E3: Nintendo

The Legend of Zelda 25^th Anniversary: Nintendo is doing a lot of things to try and celebrate this milestone.  The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening is now available in the eShop for the 3DS, Ocarina of Time is now available for the 3DS, 4 Swords will be a free download for the DSi in September, there will be a gold Zelda Wii remote, a Zelda 25^th Anniversary Symphony will start their tour this fall and release a CD when Skyward Sword comes out.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Fall 2011): This is the second Zelda game for the Wii and this time it will be a motion control game.  With the Wii Motion Plus you are supposed to have 1:1 control of your sword, shield and all other items you will use.  The live demo didn’t go very well at last year’s E3 so they only showed it on the show floor this year with a new feature called bird riding, in which you soar above the clouds on a bird and land on mountains with villages and dungeons to explore.  I don’t like the idea of the game being fully motion controlled because I don’t think that motion control can compete with the precision and feel you get from a controller.

Mario Kart 3DS (Holiday 2011): This is a new Mario Kart for the 3DS with new features like Han gliders, underwater driving with a propeller and kart customization.

Star Fox 64 3D (September, 2011): This is a port of the classic N64 game that will now offer slightly improved graphics and 3D, like Ocarina of Time for the 3DS.  In addition to the standard controls you can tilt the 3DS to fly the plane.  Lastly the game will support multiplayer with a cool new feature where the 3DS’s camera watches your reactions and displays it in real-time over your plane.  That way when you are shooting down a plane you can watch a guy’s face as he realizes he is screwed which seems like a fun little addition.

Super Mario 3D

Kid Icarus: Uprising (2011): Some new features that were showed off this year were the inclusion of multiplayer battles and trading cards.  The vs. mode seems ok but kind of chaotic when you have a hand full of guys beating each other up at close quarters with big combos and lots of health.  The cards on the other hand just seem unnecessary, they use the AR thing in the 3DS so it looks like the characters are coming out of the cards and then they battle but you don’t get to interact with it so I feel that it is a useless gimmick.  Wait a minute Nintendo is using a useless gimmick, but when have they ever done that?  Oh that’s right I remember now.

Luigi’s Mansion 2: This isn’t a port like some of the other 3DS games.  This is a completely new experience with new enemies, settings and story.  So if you were a fan of the first one on the Gamecube this will be a proper sequel.

Resident Evil: Mercenaries (June 28, 2011): I love Resident Evil and while this isn’t a full-fledged game it will probably be one of the best on the 3DS.

Mario and Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Wii: November 2011) (3DS: February 2012)

Ace Combat 3D

Tetris

Cave Story 3D

Resident Evil: Revelations: This is the game on the 3DS that I want the most but I didn’t see or hear anything new about it which was a bummer.

Driver: Renegade (August 30, 2011)

Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions (July 26, 2011)

Tekken 3D

Metal Gear Solid 3 3D (2011): This is another big game on the 3DS but I don’t think the game will be as good on a handheld plus the game is coming in HD along with MGS2 and Peace Walker for the 360 and PS3 for around the same price.  So why would anyone buy it?

Nintendo eShop: This is an online service for the 3DS that Nintendo was showing off; I’m not sure if it is new to the 3DS or if features were added.  It will have trailers, demos, screenshots, a virtual console of the GB & GBC and you get Excitebite 3D for free.  There is also another free item called Pokédex 3D which uses the AR mini game to search for codes (Probably on adds) in order to unlock Pokémon which you can put in pictures of your friends taken with the 3DS’s camera so it looks like they are standing beside Charizard or some other Pokémon.

