Did Iwata have anything up his sleeve this year?
Nintendo’s decision not to have a traditional press conference for E3 this year was one that caught everyone off guard, but was it a gamble worth taking? It’s hard to tell since the feed was incredibly laggy, but overall I think it was a good presentation.
Nintendo revealed a sequel to Super Mario 3D Land to Super Mario 3D Worlds, Mario Kart 8, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD is out in October and will replace the GBA connectivity of the original’s Tingle Tuner to Tingle Bottles for you to send to people via Miiverse.
A sequel to Donkey Kong Country Returns was also shown for Wii U and is called Donkey Kong Country Tropical Breeze, it features DK, Diddy and Dixie Kong and has the same formula as the past games.
Third-party games were also shown like Bayonetta 2 and The Wonderful 101 being the cream of the crop. But of course, they saved the best for last with the first footage of the new Super Smash Bros games for Wii U/3DS and revealed that the blue bomber Mega Man has joined the roster! Oh, and the villager from Animal Crossing has also been added…the official website has also been launched.
Sadly there was plenty of talk of delays for games like Wii Fit U, Wii Party U and Art Academy. While there was no talk of an original Zelda for Wii U nor was there anything Metroid-related other than Samus’ appearance in the Smash Bros line-up.
Overall it was a mixed bag from Nintendo, they showed off some great games but not perhaps the ones we were expecting. Super Mario 3D Worlds looks fun, but I think most were expecting a “Galaxy-esque” sequel and the lag during the Direct was pretty bad to say the least. Let’s hope the games can do all the talking…