Another day has passed bringing us the Nintendo and Sony press conferences, and while Microsoft usually takes the cake when it comes to best of show, I feel like Sony and Nintendo really stepped up their game this E3 delivering, in some cases, a better show than Microsoft's Kinect filled spectacle.
Nintendo kicked things off bright and early with a 9:00 am press briefing. Again, like the Microsoft article, I'm not gonna go minute by minute and tell you everything Nintendo unveiled, because that would just be a boring and uninteresting mess. I'm just going to go over some of the announcements that really impressed me and caught my eye, if you want to see everything I'd recommend watching it online.
So, I'll start off with what I was most excited about seeing in the Nintendo press conference and that was the new Zelda game. Nintendo didn't waste much time in unveiling the new Zelda game titled the Skyward Sword, which will incorporate Wii Motion Plus. What I noticed right off the bat was the art style of the game. It appears to be a combination of models and characters from Twilight Princess and the cell shading of Wind Waker. What I mean by this is that Link's model looks very similar to the Twilight Princess model, however the world and art is very much based on Wind Waker. The icons of different weapons look like they could be in Wind Waker and even some of the enemies look like they could've been in Wind Waker. The vibe that I got from the trailer is that we are getting a much lighter Zelda in terms of tone. While Twilight Princess was pretty dark, this one feels very light hearted and the art style certainly adds to that light hearted aspect. Regarding this stylistic and tonal shift, I personally love it. Wind Waker was an amazing game and the people who didn't play it because they thought the art style looked too "kiddy" missed out on one of the better Zelda experiences in my opinion. I feel like cell shading is overlooked by most people, even though it can take a very mature look. Just look at Borderlands and Prince of Persia 2008 those all incorporate cell shading but have a very mature look and I feel this new Zelda is the same way.Now we were only shown one small part of a level, so everything is being judged solely on this little bit of the game that we were shown. I can't really talk about the controls because I haven't actually played the game but from what they have shown Link's sword will be controlled directly with the WiiMote and his shield will be controlled by the Nunchuk. Items will be selected via a wheel that will be brought up by the B button. Everything else seems to be standard Zelda controls with Z targeting and such. The controls appear to work pretty well its just hard to judge without testing them out myself. I'm a huge Zelda fan and I can't wait to see what else is in store for us next year when it is released.
The other big announcement that interested me was the 3DS. I'm not a huge fan of 3D or motion control in games, I feel like most of the game companies are just trying to empty the consumer's pockets by getting them to buy all of these new TV's and peripherals. With that being said the 3DS is an interesting concept that I would love to see in action. The fact that I don't have to wear stupid glasses to view something in 3D is a very appealing concept and I feel that other people will feel the same way. From what I've read the 3DS really does work but what is intriguing to me is that you can actually control how much 3D you want by adjusting a slider on the side of the system. You can even turn off the 3D if you just feel like playing a regular DS game. I feel like to really talk about the 3DS I need to play it and until it appears in a local game store in my area I'm afraid I'm out of luck. With that said I am pretty excited to give it a try and with titles like Starfox 64, Ocarina of Time and Metal Gear Solid 3 coming to the 3DS all with redone graphics I feel like this could finally be the time for me to get back into handheld gaming. Oh and did I mention the graphics look as good if not better than some of the Wii games out there!
Nintendo also announced a few noteworthy games I would just like to mention:
Donkey Kong Country Returns - This reboot of the classic franchise looks to be just as fun as the originals with some very cool gameplay twists and co-op play.
Kirby's Epic Yarn - The art style and gameplay look like a lot of fun and I can't wait to see more of this game.
Epic Mickey - From what was shown this could turn out to be a very fun and interesting platformer.
GoldenEye 007 - This is a great idea on paper, reboot one of the most popular franchises from the N64, however the game looks to be just another generic Wii shooter.
Nintendo really surprised me this year with their show. After last year's E3 filled with Wii Sports Resort and Vitality Sensor I really didn't know what to expect and Nintendo surpassed those expectations. Sure they put in their share of casual games but I feel like they did a better job of appealing to the hardcore gamer and giving us a few surprises that we didn't see coming.
My thoughts on Sony's press conference coming up shortly.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
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