After much hype, speculation and media whispers, Nintendo finally unveiled the bizarre Wii U console – leaving many of us scratching our heads.
It was the biggest press conference of the biggest video game’s event of the year. For months gamers and reporters had one question on their lips – how could Nintendo possibly top the Nintendo Wii?
In the end, we have no idea whether the Wii U will become the next mega-selling console or whether or not. All we know is that it’s weird – really, really weird. And to be honest, we have no idea yet if that’s a good thing, as Nintendo’s conference was heavy on dazzle but light on detail.
Quick Recap
The press conference began in true Nintendo fashion, as no other company would dare to open their show with a full orchestra belting out tunes from one the most revered game series of all time, the Legend of Zelda.
As the games are celebrating their 25th anniversary, Nintendo announced a number of tie-in projects, with one including take the aforementioned orchestra around the world for a series of shows. Amazingly, 15 minutes had passed and not a single game screenshot, demonstration or video footage had been shown. The sheer audacity!
Miyamoto shows us his muscles. We can’t remember why
Next up, Nintendo COO Reggie Fils-Aime introduced the second wave of 3DS titles and it was clear that they weren’t messing about. All the heavy hitters, from Super Mario 3D to Mario Kart 3D, are all heading for release this year, while a brief third-party developer montage debuted a couple of brand-new titles. Tekken 3D, anyone?
As nice as all that looked, we all came to see one thing and one thing only – the Nintendo Wii U. For once, the crazy rumours were true; the controller did have a 6” touchscreen, it did have HD graphics and in an extremely un-Nintendo-like move, it appeared to have proper third-party support from a wealth of worldwide developers.
What we all waiting for next – launch titles – never materialised, however, and Nintendo were suspiciously light on going into any details on the capabilities, titles, plans, release dates or otherwise for the console. In fact, had Nintendo not fully iterated the fact hours later, many would have been wondering if the Wii U was an actual console, and not just a controller.
As you can tell, it was a rather confusing press conference.
Highlights
The Wii U
Granted, the name is absolutely awful, yet Nintendo grabbed our imagination balls in a vice-like grip just seconds into their controller debut video.
Allowing players to switch gameplay from their TV to controller had us thinking two things; A. Didn’t Konami unveil something similar but less cool (the ridiculously named ‘Transfarring’ system) last week and B. Doesn’t render make my newly-purchased 3DS a bit pointless?
As for the latter, we’ll have to wait and see but there’s no disputing that the Wii U controller is a stunning piece of kit and extremely versatile. The tablet design should also help capture the imagination of youngsters that admire their parent’s iPad but obviously can’t afford the cash for their own too.
While the Wii U isn’t quite the game-changer that the Wii was the first time we saw motion control gameplay, it’s a bold evolution of the concept and more importantly, its design hints that Nintendo now sees Apple as its main competition for its home and handheld consoles, not Sony or Microsoft.
A packed 3DS software lineup
We knew Nintendo had plenty of big times in store for 3DS gamers this year, but the news that a Retro Studios-developed (Metroid Prime, Donkey Kong Country Returns) Mario Kart 3D was coming out this year, alongside other must-haves such as Kid Icarus: Uprising, Star Fox 64 3D and Super Mario 3D had us dusting off our little-used handheld to celebrate.
While we must admit that the montage of third-party-developed 3DS titles was a little lighter than we expected, this year’s releases should emphasise that 2011 is a make-or-break for the 3DS. If consumers don’t respond to Ocarina of Time 3D next week and the double whammy of a new Super Mario and Mario Kart game, Nintendo could be out of ideas pretty soon.
Oh, and Luigi’s Mansion 2 looked pretty great too. We didn’t see that one coming.
Lowlights
A lack of specifics
As amazing as that Wii U control scheme looks, just how much will the console itself cost? And just how graphically powerful is the Wii U? Sure, we saw some stunning technical demos on-screen, yet the actual controller debut video only had graphics on the same level of the current Wii.
This confusion wasn’t helped by the fact that Nintendo later admitted that the footage of third-party titles from a developer sizzle reel (Batman: Arkham City, Aliens: Colonial Marines) was actually gameplay from their Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 versions.
Even more confusion came from the fact that Nintendo later admitted that they shouldn’t have revealed that Super Smash Bros is coming to the 3DS and Wii U, since development hasn’t even began for either. With such a lack of specifics, it’s no surprise that Nintendo’s share prices slumped to a five-year-low the day after the press conference.
The WTF Moment:
While we admire Nintendo’s decision to include an entire orchestra to play classic Legend of Zelda tunes, we became a little exasperated as legendary video game developer Shigeru Miyamoto and his chatty translator began shouting requests at the instrumental ensemble.
While it was nice to hear a few classic Zelda sound effects being created off-the-cuff, we couldn’t help wondering how long it would take until the gaming announcement started to appear.
Amazingly, the entire Zelda-related opening 15 minutes of Nintendo’s press conference featured no gameplay footage whatsoever, not even of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, the last big Wii AAA release and Nintendo’s big hope for the console this Christmas.
Verdict
Before Nintendo took to the stage at E3, it was suggested that this year’s event was theirs to lose and while the reveal of Wii U helped seal their approval from the JOE team; we can’t but feel that they were the best of the surprisingly poor bunch.
Overall, this year’s E3 was one with precious little surprises and eye-catching reveals, while it could be argyed that Nintendo flubbed the launch of the Wii U by refusing to disclose any specifics on pricing, launch titles, online plans or graphical capability. Despite that, the potential for the Wii U is there for all to see and it’s heartening to see big third-party releases such as Assassin’s Creed coming to a Nintendo home console for a change.
In addition, Nintendo are clearly going all out to ensure the survival of their 3DS handheld. Though early sales have been under Nintendo’s expectations, the arrival of Mario Kart 3D, Super Mario 3D and Kid Icarus: Uprising should help the ailing handheld.
While the Japanese giant’s press conference fail to live up to some sky-high expectations, Nintendo once again walked away from E3 having unveiled the most-talked-about product of the entire show.
For that reason alone, Nintendo are our winners of E3 for the second year running, though in 2011 it was due to the paucity of quality on display by their opposition.
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