Nintendo squeezed an impossible amount into their hour at E3 this year, including a fair few surprises. The Nintendo E3 conference took place at 5:00 PM GMT on Tuesday. Here is a quick round-up of everything that was announced.
Game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was up first with a Star Fox Zero trailer, some gameplay and he also gave us an interesting insight into how Japanese culture inspired his work on the Star Fox franchise. Star Fox Zero gameplay was clearly an E3 highlight for many Nintendo fans and we can expect to play the game when it comes out hopefully later this year.
Amiibo addicts will be happy to hear the news about amiibos from Nintendo’s E3 presentation. Lots of exciting things to come for these colourful little collectibles from new amiibos for Animal Crossing to a Skylander-amiibo crossover and new uses too – you’ll be able to find that some of your current amiibos bring out some cool features in games such as Super Mario Maker, Yoshi’s Wooly World and more! Check out the trailer explaingin the Sylanders-amiibo crossover in more depth featuring Turbo Charge Donkey Kong and Hammer Slam Bowser.
The first Zelda announcement was for 3DS game The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes – for when one hero just isn’t enough. The king of your village seeks a hero to save the day and three brave citizens step forward — you plus two friends or two non-playable characters.There’s a new fashion element to this Zelda game with new items and outfits equating to different gameplay experiences, we’re sold on this purely because Link can cosplay as Zelda. One way to reach items or areas is the new totem mechanic where you stack on top of your companions. Another part of the reasoning behind the totem mechanic was to encourage working together as a team in multi-player mode. The game creators wanted players to co-operatively enjoy the Zelda gameplay rather than compete as they have tended to do in the past.
Again, not quite the long awaited Zelda for the Wii U announcement but a second dose of info on an addition to the franchise to stave off any fan anger – a re-imagining of the Wii U game The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors is currently being worked on for the 3DS. We were on the look out for an official female link announcement after lots of speculation about this character but to no avail!
Metroid Prime: Federation Force is a new game coming to the 3DS. Very little is known about it, but it seems to support four-player co-op and it looks like the Blastball game is making a comeback.
Next we were treated to an emotional trailer for the new Fire Emblem: Fates 3DS game set to come out in 2016. The game features two warring factions: the peaceful Hoshido, and the glory-seeking Nohr, you can customise your character and choose which side you’d like to fight for. The game follows on from the previous Fire Emblem game.
Though we missed out on what the characters were saying, this is no doubt the trailer for the highly anticipated Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei crossover game. Hopefully we’ll learn more about how these two popular titles collide and work together soon!
Xenoblade Chronicles X plays as an open world role-playing video game, with an emphasis on exploration with lots of open space to explore, gorgeous vistas to absorb, and plenty of quests to keep you busy. The game is scheduled for release on 4th December 2015 and has secured itself even further as one of the most highly anticipated titles of the year after this gameplay showing at E3.
Explore the adorable Yoshi’s Woolly World from behind the scenes with the game’s designer who just happens to have the cutest army of yarn Yoshi’s sat in front of her. We’re also given a glimpse into the part that amiibos play in this game – a Samus amiibo gives Yoshi the colouring of Samus. If you’re looking at this squishy world of fun for the Wii U and thinking ‘too easy’ then think again as one of the special things about the Yoshi games is that the difficulty is up to the player. Out on the 26th of June, don’t forget to pre-order!
Yo-Kai Watch is the cartoon/game phenomenon that’s been huge in Japan and it’s finally coming to Europe and North America! Though we’re not exactly sure when just yet. It has some of the appeal of Pokemon – you search around Sakura New Town for Yo-Kai using the 3DS’ touchscreen and befriend these cute little ghostly creatures by giving them a food that they like. After defeating the Yo-Kai in battle you can summon it at will in future.
Regular and paper worlds collide in Mario and Luigi Paper Jam. It looks like it might share some similarities to the Link-flattening of Link Between Worlds with paper characters being able to squeeze through tight spaces etc. The story begins when Luigi accidentally knocks over a book holding the Paper Mario world, releasing paper characters into the Mario & Luigi world. Gameplay looks relatively similar to past Mario & Luigi games but we’re curious to see more.
Anyone for tennis? Or more specifically Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash. We’ve not had a good new tennis game for the Wii in a while so hopefully this will fill the tennis ball shaped hole in our lives some time this summer!
Super Mario Maker is an enhanced version of a tool used to design levels for Super Mario games and sure to be a fan favourite when it launches on 11th September 2015 exclusively for the Wii U. It’s like game design training software so sure to get your creative juices flowing and to encourage a new generation of game designers to step up to the screen.
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