3 Announcements From Nintendo’s E3 Press Conference (That Completely Disappointed)

Sitting down inside the Nokia Theater for the first time to see Nintendo’s E3 press conference was incredibly electric. Everyone knew that we’d be seeing the first of a new system today, and after each trailer finished and announcement was wrapped up, everything would lean forward hoping that the next order of business was the mysterious ‘Project Cafe’. After half an hour or so, our wishes were granted, and we saw footage of what everyone was waiting for. Still, I couldn’t help but feel a little underwhelmed at the whole thing.

Sure, the curtain was pulled back on the WiiU, we got some new info on games like Skyward Sword and Super Mario 3D, and there were a plethora of new game announcements from third party developers, but at the end of the day, everything felt a little under-done.

Good Announcements Were Half Baked

Honestly, there was a lot of good content during the press conference: A new Smash Bros. for 3DS/WiiU was announced, Kid Icarus was confirmed to have some multiplayer support, screens of a (seemingly) new Zelda were announced, and we saw some short gameplay of a WiiU Mario game without a name yet (tentatively called “Super Mario Bros. Mii”). But amid these announcements we saw a bit of a trend in which Nintendo would merely mention something without any sort of build up, or say the name of a game without a trailer, or show us screens of a possible new Zelda game without saying so much as a word about it. It was a remarkably familiar feeling. Like someone trying to feed you just one Lay Potato Chip and then taking away the bag.

You can’t eat just one.

When it comes down to it, I understand when a developer can’t have every trailer ready for every game for systems that aren’t even out until (probably) late next year, but as far as I’m concerned, then you shouldn’t be announcing those games. The Smash Bros. announcement? We didn’t even get a screenshot or a logo or a name. All we got was “Oh yea, by the way, there’s a 3DS/WiiU Smash Bros. in development.” It’s like the ultimate form of teasery, and there’s a reason why everyone hates a tease.

Can’t believe she played me like that.

The Full Reveals Were Uninspiring

But the conference wouldn’t have even been worth going to if they didn’t have SOME big announcements, and they did. A bunch of third party developers announced games like Assassin’s Creed, Ghost Recon, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Batman: Arkham City, and DiRT for the upcoming WiiU, and we even got a new Luigi’s Mansion game for 3DS. What’s the problem, then? These all already came out several years ago. And again the next year when the next game in the series came out. And again the next year. And again and again and again. The reason why we love Nintendo so much is because they don’t fall victim to the industry-standard of gritty realism action shooters. They stick to their Mario and their Zelda, and they continually innovate with those games without making things ridiculously inaccessible or totally grey.

Like Gears of War here.

Now, I’m not saying these games have no place on a Nintendo system. They absolutely, positively do, because people really do enjoy them and it will draw people to the system. But ultimately, these things had as much importance bestowed upon them during the press conference as things like Zelda, Mario, and other franchises that we care way more about than the fiftieth game to feature guns and gritty violence.

The One Full WiiU Game Announced Was… LEGO City Stories

Another disappointment was the lack of real dense news we got about the WiiU’s games. The fully announced game for the system was TT Games’ LEGO City Stories. I’ve got nothing against this game, but I think I speak for everyone when I saw this isn’t quite what we were hoping. Next year at E3 we’ll definitely hear more about the system and its launch games, I’m sure, but as far as I’m concerned they could’ve saved the big reveal until then and created a massive amount of hype for it. Granted, they do have a history of revealing or launching things at bad times…

I’m looking at you, 3DS.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go play the WiiU and like a billion other things before the show floor closes at 6PM.

Image References: Here, here, here, and here.