E3 2014 - Amazing

I've spent the last couple of E3s, especially since the weird Wii U reveal in 2011 trying to be positive but always walked away a little disappointed in Nintendo's approach to their E3 show.

Though I was mostly satisfied last year, it was hard to shake the narrative that Nintendo's cancellation of their big E3 press event and putting instead an E3 'Nintendo Direct' was a retreat by the company and admission it had lost the battle for mindshare.

This year, Nintendo turned what seemed like a continuation of their retreat into a clear-cut win. So stunning was the change in perception that no one could have predicted it prior to their June 10^th showing. Perhaps the only hint at their confidence was Nintendo dropping several trailers of eshop games a day before, right around Microsoft's Xbox One conference, including surprises like a sequel to the eshop bestseller and success story Gunman Clive.

The change is largely because of a slight adjustment to the same strategy last year. The biggest improvement was the pacing of the announcements. Instead of having a 'sizzle reel' with B-tier games no one is interested in just to pad the number of games shown, they actively focused on around 12 games in the digital event's 47 minute running time and created spaces for other games.

Eshop games got their day and Games that weren't quite ready (Sonic Boom) were relegated to their own publishers to show off, or had dedicated events (Devil's Third / Project STEAM) to give Nintendo more control in explaining how the games might be interesting, rather than letting trailers and unimpressive screens leak out and have the cynical games press spin it.

It was also a good decision to ditch Iwata's slow English and humble 'please understand' Nintendo Direct approach for funny and self-deprecating Robot Chicken claymation segments. Nintendo Direct works for a smaller audiences, for snap quarterly announcements and updates for fans, but not for a major event like this. Reggie's 'Not my problem' attitude and NOA's team works better in selling Nintendo at E3 and probably works better overall at selling Nintendo's message to the western audiences.

You know that the Digital Show worked when thin skinned gaming audiences laughed at a friendly jab made at their expense with Reggie setting fire to a gamer whose one liners were complaints about games he wanted to see, not what Nintendo was showing off – the prototypical hater who has complained about Nintendo for years.

The wealth of content that came after was also amazing. I personally haven't even began to scratch the surface of those feeds. Aside from spreading out some announcements of games outside of their digital event, the Nintendo TreeHouse event that spent tens of hours over the 3 day event going in-depth into various games introduced at E3 helped sell Wii Us to a lot of people.

Using their  Nokia space for a Smash Event was also genius. What was missing were fans filling in those seats in the early morning to watch the digital event. Not having a press conference is certainly not mutually exclusive from having people react to it live and recording those reactions.

So what interested me this E3?

Amiibo

Nintendo's promised 'Near Field Communication' (NFC) version of Skylanders and Disney Infinity looks interesting. While it's currently mainly heavily focused for use for Smash Brothers on Wii U, there is good value in that they will work across multiple games as a kind of ID. Further, I am interested in these figures mainly because the build quality looks good, and Reggie has indicated the prices will be in-line with Skylanders figurine, which means it won't be so premium priced to turn off a casual collector like myself.

Personally, I would really love to own a Samus and Link figurine from their Smash line-up.

Zelda Musou a.k.a. Hyrule Warriors

What a difference half a year has made. Although the new 'look' was teased some weeks in advance of E3, it's great to watch it in motion. It's also interesting to see that the game isn't just Link's romp through Hyrule, but the game allows for several Zelda characters, including Zelda herself to be playable participants alongside Link.

Visually, the game has took a huge leap from the initial reveal. Though the Musou games not known for their visuals as there is always an emphasis of dedicating system resources to pushing as many enemy units as possible on-screen, there has been significant leap in the game's visuals since its reveal.

This game has made it to my 'must buy' list later this year.

Bayonetta 2 + 1

The original PS3/Xbox game has incredible word of mouth, but I haven't played it. Visually it looks great and at 60 FPS no less. The reveal also dropped a little bit of a bombshell by including the original Bayonetta for free, with special Link, Princess Peach and Samus outfits.

This is clearly no lazy port, and no one can claim last gen when both games look and flows better than the PS3 port with no Vsync issues.

I'm leaning heavily towards buying this game just on the good word of mouth and incredible value from Nintendo.

Mario Maker

This will be the only 2015 game I'll discuss today.

The extended treehouse demo sold me on this, but I came away feeling a little worried but intrigued. There's the danger of Nintendo's convoluted sense of what it means to 'share' sabotaging this the same way they sabotaged Wario Ware D.I.Y's online functionality by crippling people's ability to share.

What they showed was a very early proof-of-concept which I think can be a killer-app for them if they let their younger designers handle the execution. This game needs on-line, and not just sharing between on-line friends but uploads to a community hub not dissimilar to an app-store where people can download levels and Nintendo can feature 'approved levels and worlds'

Furthermore, I am hoping the final game offers more variety in terms of tile-sets as well as enemies, power-ups, blocks and the ability to design longer levels (3 screens is not enough) and to connect individual levels together into a coherent 'Worlds'.

Does it all have to be Day 1 features? No. Some of these features can be monetized. I'd pay money for a Super Mario Bros. 3 skin plus the ability to create extra worlds with several levels in each. I'll then pay some more money for the Super Mario World skin plus the ability to add a few more worlds into my game. Imagine premium players who purchased all the DLCs being the top tier guys making entire Mario games, while everyone still can make their own levels and submit them.

Think of the collaborative projects that may arise where a premium player with world builder abilities take level submissions, string them together into a game and then release it into the community. This thing could be Minecraft for Nintendo.

That said, the core game itself should allow players to create at least one entire world spanning 1-1 to 1-4 for a true Mario experience, and allow us to explore our imaginations with hopefully more space per level than what was shown at E3.

There's way too much to talk about here. I'm skipping most 2015 stuff entirely, including Zelda U. But this is such a great E3 for Nintendo that I really want to say you guys did an amazing job. I almost feel a little bad ending in a bit of a downer with my Mario Maker commentary, but its out of a desire for this to not be another missed opportunity by Nintendo.

E3 may not change anything overnight, but it's a golden opportunity. Just as Sony played the long-game with PS3 and eventually dovetailed into increased consumer confidence and preference for their brand as seen in the PS4, Wii U could be the start of the rebuild for Nintendo.

Make it count.