Wii U

Summary of E3

This year’s E3 was once again packed full of action and announcements. Sony and Microsoft went for their big press conferences as usual, whilst Nintendo had an entire day focused on the new Zelda game. Each company concentrated on something different. Microsoft talked a lot about their new technology, Sony focused on new games and game play, and Nintendo was a festival of all things Zelda. Nintendo were smart, and instead of concentrating on the NX and trying to rival the others, they gave fans what they have been waiting for  for years, a glimpse at the new Zelda game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (see separate article for details on this).

Microsoft announced their ‘Play Anywhere’ scheme, which will allow players to cross-play their games on the Xbox One and Windows 10, with the saves and achievements all being included for one price. The first of the Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive games shown off was a brutal Gears of War 4. Following the gruesome Gears game play, games including Forza Horizon 3, ReCore, Final Fantasy XV and Battlefield 1 were shown off to the crowds. The Minecraft guys then came on stage, with special guest John Cormack, to present Minecraft on the Oculus; there was no more information on the HoloLens, or even if that was still happening.

A tease of a game from the Limbo creators was shown, but not much else was known about it, before a bunch of indie games were listed. We Happy Few, which had a very Bioshock-like feeling about it that left me wanting to see more, was one of the only non-exclusive games shown. More games presented included Tekken 7, Dead Rising 4, Scalebound (a Final Fantasy-like game with dragons), Sea of Thieves, State of Decay 2 and a Halo Wars 2 trailer. An announcement that Halo Wars beta was available now was also made. The one thing missing from the Microsoft conference was no mention of Crackdown 3, except a brief logo at the end.

Then came the killer for Microsoft; they announced details on their next generation console, dubbed ‘Scorpio’. They had already talked about a new, slimmer version of the Xbox One called the ‘Xbox S’, confirmed to be coming out in August of this year, but unexpectedly they announced 2 consoles.  Microsoft claimed it will be the most powerful console ever, with 4K gaming and 6 teraflops of power. With no word from Sony about their next console, there is nothing yet to compare it to.

With that jam-packed conference Sony had a lot to live up to. Whilst Sony didn’t talk about next gen, they did wow people with the PlayStation VR and their exclusive games. The conference itself was impressive, with a big orchestra playing throughout. They showed off a trailer for a new God of War game, as well as a Zombie game called Days Gone that could be the rival to Dead Rising. There was more to be seen of The Last Guardian and an official release date was announced, 25th of October. A massive amount of game play was shown for the Horizon: Zero Dawn, with futuristic robot-like enemies being killed by the female protagonist; Horizon will not be released until February 2017. After that, a trailer for the futuristic game Detroit: Become Human was played.

The main focus of the Sony conference seemed to be the PlayStation VR. Sony claimed there will be 50 games available for the PS VR by the end of the year, and they listed off some big hitters. Resident Evil 7, Star Wars, Batman and Final Fantasy will all have VR games on the PlayStation, as well as others such as the Sci-Fi shooter Farpoint, and even a Call of Duty game. A surprise that left the audience feeling happy was another remake, this time of all three Crash Bandicoot games.

The biggest hit for Sony during their conference, was massive cheers and applause as Hideo Kojima arrived on stage to tell us about his new, PlayStation exclusive game Death Standing. He came onto the stage and said the words ‘I’m back’, before a trailer heavily featuring a character based on The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus was shown. The trailer didn’t give us much information and it left the audience confused, but wanting to know more. Finishing the conference was an announcement that a new Spider-man game is coming, and some more footage of Days Gone.

Like Microsoft, there were a few things missing from the conference, including no word on the PlayStation Neo, no more about the Final Fantasy remake, and no update on Shenmue. There was also no mention of the PS Vita, so it looks like that Sony may have finally given up on it.

Whilst a lot of people were apprehensive about E3 and how well it would do this year, it did not disappoint. A few of the bigger companies had decided not to have booths this year, which had people worried, but the show was action packed full of gaming fun to look forward to in the future.

