The Reticule (Not At) E3 – Nintendo Video Blowout

The Reticule (Not At) E3 – Nintendo Video Blowout

We might not be over in Los Angeles enjoying the E3 high-life, meeting and greeting or playing millions of unreleased games…instead we are here at Reticule Towers deciding to occasionally throw out a morsel of E3 goodness to our baying masses whenever we find something worth talking about. Or we are simply going to embed a bunch of trailers of games we find interesting before sharing some thoughts towards the end of the week.

Hopefully that explains what this is, so hit the jump for some Nintendo goodies.

I think it is pretty obvious from the number of games that Nintendo touched on, that if I were to go through each and every one of them, we would be here all day with a dissertation worth of YouTube embed code on the site and my brain bursting with excitement. So, for those who missed the entire Nintendo E3 Digital Event, check out the 45 minutes of goodness below. After that, I will pick out a few titles to share some brief words on.

Bayonetta 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles X

If you have been following us here at The Reticule for any length of time, you will have noticed by now that my gaming heritage is spotty at best, and atrocious at worst. That is why Bayonetta and Xenoblade don’t have the same resonance with me that they might do with others. However, both games are Wii U exclusives and are probably going to be the kind of titles that some of the Wii U doubters have been waiting for to arrive. If I am honest, the trailers for these didn’t do that much for me, but some out there will be extremely excited by these.

What is worth mentioning is that Bayonetta 2 (releasing this October) will come bundled with the original game, something which might help me understand what is going on. Xenoblade meanwhile is due out in a vague 2015.

New Ways to Play and New IP

I’m not going to talk about Super Smash Bros. by itself, instead that can get squeezed into the amiibo trailer above. Amiibo are the Skylanders-esque figurines based on Nintendo characters such as Mario and Link. Using the NFC capabilities of the GamePad, you will be able to deposit the figurine on the pad and see it appear in your game. Initially launching with Super Smash Bros., these amiibi (is that the plural?) will be appearing in Mario Kart 8 and other titles (including 3DS support) going into next year. There will be about 10 figurines at launch, and what is a nice feature from the video is the ability for your amiibi to level up and be customised over time. You could have two Link’s, but level them up with different moves. It might be quite nifty.

The other trailer is for Splatoon which is a four-on-four multiplayer action game due in the first half of 2015. The trailer looks chaotic as the teams try to claim ground using ink with human characters morphing into squid for faster movement through the brightly coloured ink. It is a crazy idea, and personally I can’t see it really taking off unless the Wii U sees some serious sales between now and release. However, it is new IP and certainly a different take on multiplayer gaming. I applaud Nintendo for taking the plunge.

Yoshi and Toad

Who would have thought Yoshi and Toad would be getting their own game? I never thought so, but it is happening for sure.

Yoshi’s Woolly World is what I am looking forward to more, it seems a more complete game taking hints from Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario 3D World and throwing them into a massive ball of yarn. The trailer is goddamn brilliant, I’m not too ashamed to admit I said out loud to myself, ‘how cute does this look!’. Really, Yoshi might have found his way into my heart after forever being shunned. While there is a lot of collecting going on in the trailer, I don’t see any timers. That is a good sign, if this takes away the urgency of its cousins, it really could be a winner.

The more arcadey looking Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is due out this winter and takes an aspect of Super Mario 3D World which provided a very enjoyable distraction. I’m not sure how taking Toad through different puzzle levels on day-in, day-out basis will work, but I am somewhat eager already to get my hands on this puzzler. The trailer does wonders to make it look really good fun, being chased around by Shy Guy and taking a mine-cart ride are definitely good things!

The Rest

There was a lot more on show from Nintendo, and I will try to blog my thoughts on what went down this week. As for Zelda? Well, that series gets a post of its own this week.

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