E3: Day 2 - The Nintendoing

Solid performance makes up for the overall lack of newness.

  Word has it that Nintendo's show was a bust; a disappointment. I disagree; I'm actually quite excited for Nintendo's newest system, and I'm patient enough to know that in time I will be rewarded with bigger and better things. But for now? I'm okay with not one, nor two, but three new Mario games, one of which is a sequel to my favorite series: Paper Mario. I'm a sucker for a platformer, and even though I'm not expecting them to blow my mind away, I'm alright with a comfort zone for now.

Tiny, Tiny Yoshi's!

  Also: I really effin' love Pikmin.

  So yeah, maybe I'm more easily impressed, but virtually nothing that was mentioned wasn't something that I will be owning in my collection. That's a win in my book, as far as conferences go. Not everything's going to be "Teh Megaton"

  IGN has a write up on ZombiU (which is apparently named in such a bad way because it's a callback to Ubisoft's first game from 1986, called Zombi) that makes this game seem fantastic. I'm hoping we're not doomed to a new Red Steel, and that ZombiU really has the potential I'm looking for in a Survival Horror game. The idea of using the Wii U GamePad to rifle through corpses inventories, punching up a data pad while being attacked, and sniping.

  Nintendoland was something I'm rather interested in. Yes, it's 'just' a mini-game collection, but nobody does them better than The Big N. Throwing in some IP Flavors like Zelda and Animal Crossing help make it more interesting than just another Wii Play, but also give me a craving for a nonexistent Zelda's Epic Yarn:

So god damned cute!

  But there was more to be had! After the conference, Nintendo announced another game in one of my favorite franchises, Game and Wario. A new WarioWare is good news any day of the week.

  The third party efforts are huge with Nintendo, and while not everything was a new announcement, the fact that Nintendo fans are finally getting their hands on a Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed is a damn good thing. On top of those we have new announcements like Platinum's P-100 and 5th Cell's Scribblenauts Unlimited. I'm a huge Scribblenauts fan, so that got me excited, and Platinum makes some of the best games today.

Platinum's P-100

  Lego City: Undercover is a comedic take on the Grand Theft Auto style of open-city game. Disguises, vehicles, and a brilliant charm are all apart of this original title by Travelers Tales.

  Some other third party wins were shown off in a sizzle real, including Darksiders 2, Trine 2: Director's Cut, Rayman Legends, and Tekken Tag Gournament 2, all with unique features for Wii U.

This game looks and sounds great in motion.

  The 3DS was barely scratched; apparently that's for tomorrow's bonus press conference. What was shown however was pretty much all great. There was (finally) some footage from the new Castelvania: Mirror of Fate, as well as Disney's Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion and a 3DS version of Scribblenauts. Also, just throwing this back out there, Heroes of Ruin looks amazing. The first party efforts were slim (because of the later conference) but strong. There was another New Super Mario Bros. title (adding a 2 at the end), and featuring gameplay focused entirely on collecting coins. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon looks great. I pretty much need Paper Mario: Sticker Star inside of my mind grapes right now.

  Again, maybe it's just me, but that's a lot of games I'm going to be picking up for the Wii U, and that's not really even all of them thus far. It's a fairly solid start, as far as I'm concerned, to what will undoubtedly be a great system.

-Make it a Nice Day