Wednesday, June 11, 2014

E3 2014 Thoughts

I don't know, but this year's E3 feels somewhat empty to me. I don't care much about Microsoft and Sony, when I'm not playing Nintendo consoles, I prefer to play on the PC, usually Minecraft or some arena shooter. Minecraft is regularly getting updates and a new Unreal Tournament is in the making, hand in hand with the Community, so my gaming needs outside of Nintendo are fully satisfied.

My Nintendo gaming needs, however, hunger for more. I was hoping for Majora's Mask 3D (for Din's sake, Nintendo, stop teasing us with it and just deliver) or a new Metroid, but nothing. I think that Nintendo's take on the multiplayer shooter genre with Splatoon is charming and the more I see about the game, the more I like it, so I will probably give it a try. It's also good to see Nintendo making some new IPs, they had a lot on this E3 with Splatoon probably being the most awesome. I also liked Captain Toad for some reason, though I haven't even touched 3D World yet. Mario Maker looks like fun as well (I always enjoyed the stage builder in Brawler), but it definitely needs more options. More powerups, enemies, different backgrounds. And maybe some day we'll get a Zelda Maker.

But the biggest things seem to be the new Super Smash Bros. and Hyrule Warriors. Smash looks solid, but overall it doesn't seem to be all that different from Brawl. And stuff like collectible figurines certainly are not helping with that. I like the new Zero Suit Samus as a character (the invitational tournament was even won by someone playing with her), so I'm going to have one more main character next to Toon Link and Kirby, which is good. But overall it doesn't feel as exciting as Brawl did, when it came out. (I even started my blog at that time!)

Hyrule Warriors got me really excited last month with all its info, but the E3 stuff was somewhat underwhelming. Zelda looks awesome and really beautiful as a character, but the inclusion of Imp Midna and the Twilight Realm as a stage brings this mishmash feeling of the first trailer. I was hoping for a more consistent storyline and even a place in the timeline, but I can't see how they will be able to throw that into the mix without it being too crazy.

Of course on the other hand, Hyrule Warriors will be a fanservice game and Midna certainly has many fans. But I personally would have preferred her human form as a playable character, because it would make more sense storywise, taking place before the events of Twilight Princess... and because it would add to the sexy. :D I also would have preferred Demise over Ganondorf, but whatever... (Update: it has already been confirmed that the game won't take place in the timeline, but some alternate dimension...)

And overall I was positively surprised that Miyamoto's big Wii U GamePad games didn't turn out to be Zelda... yet. I still expect Zelda to use the GamePad in many ways, but there's now the chance to have optional Skyward Sword controls, since they haven't given any indication of turning Zelda into a big GamePad experiment.

I also like the Treehouse live stream a lot. That's a good way to do an E3, I almost feel like being on the convention myself.

1 comment:

K2L said...

I suppose they weren't kidding when they said it wasn't going to be canon. They meant it would have no posible placement in the chronology.

Maybe next time....