E3 2013 - day 2

Today was Nintendo's day to shine! It all started off with their big Nintendo Direct this morning, where they talked about a lot of games. Then there were presentations and developer videos throughout the afternoon, and a Pokemon panel in the evening. Well, they definitely shined, but I don't think they shined very brightly. Let me explain.

The Direct was cool. They showed a lot of stuff that we knew they were going to show. The new 3D Mario game, Super Mario 3D World, looks like a ton of fun. It's essentially a sequel to the 3DS game Super Mario 3D Land, and that was great. I was especially happy to see that it's multiplayer, and instead of giving us a second, generic Toad we finally have Peach back as a playable character! Mario Kart 8 looked great as well. I'm pretty sure one of the tracks I saw was set in Lego City. I wonder if Chase McCain will show up in the game? We also got new info on Pokemon X/Y. They even pushed up the release date a couple of weeks. We saw new video for Bayonetta 2, including gameplay, which was nice, and another trailer for Monolithsoft's X, which was little more than a teaser. We found out Retro's mystery project was another Donkey Kong Country. It looks like it'll be an awesome game, but I can't help be just a little let down. I would rather have seen a 2D Metroid, or have Retro work on an entirely different series, but that's okay. I know the DKC game will be good. We saw more footage of The Wonderful 101, and also a sizzle reel featuring 3rd party games with nothing new in it. The high point for me was the footage of the new Super Smash Bros. games, one for Wii U and one for 3DS. We knew they were going to show them, but I didn't realize we were going to see so much. The game doesn't come out until next year, after all. We got to see a handful of the old favorite characters, plus saw the Villager from Animal Crossing get announced. But the big shock was when Mega Man showed up! If you haven't seen the trailer yet, go find it, it's fantastic! Mega Man is going to fit into Smash Bros. real well.

So, as I said, the Direct was cool, and they showed off a lot of neat stuff, but aside from that Mega Man announcement none of it was a surprise. Well, I guess Retro's DKC sequel was, but it seems that left most people a little flat. I really wanted them to drop a bomb on us! Tell us Portal 3 was coming to Wii U next year! Tell us Grand Theft Auto V would launch on Wii U alongside the PS3 and 360 versions! Give us something we don't see coming! Plus, I would have loved to have heard them talk more about 3rd parties. They say Nintendo is sitting on a lot of money. Maybe it's time to spend some to secure some exclusive 3rd party deals. You know, the kind that actually stay exclusive! I'm looking at you, Rayman Legends and Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut. There was also little talk about 3DS games. Since the 3DS is selling so well, you would think they'd want to show some good stuff for it, but even though we know there are a lot of good games coming Nintendo barely mentioned them.

Moving on, the rest of the day brought a small trickle of new info through the E3 showcase and developer videos. We found out the Wii Fit Trainer would be a character in SSB. Interesting choice. We got to see some gameplay with her and she doesn't look bad, honestly. She's no different from Mr. Game-and-Watch or R.O.B. We also got to see more video of the Villager, and he actually look pretty cool. The other cool thing that stood out for me was this Mario Kart TV thing. Apparently Nintendo is setting it up where you can save a highlight reel from your races in Mario Kart 8 and upload them to Miiverse. It sounds like a much simpler version of what Sony and Microsoft are doing with their systems. Sounds good to me, I hope it takes off and Nintendo starts adding this option to all their games.

So that's about it. I was happy with pretty much everything I saw from Nintendo today, but I still know they can do better. Apparently they still have a couple of game reveals tomorrow, and I read online there are two more Directs planned for the weekend. I'm sure I'll post again if anything big comes up. Until next time, enjoy E3!

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