E3 Satisfaction: 100%
So I'd only just bought my Wii U to play Mario Kart 8 finally...I was planning to get a few games like Tropical Freeze and SMB3DW but very little else had appealed to me on the system.
E3 changed all that.
Super Smash Bros.:
Well, mainly Pac-Man if I'm honest. Since I already know the demo on show is going to get altered, I'm not as mad as many who tuned in and saw 'laggy brawl v.2.0' as it's been described in other sections of the site.
For me I wasn't super excited about this E3 for SSB, since all the newcomers bar Little Mac and Villager were characters I either had no experience with(Megaman), screwed over personal preferences(Rosalina...or so I thought) or were just flat out oddball picks(Wii Fit Trainer and Greninja). I was dreading Chrom's reveal in fear of him being the dullard middle ground character between Marth and Ike...
...and then Mii showed up.
I had been dreading this. But something odd happened...they didn't look HALF as terrible as I was expecting. I'm not sure why I was so dreading.
'Maybe' I thought 'Just maybe if Sakurai can do this good a job to make Mii, someone I also felt a great level of adversity towards this semi appealing, perhaps Chrom won't be as bland as I originally thought?'
Then Palutena occured.
I'd been expecting Pac-Man, and sighed as her trailer played and I still didn't quite get the appeal 95% of Smashboards obviously had.
Jumbled mess of 12 custom moves, making her far more work than any character bar Mii Fighter(which upon giving some more thought to does seem like a waste now).
To my (admittedly limited) KI knowledge Palutena had never been hinted at having so many skills, it just seems Sakurai wanted to throw every aspect of Uprising, which is just one game in the series.
Dark Pit showing up at the end and possibly hinting he's somehow involved as a playable made me both surprised and groan at the same time.
I don't mind Dark Pit persay, but three characters for a three game series with no future plans for continuation whilst the likes of DK and Metroid are stuck with a piddly two is nothing if not a narcissistic choice. Time will tell when we get the other newcomers revealed whether or not this is the case, but I was a little disappointed in the man who had previously claimed he had made Kirby weaker on purpose in Melee and held off from including King Dedede for so long because of his personal modesty.
Even worse when Pit appeared to be the most broken character in the demo. Everyone I saw who had gotten a hand's on play said Pit was buffed far beyond any other character. This can be balanced though, and hopefully will for the final release.
And Pac-Man?
I'd missed the Twitter leak so Pac-Man was first introduced to me in the morning. I thought I'd stumbled onto a fake site. No, it was real. They'd included what I personally considered the most iconic video game character of all time(outside of Mario himself). A 3rd party legend. After having a downright terrible time with reveals, I finally had someone I could personally get hyped over. YES. The rest of the week I'd been grinning like a mad man.
Amiibos?
I'd been personally hoping these NFC figures had been compatible with Smash. I didn't care how, but making trophies that came to life in video games had been the concept of the past two Smash games, and I'd previously joked about wanting Nintendo to do a Disney Infinity style idea with figurines...imagine my surprise when they showed up in the Mii Fighter Trailer. I probably put them down as partially responsible to how I reacted so positively to the Mii Fighter at first.
The fact they're compatible with Mario Kart 8 is also fantastic news, since it's currently the only Wii U title I have.
As for the other games that hyped me up? Seven titles I most certainly want to play;
7. Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire
Ruby, Sapphire and especially Emerald were my favourite Pokemon games of all time. I love the Mega forms of Swampert and Sceptile(and Sableye!) and DO want to get this...but my love of Pokemon is slowly waning, and as such whilst I will inevitable eventually get this, it's no where near the day one purchase that Pokemon X and Y were for me.
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6. Bayonetta 2
Having not played the first Bayonetta I was pleased to hear the second would be bundled with the first, allowing me to experience both for the first time should I decide to pick this up.
Not much to say outside of it looking like a lot of chaotic fun. Another I'm going to have to look into.
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5. Splatoon
Splatoon...just looks fun. I was expecting much, but damn was I impressed with what I saw. Most exciting new IP I saw in the whole of E3. It was nice to watch them play on Treehouse too, and actually show that some devs can play their own games effectively. A definite possible future favourite for me.
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4. Xenoblade Chronicles
I've not had the chance to play any other game in the series, and as a rule I absolutely despise RPGs, with Pokemon's monster design appeal causing me to make one notable exception. However; I was blown away by what I did see of Chronicles. It looks a ton of fun, customizable avatars, HUGE scrawling worlds to interact with, and no turn based combat.
