Tendo City

http://e3.nintendo.com/

Nintendo did have a traditional E3 conference, but they also had the Nintendo direct. Hello new games! I love you all forever!

What do they have?

Mario Kart 8: F-Zero Edition - In this game, we've got hover carts and insane tracks that go vertical and double sided. The speed may not be at F-Zero levels, but the inspiration is clear. I love it. Mario Kart 7 was good and I expect 8 to have some incredible track design.

Super Mario 3D World, now in 2D! - Super Mario 3D World looks incredible! I absolutely loved Super Mario 3D Land, and this one appears to be even better. Mario has a cat suit now, and he can climb walls! It's the meowr of power! Also, they have the full gang from Super Mario Bros. 2 back in action! Yes, instead of a palette swapped second Toad, we've got Peach again! Yaaaaaay! I expect I'll use and abuse that floating ability many times. Yes, you heard that right, the individual characters have unique abilities again! All of them look adorable in cat suits. I expect the storyline will be something other than "Peach gets captured!" About that, it's true I don't expect much to get into a Mario story, but Peach herself was really being turned into a running gag. She's got more potential than that, and frankly, at least in previous Mario games there was the pretense of some other storyline going on. The last several "New Super Mario Bros." games though have simply been pure "Peach is captured and that's it" storylines. Heck, even Super Mario Bros. 1 had a storyline explanation that Toadstool was the only one who could undo the koopa tribe's evil magic. Well, this looks like the way to go. I'm glad they resolved whatever issue they had rendering Peach's dress. (I do have to say this though. The "3D" in 3D Land was clearly meant to reference the 3D display of the 3DS. 3D World, unless they're holding something back, does not appear to support 3D TVs, so the "3D" in the title is a bit misleading, and explaining that "it means the gameplay is in 3D" is a bit of a cop out, since we all knew what they were referring to with Land. Minor nitpick, but I am GETTING this game!)

X (The Eliminator) - A game that I would normally expect Weltall to love, but he'll probably hate it because the X is clearly meant to refer to the various "Xeno" games, namely Xenogears (same font and everything). Well, screw that. X (may just be the project name) looks to be an amazing "open world" style RPG in the vein of the modern hits like the more recent Elderscrolls and Fallout games (only I expect it'll be far less glitchy). The game is third person though, and has a much better combat system from the looks of it (so more like Dragon's Dogma). An open world game with fun combat, and flying around in giant Gears? Yes! (Well, they won't be called gears, but look at them. They're Gears.)

Wii U Party (Mario will not be attending this party due to previous engagements.) - It's Mario Party, but with Miis. Looks fun.

Wind Waker HD (Tingle has never looked so glorious.) - What can I say? Wind Waker may be easy, but it is still a great game. They claim there's some as yet unannounced changes, but they did reveal one thing. Tingle Tuner is being "updated" to a message in a bottle system where you can take pictures or write notes (or draw stuff), put it in a bottle and throw it into the sea, where it will wash up on the shores of other players across the interweb. It adds a sense of community to the Zelda games without actually making the game multiplayer. It is surprising how little notes like those can make the player base feel more connected in these games. The key is a light touch, and messages in a bottle seems just right to me. However, I have to say I wonder if the Tingle Tuner mode proper will still be in the game. As they said in the reveal, no, the Wii U can't link up to a Gameboy Advance, but it certainly could use the Wii U gamepad to exactly replicate the Tingle Tuner features. They may be doing exactly that, but the weird wording of the "message in a bottle" feature suggests that was meant to replace tingle tuner entirely. Still no word on whether or not they'll be finishing the unfinished dungeons for the game, or making the hunt for triforce pieces more fun.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (The frogert is also cursed.) - Retro did a great job with Donkey Kong Coutry Returns. It did have a different "feel" to the original games, but it was a very satisfying feel and the game was amazing. Not sure if I'll pick up the 3DS version of the game though... I am not certain there's enough extra content to warrant it. I will say this though, Tropical Freeze is returning two missing elements:
Dixie Kong (Yay! Well, due to the different style of these new games, Dixie isn't directly playable, but instead is a switchable "sidekick" like Diddy Kong.)
Underwater Areas (Swimming! I don't care what they originally said, the slower pace and calming music of the water stages in DKC, and in Mario games for that matter, are nice relaxing shifts from the more hectic above ground levels. Well, except in Sonic the Hedgehog, where the drowning music gives me nightmares. Anyway, they've got some neat tricks to pull off with Donkey Kong's underwater controls.)
No wait three things, the original musical composer for the original Donkey Kong Country games! (I want something as amazingly catchy as the Jungle theme, something as amazingly soothing as the underwater music and ice cave music from DKC1, and something as amazingly... amazing as the Bramble Vines music from DKC2. Then we all win.)

