me

 

Updated the first post with Miyamotos stuff and some third party bits.
Anyone know if and when Capcoms presentation is? I do love Capcom :p

Anyways after thinking about it I've decided I've been far too rash in my decisions. All the casual wii fit + and sales figures distracted me from what was really good about Nintendo this year.

Firstly people, I'm guilty of this too, have complained of a lack of innovation from Nintendo. Everyone is demanding something new, but when we look at it what were microsofts and sonys big game announcements (not software, games) God of War III, Final Fantasy, two Halo games, Metal Gear solid? These aren't innovative new IPs. Nintendo are no less guilty of innovation than the rest yet are still criticised for it. I think we are beginning to expect a bit too much from them.

Onto the actual games, New Super Mario Bros. wii, my original criticism is that it is a DS game on the wii. That's how I first saw it anyway, looking at the gameplay trailer I was mistaken. Firstly I should point out that the 4 player co-op is brilliant, it might not seem it to a lot of people but the way I play the original mario is with my friends taking turns as the other dies and trying to beat the original. It is great fun, and this will be just as fun but without waiting for a turn :p
The gameplay is a lot more in depth than the DS one with the stages moving around a lot more, new upgrades, and of course Yoshi :D Racing Yoshis should be great fun too. Overall it may not be brand new graphics but this is what we've asked for, a 2D mario that plays like the originals, and the multiplayer is just a bonus.

Secondly is Super Mario Galaxy 2. I was again critical of this, it is the same game just extended? Miyamoto even referred to it as Super Mario Galaxy 1.5. But upon further reflection is this so bad? Sure it won't have the same impact as the first one did, but it was still a fantastic game. This new game is 90% new galaxies with a few of the old ones revisited with new missions. My biggest criticisms of the first one were no Yoshi and not enough to do on the gusty garden galaxy. Therefore I have no quarrels with a new game that fixes this!

Thirdly is Metroid: Other M. Constantly people are complaining that the same franchises are getting repetitive and need refreshing. This is exactly that, it has taken the metroid universe and changed it, we haven't seen proper gameplay yet just small bits of action scenes. This is what the Nintendo fan base has called out for. I've never been a metroid fan myself, but I'll give it a go because it is something new and I trust Nintendo to ensure it is done well.

Next is third party support, this is one thing that everyone is constantly moaning about, third party support for the wii is terrible. There are no arguments there, but look at what we have coming up. The conduit, although I feel it has been overhyped it has some promise. Resident Evil the Darkside Chronicles, Umbrella Chronicles was great fun multiplayer wise and this looks to take that further. Most importantly Red Steel 2, from what I can tell this is everything we all wanted from the wii since it first came out. It looks amazing, it is defiantly in my top 5 most anticipated games this year. It has even made my microsoft fanboy friend consider buying a wii XD Oh and Golden Sun DS, I cannot get the hype but from Takoa I can see to a lot of people it will be something special.

Finally, what was not at the conference, Spirit Tracks and the new wii Zelda. Same with Metroid people complain about a lack of innovation, Phantom Hourglass was very different and Spirit Track looks to fix the errors of it. This new wii Zelda miyamoto claims that they are testing a number of options to try and recreate the series, again exactly what people wanted. On top of that Pikmin 3 is still on its way, just it has a smaller development team than other games who are busy at the moment.

Overall that is 2 new Marios, 2 new Zeldas, a Metroid, a Pikmin and some decent looking third party games. This may be my fanboy side trying to counter my initial disappointment but it cannot be argued that this is not a strong line up. Yeah Nintendo didn't have a new console or controller like the other system (I'm ignoring the vitality tester, I still expect that to be announced as a prank.) but the fanbase called for a better games line up. Nintendo claimed that their conference will be about the games and to me they certainly delivered.