Post by cuno on Jun 17, 2010 16:14:12 GMT -5
For many years, people have been upset with Nintendo. GameCube and Wii both suffer from the same accusation - games are focused on casual players with few games for hardcore gamers.
While Nintendo did mention a few "bridge" games at E3 this year (Wii Party, Nintendogs + cats, and Mario Sports Mix), Nintendo also took a step back in an effort to please the old school Nintendo fans who loved those classic games from NES, SNES, and N64.
Nintendo announced some games that we hadn't seen for quite some time. Kirby's Epic Yarn is the first console Kirby game since the N64. Donkey Kong Country Returns is a throwback to all of the Donkey Kong Country fans. GoldenEye for Wii will excite many of the fans from the N64 era. Pit returns for the first time in 20 years in Kid Icarus Uprising. Nintendo also has announced a great deal of remakes for the 3DS including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Paper Mario, StarFox 64, and even some games that Nintendo has not had before such as Kingdom Hearts and Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater.
All these remakes and continuations ask a question, though. Even though Nintendo will probably reclaim a few old fanboys, will Nintendo be able to retain them? Do all of these nostalgic titles really have what it takes to bring back the hardcore gamers? Time will tell.
Nintendo didn't merely reach back into the past, however. They continued to look toward the future with three big parts of the presentation.
The presentation pretty much started by announcing the long anticipated "Zelda Wii" which is now known as Skyward Sword. Shigeru Miyamoto had said years ago that the next Zelda would completely change the series. Though there are some differences with Skyward Sword compared to the rest of the series that were not mentioned at the presentation, there were a few things that were immediately noticeable and announced.
Very fitting with Nintendo's theme at the conference this year, the intro to the Skyward Sword trailer began by showing Link riding Epona, Majora's Mask, Link in the King of Red Lions, and Wolf Link, all bringing us to Link in Skyward Sword. The graphics were quite interesting to note. Many have described them to have a sort of "Twilight Princess meets Wind Waker" feel.
The focus of the presentation, though, was on the controls of the game. While Miyamoto had difficulty with the controls due to wireless interference, he claimed that the controls were very smooth and made good use of the Wii Motion Plus add-on to the Wii Remote. In Skyward Sword, you will be able to control your sword movements to a much greater degree than ever offered before. Another big point that Miyamoto made was that in previous games, switching items was unnatural and wasted a great deal of time. In Skyward Sword, simply reach into your pocket (almost literally) with the Wii Remote, and then select your item on the subscreen. While it might take a short while to get used to, Miyamoto believes that muscle memory will make switching items faster than ever.
Even though Miyamoto had trouble demonstrating the controls, interviews with the people who were able to play part of Skyward Sword at the end of the presentation said that the controls worked very well.
The presenters from Disney who demonstrated Epic Mickey also seemed to have a bit of trouble with wireless interference, but it did not detract too much from the main presentation. Epic Mickey takes place in a Wasteland of forgotton Disney characters and attractions. It is up to Mickey Mouse to save the world with the power of painting or paint thinner. The main point that the representative from Disney stressed was that the outcome of the game relied heavily on your actions throughout the game. Whether you chose to solve puzzles by creation (using paint) or deletion (using paint thinner) makes a difference.
But perhaps the most exciting announcement at Nintendo's presentation was the Nintendo 3DS. The 3DS has two screens, much like the DS. The bottom screen is still a touch screen, but the top screen allows the player to view games in 3D without the need of special glasses. Since everyone sees things differently, the 3DS comes with a 3D adjuster (much like sound adjusters on other handheld Nintendo systems) which allow users to change between high levels of 3D and no 3D effects at all. The 3DS also includes some motion sensing capabilities with gryo technology. The 3DS also includes a slide-pad for analog input, unlike other handheld systems to date. The 3DS will be able to take 3D pictures with one camera on the inside of the system and 2 on the outside. Additionally, the 3DS will be able to play 3D movies. Nintendo has always controlled the handheld market, and once again, we see Nintendo innovating and extending their reach with handhelds.
Unlike the Wii and DS, Nintendo has announced that the 3DS will have a tremendous amount of 3rd party support at launch. 3rd party developers such as Konami, Capcom, Atlus, and many, many others already support the 3DS. Also, as mentioned earlier, the 3DS will include a large amount of remakes with 3D gameplay.
The only unnerving thing about the 3DS is that no price has been announced. Considering all of its capabilities, even though Nintendo generally keeps its products relatively cheap in price, I expect the 3DS to cost a pretty penny compared to most Nintendo products. We will see when Nintendo announces the price, though.
Overall, Nintendo's presentation at E3 this year was very impressive compared to previous years. Will Nintendo be able to keep its current lead in the gaming market? Time will tell, but for this year's E3, Nintendo announced some pretty exciting stuff.
