Cubed3 Feature | Did Nintendo Impress or Disappoint at E3 with Wii U?

I'm excited for the Wii U but I think Nintendo's performance overall was pretty poor. They didn't really show anything we didn't already know about except Nintendo Land which I couldn't care less about, nor did they give any new information in general. Besides that, the conferences were boring. I didn't really need to see a guy play Nintendo Land for twenty minutes. I really want Paper Mario but I didn't need a 20-minute demo of that either.

E3 was their first chance to get people really excited about this and instead they showed us games we could buy for other systems right now. Hopefully they'll pull out all the stops for TGS.

justonesp00lturn said:
I'm excited for the Wii U but I think Nintendo's performance overall was pretty poor. They didn't really show anything we didn't already know about except Nintendo Land which I couldn't care less about, nor did they give any new information in general. Besides that, the conferences were boring. I didn't really need to see a guy play Nintendo Land for twenty minutes. I really want Paper Mario but I didn't need a 20-minute demo of that either.

E3 was their first chance to get people really excited about this and instead they showed us games we could buy for other systems right now. Hopefully they'll pull out all the stops for TGS.

Strategy my friend. No good murder mystery begins with the case being solved does it(terrible I know)? Its all about pacing really. They have to get the point across that this is a new platform and is different than Wii.

Nintendo screws a lot of things up. But one thing they know for sure is that people are fucking DUMB. They MUST flash "NEW!! NEW!!" everywhere for a good while for those idiots who want the WiiU's library and think "can't I just play them on my Wii?".

Bottom line: get the point across, show few first party(we all know they're coming) and convince those on the fence that third parties are there.

I watched the e3 conference again and again and for some reason, there was nothing spectacular from Nintendo or even from the third party showing. No new IP's from first party, are we really going to just fork out for games we played on the previous console in HD? whats the point. I'm not really impressed with the console can do in terms of graphical power as we have seen that from PS3 and Xbox 360 for the past 7 years and its only taking Nintendo till now to reach that level, only difference that separates the WiiU from the other consoles is the tablet gamepad. What I did notice was Nintendo were planning ahead, they wanted to incorporate Miiverse on consoles after WiiU, I really believe this console will make or break Nintendo's future in the home console market. From E3 2011 to E3 2012, there hasn't been a much great deal of what we don't already know. No release date, no retail price, All of that information should have been stated at the conference, cut the bullshit and get right down to business.

After the UK's adverts stating "This is not DS, it's 3DS!" I fully expect the same to be required for Wii U. I've already had colleagues at work looking confused about the name...and when I mention the GamePad? Haha, yeah, nobody is sold on the idea. Most say it will detract from the experience because at least when going into menus normally it's keeping your focus on the TV. They don't like the idea of looking away constantly.

AdamC3 (guest) said:
After the UK's adverts stating "This is not DS, it's 3DS!" I fully expect the same to be required for Wii U. I've already had colleagues at work looking confused about the name...and when I mention the GamePad? Haha, yeah, nobody is sold on the idea. Most say it will detract from the experience because at least when going into menus normally it's keeping your focus on the TV. They don't like the idea of looking away constantly.

Nintendo had CNN thinking it was a new controller for Wii.

Adam Riley seems as off base as nintendo. Being very selective at how it looks at the criticism levelled at a company so it can throw it hands up and scream 'your never satisfied'

Motion controls are very innovative but in 2006 the tech was so crude that wii sports was at far as you could go. THe pointer controls were great but with no HD graphics every one had to hire different teams to rework their IPs for their FPS. Then they had to decide what to chop and what to keep.

Had a game like zelda existed closer to 07/08 we might have seen better sales. In the end it was a fantastic game that finally showed everyone just what motion could offer for core gamers at a period when the wii was dying and a lot of people connected motion with crap.

Fast forward this year and there is a lot of deja vu floating around. We have pikmin but the rest of first party dev on show is using mini games to show of the controller. (pikmin doesnt even need the tablet) Third party efforts arent just ports (I would love bioshock infinity on wii U) they are games almost a year old.

God knows how the graphics situation will play out this time. With Square and gears showing of their new engines waiting for the new consoles are we going to see third party support dissipate all over again. THe fact that nintendo refuses to clarify whats under the hood feels me with no confidence.

3DS: Bad launch line-up, Nintendo kept teasing and showing games that wouldn't come out for a long time...
------> WHY NO LAUNCH GAMES????
------> WHERE ARE NEW GAMES WE DON'T ALREADY KNOW ABOUT????

Wii U: Diverse and surprisingly good launch line-up with something from just about every genre, Nintendo decided not to tease far away games this time to keep some surprises...
------> WHY AREN'T U SHOWING FUTURE GAMES, NINTENDO????

