GameCube

Nintendo Direct E3 2018 Summary

Nintendo’s presentation focused mainly on Super Smash Bros Ultimate, but there was a lot of other information to digest. With many fast-paced trailers, release dates for known games were revealed, including lots of games that were available to download today. The presentation started with a trailer for the new robot action game Daemon X Machina, which will be available at some point in 2019. Next up was a trailer for the new DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and an announcement that it will be released in September this year.

Reggie was then introduced, and he talked a little more about the already announced Pokémon: Lets Go Pikachu and Pokémon: Lets Go Eevee, which will be available on November 16th this year. Reggie presented the Pokeball Plus, a new type of controller for the game that will come exclusively with Mew and will be compatible with the popular mobile game Pokémon Go. Super Mario Party was the next game to be showcased, with an announcement that it will be available on October 5th.  Fire Emblems: Three Houses was then shown, with a release date of sometime next year. The big news was revealed that not only is Fortnite coming to Switch, but that it will also be available to download today.

Reggie appeared again to talk about the importance of indie games to Nintendo, including a trailer for Overcooked 2 (available August 7th), a Killer Queen Black remake (available later this year), and a game called Hollow Knight that is another game available today. Reggie continued by giving us a release date and a little more information on Octopath Traveler, by Square Enix, which is exclusive to Switch July 13th.  Next up were lots of very short, fast paced trailers and release date reveals. Some of the games were brand new exclusives to the Switch, whilst others included ports of older games that were previously available elsewhere. The extensive list included:

Starlink (available October 16th), Arena of Valor (coming this Autumn), Minecraft (available June 21st), Sushi Striker (available now), Mario and Rabbids Kingdom Battle: Donkey Kong Adventure (available June 26th), Pixark (coming this fall), Just Dance 2019 (available October 23rd), Dragon Ball Fighter Z (available later this year), Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion (available this summer), Captain Toad Treasure Tracker (available July 13th), Crash Bandicoot N Sane Triology (available on the Switch June 29th),  Ninjala (available spring next year), Carcassonne (available holiday 2018), FIFA 18 (available now), FIFA 19 (available September 28th), ARK: Survival Evolved (available on the Switch in the fall), Wasteland 2: Directors Cut (available on the Switch in the fall), Paladins: Champions of the Realm (free to download today), Fallout Shelter (free to download today), Dark Souls Remastered (available on the Switch in the summer this year), SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy (available September 7th), Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (ported to the Switch for August 28th), Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (available on the Switch June 29th), The World Ends With You: Final Remix (available on the Switch this fall), Megaman II (available October 2nd), and finally Mario Tennis Aces (available June 22nd).

Shinya Takahashi and Masahiro Sakurai then arrived to present the main event of the Nintendo Direct, which was more information on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sakurai announced that every single character that has ever been a part of the Smash Bros. franchise will be included in the new games, including Snake, who hasn’t been in a Smash game for ten years. Inklings, Princess Daisy and Ridley have also been added to the game to complete the roster. As well as new additions, you can now play as a female version of Pokémon Trainer or Pikachu. Sakurai mentioned how there would be a lot of new animations for the fighters and showed an expressive Donkey Kong as an example.

Although all the characters are returning, many of them have been tweaked or changed to fit in with the new game. Link and Mario have been redesigned to appeal to fans of Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Zelda has also been given a different look for the game. Instead of going for the Twilight Princess variation of Zelda, designers chose her costume from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds to tie in with her Triforce of Wisdom ability.

There will be more than 50 assist characters in the game, including the addition of the Squid Sisters to help out the Inklings. The multiple stages of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will include:
Green Greens, Spear Pilar, Midgar, Kongo Falls, Lylat Cruise, Princess Peach’s Castle, Spirit Train, Frigate Orpheon, Green Hill Zone, New Pork City, Wrecking Crew, Tortimer Island, Moray Towers, and the introduction of Great Plateau Tower from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

News that delighted fans was that the game will be compatible with GameCube controllers and all previous amiibos. Player data from amiibos from the older Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS games will carry over, as well as there being some yet to be announced new amiibos.

The Nintendo Direct then ended after the release date for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was announced as December 7th this year, and the stream then went straight to Treehouse on the Show floor. Fans were disappointed that they didn’t get a glimpse Metroid Prime 4 or of more exclusive games, but that will have to wait until the next Nintendo Direct.

The History of Nintendo

I have been a Nintendo fan since the massive success that was the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), but they weren’t always such a well-known console corporation. Nintendo started out as a Hanafuda card company nearly 100 years before the NES even existed. Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company in 1889 in Kyoto, and it was kept in the Yamauchi family until the late Satoru Iwata took over as president in 2002.

