Nintendo Booth @E3: Rekindling a Childhood Love

During this first trip to E3 I had the distinct honor and pleasure of a Nintendo Booth tour and meeting with Julie Gagnon, from Nintendo Canada. In preparing for this meeting I reflected on my history with Nintendo, from Nintendo classic to SNES to Nintendo 64 and WiiU. I’ve had my share of joy from Nintendo Products over decades, from: Mario, Super Mario, Mario RPG, Wetrix, and Splatoon. To be honest, I hadn’t played Nintendo games much over the past few years, but this visit felt like visiting a friend from my childhood.

Mario Rabbids: Kingdom
When Julie asked which game I wanted to play first, I chose Mario Rabbids, of course, given the curiosity that sparked by the Ubisoft and Nintendo Press Conferences at E3 and my notion of it being a “mature” game.

Mario Rabbids was my most anticipated game and it was a pleasure to play. This game has a good amount of the classic Mario Characters but with a new look. Princess Peach Rabbid, Mario Rabbid, Luigi Rabbid, and Yoshi Rabbid don’t replace their original characters, but play alongside them to total eight playable characters. In addition to the the cuteness of this game concept integration, this game has a great turn based strategy battles integrated into the fun lighthearted Mario world. Battle phase includes path planning, even jumping on your friends to propel characters further. The battle phase also takes into account things like cover, making strategy important. I am told by many friends that the play is very similar to X-com, while I have never played X-Com, I think I would prefer this because KAWAIIIII! I can only say that it was easy to learn and allowed for a great deal of strategy in both positioning and offensive strategy.

While I enjoy the mechanics, I think I will try to stick with the classic Mario Characters, as I prefer them to the intentionally peculiar Rabbids.

Arms
Arms is another great fighting game that puts some very creative spins to the fighting games that we are used to for fighting games. The diversity of the player characters is also appealing to me. The joy cons did add an additional element to the experience, as you can throw and curve punches. Finally, as usual, Nintendo allows for multiplayer fun in yet another awesome game.

FIFA 18
I may be the only gamer on earth who hasn’t played FIFA. First things first, I didn’t TOTALLY embarrass myself playing my first time. The game is oddly easy to get the hang of (I only played one match). The hardest part was noticing control switching back and forth to different players. I did not expect to enjoy the experience, but to my surprise I am now a fan of FIFA.

Mario Odyssey
Mario Odyssey surprised me with how engaging it was right if the bat! I honestly expected Rabbids to be my favorite if the new games, but i was pleasantly surprised by Mario. We have classic Mario in the game but new characters, most notably, we have “cappy” who is our companion AND weapon! That’s incredible multi purposing!
The JoyCon experience with Mario Odyssey was also fun and intuitive ( after you learn them) shake forward and you can throw cappie. Shake both and you soon. Cappie around you.

Splatoon 2
Ironically, the game that our Nintendo friend, Julie, recommended we not overlook: Splatoon 2, is the game I didn’t get to play. IT does, however, get released on July 22 (My Birthday) so I will be picking it up then. I did get to watch some game play and am excited to play it. I am particularly excited about the NEW single player mode in Splatoon2

Pokken Tournament DX
Another game that I missed playing during the booth tour was Pokken Tournament DX. While I didn’t have the opportunity to play this game, I did get to see some game play and that was enough to make me want to play this game. The range of games that Nintendo is releasing over the next year really makes Nintendo a great option for people who want to buy a system that allows play across multiple game genres.

According to the Nintendo Spotlight at E3 The Nintendo Switch is the Ticket, I believe them, which is why I must buy a Nintendo Switch!

Buying a switch:
I was even excited about the release of the Nintendo Switch when I saw that the Joycons let you play using gestures with the controls. I’d played a few games that used these well on the Nintendo Switch at Pax East

In a nutshell, if it wasn’t clear already, I will be buying a switch at the soonest possible time. So, while my first E3 was expensive, when you add the residual expense of the games and systems I NOW intend to buy…. AYE it is so expensive….but PRICELESS.

Takeaway
My takeaways from this opportunity to play games and conduct an interview with Nintendo:

• Nintendo is maintaining the brand and mixing classic Nintendo feel
• Novel mechanics and features make something New for Everyone
• Great, easy playability as always
• New mechanics, games, and characters while maintaining nostalgic feel
• I MUST BUY A SWITCH

More is coming!
When I asked Julie if there will be more collaborations like what we are seeing with Skyrim and the Amiibo and Rabbids? “Nintendo loves great ideas and creativity and they always open to ways to engage fans with new experiences.” Thanks Julie, for giving me motivation for my rekindling my love of Nintendo.