One of the masterstrokes of this E3 was Nintendo's pre-recorded video released on Sunday. President and CEO Satoru Iwata revealed technical details for the Wii U gamepad and the console's social network, Miiverse. It was a smart idea on two counts, allowing Nintendo to get the jump on their rivals by getting their news out first, despite their conference being scheduled last. It also meant that they could concentrate purely on games for their main conference. There has been a certain sense of cynical negativity surrounding the Wii U, and a stellar line-up of titles for the new console would be the perfect way to counter that. On that count, the press conference was a mixed success.
As ever, the Nintendo conference started with a little bit of fun, with a video of Shigeru Miyamoto in his dressing room with CG Pikmin skittering around the place, before he emerges on stage to talk about Nintendo's new console. After a brief introduction of the new system and the philosophy behind it, Miyamoto unveiled Pikmin 3. It's been eight years since Pikmin 2 was released on GameCube, and this new game has been much anticipated by fans. It's a delightfully cute action-management game, where you have to move your army of Pikmin from place to place. A strategy game such as Pikmin seems ideal to show off the kind of features the touchscreen on the Wii U gamepad will provide. The gamepad will feature a map that you can scroll around easily to place your Pikmin and switch between teams. A simple introduction to what will undoubtedly be a recurring feature across Wii U games.
Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime, the most meme-friendly man in the industry, then appeared, saying that 23 Wii U games would appear on stage during the conference. But on a brief tangent, Fils-Aime revealed that Nintendo --much like rivals Sony and Microsoft-- will be providing video content from YouTube and NetFlix. But that was it for entertainment apps and it was back to games and how you use Wii U to connect to your friends. Contrary to prior accounts, the Wii U will support two gamepads, as well as four Wii remotes.
A mistake Nintendo are attempting to address with Wii U is their long-term neglect of online features. Fils-Aime briefly demonstrated how the Miiverse will allow you to share screenshots and communicate with your friends, before revealing New Super Mario Bros. U. The new Mario game will scatter messages from friends around the game map. Although it wasn't made clear if the four player co-op would be online.
It was a quickfire bout of house-cleaning, yet another criticism of the Wii was the lack of third-party support. To address that, Nintendo turned to Warner Bros. to announce Batman Arkham City Armoured Edition. The critically acclaimed game has been on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 since last year, and the Wii U version will feature some features specific to the gamepad. The touchscreen can be used to search the map, select weapons and scan for evidence, while a remote control batarang can be guided on the Gamepad screen by tilting the device. It looked very neat, though one concern that became quickly clear was how you had to switch looking between the TV and Gamepad so frequently. Warner Bros. also debuted the innovative Scribblenauts Unlimited. Scribblenauts on the DS allowed you to input a word into its incredible vocabulary and it would be dropped into the game world. For the Wii U, you can create your own drawings on the Gamepad before dropping them into the game on your TV. It looked very nice indeed.
Then it was montage time, with Nintendo showing a video including Darksiders II, Aliens Colonial Marines and, somewhat surprisingly, Mass Effect 3. While these are all games that are or will be available before the Wii U launches, it was a clear statement of intent that Nintendo aren't looking to be left behind by third-parties this time around. While the Wii had some terrific games from Nintendo themselves, the gaps left by third-parties was significant.
Next was a Wii U version of Nintendo's enormously successful Wii Fit series. Wii Fit U uses the Wii board in the same way that the original games did, with added features on the Gamepad, such as being to upload your morning walk to your calorie counter using a pedometer, or using the Gamepad and Wii board independently of the TV to do exercises. There was a worrying amount of putting the Gamepad on the floor, which would terrify me if I was jiggling around to exercises. Crunch.
Continuing the lifestyle tilt, Nintendo then revealed Sing, a karaoke game that displays the words on the Gamepad while friends can clap and dance along. It wasn't the more inspiring of video concepts, it has to be said, but it is being made by British developer Freestyle Games, who made the superb DJ Hero, so there's reason to be positive over the party game.
Nintendo then had a brief Wii U interlude to show off a handful of new 3DS titles New Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Paper Mario Sticker Star and Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon. It was kept short and snappy, with Nintendo saying they would have another hour briefing the following day dedicated to 3DS.
Back to Wii U and the rather lovely looking LEGO City Undercover, an open-world LEGO game following a city cop solving missions. It looked to include all of Traveller's Tales charm and humour usually reserved for big franchises such as Harry Potter and Star Wars.
The whiff of cheese that charmingly accompanies every Nintendo conference got a lot stronger when a stilted conversation between Fils-Aime and Yves Guillemot of Ubisoft revealed the French company's involvement in Wii U. A brief demo of Just Dance 4 showed the player with a game pad setting moves for players dancing to the game. Then in what was by far the most interesting demo so far, Ubisoft also revealed ZombiU, the was the zombie survival game featured in Iwata's recorded briefing. Players will use the Gamepad to sort their inventory and scan enemies, as well as using the controller's motion control for small tasks.
Inexplicably, some stagehands then wheeled out five rather naff cardboard cutouts of theme park entrances to reveal Nintendo Land, a fairground amalgamation of some of Nintendo's famous franchises. Zelda, Animal Crossing, Donkey Kong and Luigi's Mansion will all feature 'attractions' that show off the Gamepad's features. It seems to be the traditional tech demo minigame compilation that accompanies new hardware. It also shows off 'aysmmetric gameplay' where one player uses the Gamepad to perform one task, while other players use Wii remotes to do another. In the example, four players on Wii remotes were searching a haunted mansion for the ghost player, who uses the Gamepad. The ghost player cannot be seen on the main TV screen, so he must use his personal Gamepad screen to sneak up on the human players. While the human players must communicate to find the ghost and shine their torch to defeat him.
As you can probably tell from my own garbled explanation, one problem that was becoming quickly apparent in Nintendo's conference was that being told about the Wii U features was becoming complicated. It's unquestionably the type of hardware that needs to be played, and it could potentially be a real problem for Nintendo to sell the new console to consumers.
And then, somewhat surprisingly, that was it. No pricing or dates outside of "this holiday." Fils-Aime said for us to take one more look into Nintendo Land --and I thought it was building to one last grand reveal-- only for a brief video of fireworks to light up the stage. Despite the pyrotechnics it was a conference that ended with a whimper rather than a bang. This anti-climax did leave a underwhelming feeling, with muttered disgruntlement filling the hall. However, despite the fact that Nintendo's conference undoubtedly needed one huge game to sell Wii U on, there was some definite positives to take away. The sheer amount of games, particularly from third-parties, was encouraging and Pikmin 3, LEGO City Undercover and New Super Mario Bros. U all looked excellent. Meanwhile, Arkham City and ZombiU showed signs of what can be done with Wii U for the core gaming market. The biggest worry for Nintendo will be how to sell those features on videos and explanations, as it was a problem that niggled throughout the briefing. The proof on how well these concepts work will become clearer over the next few days, as E3's show floor opens and the press and gaming public in attendance get their hands on the device.