If I had enough time to play a full RPG I'd probably jump on this one; it looks spectacular.
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3. Hyrule Warriors
If I'm honest I'm not the biggest Zelda fan. I've played Zelda games I like in the forms of Wind Waker, Four Swords Adventures, Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask, but I'm not a big fanatic of the series like I am of Mario and Pokemon. Heck, I hardly reacted to the other Zelda title being announced.
So the initial reveal of Dynasty Warriors guest starring Link didn't excite me. I like those style of games, but I wasn't expecting much from one where Link was possibly the only character.
What a fool I was! Zelda, Midna and Impa all impressed me. With so many other secret characters to be revealed now I'm genuinely invested in getting this Wii U game.
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2. Yoshi's Woolly World
Yoshi's New Island had looked like a horrible rehash of the classic Yoshi's Island game, and Yarn Yoshi seemed like it was just jumping on Kirby's Epic Yarn's coattails. Still, having not heard anything about my favourite video game character of all time's new game I was hoping for some information on Yarn Yoshi no matter how bad it looked.
But it didn't look bad. At all. In fact, it looked and felt more like a Yoshi game than Epic Yarn had felt like a Kirby game. The yarn ball 'eggs' the ability to wrap enemies mouths up in yarn to render biting enemies useless, freaking Co-Op of which I am a huge fan of, and the way Yoshi's yarn tongue unraveled the world around him was one of the most stylistic choices I've seen in a Nintendo game since Legend of Zelda Wind Waker. I was blown away. Everything from the boss battle against the cutesy Pyroar/Arcanine esque plush with a knitted lava background, to the way the Shy Guy's unraveled leaving nothing behind but their little masks to the way the knitted flowers sprung to life was simply beautiful.
Yoshi's Woolly World was also confirmed compatible with the Amiibo system. I'm down with this idea since I collect Ninty figures anyway...might as well get some that actually do stuff.
A must get for me.
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1. CAPTAIN TOAD, TREASURE TRACKER
The biggest surprise for me personally was Nintendo listening to fans, and actually responding in kind to the positive reactions from Super Mario 3D World to the peculiar 'game within a game' section of Captain Toad's Adventures.
Now, we'd heard rumours about Toad getting a game should there be enough fan demand, but after being on here for a while I was convinced I was some sort of weird exception to the rule, and that most people HATED Toad.
Naturally as one of, if not THE most vocal Toad supporter on this site, I was grinning ear to ear the moment I heard that little soundbite and we saw the Captain shoot through the air. Apparently I was wrong. He is popular, just Nintendo have only just realised this.
I was cautiously pessimistic about the whole thing however, expecting them to just rehash the exact same mechanics as they did in 3D World, but no! There's a love letter to Toad in SMB2 with the turnip throwing; a new Pick Axe power up that helps you smash your way through blocks, that minecart section looks quite fun, and they oddly even added boss battles into the mix allowing for puzzle bosses. It's admittedly still MOSTLY the same mechanics, but that's not a bad thing.
I was even more overjoyed NOT to see 'Super Mario' in the title. This means Captain Toad's name alone hasn't had to be flown under the guise of the Mario flag; Nintendo seem to have confidence that the shroom himself can shift copies...enough to even make this game ALSO Amiibo compatible.
A day one buy. It's also made my sister want to buy a Wii U just to support Toad(whom is her favourite video game character of all time) and to get an adorable Captain Toad Amiibo.
I'm glad to see Toad, and especially Captain Toad(never saw Blue Toad as THE Toad) get thrust into the spotlight, and most people seem kind of pleased he's finally got his own game. How wonderful. Have a bit of official art to celebrate;
With a Yoshi game, a Toad game, Amiibos AND Pac-Man being revealed at E3, it almost seemed like this year had been tailor made to my video game desires; I'd been dreaming of all of the above for anywhere between 20 and 3 years, and it's nice to see so many childhood dreams come true in one go.
...now if the rumours about DLC characters are true...and are released over a period of time...MAYBE Captain Toad isn't quite out the running for Smash JUST yet. Maybe.
I can dream right?
PREDICTIONS
Sceptile: 10%
Unfortunately in the standard game I still believe most will feel Jigglypuff and Mewtwo have priority. DLC however...Sceptile suddenly becomes one of the most likely options. But we're not ranking that anyway.
Ridley: 20%
Ridley is either in the base game, or he's not. I doubt he's going to be DLC however. The teasing is still suspicious, but many others feel he's already dead in the water.