Nintendo Presents a New and Very Different Zelda Game

This year at E3, it was all about the new Zelda game for Nintendo. Instead of a one hour Nintendo Direct, there was a full day of Zelda game play and announcements with Nintendo Treehouse live at E3. Fans have eagerly awaited more footage of the game, and what we were shown did not disappoint. With stunning graphics and a massive open world, this game is set to be the biggest and best Zelda game yet. No longer will we have to call the game Zelda Wii U, with the announcement of the official title ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’.

The game play starts out with Link as we are traditionally used to him, sleeping. He wakes up to an unknown British voice that helps him progress into Hyrule, picking up clothes and other useful items on the way. Before going into Hyrule, the game has more of a futuristic feel, using technology rather than magic, and as Link progresses in the world he has to use natural resources to survive.

We are given a glimpse of how big the world will be as  Link looks over a cliff, and a zoom out on the map shows us a vast expanse of undiscovered areas. There are hints at traditional areas of the Zelda games, when you can glance a giant volcano and big lake in the distance. Unlike previous games, Link really has to rely on his surroundings. He can jump, play with fire, climb walls and trees.  There are no hearts in the grass, with Link instead having to depend on any food he can find.

You don’t start out with many weapons, and they often break, but throughout the game you can steal enemies’ weapons and use them as your own. The game encourages exploration, with so many items lying around that you can use. Things like pot lids found in enemy camps can later be used as shields. A new feature to the Zelda games is that the weapons have stats, which is definitely useful when fighting different enemies. Throughout the game Link finds a bow, an axe and multiple other weapons, so exploring your surroundings is key in this game.

The music is also different and unique. There are no big ongoing themes in the background like previous games; instead there are piano notes and chords, but the well-known smaller jingles remain. The art in the game is absolutely stunning, with beautiful sunsets, shimmering snow, tumbling waterfalls and flowing rivers. When climbing up temples and mountains, you really get to see how much detail has gone into the game. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild definitely feels like Nintendo’s most advanced game to date, and has left fans really excited to see more.

Nintendo Direct delivers once again

The November Nintendo Direct was the first since Satoru Iwata’s passing. It opened with Reggie paying tribute to him before they moved onto Bill and the news that Nintendo had to share. For the European broadcast there was also a tribute to Satoru Iwata from Satoru Shibata. They announced games to be released for both the Wii U and 3DS in 2016, as well as plans they had for the rest of the year. Below is a summary of the massive amount of announcements that Nintendo Direct had to offer us.

For the Wii U:

  • Twilight Princess HD remake and Wolf Link Amiibo – Out March 2016
  • New Zelda for the Wii U confirmed for next year, where it will mark 30 years of Zelda games
  • Continuing updates for Splatoon including new levels and content
  • Videos showcasing upcoming games Animal crossing Amiibo Festival, Mario Tennis Ultra Smash, and Xenoblade Chronicles X
  • Starfox Zero – A new trailer and April release date announced
  • Pokken Tournament – A Pokemon fighting game already popular in Japanese arcades will be coming to the Wii U in 2016

For the 3DS:

  • Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam trailer – Released January in America and December elsewhere
  • Tri-Force Heroes getting new free content, including a new area ‘Den of Trials’
  • Pokemon Red, Blue and Yellow are coming to the Virtual Console, with trading available via WiFi and available on February 27th
  • Fire Emblems Fate – Comes in various packages and will be out in February
  • Megaman Legacy Collection – Includes all 6 games, original art and sketches, challenges and special Megaman Amiibos
  • Hyrule Warriors Legends – Includes some extra Windwaker characters, Skull Kid and a new character known as Linkle aka female Link. Her specialties are having a dual crossbow and spinning kick. The game will be release march 25th
  • Dragon Quest VII and VIII both coming out in 2016 in the West

A big announcement available for both consoles:

  • Final Fantasy VII’s Cloud is coming to both the 3DS and Wii U Smash Brothers game as a playable character. There will be a Smash Bros specific Nintendo Direct in December.

