Clearly me wanting to update all the time was a pipe dream. But a bit of rare 'me' time and this week's E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) announcements have me too excited to not write a bit.
WII
With the announcement of the Wii U (more on that later), it looks like releases for the Wii will slow down this year, but there are still a few games to get excited about. One of these, of course, will be the new Zelda game, Skyward Sword. Others include Mario Party 9, a new 4-player Kirby game, Fortune Street (a board game made by Nintendo and Square-Enix that is basically Mario Party + Monopoly with Dragon Quest and Mario characters), and a new Wii Play that uses MotionPlus.
Some points I want to make about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It has been confirmed that the game takes place before Ocarina of Time, and clearly this is meant to be an origin story for the Master Sword, perhaps even showing us how the sword got into the Temple of Time. There are however, a few more tidbits that caught my attention.
In the latest trailer we got to see a big flying whale with teeth that seems to swallow up Zelda (who may or may not be a Princess in this game). One of the main things I loved about Ocarina of Time was nods to other games in the series and a sense of 'interconnectedness' (that word borrowed from Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently series). When I first saw Jabu Jabu in the Zora area in Ocarina, I immediately got excited and thought "Holy mackeral! That's the WIND FISH!!!!"
The Wind Fish is the mysterious being who is responsible for the Game Boy Zelda game, Link's Awakening. He is a giant whale who hatches from a Yoshi egg at the end of the game and flies away. We have now seen multiple forms of this guy, and if Skyward Sword offers more info about this magical creature, I would squee like a 16 year old girl at Anime North. I firmly believe the Wind Fish was Jabu Jabu, and therefore Jabun from Zelda: The Wind Waker. And now we are seeing him as a force in Skyward Sword, and flying, so perhaps he will be called the Wind Fish again.
The other piece of interconnectedness I've noticed, that I don't see anyone else on the internet talking about, is the fact that the new bad guy in Skyward Sword looks like a purple-wearing magic wizard that serves Ganon called Lord Ghirahim. Well shiver my timbers! While this guy at first was rumoured to be Vaati from the Minish Cap and Four Swords games, it seems to me like we have seen a purple-wearing magic wizard that served Ganon before! His name was Agahnim, the Ganon-possessed wizard from A Link To The Past.
Gee, those names seem to be similar... as an aside, the word Ghira is an Arabic word meaning self-respect, jealousy and it is a feeling of fury with great anger when one's honour and prestige is challenged or injured.
WII U
So, Nintendo announced the successor to the Wii. It is due to release in 2012, and seems to be more focused on providing games for ALL gamers, both hardcore and casual. It is more powerful than the X-Box 360 and PS3, and comes with a tablet controller. Picture an iPad with a camera that faces you, a microphone, and all the buttons of a traditional controller, two joysticks, and with the same sense of tilt and motion as a Wii Remote. It is capable of receiving images from the Wii U console, so you can keep playing your games when someone else wants to use the TV. The second screen is also great for keeping the main screen clear of clutter, so your game map, radar, weapon selection, score, timers, etc. can be glanced at right in front of you.
Many franchises normally associated with non-Wii consoles, like Assassin's Creed, Ghost Recon, Battlefield, Batman: Arkham City, etc. have been announced for the Wii U, so mature/hardcore/dedicated players should have no fear that the Wii U will be lacking in 3rd-party support. While the Wii ended up being mostly known for 'family' and 'casual' games, Wii U seems to be targeted at a wider audience.
If you see any games you think look great on your PS3 or X-Box 360, rest assured that the Wii U will provide games looking at least as good, if not significantly better. The Wii U will show games in HD up to full 1080p, and games shown at E3 while rushed and built on incomplete hardware already look just as good as games on the PS3 and 360. And to put even more fears to rest, Nintendo brought out the head of EA Sports, Peter Moore, during the Nintendo press conference, to tell everyone how excited EA is to start working on Wii U sports games and shooters, as well as more traditionally 'Wii' games like the fitness games, The Sims, etc.
Nintendo also hosted a developer roundtable for UbiSoft, one of the other huge 3rd-Party publishers to talk more about games planned for the Wii U like the Tom Clancy series (Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, etc), Rayman (and the Rabbids), Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and a new First Person Shooter franchise exclusive to Wii U called Killer Freaks From Outerspace.
While the design of the console is not 100% finalized, early builds look like a sleeker, rounded-edged, sexier Wii. The Wii U will also be fully compatible with all current generation Wii games and controllers. Their online services also look to be improved. Friend Codes are no longer involved, and the Wii U controller was shown being used for video chatting with friends.
