E3 2015 Nintendo Digital Event Recap

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E3 2014 was amazing for Nintendo last year. Filled with three excellent days of live streaming content courtesy of the Nintendo Treehouse, the announcement of Splatoon, the amazing Super Smash Bros. Invitational, the first Legend of Zelda Wii U trailer, those were just the highlights. For many fans, the hype from last years' event lead to high expectations for E3 2015, and sadly, Nintendo just couldn't trump last year's Day 1 E3 showings. While Nintendo did have the Nintendo World Championship in place of the Smash Bros Invitational, and did have Smash Bros coverage, both of these were shown off on Sunday, a full day before Nintendo took the metaphorical E3 stage. If Nintendo were to have aired these two events on the same day as their digital event, maybe fans wouldn't have been so vocal in their disappointments.

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As Reggie said, Nintendo's theme this year at E3 was transformation. From the Arwing transforming to a bipedal weapon in Star Fox Zero and the ever changing levels in Super Mario Maker, to Metroid Prime Federation Force not featuring Samus and Animal Crossing amiibo Festival being a ala Mario Party 10 board game, there was definitely transformation.

The direct featured the usual Nintendo charm, with Reggie, Iwata and Miyamoto taking puppet form and having no shortage of puns. Directly after a few of the trailers, viewers were treated to developer interviews. These interviews were interesting, but after the first one the interviews felt too long. They ultimately stopped any hype that Nintendo was building up and dragged down the presentation.

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Regardless of the impact the interviews had, the lack of new exciting games is what hurt Nintendo the most. Star Fox Zero was an excellent way to start off the direct, but Nintendo couldn't top their furry pilots. The Legend of Zelda Triforce Heroes didn't generate any major hype and Hyrule Warriors Legends would have been a great surprise, but it was sadly leaked several days before its official announcement. Metroid Prime Federation Force would have been greeted with a much warmer reception if it wasn't a Metroid Prime game. Had Federation Force been announced as an eShop title and had no direct references to the Metroid games, this writer believes fans would have been more open minded.

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Nintendo was unable to transform fan's thoughts on seeing new trailers of soon to be released games either, but these games all felt too familiar. Xenoblade fans are undoubtedly pleased about the new footage, but after numerous trailers for these games, some of the magic was lost. The lack of 3rd party support means that Nintendo fans are bound to have a certain feeling of over familiarity with certain 1st party games, especially ones that have been in development for years.

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Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash didn't make any major racquet nor did either of the Animal Crossing games please fans of the franchise. The Animal Crossing amiibo figurines all look amazing, but good luck getting one for less than prices that would make Tom Nook blush. On a brighter note, Mario and Luigi Paper Jam, featuring Paper Mario from the Paper Mario franchise promises to please fans of both series. This leaves at least one fanbase not torn apart from this years E3.

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Nintendo will be remembered as doing their own thing E3 2015 and not making a bang. While the Smash Direct and Nintendo World Championship were both outstanding events, both of these could have been used to support the Digital Event. Having a day break between showing content hurt Nintendo's overall presentation. Here is to hoping for next year is better.

We will be covering the games shown at E3 and more in the coming weeks. Stay Tuned!