Nintendo @ E3 2015 Review

By Brandon Sultana and Harry Sheridan June 23, 2015

Opening Thoughts

Harry Sheridan: Leading up to E3, Brandon and I were very excited for Nintendo’s presentation. Last year’s Digital Event was fantastic and we had high hopes that this year’s would live up to, if not surpass, it in quality. Yeah, the Hype Train was barreling full steam ahead and it seemed like nothing could stop it. Man, were we wrong.

Brandon Sultana: Absolutely, there were a huge number of topics that we could have seen touched on at E3. Retro’s new game, the successor to Club Nintendo, Mother 3, and new installments in various franchises like Metroid, Zelda, and Animal Crossing.

H: To be fair, I guess we may have set our expectations a little too high. But it would’ve been nice if Nintendo talked more about big projects that we haven’t already known about for a year (Looking at you, Wooly World). It wasn’t all that bad, though, despite how generally negative

we’re being.

B: In fact, I’d say overall, their showing at E3 was pretty good, but it was spread out over a long period of time, so the hype wasn’t quite as strong as it could have been.

H: Yeah, like the Smash Direct was really exciting (despite a major leak happening literally one day earlier) and the Nintendo World Championships was a total blast.

B: Except “MiniWheat”, that was… unpleasant

H: Probably the most exciting part for me was the moment when Itoi appeared on-screen just before the NWC and announced EarthBound Beginnings, since EarthBound is my favorite video game.

B: Plus that’s one step closer to Mother 3!

 

Super Smash Bros Event

B: The entire show was kicked off with a Super Smash Bros Direct hosted by Masahiro Sakurai on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, the majority of the contents of the presentation were spoiled by data miners from the previous day. On top of that, we had already known that the newly announced Roy and Ryu would be coming into the game due to lingering data found in the Mewtwo patch. While this was definitely disappointing, we received news on various other things like the rest of the Smash Amiibo, and update on tournament mode, and more N64 stages coming in the future.

 

Super Mario Maker

B: I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that (Super) Mario Maker went from “on my radar” to “I need this.”

H: Absolutely. I was excited for the game beforehand, but they’ve shown us so much more  features and elements that make the prospect of creating your own Mario levels that much more interesting. I can’t wait to dive in and start making all sorts of crazy levels.

B: The levels shown at the tournament were really something to behold. You can do so much with this game, and it’s definitely a game I’ll pick up at or near launch.

H: Not only do I want to pick it up at launch, but I’m also considering getting that cool collector’s edition that comes with a special 30th Anniversary Super Mario Amiibo and an art book.

B: I was originally not too sold on Mario Maker being the game to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Super Mario Bros, but I have to say it’s shaping up to be a pretty fitting celebration. I typically don’t buy many Amiibo outside of the Smash line, but this is one I’d love to put on my shelf.

 

Nintendo Digital Event

B: So now we move into the real part of Nintendo’s E3. The event Nintendo fans were most excited for, their Digital Event. It started off very strong, with an absolutely hilarious skit with Iwata, Reggie, and Miyamoto being portrayed as Muppets. This creative approach was just as funny, if not funnier than, the Robot Chicken segment from last year.

H: Yeah, I was really impressed with their intro, which also provided an excellent segway into their first announcement: Star Fox Zero. The newest title in the Star Fox Series, Zero is a reimagining of the first game (Yes, again) by Shigeru Miyamoto. In addition to the core gameplay that fans know from past installments in the series, Zero is introducing new elements such as vehicle transformations and a cockpit view on the Gamepad.

B: Yeah, I think the game is looking really good; however, I can’t help but feel they spent way too much time talking about the game. It’s definitely their hardest-hitting game this year, but just under a fifth of the presentation was Star Fox. It kind of killed some of their momentum. From there, they talked about the Skylanders/Amiibo crossover. It’s definitely cool to see the two brands merge, but it’s not something either of us were particularly interested in.

