Well, numerous sites have offered their fast paced summaries of the most recent Nintendo Direct, but I’ve never taken “your opinion isn’t needed” as a valid reason not to talk about something, unless the opinion itself was lame on a personal level. So taking the amount of concentrated happy Nintendo injects into my eye sockets, time to be a snarky badger about it. Also not include hyperlinks beyond Destructoid’s Round-up.
Starting off with the trademark Iwata being Iwata that makes me sad whenever I miss these conferences, I didn’t this time, the presentation kicked off with Mario and Luigi 4: Dream Team. A variant of the Mario RPG branch, which I have an increasingly growing attraction to, after I realized Paper Mario 2 was the game that turned my interest and like towards video games into adoration and love. But aside from comparing it to the only other Mario & Luigi title I recall playing or own, Bowser’s Inside Story, due to how they both involve going into a person and manipulating them from the inside and outside. The game looks pretty alright, even though I’m not sold on the visuals, as part of a running theme in this post, because while I think Gamecube games can still look beautiful by today’s standards, rough edges rarely work that well with 3D models. Oh, and there’s gyroscopic based moves… Yeah, I’m not building a very open schedule around August 11th.
But they do interest me more than the revealed, at least as far as I knew, Mario Party, Mario Golf, and Mario Vs. Donkey Kong titles coming later this year. All of which I have nothing against, but they are just things I haven’t the interest in. They seem to be doing neat stuff and not retreading the same water, it’s just that I like games where you are given more of a campaign to gnaw at. Such as Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, which shows off how it is not a straight port, by having an easier more handheld friendly difficulty setting that will be the default, but the original will still remain as an option. In a move that I’d actually like to see with a lot of games, as I will likely justifyingly follow the path on May 24th.
Which is more appealing to me than Yoshi’s Island 3D, cue gasps over my opinion. I’ve played the first game in the series, and simply didn’t like it. It’s just that I think the colorful and relaxed design is hampered by how the game incorporated a ranking system. I hate it when games time me and punish me for taking damage even if I restore it. And even that aside, the game looks like a DS title in terms of the 3D models. Hate to be a prick, but unless it looks as good as the Ocarina of Time remake, I can’t view your first party titles as finished, Nintendo.
Oh, but I’ll get to that, after mimicking everyone who is psyched that after years upon years, Earthbound is coming to the Virtual Console… sometime in 2013… Really? It is bad enough that the Virtual Console was not ready for the Wii U launch, as it is coming out next week along with several other features that I would more or less expect. Yet, it will take a few months to get the ROM running? I understand how one song might need to be removed or what have you, but let me ask you this, “Who the hell would sue you for a song in Earthbound?” Either way, first thing I’ll buy digitally with my Wii U, in hopes that it will bring forth a Mother 3 port with it. Obviously for the Wii U because I guess they think it is good for GBA titles, and not the 3DS. If the lack of SNES titles on the thing wasn’t apparent enough.
But back to the idea of me buying a Wii U, it is actually not looking too shabby in terms of games considering this was a 3DS centric conference, with a redesigned version of that one Mario game for that thing, remade into a Luigi game via DLC. Having all the levels redesigned to utilize Luigi’s traits with his flutter jump and slippery feet. Which sounds like it just makes the already gooey things I dislike about the 2D Marios, sorry for not growing up with them, more plentiful. Not that Game & Wario is that much more appealing, as it seems to be WarioWare mixed with Rhythm Heaven. Two games that are more enjoyable for me to think about than actually play because I haven’t the reflexes to adapt to different gameplay styles that fast, or keep up a beat. Unless I get better by June 26th, or whenever I see the Wii U’s price dip by $50/100
I am keen on Pikmin 3, despite not playing either of the predecessors. Which I blame due to how I refuse to pay more than $15 for either because they’re both near the 10 year age line. And even though I don’t like a large timer in my games, I’m willing to look past that for a tension filled romp with undead bug plant life forms that are the sixth staple in the species table. At least it will have a nice empty window come August 4th. Well, aside from Mario & Luigi.
However, not everything was given a clear window, with Professor Layton’s final chapter along with Bravely Default both being confirmed for 2014. With the later being confusing, since it implies that Square Enix was unwilling to publish it in the US and Europe. As the former falls deaf on my ears after I realized that Puzzle games aren’t the kind of thing I end up beating. Although, I’m not too better with downloads, but that won’t stop me from buying the Guild01 games that are going on sale, or the Guild02 titles that are being brought over sometime this year. I mean, living Super Sentai monsters, essentially Enemy Zero 2, and WWII tanks shooting bugs, what more could I want?
How about a new Zelda for the 3DS, a second sequel (ever heard of The Eight Stone Tablets) to A Link to the Past? And it looks iffy. I think my issue is pretty easy to tell with a comparison, namely that it is a 2D overhead title and you cannot see the main character’s face. Or perhaps it could just be something about the visuals, animation, and etcetera, but I can hardly get hyped for it. I like ALttP a good amount, mind you I didn’t play it until after Minish Cap, but for an unexpected Zelda reveal, becoming a wall painting shouldn’t be the keenest aspect shown.
Now I’m done, rushing out two pages of rambling because I love you enough to write it twice! Twice, but no real editing, okay!