E3 2012: Nintendo Conference Overview

Nintendo President of America Reggie Fils-Aime came out on stage and stated that this year Nintendo will be all about games. Shigeru Miyamoto then walked on and showed off Pikmin 3 for the Wii U. Getting our first look at a Nintendo property in HD, the visuals were colorful and lush. Miyamoto controlled with the Wii motion plus and nunchuk and also the new Wii U controller, displaying the options that the new console will have.

The conference was soley focused on the Wii U and 3DS. On the Wii U front, there will be new experiences like New Super Mario Bros. U, Just Dance 4, Wii Fit U, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Lego City: Undercover,  and Zombie U. There will a lot of third party support, with titles like Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition, Darksiders 2, Ninja Gaiden 3, etc. While a lot of these are PS3, Xbox 360 ports, they do promise new control options with the Wii U’s interface. ZombieU did stand out as a tense,  fun and varied experience;  like being able to use the controller as a sniper scope.

On the 3DS front, Nintendo showcased new titles such as Luigi’s Mansion 2, Paper Mario: Sticker Star and New Super Mario Bros 2. There was no announcement of a new 3DS model but a montage did showcase games like the new Kingdom Hearts.

 To close things out, Nintendoland was introduced. This will be the Wii U’s version on Wii Sports. A collection of mini-games that promises to get users acclimated to the Wii U’s controls and functionality. The games will feature Nintendo favorite mascots like Link, Luigi, Donkey Kong and Animal Crossing. This is a pretty smart move by Nintendo to get the new casual users familiar with their mascots, instead of using Mii’s. 

The conference ran a bit shorter than Microsoft’s and Sony’s shows. There is some exciting titles like Pikmin 3 and Zombie U, but overall the titles that entice me I have already experienced last year. I watched this to be sold on the Wii U and was not. I can’t wait to see what Retro studios has in store for the Wii U. I am anticipating the new Zelda, Galaxy, and Metroid title, unfortunately this was all absent from the show. Nintendo also did not mention a release date or retail price for the new system.