Nintendo are arguably the biggest name in videogame history. They practically invented the medium and are responsible for most of its defining moments. After two rough generation cycles that saw third party developers shy away from Nintendo’s outdated hardware, the gambles that were touch control on the portable DS and motion control in the home console Wii paid off in spades, becoming the best-selling units in Nintendo’s lifespan as well as the entire market. Even with all of that momentum, the past two E3s have been pretty lackluster for Nintendo, focusing on expanded audience titles like Wii Fit, Wii Music and Animal Crossing. Would this be the year that the house of Mario finally kicked gamers in their faces and reminded them that Nintendo IS videogames? Here are the good, the bad, and the WHAT from Nintendo’s press conference at E3 2010:
The Good
- Your favorite franchises are back! - Even with all of their innovation in technology and experience, Nintendo’s greatest asset is their catalog of beloved characters, each a ripe mine of opportunity for new games. Nintendo fully utilized that catalog with this years show, highlight brand new games in the Zelda, Donkey Kong, Kirby, and Metroid lines, plus a new Mario sports collection and Wii Party, a party game starring Nintendo’s newest and probably most popular characters, the Miis. Every single one of these titles looked like the very top-most notch of quality entertainment, with Donkey Kong Country Returns and Kirby’s Epic Yarn in particular stunning the audience with returns to long-lost and adored realms.
- 3DS - The biggest reveal of the conference is also the hardest to demonstrate: a portable gaming system that displays truly immersive three-dimensional graphics without the use of special glasses. Nintendo wasn’t willing to just let the tech speak for itself, though, showing testimonials from a slew of big name developers and their enthusiasm in already working on the 3DS, along with a list of in-development titles including Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Super Street Fighter IV, Kingdom Hearts, and a long-awaited Kid Icarus sequel. Oh yeah, the 3DS also has an analog slider, motion controls, improved wi-fi, vastly improved graphics, and the ability to take 3D photographs. Oh yeah, this thing is awesome.
- More than just Nintendo - Portables have always been a safe bet with Nintendo, but a lot of analysts have claimed that only first-party games are successful on the big N’s home consoles. Looking to blow off that speculation entirely, the press conference included excellent-looking and crowd-pleasing third-party Wii titles like Disney’s Epic Mickey, EA’s NBA Jam, Ubisoft’s Just Dance 2 and Activision’s update on the multiplayer classic Goldeneye 007.
The Bad
- Zelda’s technical difficulties - Nintendo knew what people wanted – a brand-new Zelda game – and so they gave it to them as the very first thing on stage in the presentation. Too bad Shigeru Mitamoto’s live demonstration was plagued by problems with the Wii MotionPlus controller and IR sensor bar. A clever nod to Steve Jobs’ technical difficulties demoing the iPhone 4 a few weeks earlier lightened the mood. Still, when the low point of your show is a brand new Zelda game, it’s a pretty damn good show.
- GoldenEye - While I appreciate the focus group videos reminding us that the original GoldenEye 007 for the N64 is one of the most beloved first-person shooters of all time and practically invented the home console FPS, this modern day update looks… not so good. The graphics are barely improved and look downright woeful compared to other Wii shooters like Metroid Prime 3, The Conduit and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Everyone raised on GoldenEye have since moved on to Halo. You’re going to need something special to win them back, and this ain’t it.
What?
- No Vitality Sensor - This Wii peripheral was Nintendo president Satoru Iwata’s big reveal at E3 last year, promising new degrees of game-to-human-experience interaction by monitoring the player’s heart rate and other physical factors to affect gameplay. It’s been a year and we’ve seen and heard nothing new from Ninendo on the topic, especially curious as Ubisoft showed off a very similar piece of hardware the previous night with their own heart rate monitoring game Innergy attached to it. Maybe games about relaxing just didn’t fit in with this year’s show, which was clearly about delivering big blockbuster experiences.
- No Pikmin - Shigeru Miyamoto promised two things in his 2009 E3 roundtable: that they were working on a new Zelda and that they were working on a new Pikmin. Their only truly new IP of the Gamecube generation, Pikmin is long overdue for a proper reentry. I suppose we can’t have every single Nintendo property in one press conference, though.
- No digital distribution talk - Downloadable titles are the hottest thing in gaming right now, allowing smaller development teams to make tinier games at budget prices. Nintendo prominently showed both WiiWare and DSiWare titles at E3 2009, but this year? Not even a mention of either service. It’s hard to get consumers excited about services they don’t even know you provide.