The first electronic games that Nintendo produced were the series of games on the hand-held Game and Watch in the 1980s. They came as individual hand-held games that were pre-installed and played on a LCD screen; this differed from the later hand-held consoles which allowed interchanging of games via cartridges. Over the years, the Game and Watch had over 50 games available on the various models, and remained popular until the release of the Game Boy.

The Game Boy came around in 1989, with the idea of combining the popularity of the portability of the Game and Watch, and the cartridge based interchangeability of the NES. Various advanced versions of the Game Boy were launched over time, including the Game Boy Colour and Game Boy Advance, before Nintendo moved onto something completely different with the Nintendo DS in 2004.

The DS still stands today as Nintendo’s most popular console, coming second only to the PlayStation 2 in the best-selling consoles of all time. It differed from the Game Boy because it had a dual screen that also enabled touch screen technology; the DS also had a built-in microphone and WiFi technology.

The Nintendo 3DS was the first hand-held console to incorporate 3D effects without the need for 3D glasses. Sadly the 3DS  proved to not be as popular as the original DS, with Nintendo’s profits plummeting and staff wages having to be cut; it has sold only one-third the amount of units that the original DS did. Complaints when the 3DS was 1st released included the short battery life and the awkward angle needed to get the 3D effects to work; the 3DS XL addressed these issues and was received well at launch.

File:NES-Console-Set.png

Nintendo’s first home console came in 1983 (1985 in America) with the Nintendo Entertainment System, or the Famicom as is was better known in Japan. The NES helped the video game market to recover after the famous American crash, and it was the first of the cartridge based consoles. The NES saw the launch of some of its most iconic franchises that still exist today, including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda and Metroid; many online polls consider the NES to be the greatest console of all time. The controller was the classic A/B brick design, but there were numerous special controllers released for use with specific games, including the NES Zapper and R.O.B.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) arrived in 1990 in Japan and was worldwide by 1992. It was the first console of the 16 bit generation, but had tough competition from Sega’s new console, the Sega Mega Drive. Despite the competition, it was still the best-selling console at the time. It was considered the best console of the 16 bit generation due to the advance graphics and sound capabilities compared with the other available consoles. Whilst many classic games from the SNES are remembered, including those such as Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country, perhaps the one that stands out most is Street Fighter II as it was the first console port of the popular arcade game.

The N64 came out in 1996, with the name deriving from the fact the console had a  64-bit central processing unit. When the N64 arrived, so did two very well-known games; GoldenEye launched a new genre of games known as first person shooters, and the action-adventure game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is considered by many to be the greatest game of all time. The creation of the N64 brought about major controversy due the fact Nintendo were in talks with Sony about making a disc based console instead of one that used cartridges. When the deal fell through, Nintendo went ahead with the cartridge based N64, and Sony went on to launch the first PlayStation; whilst the N64 was still a success, the launch of the PlayStation negatively impacted upon Nintendo’s sales and shares. File:Nintendo-64-wController-L.jpg

The next up in the list of Nintendo consoles was the GameCube, and whilst it was well received, it faced tough competition from Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Microsoft’s new console, the Xbox. The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console of all time, with greater than 155 millions units being sold compared to the GameCube’s poor 22 million.

The Wii was available in 2006 and it was another major hit for Nintendo that helped them recover from poor File:Wii-Console.pngGameCube sales.  The revolutionary motion control sensor and wireless remote provided gamers with an alternative experience to that which Sony and Microsoft had to offer. The Wii outsold the PS3 and the Xbox 360 for a time, selling over 100 million units compares to roughly 84 million for the PS3 and Xbox 360. The success of the Wii is thought to have been due to the fact Nintendo tried to aim their new console at a different market to those that Sony and Microsoft were aiming at. They tried to incorporate the casual games market, as well as young children and families. The focus on fitness based games gave the Wii an edge over the other consoles, which they later tried to copy.

The most recent console, the Wii U,  saw Nintendo’s staff having to take another pay-cut due to terrible sales at launch. Even today, the Wii U has only sold just over 10 million units, which is on par with the low sales of Sega’s Saturn and Dream Cast consoles that caused Sega’s existence on the console scene to crumble.  Whilst the Wii U did differ from the Wii with its new gamepad technology, a lack of games at launch contributed towards poor sales.  The sales and number of games available have slowly been improving over time, but it might be a case of too little too late for the Wii U.

The future of the next Nintendo console is currently unknown, but there are plenty of rumours. The consoles code name is the NX, and it is thought that it might incorporate virtual reality. It would not be surprising if Nintendo did go down the virtual reality route as they are a very innovative company, but whatever the future holds for Nintendo, the next console will need to sell well to help them get back on top.