When’s It Happening?
Tuesday June 7, 5:00pm. Be sure to check out our JOE LIVE tracker as and when the event unfolds.
Why Should I Care?
You should always care about Nintendo’s E3 press conference as for better or worse, they are always memorable.
After 2009’s stunningly poor showing (it’s the hardcore gamers have been waiting for… Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City!), the Japanese giants eclipsed everyone last year by revealing the 3DS handheld console to rapturous applause and unveiled a host of previously unannounced titles, such as last Christmas’ rock-hard platformer Donkey Kong Country Returns.
This year’s press conference is notable as we expect to see the second wave of 3DS titles scheduled for the rest of 2011 and more importantly, we get our first glimpse of ‘Project Café, the much-hyped follow-up to the Wii console. Since the Wii pretty much revolutionised the industry just a few years ago, is it too much to hope for that Nintendo can do it all over again?
What Should I Look Out For?
The Wii 2/Project Café – So what is it? It might be more powerful than the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, it might even have only have 8GB onboard storage. Most intriguingly, it could have a 6” HD screen and also, the console may have already been leaked, if this supposedly clandestine recording is to be believed.
Only a select few know what Project Café really is but by Tuesday evening, we will likely see the technical specs, the potentially game-changing control scheme, early release titles and possibly even worldwide release dates – though don’t expect the console hitting shelves any earlier than Spring 2012. Call us crazy, but we expect a Zelda or Mario game to be unveiled at some stage. Just a hunch.
Lots of Zelda games – This year is the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda series and what we do know is that Nintendo will be showing off a fully complete Ocarina of Time 3DS and a nearing-completion Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for our dusty old Wii.
More intriguingly, however, are rumours attributed to an ESRB (the US Entertainment Software Rating Board) rating for an online platform entitled ‘Zelda Universe’. Though we’d love to say that the outed name points towards a very un-Nintendo online MMORPG, let’s be honest – it’s probably a 3DS eShop app instead.
The second wave of 3DS titles – Unlike Microsoft’s Kinect, which also a pretty poor software library right now, the 3DS hasn’t yet captured the public’s imagination and has suffered from sluggish sales. You could blame the prevalence of cheap mobile apps, the high price of the handheld console or tabloid scare stories regarding the 3D effect, but the fact is there’s only one immediate solution – release some good games instead of Nintendogs + Cats.
With Ocarina of Time 3DS a few weeks away and Kid Icarus: Uprising hopefully not too far along, you can expect a flurry of new 3DS game reveals for titles set for release this Autumn and Winter. That is unless Nintendo announce plenty of Wii titles instead, which would be commercial suicide.
What we can expect to see are Super Mario 3DS (screenshots point towards a gravity-based Super Mario Galaxy-alike adventure), Mario Kart 3DS and Animal Crossing 3DS, which if they are released closely together, would be a near-identical release pattern to the trio’s Nintendo DS versions from November 2005 to Summer 2006. Sorry guys, but you’ve got be a little more creative than just providing new generational iterations sometimes.
Instead, we’re going to hope that either a new F-Zero, Super Smash Bros or Pikmin title are announced – the odds have to be pretty good for at least one of showing up, right?
What Not to Expect?
Don’t expect too much from the Project Café reveal. It’s important to remember that when the Wii was originally shown off, it didn’t have a name and the wait to see the controllers was a few months later. Though it looks as though we’ll see the hardware and its controller this time, Nintendo might not want to overload us with first-party launch title demos until E3 2012 at least.
Any Crazy Rumours?
We’re going to refer you to the line about the new console’s controller having a built-in 6″ HD screen. If that isn’t crazy, we don’t know what is…
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