I don't think I've ever felt such heartbreak. Nintendo was set up perfectly: a Mini Direct with loads of smaller announcements, a great Smash Direct, an exciting Nintendo World Championships, and even a totally random "Nindies@Home" program that highlights indie developers and offers free previews of upcoming indie games (but more on that later in the week). This strong a rollout of announcements and content led myself and many others to assume that Nintendo was saving its big guns for E3. Surely, if they held two Directs before the E3 conference even started they must've had some gems tucked away, right? As It turns out, the answer isn't a simple yes or no. Nintendo did make a few fairly sizable announcements. We finally saw the first of Star Fox Zero's gameplay, official title and release timeframe (Holiday of this year). They also announced Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam for Spring 2016, a December release date for Xenoblade Chronicles X, Yoshi's Wooly World to be released in October, and a September release date for Super Mario Maker. These were thing gamers had been waiting on for ages (aside from the surprise Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam, which totally came out of left field and looks awesome), and in that way the Digital Event finally answered some questions gamers had had for months. The problem is that less questions were answered than needed to be. When Nintendo sacrificed time showing off games and instead focused on Developer Interview segments, and then spent the final seven minutes of the event celebrating Mario's 30th anniversary, I was decimated. No true Animal Crossing Wii U ("amiibo Festival"? Really?), no F-Zero, no Legend of Zelda surprise announcement (I know they already said it wouldn't be at E3, but I was hoping they were lying), no new IPs, no new main-series Metroid title (Metroid Prime: Federation Force? Meh), etc. The biggest issue is that there were no real game-changing announcements regarding the Wii U. The 3DS is doing great, and yet Nintendo insisted on unveiling a bunch of new games for it instead of focusing on their struggling system. Star Fox Zero, the localization of Xenoblade Chronicles X, Yoshi's Wooly World and Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival are not nearly enough to shift people over to their console. What they need is either another brilliant new IP like Splatoon, or to deliver on the big franchises they know people want to play. It almost feels like they've given up on supporting the Wii U, and that they're holding their biggest punches until the NX comes out. Here's hoping I'm wrong. Thanks for hanging in there with me guys, I know this post was up later than usual. As always, check back daily for new content. Hope you all have a beautiful day.
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