The full video can be seen on their YouTube channel here

Mario Over The Years

This year Super Mario Bros. celebrates its 30th anniversary, but Mario as a lonely brother has been around longer than that. Created by legendary games designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the first appearance of Mario was actually as ‘Jumpman’ in Donkey Kong in 1981. In the original game, Mario tries to rescue the damsel in distress known as Pauline from the ape Donkey Kong. Over the years, Mario has appeared in many Donkey Kong games, including those such as the sequel Donkey Kong Junior and the remake on the Game Boy.

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The first Mario Bros. game, which saw the debut of Luigi, was introduced as an arcade game in 1983, as well as Mario Bros. on the Game and Watch in the same year.  The popularity of the Mario Bros. didn’t occur until later, with the Super Mario Bros. game on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985. The sequel Super Mario Bros 2. was released in 1986, and Super Mario Bros 3. in 1988 (1990 worldwide).

The basis of all the Super Mario Bros. games sees Mario traveling across the Mushroom Kingdom to save Princess Toadstool from Bowser, as well as his Koopalings in Super Mario Bros 3.  In the original Super Mario Bros. Mario had power ups such as the super mushroom and fire-flower, but Super Mario Bros. 3 included extra power-ups such as the super leaf and the frog suit. Super Mario Bros. 3 is widely considered by many to be one of the greatest video games of all time. The popularity of the game even had an animated television series made based around it.

As well as on home consoles, Mario has appeared in many hand-held console games. Famous Game Boy appearances of Mario included  Super Mario Land in 1989, Dr Mario and also Wario Land. The Game Boy saw Mario in many solo sporting outings, including Mario Golf and Tennis. The rest of the hand-held consoles over the years have continued in the trend to release many new Mario titles, as well as re-making old games.

Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) saw the introduction of the File:YoshiMarioParty9.pngmuch-loved dinosaur Yoshi. Yoshi reprised his role as the Mario Bros. sidekick in the SNES game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. The SNES also had the first Mario Kart game in the series in 1992.

On the Nintendo 64, we saw the first 3D Mario game, Super Mario 64. Other big Mario games that started out on the N64 included the first in the popular Super Smash Bros series, and the initial Paper Mario game. The GameCube saw another 3D Mario game with Super Mario Sunshine, which deviated from the usual Mushroom Kingdom rescue story by seeing Mario travel to Isle Delfino. On Isle Delfino, Mario had to save Princess Peach from the evil Shadow Mario.

With the Wii remote and nunchuk attachment for the Wii, sports games became popular, and Mario was no stranger to them. Mario and Sonic at the Olympics was the first game, followed 2 years later by Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympics.  Another original Wii game, Super Mario Galaxy, saw the return of the familiar storyline of Mario rescuing Peach from Bowser; this time however, the game was set in outer space and Mario had to travel across galaxies to save her.

There have been many Mario games on the Wii U, but one in particular that deserves a mention is the creative Super Mario Maker that was recently released. Unlike any other game, Super Mario Maker allows the gamer to create and play their own custom Mario levels, and to share them online. With the chance to create something new, or pay homage to your old favourite Mario level, Mario Maker has quickly become a fan favourite.

Having appeared in over 200 games in his 30 years, Mario has definitely managed to stand the test of time. Considered to be the best-selling video game franchise of all time, Mario is set to have a long-continued history with Nintendo and the Nintendo fans that love him.

Why the choice of the new Nintendo president is a good thing

Recently, Nintendo announced that their new president will be Tatsumi Kimishima. He has big boots to fill following the death of the much-loved Satoru Iwata, but he is a good choice by Nintendo. He will be the 5th president of the company, and only the second to not be from the Yamauchi family.