Pokémon X & Y: Fun with Algebra! - New game in true 3D, first time since the Colosseum game for Gamecube, only much more developed. There's some interesting new features, but in the end, it is pokémon, so the basic fight mechanics haven't changed too much. They've added a new "fairy type". There were rumors about a new type coming along, but the theories were that they'd add "light" and "sound" types. Fairy type does make sense though, as a lot of pokémon were already described as "fairy types" in their 'dex data.

Super Smash Bros. (No title given. I really hope they didn't pull a "reboot" thing and give it a confusing identical title to the original Smash Bros.) - MEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMANMEGAMAN .... Mega Man is in the game now. I am pleased.

Also, The Villager from Animal Crossing. Yay! However, I really hope that there is both the male and female version (alternate costumes of each other). Collect ALL THE THINGS!

Also, the Wii Fit trainer? Okay, odd considering no one anywhere wanted that ever, but alright, she seems fun enough. Still, I'd rather they had focused on some other character. I suspect Nintendo made a poor judgment call here. "Wii Fit is our biggest selling game ever, so let's put that in there." "Um, that's not really a game though..., it was popular exercise equipment." "Sales show people want more of that character." "No, they show people wanted to lose weight." "Look, just stick the trainer in there. It'll be fine."

What do I want to see besides the 3 reveals? Little Mac, Simon Belmont, King K. Rool, Geno, Sora, Warrior of Light (or some Final Fantasy character), and while I'm dreaming right off the pipe, King Graham would be cool. Those are characters that are progressively long shots, but here's an impossible one, Banjo and Kazooie. I can dream can't I?

The Wii U and 3DS versions will be different from each other, unlike the PS Vita and Playstation 3 versions of Playstation All-Stars. While this means there won't really be persistent transferring between games, it also means unique experiences, and further, Nintendo just took all my money. I'll be getting both. I wonder if the game is a little faster like Melee, and if they finally ditched random tripping? Edenmaster, I choose you! Return to us so we can play more Smash Bros.!


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So there it is. Watch the videos for those games. I simply WANT THEM. The only bad side is just how far off all these games are. There's going to be some dead space between here and the deluge to come... In the mean time, I'm also looking forward to the piratey goodness of Assassin's Creed 4: The Secret of Monkey Island. Remember, you can't spell pirate without irate!

You mean didn't have a traditional conference.

Yeah, it was a good Nintendo Direct video, mostly full of games I want to play. I can kind of see why they didn't do a full briefing -- it was only 45 minutes long after all, which is short, and there was only one new announcement (DKCR:TF) -- but I hope those return next year. Regardless, it was a good video.

As for the games, I'm still really, really hoping that Wind Waker HD adds in those two missing dungeons. It's great to hear that it'll be having some additions, including faster sailing speed options and Miiverse notes and such, but I'm really hoping for that big one; it'd make it much more worth buying even for those who played the original.

Also, DKCR: Tropical Freeze looks great. The first DKCR was one of the best 2d/2.5d platformers of its generation, so it's good to see a second game; I was hoping for more. I really like that the underwater levels are back, too, and Dixie returning is great too; it's been too long with almost-all-male casts in Nintendo platformers. This E3 finally broke that with DKCR and Mario 3D World.

