... I have no goddamn idea what I just watched. Seriously. People said the Ubisoft show felt like it was powered by cocaine, but that was fucking War and Peace compared to what Nintendo just put me through.
It was fun though, and once again the tightly controlled nature of a Nintendo Direct broadcast worked well in their favor as they face-blasted us with announcements throughout. Alright, let's see what just happened:
Star Fox Zero
Starting off with muppets of Iwata, Myiamoto and Reggie was... and odd choice, but the strangeness exploded when the muppets all turned into Star Fox characters.
Fine, whatever, that just sets the tone for the rest of the show. The game itself looks amazing, a lot like Star Fox 64, which is exactly what we've all been asking for since Star Fox 64 came out.
Space combat looks refined, as it should, and will make use of both of the WiiU's screens, allowing for a cockpit view on the gamepad.
The big new thing is the ability to transform. There's the classic Arwing and landmaster, but also a new hovercraft and walker robot as well. It's unknown how these will affect gameplay, but you'll be allowed to transform in real time.
Regardless, it's nice to see not only the new Star Fox in action, but that it's keeping the gameplay of the classic games rather then... whatever the hell was Starfox Adventures.
Skylanders Super Charged
Skylanders is Amiibos for non-Nintendo consoles essentially, so it makes sense that there would be a crossover. Bowser and Donkey Kong, along with vehicles will be coming to the new Skylanders game, and will also be usable as Amiibos. It's kid's stuff, so I don't really know.
Zelda: Triforce Heroes
Another 3DS Zelda game. Taking some cues from Four Swords this game is multiplayer focused. Unlike Four Swords this time around it's only three players, for reasons explained below.
The three players will be able to form a totem to solve puzzles and fight enemies. Apparently four players were to much, and calling it Triforce Heroes actually makes sense for only three people.
There is a single player mod as well, where you use dolls as the other Links. It's a bit weird if you ask me.
The other gimmick is the idea of using costumes to customize Link's abilities, like bigger bombs or negating damage.
Hyrule Warriors Legends 3D
A port of Hyrule Warriors, the Dynasty Warriors type game using Zelda characters, over to the 3DS. This version comes packed with every bit of WiiU DLC, as well as two new characters from Windwaker: Tetra and the Red King.
A whole bunch of crazy
Ok, here's where we delve into madness, as Nintendo just sort of spitfire a bunch of things without talking about any of them.
First up is Metroid. It think it's going to be two metroid games, but I don't know. One of them is four player co-op shooting, then there was some sort of 3V3 soccer thing.
Then, something Fire Emblem related. It was all very VERY confusing. I don't even know what console it's for. I think there's werewolves?
It's very emotional.
Then there was something from Atlus. I think it's the SMT/ Fire Emblem game they teased as sort of a joke, but now it's real. This was all in Japanese so I have no goddamn idea.
There was J-Pop and it was confusing and people were yelling a lot.
Even more confusion
Things sort of settled when they decided to take more then a few seconds for a single game. The issue was that game was Xeno Blade Chronicles and the trailer still made no sense. There's monsters and fighting and Earth is fucked.
I haven't played a Xeno Blades game, but I know there's a lot of hype surrounded this new one. It sounds like a big single-player MMO, and I usually dig that sort of thing.
It reminded me of Monster Hunter in a lot of ways, and that's a compliment because I really enjoy the Monster Hunter games. We'll see when it hits stateside Dec. 5.
Animal Crossing
Finally things calmed right the hell down, in fact they came to a screeching halt with Animal Crossing. Two new AC games were announced, one for each Nintendo system.
First was AC: Home Designer. I can't tell if it's an actual AC game or just a minigame, but it looks like it's much more creatively involved then the last AC game, allowing you to customize every aspect of your town.
The other game was a Mario Party style board game set in the Animal Crossing universe for WiiU. I'm not sure if the AC games will make the appropriate leap, and there weren't any Mario Party style mini games shown off, so this might be a pass.
Yoshi: Woolly World
While I don't understand the move to fabric based gaming, I do understand how much I enjoy Yoshi's Island for the SNES. Yoshi's Woolly World looks like a return to form, complete with egg throwing mechanics, and that sounds cool.
There was also the reveal of the co-op mechanic, allowing you to eat and throw your partner as an egg. By Nintendo's own admission this is a platformer meant for everyone, but I dig it.
YoKai Watch
Really looked like Pokemon, as interpreted by Atlus. There's monsters and battling, I think.
Mario
The Paper Mario series has been dormant for a while, but it's coming back and seems to have collided head on with the Mario and Luigi RPG series. It makes sense they would combine the two Mario RPG franchises into one, and the possibilities of two sets of Mario brothers sound cool as hell.
Then we got a reveal for a new Mario Tennis.Tennis is one of the older Mario games, so it's nice to see it returning in HD.
It also looks like, as with the other Mario sports games, power-ups now play a part, as the players on the field used mushrooms to grow bigger during the match. Insert your own steroids joke here.
Finally Nintedo finished with an indepth look at Mario Make, a game I'm really excited for. Mario Maker isn't just a simple map maker for Mario, it really does look like a fully customizable Mario game engine.
They briefly showed off graphics from all types of Mario games, and showed how you could mix and match assets from every era of game. There's also some interesting stuff, like the ability to attach assets together to create enemy towers, or swimming Goombas.
We also got to see a behind the scenes look at the creative process for Mario games. Overall, Mario Maker looks amazing and I can't wait.
That's it for Nintendo. I should have the Square Write up soon, then finishing off with the PC Gaming show tonight.
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