Nintendo at E3

Nintendo’s approach to E3

Scott Cameron: The muppets segment at the beginning of the Nintendo direct was amazing/ridiculous/amazing.

Susan Marmito: I like how light-hearted Nintendo’s presentations are and that they don’t bring them to the big arena and stage. While part of me knows that it’s a marketing ploy and fitting with their image, it does feel much nicer, more intimate, more… direct, I suppose is the word they want us to use. I like it, though. For all the cool things that are coming up, the big presentations make it feel a bit artificial.

Scott: It is an industry.

Susan: Yeah, that’s exactly it. It makes it feel more about the industry than the players. And I like how Nintendo’s approach feels more about the players than the industry.

Scott: They tend to trickle their announcements throughout the year rather than doing a big bang at E3. And it’s kind of cool that they have dedicated Directs for certain titles, like the Smash Bros one. If Splatoon continues to grow the way that it has then maybe we’ll see more Directs for that as well. But ultimately, it saves them having to one-up everyone at E3.

Susan: I was thinking the same thing. It’s like they remove themselves from that equation and then other people can call them losers or whatever if they want but it doesn’t really matter.

It’s like Nintendo remove themselves from that equation and then other people can call them losers or whatever if they want, but it doesn’t really matter.

Scott: Yeah, because most of the people watching are going to watch for Nintendo. The big point I wanted to make as well is that a lot of people were disappointed with Nintendo’s conference and they were blown away by Sony’s. While Sony was brilliant, how many of the things that they and everyone else showed, are actually this year?

Susan: But E3 was never really about what’s being released later in the year, it’s always about looking ahead, no?

Scott: But when people talk about how they were disappointed with Nintendo, well Nintendo talked about things that were mostly this year and some of them even have confirmed dates.

Susan: It just further emphasises that Nintendo seem to be playing a different ballgame to everyone else, or stepping slightly out of sync with everyone else, not wanting to involve themselves in that battle.

Super Mario Maker

Scott: The last segment showing Mario Maker in the Nintendo World Championships, which had the troll version of 1-1 and then it burst into the Super Mario Brothers 3 tile set… That’s probably one of my highlights of all of E3 still! We got some pretty crazy announcements from everybody but I don’t know, that just ignited my imagination. I grew up with Super Mario Brothers 1 and 3 so seeing those utilised in that way, like an official ROM hack… it’s great.

Susan: I liked how they were basically saying that they created a tool and realised it was so good that they were actually going to turn it over to us. But while I think Super Mario Maker is pretty cool, I’m not actually going to play it, or have fun with it because I hate the whole creation side! I’m so bad at creating and building things. I just want to have fun with something that’s given to me.

It’s like an official ROM hack… And that’s great.

Scott: That’s the Little Big Planet problem, isn’t it? Whenever I or any of my friends played Little Big Planet, apart from initially messing around with it when it first came out, all we would do is go online and check out other people’s levels. And I suspect I’ll be doing much the same for Mario Maker. But I believe that the levels at the Nintendo World Championship were developed internally at Nintendo’s Treehouse and Miyamoto apparently liked the levels so much they’re going to be in the final version of the game when it comes out. That’s the great thing about those levels – they’re well beyond normal levels in Mario. Unless you start getting to the second cycle in the Lost Levels, you’re not going to find anything near that difficult in a Mario game.

Susan: I’ve not dared to play the Lost Levels because I don’t have a very high tolerance when it comes to frustrations like that. I just think life’s too short.

Scott: There’s something wrong with me. That just makes me want to beat it more!

Star Fox Zero

Scott: I’m super hyped for Star Fox Zero.

The cool thing about Star Fox 64 is that there are little bits and pieces that got added and taken away from the story depending on what levels you tackled and how well you did. It’s hard to describe because I played it when it came out and at the time it was super cinematic – this is pre MGS, pre Ocarina of Time – with cutscenes and full voice-acting that was really immersive and super impressive for 1997.

What’s super promising about Star Fox Zero, apart from being co-developed by Platinum which is an interesting idea, is that it has a lot of concepts in it that were lost from Star Fox 2. Star Fox 2 is a whole other thing – it was a SNES game made in 1996 a year before Star Fox 64 and never released. Which is a shame because it had all these really interesting ideas, half of which ended up in 64 anyway, like the cutscene approach.

But what didn’t make it was the transforming Arwings. There was footage in Star Fox Zero of your Arwing turning into a Landmaster-like vehicle, or a helicopter-like vehicle. Also, it sounded like they got the voice actors back from Star Fox 64. Oh, and Corneria in the trailer… It had the scope of Star Fox 64’s Corneria, but the colours of Star Fox on the SNES with the bright colours… I’m pretty excited. If we can get a true sequel to Star Fox 64 that would be amazing.