On that note, yes, I am very happy that Nintendo has FINALLY ditched that incredibly stupid "two Toads (and not even Toadette!)" setup the NSMB games used, in favor of the more obvious "Peach is playable" one that this game has. Less sexism in Nintendo's games this E3; that's nice. I'm not going to hope for similar in Zelda, though... though it'd be great. As for the game, it looks like more Mario 3D Land. I haven't played much of the first one ,but I hope that the levels are a bit longer this time; they seemed Mario 3-short in the original, which isn't a design I like. The game looks great though, with 3D Land/Galaxy looks. I really want to play it. The cat suits are ridiculously cute, as well... :)

On that note, it wasn't in this Nintendo Direct, but Sonic: Lost Worlds looks fantastic! Or at least, fantastic for a Sonic game. It looks pretty good, certainly. Sure, some elements of 3D Sonic people dislike are there, but it's got variety, good-looking design, and more. I love how the game references back to some fairly obscure Sonic history; for instance, in the three levels of the E3 demo, the first one is in a floating round world that most people called Mario Galaxy inspired (and it surely was), but it also -- and this has got to be intentional, I even heard the name mentioned in one gameplay video -- evokes the cancelled Sonic X-Treme. Go watch some of the gameplay videos of that game, and you'll see what I mean... it had rounded worlds, and some of the platforming in that stage looks like a faster, next-gen version of something STRAIGHT out of those X-Treme videos. And then the third level in that demo is in a hexagonal beehive setting, and essentially looks exactly like a fast, next-gen version of the Knuckles Chaotix bonus stages (you know, the good part of the game). Pretty awesome.

Anyway, returning to the Direct, the new X trailer looked great. I definitely am quite interested. SSB... well, it looks like SSB. It's too bad that it's a 2014 game, but ah well... at least DK and Mario 3D World are 2013, so they have some stuff. And Mega Man is great to see. I hope that Sonic returns as well, though not Snake; no Wii U Metal Gear, no Snake in SSB, I think. I was also interested by the inclusion of the Wii Fit instructor; that's the first new female character added to SSB since Melee, so it's great to see one. Her intro video was pretty entertaining too. It may seem like an odd choice, but Wii Fit is one of Nintendo's best selling games, and it is finally a new female character in SSB, so I think it's a good inclusion. As for the Animal Crossing guy, I imagine that like the Pokemon Trainer, it'll be male only. Only so many female characters allowed, or something.

As for Mario Kart, yes, it looks great. Mario Kart is a consistently great series, and that one certainly looks to continue the tradition. Hovercars, in Mario Kart? Given how much I love futuristic racing, that sounds like a pretty good idea to me! :)

I don't think it matters if Metal Gear isn't on the Wii U. There's no Metal Gear games on the Wii either (Twin Snakes was on Gamecube). Nintendo only needs a character to have been on SOME Nintendo system at SOME point in the history of Nintendo, and it'll be there.

Um, Wii Fit isn't exactly a "game" in any sense of the word. That's what makes the trainer so odd. Yes, I would love to see more female characters, but you don't solve that problem by randomly sticking nonsensical side stuff in there. I wouldn't want Toadette in there either, frankly (or Toad). If the Game & Watch character didn't have "Mr" in front of it, and if Nintendo had just agreed not to call Kirby "he", there'd be a little more ambiguity with a few characters that aren't obviously any sort of gender.

So let me add one big thing from the new DKC game. Did you see that fur? I haven't seen fur rendered like that since.... since... wait, I haven't seen fur rendered like that since Star Fox Adventures and the XBox version of Conker's Bad Fur Day. Wow, has it really been THAT long since any game company has attempted to realistically render individual hairs on a character? Not a single game of the last generation even tried? Well, yeah, later renderings of the Star Fox team, like in Assault, managed to look noticeably WORSE than in Star Fox Adventures. Disappointing that the last company to make the attempt was Rare before the fall. So that leads to one thing. Will they attempt to render the grass with the same level of detail? The fur in Star Fox Adventures was nice looking, but without the grass in the environments MATCHING that level of detail, Fox and Krystal would have really stuck out. I hope they do highly detailed grass as well. (The funny thing is, in Star Fox Adventures and Conker's BFD XBox edition, the effect was actually done in a very sneaky way. The Gamecube and XBox certainly couldn't have actually handled rendering every hair and blade of grass individually, so instead the games used texture layering, with dots of solid color across mostly transparent textures. Stack a few layers of those textures on top of each other, then move the textures back and forth slightly desynched from each other, and make it so the textures when viewed from the side automatically "connect" to each other (transparent parts included), and bam, you have perfectly faked realistic fur and grass. The illusion only falls apart if you view the texture layers from very specific angles, but it makes both of those games stand out as some of the best looking games TO THIS DAY. If Retro is finally taking the time to start doing these effects again, we're in for a ride.

