IMO: E3 2014 Nintendo - Relying on Ol' Reliable

When Nintendo decided to end their press conference (look at the recap here) with the announcement of a new character for Super Smash Bros., and one I know most people don't even know about, you have to wonder why? Do they really have nothing better to show off? They ended with one character to one game, albeit a big one, when they could have shown something new. All in all, at E3 2014 Nintendo was disappointing - so far.

There was nothing really surprising presented this year for Nintendo. Even the new games they showed were some that we all had an inkling may have been in the works. Part of it is the problem that we all know the franchises Nintendo has so even when they show us a new Yoshi or Kirby game we kind of know what we're getting into so there isn't much room for excitement. This year it seemed like Nintendo just held to their old formulas to get them by. That is fine really but not enough to make me interested in what is going on.

With that said, there were a few games I did get a little excited about and a few that were genuinely interesting. However, the bulk of those were some that we knew about already, like Hyrule Warriors.

There was not a whole lot they could have done with Super Smash Bros. to get people even more excited for it than they are already, aside from just showing off more of it. However, Nintendo has saturated us with character releases and news about the game since it was announced, so nothing here at E3 was necessarily any more special than what we've seen already. It was just another in a long line of information. It is nice to know that we can get the 3DS version in October however.

At first I wasn't going to mention Yoshi's Woolly World, but it had an incredible visual style to it - almost to make me want to purchase the game right now.  It looked like what the Yoshi's New Island should have been. However, we have to remember that the shots of Yoshi's New Island looked pretty great too, but the changes they made weren't so great. Here's to hoping Yoshi can get back on his feet - and I would bet he will, considering the Yarn context and style surrounding it is actually interesting.

They didn't show much off of the new Zelda so there isn't entirely too much to say other than it looked visually great. This Zelda seems to be more focused on the open world and has some kind of futuristic feel in a sense to the weapons Link used and what looked like a robot-like monster chasing him in the short teaser they showed. That would be an interesting take on Zelda, and would definitely break the previous mold. Even if that is true, or if it is good, has yet to be seen. We'll have to wait for some more information before a judgement is made.

The final thing I wanted to mention was Splatoon. Of all the games that Nintendo showed this year, this one looked to be the most interesting. At first my reaction was that it was simple and kind of, well, lame really. But the more I saw of it, the more the concept behind it really got me interested. What they showed has a lot of potential to be incredibly fun if they add in some more game elements. As it is right now, what they showed is nothing more than a cool concept - but I wouldn't call it a full game. They have the foundation ready to be tweaked and improved upon.

Everything we expected from Nintendo was shown, so that didn't help the excitement level behind it. There was nothing super surprising or exciting. We saw a lot of the same franchises making an appearance, and some of the games we already knew about like Bayonetta 2. Many of the games did look solid, but they also looked really similar to the games they have done in the past in the franchise.

The news of a new Star Fox is definitely going to make a lot of people happy and the change to Mario Party 10 with the Bowser twist is interesting, but neither are enough to exalt the conference. If we saw some of Star Fox and a possible release window, then maybe, as Star Fox could be a big deal for Nintendo, however, it has been a franchise out of the loop for so long that many younger gamers, a good portion of Nintendo's audience, may be unaware of it.

Nintendo seems to be banking a lot on the new Super Smash Bros., opening and closing the digital event with it, so we'll see how that turns out. There seems to be some missed opportunities - some that would really get fans excited, like those that were supposedly leaked a little while back. Reggie said there was more to be shown at E3 later on, so we'll have to wait and see what that is. Maybe Nintendo does have more up its sleeve, but why not have it during the block of time solely dedicated to Nintendo? I won't hold out too much hope.