I'd personally give it a 7. It showed some cool games, especially Zelda and Mario Maker, plus some new stuff for Smash, but nothing really blew me away. Plus, no F-Zero, Star Fox, Metroid, or mention of DS on the Wii U was disappointing. Plus, no "YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THIS RIGHT NOW OR THIS WEEK" surprises. I love those and we didn't get any.

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Those robo-themed Wii U projects that were just presented on the Treehouse stream looked fun.

@PogueSquadron

Splatoon was an unexpected and welcome announcement. It was the last thing I expected from Nintendo this E3, and now I really want to play it.

@PogueSquadron

I think Splatoon looks really cool! When it popped up on screen I had flashbacks to de Blob which I adored. (Oddly never played the second despite loving the first so much... Weird.) My only gripe and why I'm not gushing about it online is that it is apparently online only, which doesn't really do much for me. If it was 4-player local I'd be on it like a starving dog on a cornfield where the corn is turkey legs instead of corn!

@nate38

What did it look like "before?" I heard several people say this, but I had never heard of the game until today.

@-JKR- The only footage that existed was the debut trailer below. Perhaps it wasn't actually gameplay, or the editing made it look better, but it looked a hell of a lot more slick than what we're seeing this E3. And with Itagaki's pedigree, there's no reason this shouldn't have been the final product.

I voted 8, though it's probably closer to an 8.5. I guess the only thing that kept it from being higher for me is:

A. Most of this stuff is 2015. 2014 still looks a bit dead.
B. 3DS abandoned? Ok, it's not that dramatic, but I'd have liked to see more 3DS stuff.
C. No single, OMG THIS LOOKS SO KILLER!!! title.

Still though, very pleased with Nintendo's E3 overall. And some neat surprises that made me happy, like Canvas Curse 2.

Splatoon looked like the cool kind of dumb in the direct, but this live gameplay looks fun as all hell.

@missypissy
I so want to play it. Like, right now. Can't wait to see what other modes and arenas the final game will have, 'cause this gameplay seems to have so much potential for fun little ideas.

I'd give them a 9. For the second year in a row now, there were several games that grabbed my attention. The show was very entertaining in and of itself, it was good to see Nintendo really know their audience. And I appreciated the developer commentary alongside the game debuts.

If there was anything to criticize, I would say that they maybe could have squeezed another game or two in there and spent a little less time on Smash Bros. But overall, I thought they had a really good showing.

Also, while the Treehouse Live @ E3 guys understandably border on coming off as Nintendo shills, they seem pretty genuinely into these games and can actually play them, unlike so many at the show floor. So yeah, this is a success. Good idea, Nintendo.

God I hate people online. Are people aware that Zelda and Skyrim are two completely different kinds of games?

Honestly I still think Skyrim looks really boring and generic.

@PogueSquadron
People are the worst. I'm just happy it's still Nintendo developing Zelda and not some clusterfuck of fan spawned ideas. We'd end up with Skyrim: Hyrule Stories before we knew it.

9.

Easily their best E3 showing since 2010 (or at least the most exciting). Lots of good stuff. Mario Maker was surprising, despite the leak. Yoshi's Woolly World made me smile like a goofy little kid. Xenoblade Chroniclles X & Bayonetta 2 look amazing. The newer / smaller announcements we're pretty exciting (Canvas Curse sequel!); hell, Toad is getting a retail game . Smash Bros. looks better than ever (so hype). Hyrule Warriors looks really good.

Also... ZELDA My mouth was literally hanging open. Haven't been this excited for a Zelda game since Wind Waker. 2015 can't come soon enough.

If they would have actually showed Star Fox, I'd probably give it a 10. Still, best E3 in a while.

EDIT: Forgot about Splatoon! A new IP / Arena Shooter from a younger Nintendo team (seemingly)? Awesome. It kind of gives off Sega/Dreamcast vibes, too, which is certainly not a bad thing. Really excited for that.
EDIT 2: Also forgot about amiibo. Not really sure what to make of it yet. All I know is it'll be hard trying to refrain from buying every figurine.