 

Amiibo x Skylanders

Susan: There were some pockets of announcements where I was thinking this totally isn’t aimed at me or my demographic as it were, like for example the Skylanders thing. I suddenly felt loads of parents going ‘oh shit’.

Scott: It is a bit weird considering that Amiibos are Nintendo’s own thing, and now they’re making Amiibos for Skylanders.

Susan: I did wonder how it would fit into the Skylanders universe, because it is very much a universe now, isn’t it?

Scott: Yeah, the whole thing started as a reboot for spyro.

Susan: Yeah and it’s so not about spyro anymore. He doesn’t exist. It felt strange to think that suddenly, here’s Donkey Kong and Bowser! On the one hand, I thought that this is really weird. But then I thought that this is stupidly clever though because when Amiibo first came out, people did think it was like Skylanders but then it wasn’t, everyone thought ‘oh this is a bit shit because it’s not like Skylanders’. It was like, what am I supposed to do with these things?

Scott: Amiibo has become more about the collecting at this point.

Susan: It’s funny that, isn’t it? Because nobody really knows what to do with them except collect them.

Scott: Apparently there are some decent unlockables…

Susan: But come on… to pay £15-20 now, which is what it’s becoming, for essentially a bunch of unlockables is a bit eyebrow-raising in its own kind of way. But at the same time, I’m like ooh, is that an Isabelle Amiibo? Give it to me.

Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival / Happy Home Designer

Susan: Talking of Isabelle, what about the Animal Crossing stuff that was shown?

Scott: It’s interesting they’ve decided not to go full-on Animal Crossing Wii U.

Susan: There’s the boardgame, Amiibo Festival, and then there’s Happy Home Designer. When I first saw Festival, I thought ‘this is Mario party, minus 100% of the button bashing and the bloodthirstiness’. It’s Animal Crossing and it’s adorable but why would I want to play it?

Scott: I’m hoping that the turnips factor into it. If it’s a stock market game then it’s less Mario party and more Fortune Street/Boom Street. And those games are very good – they’re very difficult to play and they can get really long and drawn out, but they’re basically a better Monopoly.

Susan: I suppose they could do that… I’m just thinking who they would be pitching this game to.

Scott: Exactly, because those games are stock management and that doesn’t sound like the most entertaining thing, but then again, those are what the turnips are in Animal Crossing.

Susan: Bloody turnips. As for Happy Home Designer… I was wondering when they would suddenly cut out all the chores and make it about your house because it was kind of becoming that way with the last Animal Crossing game.

Scott: Especially with the Streetpassing.

Susan: You start seeing everyone else’s houses and you thinking ‘crap, my house looks rubbish compared to everyone else’s!’

Scott: It was the worst when my friend who bought the game three weeks after me got every extension, all the rooms filled… and I had only upgraded my upstairs and got a basement…

Susan: And it’s all empty!

Scott: They’ve got fake surround sound systems and a hot tub… and I’m like… aww.

Susan: Just you and your cardboard box.

Scott: My small radio that I move and a little cockroach appears.

Susan: But the thing is that I liked the home design aspect of Animal Crossing, but that’s not my favourite part. I like just wandering around doing stupid stuff in the village. Essentially just doing chores to avoid real life.

Scott: If we’re getting really meta you could boil all video games down to that… There was a point last year when I reactivated my WoW subscription and I was like I’m completing a daily checklist of menial tasks that I must do, and I don’t really know why. Once you get to that point, you’re like ‘oh no!’ And Animal Crossing is basically that.

Fire Emblem Fates

Scott: I’ve played quite a few Fire Emblem games and the best are Fire Emblem on the GBA (which is technically Fire Emblem 7 but was the first localised game) and Awakening. They’re doing something interesting with the distribution of the new Fire Emblem game in Japan. It’s called Fire Emblem If instead of Fates and the If part refers to the idea that there are two branching parts throughout the game. Half of the Fire Emblem games have a split point about ten chapters in where you make a choice and go through a different adventure depending on which path you pick. Fates/If seems to follow that trend but the interesting thing about Japan is that although there will be a crazy collector’s edition that involves both games, they are actually selling them as two separate games: Black and White.

Susan: I’m not sure whether that kind of thing would fly in the West though because it’s a bit of cult following but that’s not enough for them to justify having two separate games.

Scott: They’ve tried to market it like Pokémon Red/Blue.

Susan: But really it’s not?

Scott: No, it’s not. There is supposed to be as much content as a separate game in each route, but I’m imagining that the start has to be the same in both. The White version is supposed to be more accessible, and the Black version is supposed to be for Fire Emblem veterans. I don’t know how it’s going to work… but if either of them or both can live up to Awakening in quality, I’ll be happy.