Well, unhappily for me, I got sick exactly on the morning of May 9th, and could only start catching up on all of the news on the last day of E3, when I felt good enough to sit on the computer. My impressions are a bit late, as you can tell, so I'd like to apologize for this in advance. Without further ado, my impressions for Nintendo. I have not yet looked into what Sony and Microsoft is offering, so you can see those impressions edited here later.
Nintendo
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Was it truly any surprise that it was this company that completely stole the show? It was all practically perfect, although, of course, there are some flaws. The "Megaton" wasn't as large as I and many others expected; only a speaker in the controller? Of course, there was also the Nintendo Connect 24, and while it doesn't seem like much at first, and I thought of different things when it came to "hardware secrets", but the option will play a big role in Wi-Fi Connection, and will hopefully make the whole service fluid and such.
Speaking of fluidity, the controls for Twilight Princess look top-notch. It all appeared to be very easy... I mean, aiming an arrow looked so easy, it's just that the guy playing wasn't very good.
I think I'll be able to adjust to the Wii controls very quickly, since from what I've seen, it'll only take a couple of minutes to adjust, since the learning curve doesn't seem to be high at all. And while, in the press conference, the ending boss wasn't shown, I saw it in another video, and it was definitely most impressive; I won't spoil anything by saying much, but there were certainly many interesting play mechanics in the boss fight, and if the rest of the game has just as innovative play mechanics, then we are in for something new, definitely. This isn't just another Zelda game.
Then, the videos come... A lot of the third party games I saw during the press conference did not amaze me at all, all but perhaps Red Steel, which was impressive. Actually, Elebits wasn't half-bad either, and I'm sure there are a couple of others I just forgot... All in all, I think third parties need to start making more original titles like Elebits and Red Steel, rather than the usual licensed properties... But moving on. Nintendo sure surprised me with ExciteTruck, Disaster, and Project Hammer. Out of all of these, Disaster looks like the best game of the bunch, but truly, all three of games look like nothing Nintendo's ever done... Even though ExciteTruck shares the same namesake as ExciteBike, the games look radically different... I swear, I thought ExciteTruck was a third party title before seeing it was made by Nintendo. Not sure how good this is, but this'll help drop the kiddy image, I hope.
And finally, a lot of the franchise we know and love appeared. I totally didn't expect Fire Emblem for the Wii, and I wanted one ever so much. Thankfully, Intelligent Systems already has one in development, and I couldn't be happier... Or so I thought. Super Mario Galaxy looks amazing, as does Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. It's just too bad that MP3 will not feature an online mode, but really, Metroid games are better made for singleplayer. As for Galaxy, it really looks like Super Mario 64, and that's what made me really happy. I was disappointed with Mario Sunshine, and I thought, and still do, that Mario 64 was better. Galaxy looks like the 64 iteration, thankfully, and hopefully will be just as good. I have heard numerous people say that Mario Galaxy was the best playable game, so apparently it will follow in the footsteps of Mario 64. But moving on...
Wii Sports and Wii Music looked interesting, but the latter seemed more like a demo than a full game. Of course, I'm sure that all of these titles were just there to show what the Wii can do, and I'm not sure if any of them will actually come out. If they will, then I'm sure they won't be seperate, and that it'd just be a compilation... You know, Tennis, Baseball, and other sports all in one game, and with Wii Music they could do the same, but with instruments and an orchestra. Overall, I think that the demos really showed what the Wii is capable of doing in terms of gameplay, and hopefully developers get the hint and start making music and sports games, all of which should be fun.
Moving on to the DS... I have yet to catch up on all of the news, but I have seen Star Fox DS, Diddy Kong Racing DS, Yoshi's Island 2, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong 2, and Donkey Kong: King of Swing 2 when it comes to Nintendo and Rareware. The games look pretty good, but I'm especially excited for Diddy Kong Racing; it's a port, and that's exactly what I wanted, moreso than a sequel. With online play and multiplayer in general, the game should be completely awesome! Star Fox DS looked okay, and I was somewhat disappointed that the whole game is in all-range mode. Wi-Fi multiplayer should be nice, but they definitely need to spruce up the character art... Slippy and Fox just look too wierd to me. Yoshi's Island 2 looks awesome indeed, and might turn out to be just as good as the first one. I haven't looked into the game too much, however, so I can't give my full impressions. Mario Vs. DK 2 looked great, and I especially liked the level-creation utility, and the ability to send custom levels to the Wi-Fi Connection server for other people to download. Seems fun to me.