( Edited 12.06.2012 13:34 by SirLink )

Well, I missed all the E3 festivities entirely. I've watched a couple summary videos and looked at a couple articles. Nothing that I saw impressed me at all. I saw a hilarious video of the new Tomb Raider. It had the Uncharted theme playing over it, and I thought it was Uncharted 4 for a minute. Then I realized it wasn't.

Almost everything else seemed to follow a formula of; Cover mechanic, stealth mechanic, and most importantly of all - *camera zooms in, possibly a tad of slow motion - the close-up brutal execution of an enemy mechanic. I didn't think I'd ever get tired of violence, but it's starting to all seem the same. I like my sickening violence to be sickening, not 'par for the course'.

I don't want to get hate mail for this, but the one basic thing I was looking for in Nintendo was to show that the Wii U is powerful. What I saw were 360/PS3 level visuals. Now, maybe I'd expect that from ports of PS3/360 games, but the story didn't seem to change when I saw other Wii U stuff.

It appears that what we have in the Wii U is, once again, current (soon-to-be-last) generation hardware with some innovative features built around it. Innovation is always good. Premiering a brand new console in 2012 with 2005-level hardware is somewhat not good to a "core gamer". Many will see little to no point in trading in their 360s or PS3s for Nintendo's new machine, I feel.

Hopefully it's just a rocky start, and maybe the hardware is mind-bendingly complex and devs are just having a rough time with it? Seems unlikely given Nintendo's penchant for simple hardware since the GC.

In short, I saw nothing from Nintendo or anyone else that particularly interested me.

I thought the press conference was a bit of a damp squib. It wasn't a bad press conference, but it failed to excite!

They showed third party titles which were mainly ports (understandable when it's a new unproven console), but the fact they were mainly sequels to games that have never graced a Nintendo console before was a bit of a blow. Not to mention that by the time they come out you'll be able to get them for a budget price on the other consoles (which will no doubt affect how well they do on WiiU, re-starting the whole cycle of "hard core games don't sell on Nintendo").

Another major problem I had with the conference was the fact that they had no big first party games. Yeah they had Mario, but it was another one of the factory line look-a-like side scrolling Mario games Nintendo have been producing lately. While they are still good games, they aren't very exciting. They also had Pikmin, but while (again) the Pikmin games are good games, they are a niche and not a system seller by any means. Nintendo land looks ok, but feels like a kick in the face to me. "Your not getting all these great Nintendo franchises, but we'll let you play little bits of them just to rub your face in the fact you haven't got what you want".

While the WiiU itself is great and I'm excited for it, it doesn't garner the same amount of enthusiasm now because it was shown last year and the competition have had time to steal some of that thunder by anouncing their own versions of game pad functionality (Vita connectivity & Smart glass).

Nintendo really needed to anounce a big name game, like Zelda, "proper" Mario game, Metroid, Starfox or even F-Zero. Even if it was just a couple of tantalizing screen shots! It would have created an excitement. A new console with a killer new, must have first party game.

Their press conference wasn't bad. It was just a little dull.

( Edited 13.06.2012 10:34 by Trepe )

I thought the press conference was a bit of a damp squid.

Other than that, I agree.

Calum Peak: you mean "it may have", "it would have" etc. Instead of "it may of"...

Canyarion said:
Calum Peak: you mean "it may have", "it would have" etc. Instead of "it may of"...

"It may of" is an acceptable turn of phrase in the UK, as it stems from an abbreviation of "It may have", which is spoken "It may 'ave" which slowly got distorted into "It may of".

Smarter every day, bro!

If only Nintendo's conference could be corrected like everyone in this thread is doing to each others' posts.

They show'd nothing of interest, the only thing to be happy about is nintendo are allowing you to transfer wiiware/vc titles.

-Zombi U is apparently a mediocre fps with no online.
-Pikmin 3 is good but it's not exactly a heavy hitter.
-No one is gonna buy mass effect 3/arkham city on Wii U, publishers will then use that as an excuse not to produce games for it.
-They didn't show any Aliens Colonial Marines which was the one 3rd party title I was interested in.
-Nintendo managed to out do microsoft as worst of E3 and microsoft set the bar low, nintendo tripped and fell under it.

Massive dissapointment gamewise, especially first party.

Pikmin3 seemed like it would kick off a bunch of greatness, it didnt. I liked many WiiU features, but without a strong lineup of games its nothing.

Even on the 3DS - nothing we didnt know of already.

WHERES THE GAMES???

Nintendo's E3 2006 press conference was amazing. It hit the ball rolling for Wii. We got console info, 'core' titles from huge franchises (3D Mario, Zelda, and Metroid to name a few). The other companies had a sort of lack-luster showing as well (maybe not Sony, their's was impressive), but Nintendo really should have hit it out of the park. But they completely dropped the ball. It's ALMOST 2008 all over again!

The only games I'm interested in is ACIII, New Super Mario Bros 2, Mario Bros U, Kingdom Hearts, and Fire Emblem.

