Nintendo Summer Event: Too Much Multiplayer

What has worked for Nintendo in the past was the continues support for couch cooperative play. Whether it is Super Smash Bros, Mario Party, Mario Kart, or even the newer franchises they have established, Nintendo has always placed an emphasis on playing with friends.

It seems that Nintendo is turning away from this a little bit, and I cannot say I really enjoy it. This week I attended the Nintendo E3 Summer Event in Toronto, Ontario. I had the privilege to play the new Zelda game coming out on 3DS. While playing with three people sounds like a lot of fun, the average person won’t be able to find three pople they actually want to play with. Playing by yourself works, but the game was obviously built for 3 separate players.

The other game coming out that I enjoyed was Battleball. Again, however, I feel that outside of the closed area that was set up for media personnel, this game won’t be as enjoyable if played with five other random individuals over the Internet. On 3DS, the obvious issue is that you cannot play multiplayer on one 3DS. It is partially why I’m disappointed that download play is as good as gone. 

If Nintendo continues to push these multiplayer game on 3DS, there soon won’t be anything of superior quality coming from Nintendo for the system. Thankfully, as of right now, Nintendo is balancing these titles with a healthy dose of quality, single player experiences. The majority of play time on 3DS is dedicated to single player; I really hope it stays this way.