E3 2012 has come and gone, so now we can go through the good and bad of this year’s video game “Super Bowl.” For this piece, the Nintendo team here at Gaming Unwrapped will be given their own opportunity to dwell on the horrible and hype the amazing of Nintendo’s E3 2012.
Greg Wampler – GU Nintendo Editor
For me, I think Nintendo’s E3 conference this year was a bit lacking. Though, it’s quite possible that I had extremely (even unwarranted) high hopes for Nintendo at E3 this year. With the Wii U being reintroduced, I wanted to see what some of Nintendo’s core franchises looked like in HD. This could have simply been a quick montage video. What we got instead was NintendoLand; a simple Wii Sports-like collection of mini-games to show off the Wii U GamePad. What also didn’t help my hopes was the fact that Nintendo started off with a bang in Pikmin 3. Surely, if Nintendo started off with such a highly wanted (and needed) return to the Pikmin franchise, the rest of the show would have to be amazing, right? Wrong. Sure, we got Mario U, but I wanted to see a 3D Mario. Third-parties showed up as well, but those games like Arkham City are now classics (I know, already!) and only one or two exclusives existed.
After basically showing Wii U all the love at their conference, the rest of E3 for Nintendo was a bit better. They held their own 3DS show towards the end, but not too much new was announced there either. Some release dates and such, but no Metroid, Zelda or F-Zero. These were some of the franchises I was hoping to see somewhere at E3. I know they’ll be coming, but for core Nintendo gamers this E3 wasn’t much of an event. Instead, Nintendo gave us a meeting place to say, “hello” and then, “goodbye”.
Look into more of my complete thoughts in the soon-to-come “What E3 2012 Means for Nintendo” article.
What did I want to see?
- More core Nintendo franchises on Wii U
- More 3rd-party exclusives on Wii U
- A quick glimpse of a new, unannounced, Nintendo-published 3DS title
- A possible window for a Wii U launch date (holiday?)
Joe Hetherington – GU Nintendo Writer
The first thing I’m going to say is: Pikmin 3 looks pretty damn awesome, it uses the controller well and the Wii U’s power is set to enhance the experience even more. Ok, now that I’ve got that out of my system I can give you my main thought in one word: Underwhelming, yes I realise that this is a show for the stock holders and investors, but seriously did we really need a full demonstration of Batman: Arkham City; a game that has been out on other systems for a long time now? No, no we didn’t. I think a major problem with the conference is that they talked about the social apps for longer than they talked about a lot of the actual games (such as the new Mario games), which really didn’t fill me with hope for what’s to come. However I’ve got to say, some of the games they actually did show us held a lot of promise: the new Luigi’s Mansion 2, Paper Mario, Mario Wii U. Those titles did hold a lot of interest in me; but sadly, they only really got a small shout under the cacophony of social apps and things we saw last year in a lesser form.
Throughout the conference there was no mention of a release date or a price for the thing, which really makes me wonder if Nintendo are ready to release the system, especially with many speculating that it’s releasing this year.
The other games on show, such as ZombiU (despite the silly name) actually looked like a really good example of what the controller can do, even with many mixed opinions on how well it performs. The last thing I really want to comment on is NintendoLand, and really I don’t see anything wrong with this (despite Nintendo investing too much time into this during the conference). People are saying the game is going to be a pack in title and why not, it demonstrates the controller really well (like Wii Sports did) and creates awareness of Nintendo’s key franchises. Other than that, everything went smooth, Shigsy pretended to throw a Pikmin, Reggie acknowledged his own meme and Iwata became a meme…oh and we got to see a Prozak-induced family play Wii Fit U with their arses.
What did I want to see?
- More key franchises
- More info on the console itself
- Less time spent on things we’ve already seen
- Nintendo not use poorly rendered fireworks to end the event
Shaan Joshi – GU Nintendo Writer
Like Greg and Joe, I was quite excited to see what Nintendo had in store for E3. With the release of Wii U around the corner, I figured we would get to see a handful of launch titles, and get some info on a release date and price. Unfortunately, my expectations for Reggie and the gang were a bit lofty.
Don’t get me wrong, we did get so see some new games, but other than the rather short Pikmin 3 demo and the announcement of ZombiU, there wasn’t enough to hold the attention of hardcore gamers. Instead, we got to hear about ports for multiplatform games (old and new), and get a brief glimpse at NintendoLand; a compilation of mini-games that seems to be on par with Wii Sports, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. And right when we thought we were going to hear about a release date and price, Nintendo ended their conference with a virtual display of balloons. Irony, at its finest.
On the flip side, the 3DS did receive a separate conference of its own. While games like Paper Mario and New Super Mario Bros. 2 were demoed, most of the information presented was old, and instead of getting firm release dates for Nintendo first-party games, vague release windows were announced. Furthermore, 3DS titles like Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Animal Crossing 3DS, and Fire Emblem were absent from the show floor. Considering these were some of my most anticipated 3DS titles, I felt let down by the Big N.
I guess we’ll have to wait until Nintendo’s next Direct Stream to hear any more news. Until then, I can walk away smiling, knowing that Reggie wasn’t too thrilled about E3 as well. Because after all, he feels like a Purple Pikmin.
What did I want to see?
- A release date, price, and launch lineup for Wii U
- Exclusive 3rd party games, as opposed to multiplatform ports
- More 3DS titles, such as Layton, Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem
So, what do you have to say about the Nintendo-centric areas of this year’s E3? Also, let us know if we are being too easy or too hard on Nintendo, especially taking into account that we are the Nintendo team here at Gaming Unwrapped.
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