Geekgasm: Nintendo’s 2012 E3 Press Conference

It’s that time of year again! E3, the biggest event in the gaming calendar, is on right now and this evening (or this morning as it was there) Nintendo held their press conference. As usual I watched and in this post I’m going to go over the highlights!

Now this year’s new conference focused heavily on the games which will be released for the upcoming home console the Nintendo Wii U. The Wii U will feature a controller which has a touch screen in it, allowing for all kinds of nifty innovations. It can also use a standard Wii Remote and other Wii controllers.

Sadly due to my current financial situation it seems unlikely I will be able to get a Wii U on release or anytime soon afterwards so theses are probably going to be something of a dream for me sadly. Fingers crossed though that I find a way to be able to get one. Anyway, on with the games!

The first game I shall talk about is a game called ZombiU which was unveiled by Ubisoft yesterday. We don’t know huge amounts yet but it’s a zombie game set in London. House of the Dead: Overkill remains one of my favourite games ever and this one looks to follow a similar vein.

This image gives an example of the gameplay. It seems it will involve selecting weapons on the game pad as well as doing all sorts of other things. You can see a shot of the Tube in the background which makes me excited about just how London-y the game will be.

There’s also a fun gimmick with the game that enables you to “zombify” yourself. Nintendo of America President Reggie gave it a go, though it went a bit wrong:

This is a great game for attracting hardcore gamers to the Wii U and that’s what Nintendo are trying hard to do on this console. Another game that does this is Batman Arkham City: Armoured Version. This is the Wii U version of the great game which has all sorts of extra features. These include being able to through the batarang and control it with the control pad. Visaully the Wii U looks amazing, at least as good as the other consoles.

The very first game that was spoken about was Pikmin 3. It looks fairly similar to it’s predecessors in terms of gameplay though the graphics are of course significantly improved. There is a new type of Pikmin called a “rock pikmin” and this time their are four captains, though Olimar does not appear. Apparently why he isn’t there is a “mystery”. I’m not hugely bothered about this but for fans of Pikmin 1 and 2 I imagine this was a fantastic preview.

The first brand new game to be announced by Nintendo was “New Super Mario Bros. U”. It looks like the other New Super Mario Bros. games but with different features. There’s different suits (like a squirrel suit) and most interestingly baby Yoshi's which each have different powers, like inflating like a balloon. I’ve never been a huge fan of the side-scrolling Mario games but I’m sure this one will be at least as fun to play. I love Yoshis so the more the better in my opinion!

The next new announcement got me really excited. It’s for “Scribblenauts Unlimited”. Scribblenauts and Super Scribblenauts are DS games in which you write an object to make it appear on screen. This new Wii U version seems to involve more freedom in what you can create than ever before as you can tweak what you want loads. Plus there’s going to be a 3DS version too which is excellent news as it means I can definitely get this one!

As well as attracting hardcore gamers to the Wii U, Nintendo of course want to attract the new audience they attracted with the Wii. Seeing as though Wii Fit sold phenomenally it was clearly a no-brainer to make “Wii Fit U”. It seems to be just an updated version of Wii Fit, though there is a new peripheral: the “Fitmeter” which to any normal person is a pedometer. You can transfer your other exericse onto the game so you have a better idea of how many calories you’ve burnt.

Next up was the announcement of a new singing game from Freestyle Games which has a working title of SiNG. I was quite pleased about this actually as I do love a singing game. This one is a little different as it involves some dancing and the lyrics do not appear on the TV screen but on each individual Wii U gamepad. I’m not sure this is really as innovative as they are trying to make out but I’m sure it will be a decent karaoke game nonetheless.

Another great-looking game is Lego City Undercover. It appears to be Grand Theft Auto combined with the Lego games and looks really good fun. The basic premise is that you go undercover as a normal city person with a job like builder or something. GTA fun but with Lego! What a fantastic idea! There is also going to be a 3DS version of this that will be an entirely different game but with a similar premise. YES!

The  next game was something of a surprise. It’s called “Nintendo Land”.

Nintendo Land is for Wii U what Wii Sports was for the Wii. It demonstrates how the console works in fun mini-games. So actually it’s a bit like Wii Play expect it features an all-star cast of Nintendo greats. It is in the format of a theme park and there will be 12 different attractions. Some will be generic but there will be Zelda, Animal Crossing, Luigi’s Mansion and Donkey Kong mini-games with no doubt there being more to be announced.

One game was shown in great detail and that was the Luigi’s Mansion game. Four players wander round a house whilst a fifth player plays a ghost. This person has the Control pad and the ghost only shows up there but is invisible on the TV screen. Players only know the ghost is near when their remote rumbles. It looks great fun and I can easily imagine playing this with a group of friends.

There was a brief mention of some 3DS games. One of these was New Super Mario Bros. 2. Not much was given away beyond the fact that it will involve lots of gold, though the reason for this is unclear. Wario loves gold though so maybe there’s a link there. This game comes out in the US on 19th August so no doubt a UK date will be close to then.

There was also mention of Luigi’s Mansion 2, now with the subtitle “Dark Moon”. I’ve been super excited about this one which is apparently going to come out just before Christmas. Luigi has to face a whole host of new ghosts which require unique strategies to defeat.

Tomorrow is a special conference all about 3DS games. I don’t really know what it will be like but it was hinted there might be some brand new announcements there. I’ll watch it and if it’s worth writing about there’ll be a special blog here about it tomorrow so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Wow, loads of games and the majority of them seem fantastic. The Wii U line-up looks considerably more impressive than any previous line-up and it’s great that there’s so many more hard-core games this time around. I just hope I will actually be able to afford a Wii U or someone can buy me one for Christmas!