So since the Digital Event has aired Tuesday, June 16 at 12:00 P.M. EST, I’ve probably seen the whole thing maybe… 10 times now. I’m not exactly sure why either. I mean, there were definitely some moments to love, such as the beginning where Miyamoto, Reggie and Iwata enter the stage as Muppets and “transform” (big reason I used that word) into Fox, Falco and Peppy from the Star Fox franchise, immediately following is the reveal of Star Fox: Zero, which was almost shown at last year’s E3 but never showed up on the Nintendo Treehouse floor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPDPSezEkcY
Following the much anticipated debut of Star Fox: Zero, we received a Developer’s Story segment, where Miyamoto talked about many of the ideas not just behind Star Fox: Zero, but the Star Fox franchise in a whole, and related it to his childhood growing up with the Thunderbirds T-V show and living close to a shrine with many arches. I must say I actually enjoyed this segment very much. Oh, and not mentioned in the Digital Event, – the secret game Platinum Games was working on? It was Star Fox: Zero. Because that’s not big news you would want to bring up in your Digital Event. Also, Star Fox: Zero will not have an online multiplayer.
We then encounter Reggie who tells us about Nintendo and their recent “transformation” – referring to the partnership with Universal Studios Theme Parks and partnership with DeNa, the mobile gaming company. Reggie then shows the next step of transformation, which is allowing more companies to interact and connect with Nintendo properties. Two new Skylander figures are revealed with vehicles, Hammer Slam Bowser with the Clown Cruiser and Turbo Charge Donkey Kong with the Barrel Blaster.
The next game to be shown is The Legend of Zelda: Tri-force Heroes, which seems to be a reimagining of Four Swords for the 3DS, but with 3 players instead of 4. The game also seems to have a more cooperative oriented setting, compared to the competitive atmosphere of Four Swords.
Followed by the second Director’s Story – a discussion between Eiji Aonuma, the creator of Zelda games and Hiromasa Shikata the director of Tri-force heroes, where they discuss the game. Following that, we get a trailer for Hyrule Warriors Legends for the 3DS, which was unfortunately leaked on Sunday ahead of the Digital Event.
Surprise time! After this, well I guess you could say the Digital Event takes a huge turn now. And not exactly for the best of things. After a funny snippet of Iwata Muppet doing his Direct magic to Reggie and making him fall over, we get a trailer for a very anticipated game. Well it should have been anticipated, had it been an actual Metroid game. Unfortunately what we got was this:
Yes, a Metroid Prime game. A Metroid Prime spin-off game that has almost nothing to do with Samus Aran at all. But it doesn’t end there! Oh no kiddies. We then find out towards the end of the trailer that Federation Force comes bundled with another game, which should always be good news right? Well, possibly if the bundled game wasn’t Metroid Soccer. That’s right, the bundled game is Metroid Prime Blast Ball, the very same game that was used in the Nintendo World Championships Sunday, then just being titled “Blast Ball”. The Metroid was a surprise, though the commentators at the event noticed how the armor and guns used seemed to resemble ones from the Metroid series. This game has been met with huge dissatisfaction and has been the big talk of the internet lately. There’s even a petition for it to get canceled on Change.org, and the official video is flaming red with dislikes. You can watch the trailer and see for yourself below. It’s been revealed since that there will be a mission involving Metroids, and Samus will make a cameo appearance in the game.
To fix things a bit, we then get some Fire Emblem content, including the official name for the new Fire Emblem 3DS games, Fire Emblem Fates. After some promising cutscenes and gameplay, – all in English now, we move onto the next trailer. Another, um, most anticipated game (at least before it was revealed anyway), Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem.
Not exactly sure what happened to Chrom. Maybe he tried to become so different that he could finally make it into Smash Bros.? Well R.O.B. is already a robot, so I don’t think we need two. Also where are other characters like Roy (our boy), Marth or Lucina? Not much has been shown from this game, so hopefully there is much to come. It’s obvious so far that this game was directed toward weeaboo- er, the Japanese audience, that is. After Iwata stares intently at his bananas, we get one of my personal favorite trailers of the direct.
Although this game hasn’t really been appealing to me lately, mainly because Shulk is not involved and the story of this game just seems too familiar within other video games, compared to Xenoblade Chronicles story which seemed very original and well thought out to me; Xenoblade Chronicles X looks like a very full, expansive game. The music is what really stuck out for me though. I don’t know about you guys, but a big factor of how great a game is for me is the soundtrack.
And this is when the Digital Event got from bad, to worse. (Yes, it’s possible). We then get the next two trailers. One for a game not many people cared about, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, and we get presented with the amiibo scanner device for the old 3DS models and some amiibo cards for the game along with gameplay. Then we get another game that was widely anticipated, Animal Crossing for Wii U. Well, that’s not exactly what the game was called. The real title of the game is Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival. No, I’m not making this up. This is the actual title of the game. No joke, no meme. The proper Animal Crossing game fans were desperate for ended up not happening, and we got a Mario Party rip off that only plays with amiibo. The biggest question on the internet? “I wonder who feels worse: Animal Crossing fans or Metroid fans?” Yeah, that says a lot right there. Well, on the bright side we get Isabelle and K.K. Slider amiibo! *cries*
Also, be sure to check out the like-dislike bar on Animal Crossing: amiibo Party. Ouch!
We then get our third Developer’s Story which revolves around Yoshi’s Wooly World and the idea behind the plush Yoshi amiibo, along with some footage of Wooly World gameplay.
Following is the trailer for the widely anticipated new Pokemon game!
Did I say Pokemon? Whoops. I meant Yo-Kai Watch, a game previously exclusive to Japan. Same thing though, right? That’s what it looks like not just from the game, but also from the popular show in Japan. This was another game that played with the hearts of Nintendo fans. After this, the Digital Event displayed nothing else besides Mario content. Don’t believe me?
Paper Jam was by far the pinnacle of the games debuted at the Digital Event. Many fans were clamoring about how excited they were over this game, and the Twitch chat was blowing up. You can even check out the like/dislike bar in the video to see the fans’ approval. The next game was a game met with excitement by some (myself included, actually. I kick butt in Mario Tennis for 3DS), and disappointment and rage by many others. Only natural after what we received so far though. Unfortunately, most of the reception for Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash was negative. The like/dislike bar also states so.
After this, we get our fourth and final Developer’s Story, this one being pretty long. Miyamoto discusses the process behind the Mario games and some ideas that first went about, and gives us a taste of what Mario Maker can do, which is another anticipated game that proved great as the final stage for the Nintendo World Championships. Unfortunately, they shoved Mario and the Mario Maker game down our throats, and many of us were feeling sick of Mario by the time the Digital Event was over.
The Direct Ended with a musical montage of people paying respect to Mario all over the world by performing his music. It was titled “Let’s Super Mario!”, and revealed that videos uploaded to it’s site http://www.letssupermario.com (which wasn’t working for the first day and a half) would donate money to the Operation Smile charity. While it was cute, it wasn’t exactly the best way to close out an E3 presentation, and it certainly wasn’t the way to calm down angry fans. I also would like to say that the World Championships, Earthbound coming to North America and Smash Bros. DLC on Sunday counted as Nintendo’s E3, and that is something people need to remember before hating the Digital Event and automatically hating their entire E3 this year. Also, who could forget the Special gold-pants Mii for Mii Plaza on the 3DS! I actually look forward to that every year. Hopefully I’m not alone there.
What were your thoughts and feelings on the Digital Event? Where there any games that excited/dissapointed you? Do you also get excited over gold-pants Miis? Let us know below!
