Part 1: Nintendo
E3’s over and done, and for the first year ever, it didn’t feel like a two day event. Though my brother and I always sit around for IGN’s stream during the latter half, the show without the surprises just isn’t the same. It usually feels like E3 is over when it’s barely begun.
This year was different. This year, Nintendo’s digital event ended and Nintendo’s Treehouse live stream started, instantly dropping localization bombs- Phoenix Wright vs Ace Attorney and Fantasy Life were both coming to North America.
As you can imagine, those small tidbits ensured our computers never left the Treehouse.
What followed was days of exciting demos and news. Fantasy Life was followed by prototypes of Miyamoto’s projects, hours of Splatoon gameplay and commentary, and, that evening, a Smash Bros tournament and roundtable, rounding out E3’s SSB announcements with Pacman.
And after that? News of Devil’s Third as a Wii U exclusive. Codename STEAM. More Splatoon. The party never stopped, and by the time Nintendo’s streams finished, we still had Xbox One and PS4 news to return to on IGN.
Nintendo’s approach to E3 didn’t only accomplish everything a live show ever has, it also took it a step further. It extended the excitement throughout the week and made E3 finally feel like the week-long event for the fans that it’s always meant to be.
Even my brother and I aren’t completely averse to the talk of who “won” E3. Last year it was Microsoft. The year before, Ubisoft. This year? There wasn’t any competition.
Nintendo won. Microsoft took second, Ubisoft third, Sony fourth and EA, who simply didn’t have enough games that were in a finished enough state (Star Wars, Mirror’s Edge, and two Bioware titles could barely be called prototypes) or didn’t trust those that were (where was Shadows of Mordor during the live show?) in distant fifth.
That’s how I call the shots. Microsoft did its show as they had the year before- nothing but games, spending just enough time on each to make me excited, but not so much as to make me hunger for them to move on. Sony? A second year in a row of too much TV and not enough new game announcements, though I’m as excited for LBP3 as the next guy.
But you don’t need a summary. You watched it all and made your own opinions. Just as last year, some of you will think Sony won the show. More than likely, we can all agree the real winners are, as always, the gamers.
Cheers.
I thought I’d tout some of my games of the show. The games that made me as excited as I ever have been post E3. Let’s start with the no brainer, shall we?
(Disclaimer- My cousin now says things are “Titanfall’d” when they’re overhyped because of me. As in, “He got Titanfall’d.” So if you’re the type to get overhyped and have that ruin your experience, stop reading here.)
Super Smash Brothers for Wii U and 3DS
Three Mii Fighters came out of the coolest E3 show opening of all time- Reggie and Iwata battling to the death. And Palutena? It was rad seeing Link and Pit fight it out, and just as rad learning Palutena had so many move options. And of course we got Pacman. Just like Sonic in Brawl, I never wanted him. I thought it was a terrible idea. Then I saw the trailers. Then I realized Sonic and Pacman are super rad, and I’m more pumped than ever to get my hands on the game.
Can I just say I’m glad they went with the most retro Pacman imaginable, and not the stupid Ghostly Adventures one with teeth?
But Sakurai didn’t just show us new characters. He told us about how every character would have three options for each special move. And he talked about how amiibo would be used so that we could create and level up a partner that we could display and carry around with us wherever we went. I’ll be picking up a couple of those upon release without a doubt.
Treehouse showed us tons of gameplay, and everything looks as amazing as can be. Smash Run is going to be a blast. Honestly, there’s so much there I’m not sure how to wrap my head around everything. How am I going to play? With customization? Without? Smash Run or normal brawls? Or can we not call them that anymore?
Looking forward to finding out.
I should touch on the tournament, and how it was both awesome and embarrassing at once. Nintendo did everything right. Sakurai got the hype rolling to extreme levels. Reggie’s finishing speech and promise he would come back next year to kick some ass was inspiring. And the media and celebrity brawls were great fun.
But the announcers made me cringe. They didn’t know items. They didn’t know how to keep track of a four-player match. But, in their defense, neither did most of the players.
It was painful to watch, honestly. Pokeballs, bumpers, deku nuts being ignored, sitting on the ground when any player could use them and earn their way back into the tournament. Players hiding on the sidelines getting away with it, sitting with 0% when their opponents climbed to seventy. Almost no one knew what they were doing. In fact, I’m going to make a claim right now with a hundred percent confidence.
I would beat all of them in a 4 Player FFA with items on. A hundred percent of the time. It was just that bad.
But in one versus one, items off? They finally made a good show of it, proving that they had spent an inordinate number of hours on Final Destination. So I admit their skill where it was. I’m just disappointed they lacked the adaptability and experience in a four player match. Ouch. The celebrities had better battles.
Kudos to Wii Fit Trainer and Zero Suit Samus, who knew how to work an Items On match. And kudos to the announcers for dressing smartly and actually announcing the players’ real names. I won’t be able to take esports seriously until we stop calling people ZeRo and Prog.
