My thoughts on Nintendo at E3 2014!

E3 was a blast this year! I think all three companies had some great announcements and all the conferences were fun to watch! Overall, this year was a huge improvement over last year and one of the best shown in a while! Nintendo especially has a very strong show which continued for all three days thanks to their Nintendo Treehouse Live stream, which showed in depth looks at all the new games for the whole three days, it was great fun to watch and you could really see the enthusiasm from the developers and presenters!

Lets start off this post by looking at one of the most exciting games coming out later in the year...

Super Smash Bros. for WiiU and 3DS!

So once again, Nintendo did not have a proper press conference, instead hosting their own Digital Event. But what an event it was! Starting out with the most amazing opening of Reggie and Iwata fighting it out, before introducing Mii's as a new character in smash. Not quite the announcement of Reggie as a playable character but at least you can make your own Reggie and make him fight! Later on at E3 it was also announced that Palutena and Pacman were also going to be new playable characters! Smash for WiiU and 3DS are shaping up to be brilliant entries in the franchise and I can't wait!

Hooray for Palutena!

Nintendo also hosted a Smash Bros WiiU tournament in their old conference hall, the Nokia Theatre. The event was fantastic, it was so exciting to watch as the Smash experts battled it out on stage, with Geoff Keighley as the host and appearances from Reggie and Sakurai as well as hundreds of excitable fans it was one of the most exciting things about E3 this year.

Lots of love for Megaman at the Smash Bros. event!

Splatoon!

Nintendo actually had a lot of new games to announce, first off is the brand new title, Splatoon. While I wasn't completely sold on the idea at first, it has grown on me. The character design is fun and the gameplay looks like it can have some great moments. I hope there will be different weapons that spray different amounts of paint. But from what we've been shown so far, it seems like a great fun little title. I love the idea of being able to move faster by transforming into a squid and swimming through the paint!

Miyamoto Projects - StarFox, Project Guard and Project Giant Robot!

Miyamoto was at the show to demo three of his new projects, well only two were actually shown, although his third, a new Starfox game was shown to press but not to the public. The other two games were just small tech demo's. The first being a kind of tower defence game in which you have to place security cameras inside a base to defend against robots that look like R.O.B. This game looks interesting but would have to have much more polish and a better overall goal if it was to become a full game, although some people have noticed that the cameras have Starfox logos on them, so maybe this will become a part of the new Starfox game!

A screenshot from Project Guard

The second game demo was a robot fighting game. In this demo the player was able to create their own giant robot to fight against another one in a basic cityscape. The game had a unique control system which has you holding the WiiU gamepad out in front of you and leaning forward and backwards to control the way the robot moves, and using the two analogue sticks to punch. The controls looked very hard to get used to and most of the demo's just showed people falling over. I hope this game gets drastic improved or incorporated into a bigger game as, at the moment it doesn't show much promise! sorry Miyamoto-san!

Miyamoto showing off one of his new projects, Giant Robot!

The starfox game was only shown behind the scenes, so there is not much information regarding it. However, some journalists were able to have a look at the new title, which is apparently VERY early in development with very simple graphics. The demo was comprised of three different sections. Reading on Nintendo Life i found the following information, to read more, follow this link.

"The first, called Arwing, is a classic Star Fox, and consists of an open-sky dogfight against many enemies; you can also land and transform into a tank. The second mode, Vs Wolf, is similar, but pits players against series rival Wolf O'Donnell, flying a similar ship to yours. The third, called City, put you in a helicopter flying over an urban landscape, with the GamePad screen showing a top-down view of what's below."

I think it sounds great and if it retains the series's movie like atmosphere then I'm sure it will end up great, but I loved Adventure and Assault and I know some people aren't too fond of those ones so we'll have to wait and see how the newest StarFox is received...

Mario Maker!

One of the games I am most excited about is Mario Maker, this is being developed by the man behind the amazing Mario Paint for the Snes, but instead of drawing, this game allows you to create your own Mario levels! The best feature is not just that you will finally be able to create all kinds of crazy Mario levels, but also be able to choose which kind of graphics style you want to play in, Classic or New Super Mario Bros. style! According to several interviews after the game was shown, they are also working on more graphic styles and some that aren't even from Mario games! Maybe we will see a Kirby or Donkey Kong style as well? They also hinted at other Mario paint features making a return including the much loved music maker! This is definitely one of the most exciting announcements of the show for me and I can't wait to make some levels and share them online!

Another brilliant feature shows the path you took while testing the level!

Bayonetta 1&2!

For the second year, Bayonetta 2 was shown, This time it was revealed that as well as Bayonetta 2, it will also come bundled with he first game so people who haven't played the first one will have the chance to play the full story leading up to the second game.  As the first game was never released on a Nintendo console I think this is a great idea! It's not just a simple port though as not Bayonetta herself can dress as several classic Nintendo characters including Link, Samus and Peach! Each costume will also give her certain new moves for example using Links sword to attack. The new game is also looking quite amazing, each time we get shown the game it seems more and more crazy, thankfully there's not long to wait now until this gets released! Lets just hope they got rid of the stupid QTE scenes this time!

Hyrule Warriors!

As well as the brand new WiiU Zelda game (Which I'm trying to avoid everything for so I don't spoil anything) there is also another Zelda game for WiiU which is coming out this year! Based on the Dynasty Warriors series, Hyrule Warriors is a lot more action focused than a typical Zelda game. At first I was unsure about this as I've never been a big fan of the Dynasty games, but from watching the amazing gameplay demo from Treehouse Live, I have completely changed my opinion on it, the gameplay looks fast and fun and the graphics are stunning! also YOU CAN PLAY AS MIDNA!!! Really excited for this, you can watch the full gameplay demo here. There was also another gameplay demo from day 3 if you want to find that for more.