Nintendo's New President Has Been Named

There was a lot of scepticism following the announcement, but what some people didn’t realise is the history that Tatsumi Kimishima has with Nintendo; he has played a big part in the company since 2002, and even before that he had a history with Nintendo being involved with the Pokemon company both in Japan and America. In 2002, he was appointed as the president of Nintendo America before Reggie Fils-Aimé took over in 2006, due to Kimishima being promoted to Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Before being appointed as the new president, he was the head of HR and managing director of Nintendo.

Kimishima is not well-known outside of the Nintendo offices, and not much is known about what will happen to things like Iwata asks and Nintendo Directs, but what is known is that he has a good financial head on him. Before getting involved in the games industry, he worked for the Sanwa Bank of Japan for 27 years. He also foresaw the Wii U not being a great success, having said it was too similar to the Wii. With Satoru Iwata’s success with Nintendo, people have wondered will his plans he had for Nintendo continue or will things go in a completely different direction, but a translation of a an article had Kimishima saying that sticking to Iwata’s visions is the plan for now.

With Tatsumi Kimishima being given the role as the new president of the company, it gives the former acting presidents Shigeru Miyamoto and Genyo Takeda the chance to focus on what they are good at, making games and the technology behind them. This is reflected in their new titles, with Miyamoto being appointed as ‘Creative Fellow’ and Takeda the new ‘Technology Fellow’. As great as Miyamoto would be as the president, with him frequently having taken part in the Nintendo Directs over the years and him being a well-known face for the fans, not being the president of the company means he will still be able to have creative direction over the games Nintendo makes.

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.

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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.

My Tribute to Satoru Iwata

On my  business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer. – Satoru Iwata, GDC 2005

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Satoru Iwata at GDC 2011

The famous words by the Nintendo legend Satoru Iwata. These words reflected exactly the kind of man who Iwata was; a man who put the games and the company he was CEO of before himself. He was well-known for taking a 50% pay-cut rather than make employees redundant when Nintendo saw their profits drop dramatically, with it happening more than once. Although Nintendo sales are fine for now, he took a wage cut after both the initial launch of the 3DS and in 2014 after Wii U sales weren’t doing as well as predicted.

He was the first president of Nintendo that wasn’t a relative of the Yamauchi family, and only the fourth there ever had been. He took over as CEO of Nintendo when Hiroshi Yamauchi retired, who had turned Nintendo from a small Hanafudu playing cards company to the video games giant it is today. 

Born in Sapporo Japan, he had an interest in video games from a young age. Starting out by making games on a simple school calculator, he later went on to study computer science at the Tokyo School of Technology whilst doing freelance work for HAL Laboratory; even whilst at HAL he had a big hand to play in Nintendo, having worked on the Kirby and various Pokemon games. Iwata was eventually made a full-time employee of Nintendo in 2000 when he was appointed as the head of the corporate planning division, before becoming the president of Nintendo in 2002.

With Nintendo Directs and ‘Iwata Asks’, Satoru Iwata made Nintendo a much more personable company to its fans. Through Nintendo Direct press events, we got to see the side of Iwata that the public came to love. Ever humorous in his approach to the creation of everyone’s favourite Nintendo titles, he showed us all the fun side of games development.

‘Video games are meant to be for just one thing: fun. Fun for everyone!’ – Satoru Iwata, GDC 2006

As a girl who grew up on Nintendo, I have been a part of the Nintendo community for over 20 years. My first console was the NES, shortly followed by the original Game Boy, and I have been a fan-girl ever since. Iwata played a  crucial role in the development of many of the games I played as a child, such as Kirby and Super Smash Bros. During Iwata’s time as president, the now much loved Nintendo DS and the revolutionary Wii were launched.
An open, electric blue original Nintendo DS system.
Games studios across the world have been paying tribute to Iwata today with fan art.

Even rival company Sony paid tribute on their PlayStation twitter account.

After having to miss E3 last year due to his battles with cancer, he sadly passed away on July 11th 2015 at the age of only 55. With his passing, people are left wondering who will be able to replace such an icon of the industry, but for now the world is in mourning for such a wonderful man. RIP Satoru Iwata, you will sorely be missed by many gamers around the world.
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