As for the Zelda series, here's the deal. Rather than it being a pure sexism thing, simply put, it's an issue of Nintendo not wanting to ever use any character other than Link in the Zelda games. I for one am waiting for the day they break THAT tradition and start creating new characters for us to play as. When this day comes, the next step is obvious, to allow us to play as some female character, and then maybe one day, Zelda. That said, I still like my idea of a "side story" in a remake of Ocarina of Time where we play from Zelda's point of view. She played a very active role in that game, and she could have an entire adventure made for her covering all the stuff she had done.

Quote:Um, Wii Fit isn't exactly a "game" in any sense of the word. That's what makes the trainer so odd. Yes, I would love to see more female characters, but you don't solve that problem by randomly sticking nonsensical side stuff in there. I wouldn't want Toadette in there either, frankly (or Toad). If the Game & Watch character didn't have "Mr" in front of it, and if Nintendo had just agreed not to call Kirby "he", there'd be a little more ambiguity with a few characters that aren't obviously any sort of gender.

The Wii Fit U trainer isn't Toad or Toadette, she's the main thing you see in one of the most successful things Nintendo sold last generation. And that video introducing her was good and I thought it did a fine job of explaining why she was in the game, in a way. :) Is Wii Fit a game? I'm not sure, I haven't played it and don't have the Wii foot pad thing; I know it's partially just a fitness tool, but it has some "game" elements to it too. They wanted to add a new female character, and chose one who wasn't just some sub-character from a game, but is actually the 'lead' of sorts. Why not?

I mean, I would want to see some of those sub-characters too, but I have no problem with them including the Wii Fit girl. So yeah, I don't understand why people are annoyed that she's in the game. Why not? It's no worse than the Ice Climbers, or Mr. Game & Watch, or such.

(Oh, and as for Kirby, they've always called him "he", ever since the first game. It's understandable, it's the lead character of an action platformer game, and most action heroes are male, right? So Kirby is too.)

Quote:So let me add one big thing from the new DKC game. Did you see that fur?

Not really, I watched it live and the stream was running so terribly that I couldn't see much a lot of the time. I guess there was fur there. I'll need to rewatch the thing.

Quote: As for the Zelda series, here's the deal. Rather than it being a pure sexism thing, simply put, it's an issue of Nintendo not wanting to ever use any character other than Link in the Zelda games.

Because of sexism. There is no other real reason.

Quote: I for one am waiting for the day they break THAT tradition and start creating new characters for us to play as. When this day comes, the next step is obvious, to allow us to play as some female character, and then maybe one day, Zelda. That said, I still like my idea of a "side story" in a remake of Ocarina of Time where we play from Zelda's point of view. She played a very active role in that game, and she could have an entire adventure made for her covering all the stuff she had done.

A Skyward Sword game where you play as Zelda could be good too. Just make an alternate version where she doesn't get kidnapped at the end as usual. Or how about a version of Twilight Princess where Zelda decides to actually do something, instead of sitting in a tower through the whole game (until she ... goes away ... to save Midna)?

"There is no other real reason."

Don't dismiss my point entirely. The Zelda series has never let you play as anyone other than one SPECIFIC character, Link. That IS the main reason we haven't played as Zelda or any other female character. That IS the main block. It's not ENTIRELY a matter of them just not wanting you to play as a female character, the barrier, in its entirety, is the lack of any desire to break new ground and let us play as something other than the mascot of the series. In other words, with the Zelda series specifically, Nintendo has not yet given themselves the CHANCE to be sexist regarding the main character, because they haven't yet freed up the main character role for anyone OTHER than Link. (Note that technically, they did open it up to "regular kids" in the Japan-Only BS Zelda game based on Link to the Past. In that case, they did provide both a male and female kid to play as.)

(And while you have SOME points about Zelda's role, you overstate it. Zelda has traditionally done a LOT more in the series than most "damsels in distress". The main issue is how they've written the story of the royal family. They'd either have to make her the main character (yes I'd love to see this), or they'd have to let you play as her. Frankly, I wouldn't mind a playable character getting abducted (let's not use the term kidnap here, it's demeaning to use that term for adults) because that's not a thing that's been done before. Being stuck in a prison, there are things that can be done with that. I actually really liked the Princess Peach portions of Paper Mario, even if her being a party member in Super Mario RPG was better. Could that be done with a male character? Yes, and should at some point.

