project?
- All the "Nindies" stuff they mentioned lately (this weekend especially)
- Other games that are on the show floor that would have been nice to have in the digital event: Chibi-Robo, Bravely Second, FAST Racing Neo, SteamWorld Heist, Fatal Frame, Devil's Third, etc.

Saw nothing new on these. I think more DLC for Kart and Splatoon would have been appropriate to show off here as they are evergreen titles. I was kinda expecting something a little more for Mario's 30th. I just want a built-in campaign in Mario Maker even without having to make my own levels or type in codes from that book they mentioned. Even if small, like five levels. Heck, have Treehouse make a bunch of kaizo levels and ship that on the disc - they did a great job at the Championship. Just needed a teeny bit more something to separate it from a normal Direct. Even if it wouldn't have blown anyone away, just lacked something.

EDIT: Or not. Maybe more games wasn't needed, just had to better convey information. I like Treehouse, I shouldn't have to watch it all to find out more info though. If Nintendo took the time to mention their relationship with Platinum, that the Animal Crossing game was free-to-play, that the Metroid game is an interim thing and they have thoughts for Prime 4 on the NX, would have been good.

 

Reviving this as what I have to say wasn't worth a new thread and the Digital Event was very Star Fox heavy...

I went to FanExpo today with my brother and some friends and co-workers from work. The Nintendo booth (hurray!) had a demo on display for Star Fox Zero which I got to try out. So, time for some brief hands on impressions. It looks better in person. It's very smooth and sharp, the backgrounds are nice and the environment textures too. Vehicles are boring and polygonal looking though, and it does play a lot like the N64 game. The controls are a little bizarre, with the right stick used to control speed and perform a barrel roll. I don't mind the gyro aiming, like with the 3DS Zelda remakes, it's a nice addition in aiming. I think it would work well with the Pro controller if it were an option. Having to actually looking down at the gamepad though is pain. I couldn't keep track of both screens at the same time. And using the gamepad to aim beyond the range you normally would also made no sense to me.

I'm also apparently a pro and found some secrets the demo operators weren't aware of. I impressed them lol

I also tried out Yoshi's Woolly World, but was paired up with a horrible player on co-op which killed the experience. It looks adorable though