Nintendo themselves said they are working on a new Smash Brothers game, possibly a Pikmin game, and are publishing LEGO: City Stories (basically a LEGO Grand Theft Auto game). They showed tech-demos (NOT official games) at E3 that included a New Super Mario Bros. game that uses your Mii characters alongside Mario and Luigi. Lots of other cool ones that would take too long to explain right now, but stay tuned.
3DS
As proof that Nintendo is working to improve their online infrastructure, the 3DS got its first major update this week as well. The Nintendo eShop is now available, and instead of Wii Points, all prices for games are listed as Dollars.
All the upcoming 3DS games shown at E3 have 3D preview videos available for free, included the new Super Mario game (which looks like a 3D Super Mario Bros. 3, Tanooki suit and all), the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, Star Fox, Kid Icarus: Uprising, a new Animal Crossing, a new Luigi's Mansion, a new Paper Mario, and TWO new Resident Evil games (one of which is based on the Mercenaries mode from RE:4 and 5, and the other is a full new RE game that IGN.com is already called 'too good to just be on a handheld').
So, I'm SO glad I have a 3DS!! The eShop also is giving everyone a free copy of a new 3D Pokedex for Pokemon Black and White which will let you add Pokemon to the 'Dex either by trading with friends over StreetPass, straight from Nintendo with SpotPass, or using special Pokemon AR Cards. Its a pretty full-featured Pokedex from my first look at it, although I wish it just read my Pokemon White game and gave me all the Pokemon I already found. But for free software, I'm not complaining.
Everyone for the next month also gets the first game in the Virtual Console 3D Classics series: Excitebike. So, another FREE game. This 3D Classics series basically takes old Virtual Console games from the NES (and maybe other systems) and adds 3D effects to it. A 3D Super Mario Bros. should be coming soon as well. So, Excitebike is the same game from the NES, but you can now see it in 3D, which looks great and is fully adjustable for your eyes.
The eShop also is starting to offer old Game Boy and Game Boy Color games for sale. You can get Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (and meet the Wind Fish yourself!), which is a Must-Buy. Lots of original content is for sale too, like Plants vs. Zombies, Cave Story, and other great indie PC games. Casual games like Scrabble, Sudoku, Word Searches, Hangman, etc are there too for as little as $1.99 CDN.
All in all, the eShop is very well organized and fun to browse, and I hope there is a steady stream of releases for it. Looks like Nintendo is going to keep giving us free games and demos every once in a while too, so there's never been a better time to go get a 3DS.
X-BOX 360/ PS3
I'm not doing a full PS3 write-up because I don't own one, but most of the games I'm excited about on the 360 are on the PS3 as well, and vice-versa. Sony showed off their next handheld, called Vita instead of PSP2. If you enjoyed the PSP, you will like this, and if you never cared about PSP, feel free to keep not caring. They added a touch pad to the back so you can finger it while you play, which is kinda cool, and it looks like it will probably handle Uncharted and Little Big Planet pretty well, so there you go.
Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim looks amazing, and after all the fun I had with Oblivion, I'm sure I'll be picking this one up. Batman: Arkham City is also making me drool, especially since it's been announced you can play as Catwoman, but now that I know it's coming to Wii U next year, I might try to wait until then. We shall see how successful I am at THAT.
They announced a remake of the original Halo: Combat Evolved, which has me intrigued since I loved the first one but never owned it, and they also announced Halo 4! It's supposed to kick off a new trilogy, so they might change the '4' to a subtitle at some point, but I can't say i'm not interested.
I've never been a Call of Duty player (Sorry Jess!) but they keep looking amazing and now there will be a Call of Duty subscription service you can buy that will allow you to get ALL expansions as they come out for any game in the series from now until the end of time, so it's probably worth it for those of you who buy each game. Lots of extra content and ways to interact with other Call of Duty players will be included. Then again, aren't you already paying for X-Box LIVE? Hmmmm.... decisions....
And every game Microsoft showed off had some form of Kinect play included, plus an announcement from UbiSoft that ALL future Tom Clancy games for X-Box will include Kinect support, I guess it's a BIG part of X-Box plans from here on out. They want EVERY X-Box owner to have one, just like Nintendo wants everyone to have a Wii MotionPlus, so start saving up!
There's a lot more little announcements that Microsoft made but nothing earth-shattering or as exciting as say, WII U! so for now I'll sign off.
Let me know in the comments section if you have any questions about stuff, I've read enough info and seen enough videos that I'd love an excuse to make another post about this stuff, and it'll save you a trip to IGN.
FREE TETRIS is not on the 3DS, but it is, right here on my blog! Enjoy!
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