Thoughts – Wii U, E3, Community Reaction

Holy shit! This is the most excited I’ve ever been about a new game console – Nintendo blew my mind with their presentation and I loved every little thing. In fact, the little things were the best part. No catchy title here; I’m just going to run through my thoughts as I watched the conference, and then afterwards when I looked around the community.

Pikmin 3 looks absolutely wonderful; it was everything I hoped for after being such a huge fan of the original games all those years ago on GameCube. The game had my heart with a charming introduction, with the creator Miyamoto having fun with his creations and the audience. He didn’t try and convince us it was “the best”, he just showed his game. The graphics are astounding, the environments look beautiful and lively. The interaction has been stepped up a notch with MotionPlus precision and destructible objects, and the whole experience looks fleshed out and interesting with a strategic challenge mode and new abilities.

Zombi U, this game is the much-needed evolution of horror games. Inventive gameplay and brand new concepts involving multiplayer and different views with the tablet, complete with a polished look (this surprised me, after rumours of development troubles) and great graphics, with dry QTE sequences nowhere to be seen. It’s a truly terrifying thought that you can die from a single bite, and this idea is much more refreshing than recent games that have tried to evolve the horror genre by making zombies more exaggerated. Zombi U has the simplest, slowest zombies I’ve seen, yet the fear factor is unprecedented. Despite not having super-speed, rallycross skills and the ability to accurately control turret guns, these zombies are a big threat to your survival.

Nintendo Land is what got me the most excited. A park full of 12 games that use every feature of the new controller, and deliver it with Nintendo’s best franchises. The Animal Crossing game has one player defending fruit with the Wii U Tablet, while the other players use the Wii remotes and the TV to team up and outsmart the guards controlled by the tablet. The possibilities in just this one game are AWESOME, every player is going to have a different way of using the tablet, and teamwork will be a deciding factor – so will tricking the other players. The Luigi game also looks like a lot of fun; it’s what Pac-Man Vs should have been now that we don’t have to connect 4 Game Boys to the TV with cords. What’s the most exciting part of this? Seven of the park attractions haven’t been shown yet. Imagine the franchises they could use, one of them could be a Captain Falcon arm wrestling game. This game benefits from Nintendo’s diverse catalog of franchises – it’s a great wonder. Just looking at this Donkey Kong level gives me a boner.

Wow, what’s next! Lego City Stories impressed me too, the world they’ve made looks very fleshed out and has a lot of personality. In fact, almost every single game shown for Wii U was quality. Batman, an already great game that people loved and voted Game of the Year, has a new level of interactivity added with the tablet. Scribblenauts finally has open levels and will work much better on the Wii U tablet than on DS; the DS version was fun but it felt like more of a concept to me than a full game. Mario Wii U has some crazy level design, though I’m not a huge fan of the artstyle; the look is still functional. I didn’t care for New SMB’s graphics either, but still spent 100 hours with the game on Wii. We’ve got brand new Mario and Rayman platformers that use a new control method, isn’t that fucking exciting? Don’t you just want to grab people in the street and tell them all about the Wii U?

…

No, people don’t give a shit. While I was in my own little world with my friends enjoying, laughing, and being amazed at the Wii U concepts shown in the conference stream, the internet had a big fat whinge because it wasn’t the conference they wrote the day before. My huge grin slowly faded into a confused look as I logged into Twitter and opened up some of the most popular gaming websites and forums. Pikmin 3 is just.. some low tier Nintendo game for kids. Zombi U is somehow irrelevant because it was “shown yesterday”. God forbid Nintendo let Ubisoft talk about their own game, along with an exclusive Rayman platformer designed around the new controller. The Nintendo Land concept is apparently stupid and it will flop, because mini-games aren’t real games. Nintendo spent “too long” focusing on the games most people will be spending time with at Wii U’s launch, and a game that will probably sell 40 million copies just like those other non-games on Wii nobody asked for.

Nintendo Land is a vessel for Nintendo’s most creative ideas for their new Wii U console, and they shouldn’t have to apologise for that.

Project P-100 was even a victim of ridicule, announced after the conference. A game that people were practically BEGGING for during the Sony and Microsoft conferences, when brown shooters and cinematic experiences were the cool thing to hate. Somehow, the director of Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil 2, Bayonetta, Okami, and Devil May Cry will suddenly make a crap game. Not only that, but since Sega’s complete self-destruction in recent weeks, PlatinumGames no longer have a stable publisher. Until now, that is. By publishing this game, Nintendo has potentially saved this precious company from going under. Of course, there’s no time to think about that! Wii U has the spotlight and we have to voice an opinion before it’s too late! At this point the Wii U hate-train has picked up so much speed that logic is completely absent.

“Nintendo had nothing. Where’s Metroid, Zelda, Starfox?”

Does anyone really think these games aren’t coming? YOU WANT TO SEE THEM? Boot up your fucking GameCube. Oh wait, you don’t have one because you never played Pikmin either. The same people who didn’t play Skyward Sword or Other M are crying in desperation for a new Zelda and Metroid they won’t play. Can you blame Nintendo for not showing these titles when fanfare for each series is at an all-time low?

I’ve never been so ashamed and felt so disconnected to gamers, to the point where I’m questioning my place on the internet. Either I don’t belong here, or the entire world needs a fundamental change in attitude. I feel so bad right now that I can’t sleep, it’s approaching 8am in Australia and I’ve been up all night reading shit like this.

“That was the worst fucking conference i’ve seen in my life”

“You just broke my heart Nintendo.. I AM DEVASTATED”

“That’s it, I’m done. I’m selling all my Nintendo games and consoles tomorrow. You just lost a fan, and not just any fan, a big one.”

“The lack of Call of Duty on the software line up is disturbing”

“Nintendo took themselves, their fans and Core gamers and drove everybody off a cliff today”

The extreme hyperbole is psychotic. Nintendo are being treated like criminals for showing new games.  Nintendo shows the world user experiences with a new console, and new interactions in games for the entire one hour of their briefing, and “gamers” cry for lists and stats to brag about. It’s embarrassing.

There’s about 6 games I want to buy on launch day for Wii U, and more to be announced. I don’t have time for this fucking bullshit internet bubble anymore. If you were disappointed by a company showing videogames, then I suggest you grow up.

The shining light is that Nintendo just doesn’t give a fuck, and will continue doing what they do. I’m confident Wii U will be their most successful console yet when it comes out in the real world. I now feel good enough to go to sleep – see you all when the dust settles.