Thank goodness, Nintendo managed not to carry the obnoxious “Filsamech” thing it’s been doing into its E3 conference. Instead, we had a bit of Robot Chicken -style lunacy, a few words from Nintendo personalities, and a whole lot of games. While there weren’t any huge surprises this year, we got some solid footage of upcoming Nintendo games and even saw a fun-looking new franchise.
The Miis have invaded the new Super Smash Bros . game, but as always, creator Sakurai has given them a special twist. There are three separate Mii Fighters to choose from in the game: Brawlers, Swordfighters and Gunners. In addition, any Mii Figher can be customized, with the player choosing four special moves from a pool of twelve. Of course, this means you can use celebrity Miis in your game, and I fully intend to take my Geralt of Rivia and Whoopi Goldberg Miis into the fray.
Anticipated Release: October 3, 2014 for 3DS, Late 2014 for Wii U.
Next, Nintendo announced Amiibo , it’s own line of NFC toys. While the concept is similar to that of Skylanders and Disney Infinity figures, Amiibos will be used across compatible games and their statistics will evolve as they participate in different titles. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U will be the first game to support Amiibo , but other titles like Mario Kart 8 will be retrofitted for figure compatibility once the line is rolled out. More Amiibo information will be available later during E3.
The title formerly known as “ Yarn Yoshi ” has been given the official title of Yoshi’s Woolly World . This hand-crafted yarn world focuses on exploration rather than timed platforming challenges, but I have to hope it’s at least a wee bit harder than Kirby’s Epic Yarn . Two-player co-op mode will be available, in case one adorable stuffed crochet Yoshi wasn’t enough for you.
Anticipated Release: 2015. Wii U exclusive.
When I played the Captain Toad levels in Super Mario 3D World , I remember remarking that they should get their very own game. Let me just say that I called it, because Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was announced during today’s conference. It appears to work similarly to the 3D World levels, with our semi-intrepid hero challenged to traverse compact levels full of hidden treasure in various nooks and crannies.
Anticipated Release: Holiday 2014. Likely Wii U exclusive.
Although we only got a tantalizing peek at the upcoming Legend of Zelda game, Nintendo is serious about changing up the franchise’s recent formula. The world will be wide open and players will be able to freely traverse most of it. Puzzles can be solved out of order, and we saw footage of a giant boss chasing Link through several areas instead of being stuck in a single room.
Anticipated Release: 2015. Wii U exclusive.
Next, Nintendo announced that the Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire remakes will be out this fall. They take Pokémon ‘s third generation of games and portray them in the lovely new graphical style of Pokémon X and Y .
Anticipated Release: November 21, 2014. 3DS exclusive.
The sarcastic witch Bayonetta stepped onto the screen and introduced the rarely seen cuss word into a Nintendo conference. After a brief trailer, we learned that the Bayonetta 2 package will also include the first Bayonetta game, in which Bayonetta will be able to wear Princess Peach, Link, and Samus Aran costumes.
Anticipated Release: October 2014. Wii U exclusive.
Hyrule Warriors is a Zelda and Dynasty Warriors mashup that was announced earlier this year. We heard more from the developers, who confirmed that many Zelda characters will be playable in the title. Link, Zelda, Impa and Midna were all shown fending off huge armies of baddies with their unique move-sets. At various points, the characters will need to take on giant Zelda -style bosses.
Anticipated Release: September 26, 2014. Wii U exclusive.
We knew that Kirby was due for an appearance on the Wii U, and now we’ve seen footage of Kirby and the Rainbow Curse . It is played with the GamePad and combines traditional Kirby game play with the rainbow sliding we saw in the DS game Kirby: Canvas Curse . All of this takes place in a world that looks like it’s made of clay, continuing the hand-crafted theme we saw in Yoshi’s Wooly World .
Anticipated Release: 2015. Wii U exclusive.
RPG fans have been eagerly anticipating footage of Monolith Soft’s newest game, which has officially been titled Xenoblade Chronicles X . We finally saw a glimpse of the story, in which humans who have escaped from a devastated Earth find that they must fight for a new home across the stars. There are a lot of giant robots involved in the struggle. Later information from Nintendo noted that the game’s main character can be either male or female and has a customizable appearance.
Anticipated Release: 2015. Wii U exclusive.
It looks like the leaked pictures of Nintendo’s E3 area were genuine, because next we were introduced to Mario Maker on the Wii U. The game allows players to create and share their own Super Mario Bros. levels and appears to support both classic and modern graphical styles.
Anticipated Release: 2015. Wii U exclusive.
Nintendo is actually developing some new intellectual property. The company showed off Splatoon , an eight versus eight multiplayer game with a unique premise. Players battle for control over an area by splattering colored ink across it. They can transform between being humans, who can splatter ink, and squids, who can travel quickly through the ink. It looks quite unique and fun, and it’s nice to see more multiplayer games that aren’t full of gunplay.
Anticipated Release: 2015. Wii U exclusive.
At the end, we saw Palutena from the Kid Icarus series appear as a fighter in Super Smash Bros . and learned that legendary developer Shigeru Miyamoto has been working on some unannounced projects that he will share with us later today. Time Magazine may have accidentally leaked these projects earlier, so I’ll just say that one of the surprises is rather… vulpine. I’m going to assume that we’ll be hearing more about upcoming 3DS games later in the show, as well.