Martin_ said:

Canyarion said:
Calum Peak: you mean "it may have", "it would have" etc. Instead of "it may of"...

"It may of" is an acceptable turn of phrase in the UK, as it stems from an abbreviation of "It may have", which is spoken "It may 'ave" which slowly got distorted into "It may of".

Smarter every day, bro!

Canyarion said:
Calum Peak: you mean "it may have", "it would have" etc. Instead of "it may of"...

Apologies. I do this a lot in general. I had very little time to write and did it on the site and not in word. I write how I think and speak - I still haven't learnt my lesson after a uni degree! It's what happens when you live in England and enter colloquialisms unlike being taught in another country, your English is likely to be better than mine. You may of been taught better. Who knows.

Anyway, my view still stands as written above. As cynical as it may be.

( Edited 12.06.2012 19:35 by Echoes221 )

Martin_ said:
Almost everything else seemed to follow a formula of; Cover mechanic, stealth mechanic, and most importantly of all - *camera zooms in, possibly a tad of slow motion - the close-up brutal execution of an enemy mechanic.

Pikmin 3 needs this. If you brutally kill a Pikmin, would blood go everywhere or it would be something more like tree sap?

Wii U: Diverse and surprisingly good launch line-up with something from just about every genre, Nintendo decided not to tease far away games this time to keep some surprises...
------> WHY AREN'T U SHOWING FUTURE GAMES, NINTENDO????

Surprisingly good launch lineup? The only thing that truly looked exceptional was Pikmin 3 -- and that won't even be there at launch.

I really disagree with the notion that Nintendo fans are impossible to please. That's seems like a cop out for what was an awful conference. Whenever Nintendo brings the games, fans are generally at least semi-satisfied. I've really enjoyed the years where Nintendo showed us new stuff -- the conference Adam mentions where the likes of Skyward Sword and Golden Sun were shown off, along with many others, are bright spots on Nintendo's record.

Nintendo fans may be hard to fully please, but this conference wasn't even close. This wasn't just a situation where fans wanted more. It's a situation where we wanted something. I don't think it's too much to ask for something more than 20 minute demonstrations of games that are already on store shelves.

In the end though, I do share some of Az' optimism. I really don't understand how anyone can excuse this E3. It was bad. But that doesn't mean the Wii U is doomed to suck. It's just clearly not going to have the strong software it needed to convince me to buy one in the first year.

I won't buy a Wii U at launch. I may not buy one for years, in fact. But Nintendo's fantastic AAA franchises will eventually arrive on the system. And I'll probably be there when they do.


( Edited 12.06.2012 20:12 by Jacob4000 )

I agree with Calum Peak. Nintendo rules, press conference was lame. I have lots of hope for Nintendo but to focus on stupid aspects of the controller, ie, Batman, was not interesting in the least. It came off as more desperate. Look, look, it's a new controller, look it's Batman, see? Third party support. Nah, focus on Ubisoft. At least they're taking a slight risk on the system.

I do think the system will be fantastic however. If Nintendo can market the Wii U to the casual crowd and make sure to inform them it's a NEW system, all will be well. In the sales department anyways. But that just means more awesome core Nintendo titles for us. And I do think Pikmin 3, ZombiU and Super Mario Bros U will be a fine launch line up for Nintendo fans.

Just tease a Super Smash Brothers in the next few months and watch the excitement boil. So, I have faith in Nintendo and their capabilities, but sometimes I think if the new controller was a bit contrived. Surely they can offer a morsel that truly blows us away with gaming, the way the Wiimote did when the Wii launched.

Also, one more thing. People seem to forget, namely Nintendo, that the Wii launched with a new Zelda game. It may have come out on the Gamecube too, but it was a real Zelda game. That's f'ing huge. Did they forget that or something? Just sayin'.

I think the system is great, but it was just a really poor showing game wise. Even if they'd just had screen shots of up and coming games it would have satisfied. Nintendo fans are used to waiting forever for the next great Nintendo franchise to be finished off to perfection.

To say Nintendo fans are hard to please is completely wrong and in fact I think the opposite is the case. You just have to look at the way they vehemently defend the greatness of Nintedo games.

We do expect high quality, but that's a given with Nintendo anyway!

Martin_ said:

Canyarion said:
Calum Peak: you mean "it may have", "it would have" etc. Instead of "it may of"...

"It may of" is an acceptable turn of phrase in the UK, as it stems from an abbreviation of "It may have", which is spoken "It may 'ave" which slowly got distorted into "It may of".

Smarter every day, bro!

No it isn't! It may be a colloquialism, buit it's not good grammar!

( Edited 13.06.2012 10:22 by Trepe )

I always watch Nintendo's E3 coneferences with very low expections. Always go in expecting to be disappointed.
Beside Pikmin 3 and the Wii U port of Trine 2 none of the games surprised or excited me at all and those that did excite me a little bit were games I already knew of.