Jargon said:

Am I the only one who was fooled by the Pokemon live action stuff into thinking they were revealing a Wii U Pokemon?

No . Mucho disappointment.

I also thought for a few seconds that we were getting Kid Icarus on WiiU before I realised it was just Paultena in Smash.


Overall I'd rate it an 8. No Metroid and no really huge WOW announcement for me. Some solid stuff though. And the skits were funny.

Hey, so...

The eShop digital download of Bayonetta 2 will NOT include the original Bayonetta.

According to the official website. I was gonna buy the disc anyway, but that sucks for people who don't like swapping DVDs.

They win forever.
10.

@nate38
I buy single-player games on disc so this works for me. The inclusion of the original Bayonetta is what makes me pull the trigger.

@anon_mastermind Same. I've always been close to picking up Bayonetta on PS3, now I'm glad I waited.

8 out of 10.

Nintendo is still missing that one anchor game, unless it's the Kart/Smash Bros combo and I'm just too close to it to see it. But.. what do I care? I'm going to be playing Smash Bros as Palutena and playing endless hours of Splatoon. Those two announcements were the ones I got the most stoked about.

Glad to see I was wrong about Mario Maker. Also glad to see there was a slight Mario Paint angle to it.

Zelda looks cool, but far too early for me to get too hyped. Steph loved the Yoshi's Wooly World stuff a lot, but we both agreed that Little Big Planet has done some of this stuff already. Still, looked good. Kirby and Toad were pleasant surprises.

Yeah, it was all good. If I'm not more hyped it's just because I didn't get a solid Starfox or Galaxy 3 or F-Zero announcement and that's mostly what I'm looking for. But Splatoon fills in that other gap - something unexpected and new - so well that I'm pretty upbeat.

I also think Nintendo proved the theory that Directs can be more focused, less ridiculous and better for gamers at home than having a live conference with Flo Rida singing into a taco. That Iwata vs. Reggie fight had me in stitches.

10, hands down. The pacing was great, too many announcements I didn't expect and a new IP in a genre they really hadn't touched in a long time where they actually managed to do something very creative with it and get me interested. They even managed to tease Star Fox and a few other things.

Shit I almost forgot about the damn Bayonetta 1+2 bomb (I was literally this close to buying the older versions... well now I can wait and get bonuses for doing so, GGs!), and then stuff outside of the "conference" just icing on the cake.

Not even counting the Smash invitational that just ended, which personally I'd count as part of the overall presentation, not counting all the impressions from the floor via Treehouse... I've not watched an E3 from Nintendo and been THIS happy in years. Like, early 2000s.

I geeked out all over my twitter feed.

I have to say, I really, REALLY enjoy this style of presentation and 'm glad they went with it despite all the outcry from media and journalists saying it was foolish. Really allowed them to make a very tight presentation. The Robot Chicken segments were extremely unexpected and while hit or miss, just having them there is kind of a huge deal for a company that has been very insular for such a long time. If you would have asked me 6-7 years ago when Robot Chicken debuted if Ninety would use them in their presentation, I'dve died laughing.

Not even mentioning the opening fight! That had me crying, I rewound the "Directly to you" stance like 10 times.

I wanted to give it a 9 and find something, but... nope, I can't. Perfect this year. And all the streams seemed to be solid as a rock, too.



...also, hai gais <3

I would say I was slightly underwhelmed. Most of the games mentioned we already knew about and they spend way too many time on useless gags.

On a more positive note, I like the new Kirby game. I've wanted a claymation Pikmin game for a while now, I wonder when Nintendo will get on that. The Zelda Wii U reveal almost made the whole thing worth it, almost.

I'd give it a 7 straddling a 6.

@r_hjort

I agree, it looked bad, like ironically bad in every aspect. I haven't looked at game-play footage from the first but I can tell this is not something I would like to play.

The charaacter seems to move at like 15 fps for starters. I hope they take at least two years or scrap the damn thing together and start from scratch.