E3 2013 Nintendo Direct: your thoughts

After months of anticipation, Nintendo’s E3 2013 Nintendo Direct has come and gone. Now that the show is over, it’s time for you guys to sound off: did you like what Nintendo presented? Were you disappointed? Which game(s) are you looking forward to the most?

A few words from myself are below.

First off, there’s no denying that today’s Nintendo Direct was miles better than the Big N’s previous two E3 conferences. We finally saw Smash Bros. in action. We were given first looks at Super Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 8, two titles that are likely to be stellar. X, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Bayonetta 2 were also shown.

Now, despite the fantastic content, I was slightly underwhelmed. There weren’t any surprises aside from Donkey Kong Country, which wasn’t really a surprise when it comes down to it.

Retro’s last game was in 2010, with Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii. You have to wonder why it took the studio three years to make what is essentially a sequel.

That being said, I absolutely love Donkey Kong. Returns was one of my favorite Wii games and it among my favorite platformers. I’ll probably be there day one.

At the end of the day, Nintendo’s January Nintendo Direct may have been better than today’s broadcast. Remember: it brought the announcements of Shin Megami X Fire Emblem, Yarn Yoshi (where was this game today?), Zelda: Wind Waker HD, and “X”. Aonuma teased Zelda’s original Wii U outing, Satoru Iwata revealed details on upcoming system updates, and the Virtual Console was discussed.

Something that may have helped from a pure hype standpoint? Had Nintendo not said that it would be showing a new 3D Mario game and Mario Kart at this year’s E3. While neither would have been a monstrous surprise, I feel as though that “pre-announcement” kind of took away some of the hype.

It’ll be interesting to see how Nintendo approaches E3 from here on out. The expo doesn’t seem to matter as much as it did before thanks to Nintendo Direct. We’re seeing more and more game announcements being made during those presentations and not at E3. Who would have thought a year ago that we’d see something like “X” during one of these broadcasts?