H: Yeah, I  agree that a lack of forward momentum was probably the biggest problem with this year’s presentation. They spent too much time on bits like the "Developer’s Stories" and going over games we already knew about. While I may have enjoyed those segments, I think they would’ve been better off if they were either shorter or removed entirely and just posted to their YouTube channel. And then there's the end of the presentation. You’d expect that Nintendo would save something big and exciting as their closer, really go out with a bang, but you’d be totally wrong. To everyone’s surprise and disappointment, the Digital Event closed with a simple compilation of fan videos about Mario.

B: It was definitely a nice gesture, giving money to charity for people submitting their own videos. But that is NOT how you close out an E3 press-conference. Last year they ended with a Star Fox tease, and the year before they ended with the announcement of Smash 4. It was clear that Nintendo didn’t bring a whole lot to the show, as they couldn’t muster a way to end off with a bang.

 

General Impressions

B: There was also the announcement of a game that has caused a huge uproar among the members of the Nintendo fan community. Of course, this controversial game is Metroid Prime: Federation Force. This new 3DS game by Next Level Games takes place within the Metroid Prime universe, but stars generic soldiers from the Galactic Federation, as they take on missions in a co-op FPS title. The package also includes the infamous Blast Ball game from the Nintendo World Championships. While the game will probably end up being pretty good, it’s inexcusable to call this a Metroid game when there has been such a drought for the series recently. There has been a ton of negativity surrounding the game, some going as far as to start a petition (with over 10,000 signatures) calling for the game’s cancellation. The game could end up being incredible, but it looks like it might be doomed, regardless of quality, due to the overwhelmingly negative reactions from fans.

H: And then there’s Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival. While I love the Animal Crossing Amiibo figures that were announced (and plan on buying at least one of them), I can’t help but be disappointed by it. It’s not that I necessarily dislike the concept of Amiibo Festival, in fact I’m glad that they’re giving the Amiibo more functionality. No, the only thing Amiibo Festival did wrong is that it wasn’t Animal Crossing Wii U. I know it’s a bit petty, but I can’t help but feel let down by the fact that we’re getting two Animal Crossing spin-offs, a full Amiibo set, Amiibo cards, but no actual Animal Crossing. I feel like this one’s in the same vein as Federation Force, where despite the possibility that it might end up being a decent game, it wasn’t the game I was expecting and I can’t help but feel let down by that.

B: The biggest surprise of the Digital Event was Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam. This game looks really awesome, being a crossover between the Mario and Luigi and Paper Mario series. While it’s not exactly the new Paper Mario game many fans have wanted, it still looks excellent and has tons of unique ideas by adding a third character into the Mario and Luigi formula.

H: Can we just take a moment to talk about EarthBound Beginnings? As I said before, this was probably my favorite moment of Nintendo’s 2015 E3. It may not be the game fans were clamoring for, Mother 3, but it’s a huge step in the right direction! The release of EarthBound Beginnings on the Virtual Console and Lucas’s return in Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS is a sign that Nintendo is finally listening to its fans. Does this mean we’re absolutely getting Mother 3? No. Does it mean that there’s a chance? It just might. Now, getting away from whatever prophetic tidings may or may not have come with the announcement, I should probably talk about the game itself. As the precursor to EarthBound, Beginnings is obviously a bit of a downgrade in some regards. It’s weird, going backwards from an SNES title to an NES title. Outside of graphics and a few mechanics, though, Beginnings is more or less the EarthBound we all know and love. The music is great, the gameplay is fun (the speed-up feature makes level grinding fairly easy), and the world is just as crazy as ever. Man, it sure is great going back to the world of EarthBound.

 

Closing Thoughts

B: We’ve definitely gone on for a long time here, but Nintendo’s E3 wasn’t nearly as bad as what we once thought. Had the entirety of the announcements been confined to the Digital Event, I feel the fans would have been far more positive looking forward. There are tons of great games coming in the very near future. While we are unsure of what’s coming in the more long term, I’m confident that we will see many great games beyond what was shown here. What was specifically shown may not have been incredibly impressive, because we already knew about a lot of it, but when looking at it, we are going to get tons of great games this holiday.