Codename S.T.E.A.M!

A brand new IP from Intelligent Systems! Announced after Nintendo's direct at a conference that was not streamed to the public.  I had to resort to reading about the game from live tweets, picturing the game in my mind as details slowly emerged. Then screenshots began to surface and... Lets just say I much preferred the vision of the game I had in my mind. The game is a turn based strategy game in a 3D environment. Think Nintendo's version of Valkyria chronicles. The game takes inspiration from American comics, hence the very american art style, despite the game being set in London. I hope the game also improves as from what I saw at the Treehouse live gameplay demo, it was slow and underwhelming. I still have hopes that it will end up a good game as Intelligent Systems has a great track record making the Advance Wars and Fire Emblem games. 

Hope it plays better than it looks.

Captain Toad Treasure Trackers!

A lot of people loved the Captain Toad sections of Super Mario 3D World. I found them a fun distraction to the main game but it still comes as a shock that the captain himself will be getting a full game. It does look a lot better than the small areas he was confined to in 3D world. The slower pace of the game won't be for everyone, but from what's been shown so far it looks like a fun and intricate puzzle game, overall, a nice little surprise game.

Yoshi's Wooly World!

A game that was announced a long time ago as Yarn Yoshi. The game has had a major overhaul and looks a lot better for it, now, instead of having a flat world like Kirby's Epic Yarn which features just strands of yarn, the new Yoshi game features entirely knitted worlds and characters. The game its self looks like a typical Yoshi game which is no bad thing, this time it also includes multiplayer so I can't wait to play through the game with a friend! After the slight disappointment that was Yoshi's New Island lets hope this one is more fun. 

Colourful and fun!

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse!

A sequel to one of the most underrated gems of the DS! Yes Please! Rainbow Curse is a sequel to the amazing Power Paintbrush for the DS. The game has you drawing a rainbow on the touch screen in order to navigate Kirby, who is stuck in ball form, around complex levels collecting items and absorbing enemies powers as you go. The original for the DS was a very unique and fun game so I hope that this new WiiU version will also have some interesting levels and new ideas of its own. The graphics look lovely with a claymation style and from what I've seen so far the gameplay looks fast, fun and varied! Can't wait for this one! Got to finish Triple Deluxe first though! 

Xenoblade Chronicles X!

Words can't describe how excited I am for this game! The first Xenoblade game on the Wii quickly became one of my most favourite JRPG's of all time! I really hope that the sequel lives up to the amazing experience of the first game, although the studio have said it will only be based loosely on the events of the first game and it is not a direct sequel,hopefully it will have just as much of a deep and engaging storyline and some more epic music to go with it!  Check out the new trailer below. There was also a 40 minute gameplay demo on Treehouse if you want to see more of this amazing game. 

Sonic Boom!

Usually I'd be super excited for a new Sonic game, I really enjoyed Lost World on WiiU but I'm still not sold on Sonic Boom. I still think the characters look silly, the gameplay looks boring, the art style looks dull and lifeless, the voice acting is annoying, the speed sections look more like endless runner games than sonic games, the rest of the game looks like a slow and dull mess, bleh. Oh, and the 3DS version looks even worse. I hope that SEGA Japan has a better sonic game in the works as I know they are not having anything to do with this one, and I don't blame them!

The award for "Most Dull Sonic Level Ever" goes to.....

Devil's Third

I had not heard of this game before E3. Apparently it was originally coming out for 360 and PS3 but for whatever reason Nintendo decided to help out the developers and now it has become a WiiU exclusive. I think it actually looks quite fun, sort of like Red Steel as it mixes gunplay and sword combat along with ninja elements. It looks like it could be a fun game and is certainly a lot more serious than most of Nintendo's other games. The story also sounds quite interesting, overall quite surprised by this one, even if the multiplayer looks like a mess at the moment with a million different ideas going on. Watch this Treehouse video for more details, and try to ignore the awkwardness between the translator and the presenter! 

Mario Party 10!

This looks to play much like Mario Party 9, with all the characters being inside one car and sharing a space on the board. This worked well enough in 9, so unless they have changed anything drastically I expect this to be good multiplayer fun. The newest addition to this one however, is the inclusion of a fifth player who will control Bowser in special mini games which make use of the WiiU Gamepad. These look like a lot of fun, one person has to control bowser in a variety of different ways in order to kill the other players before time runs out. 

Very bright and colourful! 

Mario Vs Donkey Kong!

Nintendo showed off a new Mario Vs Donkey Kong. Not much to say about this one, if you've played one of the newer entries in the series this is exactly what you'd expect it to be. So just a picture will do here and moving onto...

Glad the level editor is returning!

Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire!

After the horrible disappointment that was the announcement trailer, GameFreak finally released a proper video showcasing some new Mega Evolutions and most importantly, how Hoen looks in 3D! Which is pretty much the same as X / Y, but what did you expect really... I'm excited for this as Ruby / Sapphire were my favourite of all the Pokemon games, well Emerald is, but you know what I mean. I hope there is some new post game content and that the battle frontier and extras from Emerald are still in the game. 

That's about it for Nintendo's games at E3! Thanks for reading, I know there was a lot to go though. Please feel free to discuss anything about Nintendo at E3 in the comments but please, no Zelda U spoilers!
Visit e3.nintendo.com/ for more info on the games!