All that said, I got hyped during the tournament, thanks to Nintendo and Geoff, and can’t wait to get my hands on what will doubtlessly become my favorite game upon release.
Gorillacat
Microsoft’s conference was one of the greatest conferences of all time, barely a step down from last year, which had the megaton Titanfall (remember- that’s a game I still play daily with all my friends). Part of the reason for that? Gorillacat.
You probably remember Gorillacat- it’s a tough one to forget, that tear-inducing platformer by Moon Studios. When Cat prodded the lifeless Gorilla, I was pretty much emotionally done with life. It was a beautiful game which already proved it uses gameplay to help make emotional moments more poignant- after all, the first of the gameplay footage showed the two working together.
The following on-hands footage and interviews showed more of the awesome explorative platformer. 8-10 hours were promised, and though nobody said as much, the footage promised too that it would control like a dream. A really good dream you’d remember forever.
While I don’t necessarily shy away from 2D platformers- I have a certain love for VVVVVV and Dustforce- or artistic games- such as or maybe I do- I’ve played few enough games that try to be both. None of them have particularly appealed to me enough to spend the 8-20 dollar asking price.
Gorillacat? Say 60 and I’ll have my wallet out.
Devil’s Third
It took me a while to decide what the biggest surprise of the show was. I had picked Splatoon until I figured, as an unleaked, unannounced game, its surprise factor was of a different sort. But then I saw Treehouse’s segment on Devil’s Third and I remembered this year’s Bayonetta 2.
An M rated game from Itagaki that had been announced a few years ago for everything but Nintendo consoles, featuring a drinking, smoking, half-naked buffasaurus rex and more blood and decapitation than AC Unity’s entire trailer suddenly reappearing as a Nintendo Wii U exclusive was far more surprising than anything else on the show floor. And it looks amazing.
Scratch that- as my brother suggests, it looks ugly as sin. What I meant to say is it looks awesome. The original announcement all those years ago looked cool, but more like the sort of game I had to sadly skip as I purchased more important titles. The announcement at E3?
I don’t know if you noticed, but there’s a game mode in which opposing players are throwing fruit into a goal. And one that has a column of rainbow chickens doing whatever columns of rainbow chickens do in M rated shooter/action games. And a carpet bombing run that litters players’ vision with propaganda featuring scantily clad beach babes. Not to mention the extensive amount of customization featured, that allows players to have cat heads and ninja pants, or a suit made out of cardboard boxes. Not to mention players can enter into clan battles while taking neither side.
And of course there are punch only battles, melee weapon only battles, traditional battles-
Did I say traditional battles? I meant battles in which players build fortresses with hard earned points only to watch their enemies destroy them with RPGs and other explosives.
And to think I was mildly interest after watching the first trailer at the beginning of IGN’s livestream. Now? Now I’m eagerly anticipating what is going to be one of the most unique, off the wall multiplayer experiences on any console.
I just hope enough people are willing to ignore all the negativity surrounding the title and hop online with me. Multiplayer games are made or broken by the community, after all.
Splatoon
Speaking of unique multiplayer games, how about that Splatoon? In my pitiful foresight, I never could have imagined a Nintendo developed shooter- well, that’s sort of a lie. I played hundreds of hours of Assault, after all. But a brand new multiplayer shooter IP? I couldn’t even imagine such a thing could be suitably Nintendo.
But that’s why I’m not working there, and instead the young blood who dreamed up what is almost doubtlessly my game of the show are.
Many of my favorite games have awesome approaches to traversal. The mere mention of the word in an E3 interview is enough to make me pay attention. It’s why I was so hyped and never disappointed by Titanfall. It’s why I can’t wait for Shadow of Mordor and Sunset Overdrive.
It’s also why I think swimming around as a squid through the ink my team and I laid down is going to be the best experience of 2015. It’s why I love how quickly and easily and effortlessly players can switch forms.
Well, honestly, the gameplay footage and live demos at the Treehouse stream are the reasons for why I love those things. Seeing entire matches play out makes me beyond excited to get my tentacles on this game, and it makes me hope people can move passed hearing tentacles and snorting their coffee.
If you saw Splatoon, you know it’s amazing. And if you still aren’t sold, then chill the fuck out and I will tell you why you’re more wrong than Hitler.
You don’t want to be more wrong than Hitler, do you?
Mario Maker
Truth be told, this leak didn’t inspire a whole lot of excitement from me originally. Then, like many of the games Nintendo announced at E3, I saw the Treehouse play it. Morgan made a believer of me.
Why? Because it’s almost criminally easy to make excellent levels, and even if it isn’t as deep as LBP, it looks far simpler to use. It boils level creation down strictly to level design. To hell with being artsy fartsy. Forget making shoot-em-ups and horror games. And hello to making hellish challenges for your friends to rage over in a matter of minutes.
