E3 2015 - Nintendo Overview

In recent years, Nintendo have taken a step back from usual conference proceedings and following the behemoth conference of their closest rivals Microsoft and Sony earlier in the week, the iconic gaming forefathers released another of their digital Nintendo directs.

Opening with the three head honchos, Iwata, Miyamoto and Reggie as muppets, the eye catching intro slowly whisked into a world premiere for the brand new Star Fox Wii-U title, Star Fox Zero. The much anticipated title was given a huge amount of attention with Miyamoto going into deep detail about how he came up with the original idea and how this iteration utilises both the gamepad and the console simultaneously. Expect to be told to “do a barrel roll” later this year.

Although the holy grail of current Wii-U games, The Legend of Zelda, wasn’t present--confirming what Nintendo had been saying for a few months--that wasn’t to say Link wasn’t present. He was. And 3DS owners will be getting two new Zelda games.

The first, expected in Autumn of this year is a new co-op approach to the series. Zelda Triforce Heroes, is a puzzle adventure game where you have to work as team of three, on your or own switching between AI bots.

The second is a port to the 3DS of Hyrule Warriors, titled Hyrule Warriors: Legends. The port will contain all of the previously released DLC as well as brand new additions. This is penned in for a Q1 2016 release.

It might not have been the Zelda we were all waiting for, but it’s Zelda nonetheless.

Amiibo were also given a large chunk of the direct. In a partnership with Activision, a series of Skylander/Amiibo hybrids, starting with a Turbo-Charged Donkey Kong and a Hammer Slam Bowser with the flick of a switch the single figures will be able to used in both Skylanders and Nintendo’s Amiibo centric games. Confirmation that their money printing machines can now print money printing machines.

Although not officially announced, we also saw a glimpse of some Animal Crossing Amiibo which will likely release alongside the two revealed Animal Crossing games. Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer is a design centred 3DS game, while Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival is a party game coming to Wii-U featuring your favourite animal friends.

Away from the child friendly adventures Nintendo also poured a large chunk of time into more adult, meaty JRPGs and adventure games. Fire Emblem Fates will be coming to 3DS in 2016 and was the usual mix of meaty stories and huge monsters, while a Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem adventure was also given a trailer, albeit in Japanese, again coming next year. If 2016 is too long to wait, however, Xenoblade Chronicles X was given a trailer and will be coming out THIS YEAR, 4th December to be precise, the same time of year the English version of Yo-Kai Watch will also be available.

The talk before the direct was for a Wii-U Metroid game. Metroid certainly came, but not in the form that fans had been pining over for five years since the previous console version. A new four-player co-op 3DS Metroid titled Metroid Prime Federation Force to be specific.

It wouldn’t be a Nintendo direct without our classic cartoon friends Mario and Yoshi, however. While Yoshi’s Woolly World was discussed in depth (the brainchild of someone who knitted Yoshi and took it into the Nintendo one day) and will be released in October, Mario was the main event of the direct.

Not one, but two new Mario games; the crossover of 2D and 3D Mario in Mario & Luigi Paper Jam coming in Spring of next year as well as a new Mario sports game; Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash coming this Christmas.

The star of the show was Super Mario Maker, the ‘build it yourself’ Mario side scroller coming on 11th September. The developers discussed how they used to design levels on graph paper, showing the original designs (I can’t help but think those pieces of paper should have been in a museum) and how they decided it was a great idea for a game. Allowing players to make their own levels however they want. What’s more, there’s an 8-bit Mario Amiibo on the way too, good bye money.

It might not have been the Nintendo event we all wanted, and they might not have announced the games we all lust for, but you can’t deny, they always, somehow, put a smile on your face.