If you haven't even played Wii Fit, how can you possibly comment on it being a game or not? It really doesn't have anything all that gamish about it. It's an exercise tool. Don't be so quick to celebrate equality that you cheer every random character tossed in. Also, let's be clear here. They didn't add the Wii Fit trainer for the sake of equality (there's a bunch of Nintendo characters with a richer lineage that could have fit that bill). The equality thing was just a happy accident. Before we get all gung ho, there's one critical thing I've been worried about. Does the Villager have both male and female costumes in the game? Also, what's the "default"? That sort of thing matters.

If the Villager has a female costume, we haven't seen it. They've only showed the Villager as male.

Quote:If you haven't even played Wii Fit, how can you possibly comment on it being a game or not? It really doesn't have anything all that gamish about it. It's an exercise tool. Don't be so quick to celebrate equality that you cheer every random character tossed in. Also, let's be clear here. They didn't add the Wii Fit trainer for the sake of equality (there's a bunch of Nintendo characters with a richer lineage that could have fit that bill). The equality thing was just a happy accident.

But when they add a female character they're adding a female character, no matter the reason why.

And seriously, all in the same E3, they announced a new multiplayer Mario platformer with a female character (first Mario platformer since Super Mario Advance with the Mario name and a playable female character), a new Donkey Kong game with a playable female character (first DK platformer since Donkey Kong 64 with a playable female character), and a female character added to Super Smash Bros. U (first entirely new female character addition to the SSB cast since Melee). Do you really think that that's all a coincidence? It could be, but it sure is coincidental to see it all at once, after years of Nintendo lagging badly on such issues.
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Quote: (And while you have SOME points about Zelda's role, you overstate it. Zelda has traditionally done a LOT more in the series than most "damsels in distress". The main issue is how they've written the story of the royal family. They'd either have to make her the main character (yes I'd love to see this), or they'd have to let you play as her.

As for the "it's because you play as Link" thing, sorry, I still just don't see why you think that that's an excuse. It isn't. By always having the male character as the lead and constantly having the female character get kidnapped, they are being quite sexist. It's pretty simple.

But no, I don't overstate it. I don't think that just because Zelda has a vastly better role than, say, Peach (who has one of the most pathetically sexist roles around) should be used as an excuse to excuse away how she always gets kidnapped for obviously sexist reasons. Sure, some Zeldas at some points in the game help out, or have better roles... but inevitably they all eventually get kidnapped. Zelda has one of the three Triforce parts, and should not be weaker than Link and Ganon overall for any real reason other than sexism.

Quote:Frankly, I wouldn't mind a playable character getting abducted (let's not use the term kidnap here, it's demeaning to use that term for adults) because that's not a thing that's been done before. Being stuck in a prison, there are things that can be done with that.

Huh? What do you mean, a game where a major character gets captured and spends part of the game in jail and hte other characters have to rescue them?

Yggdra Union did that. Partway through the game, the main character Princess Yggdra gets captured, and you spend the next quarter of the game playing as the male lead (second major character after Yggdra), as you have to rescue her. I HATED that part of the plot so, so much! The games' story has other serious flaws, mostly revolving around how excessively depressing it is and how all enemies are either killed or run away, none are ever, ever allowed to be captured (making for a more depressing plot, but certainly not anything plausibly realistic), and also I disliked the questionable elements of the games' design too (it's got some issues... bugs, invincible enemies that the game doesn't tell you can't be killed, no easy way to restore lost health (and yes it carries over between missions), etc.), but that was one more big problem with the game.

Quote: I actually really liked the Princess Peach portions of Paper Mario, even if her being a party member in Super Mario RPG was better. Could that be done with a male character? Yes, and should at some point.

I didn't mind that part in the first Paper Mario; it was somewhat clever, and the various little missions you did as Peach were kind of interesting. When they copied that in the second one, though... that was disappointing, I didn't want to see it again. It was nice that she was then playable in Super Paper Mario, even if Peach and Bowser were near-useless compared to Mario since they can't go into 3d mode.

Sadly, the removed dungeons will NOT be in Wind Waker Wii U. Supposedly their concepts were used in other Zelda games since WW, and they just want to port over the original game with minor, but not major, improvements. Bah, more dungeons were really needed in that game... http://nintendoeverything.com/125386/win...-waker-hd/