Tuesday, June 7, 2011

E3 2011 Thoughts

The main conferences are over, but the Electronic Entertainment Expo continues this week. Most of the announcements have already been made, as usual, so let's talk about that. Nintendo in particular, but first a brief summary about Microsoft and Sony:

Kinect games were rich on the show, as Microsoft attempts to achieve success with that. Regarding exclusivity, I still wasn't impressed with that, as the Xbox has always been loosely connected with PC games when speaking of availability. Of course, the Halo 4 surprise at the end was a great way to end it, but perhaps a bit too much simple games were shown on the Kinect, lowering the enthousiasm for any hardcore games still getting released on it.

Playstation Vita is a good looking handheld, with a fair price and promising upcoming games. The PSN issue was addressed and that was a good idea. The PS3 games were represented well, with Uncharted 3, Resistance 3, Battlefield 3 and a new Sly Cooper. That Playstation 3DTV was actually interesting, what with it's way to improve upon split screen gameplay. Sony had a nice conference as well.

Nintendo is a master company at keeping surprises and secrets. And this year was no exception regarding the Wii U. I'm a little dissapointed that Nintendo didn't go for a complete new name, but we will no doubt get used to it. The conference itself was fantastic, starting with the Zelda 25th anniversary and ending with tons of third party support and great looking games. From Nintendo itself, there weren't much surprises when speaking of software, except for Luigi's Mansion 2, but perhaps later this week, they might have one more announcement to make.
                                 
So, the only thing that was missing so far is a true software surprise, something out of the blue. But look at what we've gotten. Upcoming Nintendo 3DS games, a new console and strong third party support. Hardcore games have always been playable on Nintendo systems by the way, but now, the haters and the graphic whores cannot use their excuses much longer anymore, talking about the potential graphics and games being developed. The popular mainstream games will finally get developed for all three companies. No longer only on PS3 and XBOX 360, when speaking of all those shooters for example.

That controller for the Wii U adds a whole new level of possible gameplay elements, while it enhances existing Wii peripherals and cleverly incorporates a supporting screen. It's a mix of plenty of Nintendo's past innovations, and more. And if this is the real console pictured above, then it looks just as good as the Wii.

But it all comes down to the games. Never forget, WHY the NES and the SNES were so popular. Those were generations when graphics really didn't matter yet. But I don't have to explain anyone this, as the message has been drilled to death; gameplay first, all else second. It's great to see that the industry is so alive, innovative and growing so huge.

P.S. I was hoping for a new F-Zero announced, but I'm sure that Nintendo will deliver somehow anyway. 

P.P.S. Oh and SUPER SMASH BROS. is considered for both Nintendo 3DS and Wii U!

1 comment:

Doug Williams said...

Exciting stuff! Thanks for the update. The most interesting thought to me is that the new Smash Bros is going to be on both a handheld and a console.