As for DK: KoS 2, that looks decent... I wasn't a fan of the first one, but we'll see what they do with this game.
Well, that about wraps it up. Seems to me that Nintendo totally stole the show. What do YOU think?
Nintendo
_________________________________________________
Was it truly any surprise that it was this company that completely stole the show? It was all practically perfect, although, of course, there are some flaws. The "Megaton" wasn't as large as I and many others expected; only a speaker in the controller? Of course, there was also the Nintendo Connect 24, and while it doesn't seem like much at first, and I thought of different things when it came to "hardware secrets", but the option will play a big role in Wi-Fi Connection, and will hopefully make the whole service fluid and such.
Speaking of fluidity, the controls for Twilight Princess look top-notch. It all appeared to be very easy... I mean, aiming an arrow looked so easy, it's just that the guy playing wasn't very good.
I think I'll be able to adjust to the Wii controls very quickly, since from what I've seen, it'll only take a couple of minutes to adjust, since the learning curve doesn't seem to be high at all. And while, in the press conference, the ending boss wasn't shown, I saw it in another video, and it was definitely most impressive; I won't spoil anything by saying much, but there were certainly many interesting play mechanics in the boss fight, and if the rest of the game has just as innovative play mechanics, then we are in for something new, definitely. This isn't just another Zelda game.
Then, the videos come... A lot of the third party games I saw during the press conference did not amaze me at all, all but perhaps Red Steel, which was impressive. Actually, Elebits wasn't half-bad either, and I'm sure there are a couple of others I just forgot... All in all, I think third parties need to start making more original titles like Elebits and Red Steel, rather than the usual licensed properties... But moving on. Nintendo sure surprised me with ExciteTruck, Disaster, and Project Hammer. Out of all of these, Disaster looks like the best game of the bunch, but truly, all three of games look like nothing Nintendo's ever done... Even though ExciteTruck shares the same namesake as ExciteBike, the games look radically different... I swear, I thought ExciteTruck was a third party title before seeing it was made by Nintendo. Not sure how good this is, but this'll help drop the kiddy image, I hope.
And finally, a lot of the franchise we know and love appeared. I totally didn't expect Fire Emblem for the Wii, and I wanted one ever so much. Thankfully, Intelligent Systems already has one in development, and I couldn't be happier... Or so I thought. Super Mario Galaxy looks amazing, as does Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. It's just too bad that MP3 will not feature an online mode, but really, Metroid games are better made for singleplayer. As for Galaxy, it really looks like Super Mario 64, and that's what made me really happy. I was disappointed with Mario Sunshine, and I thought, and still do, that Mario 64 was better. Galaxy looks like the 64 iteration, thankfully, and hopefully will be just as good. I have heard numerous people say that Mario Galaxy was the best playable game, so apparently it will follow in the footsteps of Mario 64. But moving on...
Wii Sports and Wii Music looked interesting, but the latter seemed more like a demo than a full game. Of course, I'm sure that all of these titles were just there to show what the Wii can do, and I'm not sure if any of them will actually come out. If they will, then I'm sure they won't be seperate, and that it'd just be a compilation... You know, Tennis, Baseball, and other sports all in one game, and with Wii Music they could do the same, but with instruments and an orchestra. Overall, I think that the demos really showed what the Wii is capable of doing in terms of gameplay, and hopefully developers get the hint and start making music and sports games, all of which should be fun.
Moving on to the DS... I have yet to catch up on all of the news, but I have seen Star Fox DS, Diddy Kong Racing DS, Yoshi's Island 2, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong 2, and Donkey Kong: King of Swing 2 when it comes to Nintendo and Rareware. The games look pretty good, but I'm especially excited for Diddy Kong Racing; it's a port, and that's exactly what I wanted, moreso than a sequel. With online play and multiplayer in general, the game should be completely awesome! Star Fox DS looked okay, and I was somewhat disappointed that the whole game is in all-range mode. Wi-Fi multiplayer should be nice, but they definitely need to spruce up the character art... Slippy and Fox just look too wierd to me. Yoshi's Island 2 looks awesome indeed, and might turn out to be just as good as the first one. I haven't looked into the game too much, however, so I can't give my full impressions. Mario Vs. DK 2 looked great, and I especially liked the level-creation utility, and the ability to send custom levels to the Wi-Fi Connection server for other people to download. Seems fun to me.
As for DK: KoS 2, that looks decent... I wasn't a fan of the first one, but we'll see what they do with this game.
Well, that about wraps it up. Seems to me that Nintendo totally stole the show. What do YOU think?