Wii U: This is the new home console from Nintendo a Wii 2.0.  They came out earlier in the press conference and said that they were going to make games that appeal to an even broader audience than the Wii and to the most hardcore of gamers.  The Wii said that it would cater to hardcore gamers and bring in new audiences and it only did one of those things and it sure as hell wasn’t the first thing.  Once again they will be using motion control but now there is also a touch-screen, so while developers couldn’t make motion control work they how have two screens one of which you can touch to make it even harder to find ideas that will work with the tech rather than fighting against it.  So here is the layout for the new controller; it looks like a tablet in terms of its shape, it has a touch-screen in the center with a d-pad on one side and 4 buttons on the other, there are two analog sticks but they are place at the top of the controller rather than the bottom which is weird because thumbs are short so they are usually at the bottom so that they feel right.  When the TV is turned off or switched to another video you can continue to play by looking at your controller, this means that if you within a certain distance of your Wii U (awful name) you can use the controller like a handheld which means that you don’t need your DS or 3DS around the house anymore.  Way to go Nintendo, give people even less reasons to buy your stuff.  You can also use your controller’s screen to zoom in on the TV screen in games or when surfing the web.  The controller has a front facing camera which can be used for video calls.  There is also an accelerometer, microphone, speaker and rumble.  The console is backwards compatible with all Wii games and accessories.  Does this mean there is still hope for the Vitality Sensor!  The one good thing about this console is that it is in HD and has graphics like the 360 and PS3.  Fun fact when Miyamoto was interviewed in one of those terrible promotional video that consoles have sometimes where developers claim the console is amazing like they did with the Wii and when he was talking about all the amazing ideas they have for the new console he took a long pause to try and think of one because he had none and they didn’t even bother to edit it out.

Super Smash Bros.: Nothing was shown off but it is planned for the 3DS and Wii U and they are supposed to work together in some way that they are still working on.

Lego City Stories: This is an open-world Lego game for the 3DS and Wii U.

Darksiders 2

Metro: Last Light

Tekken: Wii Successor: Yeah that’s the name.

Ninja Gaiden 3 (2012):  The story in the latest game is supposed to be like a reboot the others won’t play into it and it will focus more on Ryu Hayabusa as a character.  Also the game will not only have co-op it will have competitive multiplayer both of which I am really interested in seeing how they will be worked in.  The game is slated for release in early 2012 on the other platforms but the developers said it will be on the Wii U sometime later.

Batman: Arkham City: This is one of my most anticipated games of the year because Batman: AA was amazing and I am a huge fan of Batman.  Combat is supposed to be improved so that you can battle up to 25 or 30 enemies at once and the main story is supposed to be around 25 hours with around 2.5 hours spent playing as Catwoman.  No official release date was given for the Wii U, all I know is that it will be later than October which means it might be out this holiday season and it might be out early next year.

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations:  Like I mentioned in my E3: Microsoft article when discussing Halo 4 I wish that there would be a little bit larger of a break between games in the same series. While I am excited to see the conclusion of Ezio’s story I hope that when they finish up this series in number three they wait two years, give us enough time to miss it and go out with a bang.  Also it had better be in Desmond’s time which means that this game has to set a huge stage for the final confrontation between the Assassins and the Templars.  There are some new items like bombs and a hook-blade as well as some returning features like the ability to call upon other assassins and an improved multiplayer mode.  Once again no official release date.

Ghost Recon Online: This will be a free shooter on the PC and hopefully the same will be said for the Wii U version which is supposed to use the touch-screen for more tactical actions and planning.

Just Dance 3

Dirt

Aliens: Colonial Marines (2012)

Captain America: Super Solider (July 19, 2011): Available for the Wii, DS and 3DS.

Spider-Man: Edge of Time (Fall 2011): This is the next Spider-Man game from the makers of Shattered Dimensions.  It is about Spider-Man 2099 trying to change time and prevent the original Spider-Man’s death.  It is supposed to have the best story of any Spider-Man game and for the first time you can battle Anti-Venom.  I love Spider-Man and while I don’t think it will be as good as Arkham City it still seems interesting.  It will be available for the Wii, 3DS and DS.

X-Men: Destiny (September 2011): In this new X-Men game you will play as one of three young mutants who are just discovering their powers.  The game has RPG elements so that you can level up your mutant’s abilities and while you can’t play as members of the X-Men you will meet them and do side quests and possibly main quest fighting alongside them.  It will be available for the Wii and 3DS.
Kirby 2011: This is the new Kirby game for the Wii which has apparently been in the works for years but kept getting delayed.

Kirby Mass Attack: This is another new Kirby game except this one is for the DS and involves you collecting food in order to get more Kirbys and use a small army of them to get past obstacles and overwhelm enemies.