Nintendo E3 2012 Keynote Overview

So it was Nintendo's turn to take to the stage in order to give us a glimpse of things to come with their new piece of hardware, the Wii U.

Details still elude us as to what is actually inside the brand new piece of kit, but there was plenty of talk about on the gamepad itself and what Nintendo intend to bring to the overall gaming experience of people across the world. Nintendo say they are planning to address the masses with more details in the near future.

This E3 presentation is all about the games, so we are told by the President and Chief Operating Officer of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aime. A massive 23 games were spoken about, some of which I will mention here, the rest will be elaborated upon in further posts so keep an eye out!

First up Shigeru Miyamoto came on stage to discuss a new entry into the cutesy micromanagement series, Pikmin. Pikmin 3 will be available for the Wii U and aims to bring a deep and tactical game to the console whilst still being fun. A combination that is sometimes hard to pull off!

It's your job to command your team of 100 Pikmin's with the overall aim of completing different objectives. These objectives can see you building bridges across the impressive looking terrain, getting from one side of a level to another or simply surviving battles. All of this can be done with either the Nunchuk and Wii Remote or the built in screen on the Wii U pad. There are obvious advantages to using the new hardware such as a map on screen constantly but the game is no less playable by using the other option.

How the Wii U will integrate and improve your playtime was the main theme of the conference, huge emphasis was put on that Nintendo intends to revolutionise things, make gaming a more sociable experience for all, the casual gamer and the hardcore gamer alike.

Possibly the biggest part of this social interaction will be Miiverse, a place where your Mii avatar can gather and socialise with your friends and people you have met all over the world. The main hub of the Miiverse is the Mainstream. A place where your Miis hang out together around common interest tiles, for example, If you have been playing a lot of New Super Mario Brother U with friends, your Mii and theirs will congregate around that tile. From this screen you can also send text messages to friends, and share screenshots with them. Your Miis are able to communicate between themselves also. These features were demonstrated within the aforementioned Mario title, on the level select screen you can see your friends' Miis on the map with messages for you, some giving advice; some friendly and some plain bragging about their level complete times!

Reggie then went on to explain, with the help of Martin Tremblay, President of Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment how the Wii U will offer its own unique ways to play through games that its competitors, Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox just won't have.

A great example of this was a new version of the smash hit crime fighter, Batman: Arkham City coming exclusively to the Wii U.

In Batman Arkham City: Armoured Edition both Batman and Catwoman are armed with new armor, as the title would suggest. This armor enables you to utilise the exclusive features this edition brings. Throughout your game your armor will build up energy all of which can be spent via the screen on the Wii U gamepad. Using this energy enables BAT mode which makes your attacks hit a lot harder than normal. In addition to this, there have been new puzzle elements added which rely upon your skill with a Batarang! Using the highly responsive control pad, you are able to steer the Batarang yourself in order to perform more intricate maneuvers than before. The gamepad is also used when placing explosives, you are able to place them exactly where you want to and detonate each of them one by one whenever you want just by touching the screen. All simple, intuitive things which look set to improve gameplay immensely.

Throughout the presentation, masses of games were spoken about, from the predictable (hello Mario) to the maybe not so predictable such as Wii Fit U, an upgrade to the original which utilises the original Wii Fit board and the new gamepad.

Amongst the titles spoken about were:

Scribblenauts Unlimited: A game in which we are encouraged to imagine everything, explore anything and create anything! New features include the ability to combine objects - the example given being the Auto Mutt ( A car + Dog combination), the ability to share these weird and wonderful creations with our friends, a brand new multiplayer mode and finally a chance to learn Maxwell's story.

Paper Mario Sticker Star: Paper Mario is back in all is wafer thin glory! The aim of Nintendo was to retain the fun feel of the previous installments but to also add new gameplay to the mix. This is done in the form of stickers, you peel them off walls and surfaces throughout the world and these serve as your battle commands among many other things. Collect a hammer sticker for instance and you can smash your foes with a hammer! The stickers are also able to unlock different areas for you should you find the correct ones.

Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon: New ghosts await you as you traverse different spooky mansions trying to catch them all! Emphasis has been placed on the fact that you will need different strategies to catch certain ghosts. Luigi's Mansion 2 is a game you can expect to hit the shelves around the holiday season along with the Wii U system itself.

Reggie also mentioned that there is going to be a lot of third party support for the Wii U and whilst not addressing individual games, a video was shown demonstrating various Ubisoft titles,

Assassins Creed
Rabbids Land
Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2013
Rayman Legends
Sports Connection
Avengers Battle for Earth

As well as games by many other developers such as,

Aliens: Colonial Marines
Mass Effect 3
Darksiders 2
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Tank! Tank! Tank!
Trine 2 Directors Cut
and Ninja Gaiden: Razors Edge

So as you can see, there are currently plenty of games in development for the system, but we shall find out more details at another time.

One of the biggest things that Nintendo was keen to show off was NintendoLand, their attempt at making you see just what the Wii U and its revolutionary controller is really all about. The premise basically is that many of Nintendo's popular franchises collide and create an interactive theme park full of mini games where you and your friends, whether local or online through the Miiverse can compete and play together. The mini games themselves aim to enlighten the user about the things the Wii U and its gamepad are capable of.

Well that's great about the Wii U but what about the 3DS? Well the 3DS has its own show which has not gone ahead just yet which is where you can hear all the news about all things 3DS as apparently it was all too much to fit into the conference.

So there you have it, there's a brief (kind of) run down of the things you can expect from Nintendo in the coming year. Are you excited by anything mentioned here? Why not add a comment and let us know.

Don't forget to keep an eye on GameGrin for all of your E3 news!