Nintendo Direct: The good stuff

I really love how Nintendo does it’s press and marketing these days. Instead of going though the press, it does its marketing directly to the consumer, with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata doing near monthly videos to let gamers know what to expect on Nintendo platforms. Yesterday, the company hosted another one; here’s the good stuff from Nintendo direct.

First up; the 3DS. Mush of what was shown is stuff we already knew was coming; Mario Golf; a new Mario and Luigi RPG in Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Bravely Default, professor Layton and a port of the Wii Gem Donkey Kong Country Returns. We’re not going to focus on that, instead showing just the new games.

One of the very best games in the Legend of Zelda series, the Super NES classic “A Link to the past” is getting a direct sequel on Nintendo’s handheld. Utilising the same top-down view, and the same gameworld, this new game sees Link taking on a Paper Mario-like quality that allows him to become one with a wall.

There’s a new game centred around Mario’s homosexual (or perhaps female..who knows?) little dinosaur friend Yoshi, in a third instalment of Yoshi’s Island. Details arse scarce right now, but we’ll be getting more as the game nears release.

A new game in the Mario Party series is coming to the 3DS. Featuring seven different game boards, each unique rules, you’ll play across 81 new mini-games that test speed, concentration and luck. I haven’t really enjoyed a Mario Party since the N64 gave me blisters, so I can’t say I’m too enthused.

And on to the Wii U.

The biggest news for the Wii U comes not in a new game, but that fact that one particularly requested game is finally headed to the Europe. SNES classic EarthBound, or Mother 2 will arrive on the Wii U’s Virtual Console this year.

In fact, it was really the only “new” Wii U news. Nintendo detailed it’s Luigi-focused New Super Mario Bros U DLC a little more, expanded on details for Game & Wario and gave a release date for Pikmin 3 – which was supposed to be released in the system’s launch window. It’ll now be available in early August.

Nintendo also detailed the ailing Wii U’s impending system update – which shortens system load times and adds a a few new features, like automatic downloads, background downloads for patches and of course, the actual Virtual Console service.

Some great news there for Nintendo fans – but I can’t help but be a little disheartened. Though Nintendo’s really pushing the 3DS, and giving us great games – almost none of it is new, exciting IP. Nintendo’s relying far too heavily on its established franchises. And it’s even worse for the Wii U, a system that desperately needs a wealth of games; new games – not ones based on old franchises, or re-releases of the old games themselves. virtual Console is great, but I didn’t get a Wii U to play old games.

ZombiU was one of my favourite gaming experiences last year – so it’s not like the system’s not capable of providing fresh, new games.

Here’s the entire EU Nintendo direct, if you missed it.

Last Updated: April 18, 2013