Because let’s be honest. Who in their right mind would try to make an easy level? I’ll be making towers of flying piranha plants and impeccable jumps and traps and leaps of faith for everyone to enjoy. And by everyone, I mean everyone who has the patience for flying piranha plant towers and impeccable jumps and traps and leaps of faith.
And if they don’t? Then they can instantly fix my level to be more their speed, or skip a particularly challenging segment and pretend they mastered it when I turn my back. Because Mario Maker wants the creator and player both to have fun, experiment, and create the hardest, raddest levels.
WARNING Strong Language Incoming
Giant Robot
Giant what? Odds are, if you didn’t watch the Treehouse live-stream, you have no idea what this is. Odds are, if you didn’t watch the Treehouse live-stream, you thought this was the dumbest shovel-ware thing you’ve ever seen.
Odds are, if you didn’t watch the Treehouse live-stream, you’re a total dunce.
Let me explain to you exactly how this game works. Players can completely customize a towering robot, from shoulders to calves to heads. Size, shape, you name it. Then players take that robot that they made to be as effective and efficient as possible and take it into a series of levels in which they face against other towering robots in a sumo-like fight to the explosive death.
But FUCK THAT.
What makes Giant Robot SUPER FUCKING AWESOME is playing the game with your friends. Fuck efficiency. Fuck effectiveness. It’s all about making the dumbest, most bonkers possible robot and forcing your friends to try to win a match without falling over because their head is seven times too big for their ass.
I know, I wasn’t sure either when I first saw it. I mean, I saw what it could be as a full-fledged game (it’s just a prototype right now). Walking around as a giant robot, throwing buildings, sweeping people out of the way of danger (only one of those features was actually a part of Giant Robot)- the possibilities were certainly there. But it wasn’t until I saw some of the bros from the Treehouse actually take it for a spin that I really understood what I was looking at. What I was missing.
More than anything, I’m worried Giant Robot won’t become a fully-fledged game. More than anything, I’m worried we’ll never get our hands on the best prototype ever invented by the hands and minds of men.
Giant Robot for President, 2015.
Codename STEAM
Did you think I was fucking done? Did you think Nintendo was done Tuesday night? Then you haven’t seen Codename fucking STEAM. In a sweet and righteous world, all I would have to say was that it’s being made by Intelligent Systems. You know, the guys behind Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Warioware, and Paper Mario?
But we don’t live in a sweet and righteous world. We live in a world where GTA V being ported to current-gen consoles got more buzz than Devil Third’s fruit fights. So let me tell you more.
Watch the Treehouse demo.
And I’ll even tell you more than that. Codename STEAM is a 3DS strategy/rpg/shooter game that’s a little bit like Valkyria Chronicles and a lot like the best game ever. Which is Codename STEAM. THIS GAME RIGHT HERE. It’s got an artstyle inspired by American comics, accentuating a steampunk world inhabited by Abraham “Fuck the South” Lincoln, liberator, American, and the first man who made top hats and sideburns acceptable fashion options. You think I’m kidding? S.T.E.A.M was literally started by Honest Abe. In case you’re wondering, I’m pretty sure S.T.E.A.M stands for Simulate Titillating Extreme ALIEN MURDER. Because what’s about to go down is a buttload of Lovecraft-inspired Earth-invader genocide. That’s a good thing. Trust me. Trust Abe.
Codename STEAM (and that ain’t no pansy-ass placeholder) doesn’t treat you like a baby. You think you need what, ten units on your map? Fair enough. Here’s four. But don’t worry. Blessed IS isn’t evil. When they deliver upon us Codename STEAM, they will also deliver upon us a fighting chance. But that’s all I can promise, because I’ve got it on record that this game is going to be HARD.
And that’s not all that’s going to be.
Codename STEAM has to be seen to be believed. I’ve done all that I can. I cannot make you watch the Treehouse demo. I can only do my part by buying Codename STEAM when it eventually makes its way to the 3DS.
The Legend of Zelda Wii U
Do I really need to impart how gorgeous this game looks? No. No I don’t. This game is going to be amazeballs. Eiji’s Aonuma’s words.
Reading this, you might get the sense that I’m a Nintendo fanboy. Get that shit checked out, son, because you’re practically fucking psychic.
But I’m also a lover of all kinds, and a soon-to-be owner of the PS4 and Xbox One. “Nintendo” announces Glacier White Playstation 4? Bundled with Destiny? Yes please. Xbox One with Kinect? Once Sunset Overdrive or Gorillacat comes out, you bet.
How about some diversity up in this Games of the Show list? Or how about I just say every single game at E3 and leave it at that?
NOPE. You’re not getting out of it that easily. Well, okay. I’ll leave it there for now. Come back next time if you dare to see another dozen games that I think are totally the best games ever.