While Nintendo did mention a few "bridge" games at E3 this year (Wii Party, Nintendogs + cats, and Mario Sports Mix), Nintendo also took a step back in an effort to please the old school Nintendo fans who loved those classic games from NES, SNES, and N64.
Nintendo announced some games that we hadn't seen for quite some time. Kirby's Epic Yarn is the first console Kirby game since the N64. Donkey Kong Country Returns is a throwback to all of the Donkey Kong Country fans. GoldenEye for Wii will excite many of the fans from the N64 era. Pit returns for the first time in 20 years in Kid Icarus Uprising. Nintendo also has announced a great deal of remakes for the 3DS including The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Paper Mario, StarFox 64, and even some games that Nintendo has not had before such as Kingdom Hearts and Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater.
All these remakes and continuations ask a question, though. Even though Nintendo will probably reclaim a few old fanboys, will Nintendo be able to retain them? Do all of these nostalgic titles really have what it takes to bring back the hardcore gamers? Time will tell.
Nintendo didn't merely reach back into the past, however. They continued to look toward the future with three big parts of the presentation.
The presentation pretty much started by announcing the long anticipated "Zelda Wii" which is now known as Skyward Sword. Shigeru Miyamoto had said years ago that the next Zelda would completely change the series. Though there are some differences with Skyward Sword compared to the rest of the series that were not mentioned at the presentation, there were a few things that were immediately noticeable and announced.
Very fitting with Nintendo's theme at the conference this year, the intro to the Skyward Sword trailer began by showing Link riding Epona, Majora's Mask, Link in the King of Red Lions, and Wolf Link, all bringing us to Link in Skyward Sword. The graphics were quite interesting to note. Many have described them to have a sort of "Twilight Princess meets Wind Waker" feel.
The focus of the presentation, though, was on the controls of the game. While Miyamoto had difficulty with the controls due to wireless interference, he claimed that the controls were very smooth and made good use of the Wii Motion Plus add-on to the Wii Remote. In Skyward Sword, you will be able to control your sword movements to a much greater degree than ever offered before. Another big point that Miyamoto made was that in previous games, switching items was unnatural and wasted a great deal of time. In Skyward Sword, simply reach into your pocket (almost literally) with the Wii Remote, and then select your item on the subscreen. While it might take a short while to get used to, Miyamoto believes that muscle memory will make switching items faster than ever.
Even though Miyamoto had trouble demonstrating the controls, interviews with the people who were able to play part of Skyward Sword at the end of the presentation said that the controls worked very well.
The presenters from Disney who demonstrated Epic Mickey also seemed to have a bit of trouble with wireless interference, but it did not detract too much from the main presentation. Epic Mickey takes place in a Wasteland of forgotton Disney characters and attractions. It is up to Mickey Mouse to save the world with the power of painting or paint thinner. The main point that the representative from Disney stressed was that the outcome of the game relied heavily on your actions throughout the game. Whether you chose to solve puzzles by creation (using paint) or deletion (using paint thinner) makes a difference.
But perhaps the most exciting announcement at Nintendo's presentation was the Nintendo 3DS. The 3DS has two screens, much like the DS. The bottom screen is still a touch screen, but the top screen allows the player to view games in 3D without the need of special glasses. Since everyone sees things differently, the 3DS comes with a 3D adjuster (much like sound adjusters on other handheld Nintendo systems) which allow users to change between high levels of 3D and no 3D effects at all. The 3DS also includes some motion sensing capabilities with gryo technology. The 3DS also includes a slide-pad for analog input, unlike other handheld systems to date. The 3DS will be able to take 3D pictures with one camera on the inside of the system and 2 on the outside. Additionally, the 3DS will be able to play 3D movies. Nintendo has always controlled the handheld market, and once again, we see Nintendo innovating and extending their reach with handhelds.
Unlike the Wii and DS, Nintendo has announced that the 3DS will have a tremendous amount of 3rd party support at launch. 3rd party developers such as Konami, Capcom, Atlus, and many, many others already support the 3DS. Also, as mentioned earlier, the 3DS will include a large amount of remakes with 3D gameplay.
The only unnerving thing about the 3DS is that no price has been announced. Considering all of its capabilities, even though Nintendo generally keeps its products relatively cheap in price, I expect the 3DS to cost a pretty penny compared to most Nintendo products. We will see when Nintendo announces the price, though.
Overall, Nintendo's presentation at E3 this year was very impressive compared to previous years. Will Nintendo be able to keep its current lead in the gaming market? Time will tell, but for this year's E3, Nintendo announced some pretty exciting stuff.
