E3 2012: Nintendo Presentation Wrap Up

Ok folks, the fates transpired against me and while I was hoping to bring you a Live Blog of the Nintendo E3 Presentation, I could not. Nevertheless, I've wrapped up the important events below, so check it out!

The focus this year was on the launch of the Wii U obviously - Nintendo have a separate 3DS presentation happening tonight. The Wii U will have fitness titles - as you'd expect, with Wii U Fit and Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013 announced. There are also several party games on their way (of course) - Ubisoft with titles like Just Dance 4 and Nintendo with the ridiculously named SiNG, Nintendo Land and Game + Wario.

We learned that the Wii U can support two Game Pads as opposed to the single Game Pad support expected from last year's E3 - although Nintendo are focusing on single Game Pad support for the launch. Nintendo has a strong line up of launch titles from third party developers - with some big hits like Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition, Aliens: Colonial Marines, Assassin's Creed 3 and the surprisingly interesting looking ZombiU.

In fact, you can watch Nintendo's Lineup embedded below right now, or in our videos library - to see all of the titles on show - then come back for more thoughts on the console and its lineup.



Developers are using the Wii U Game Pad primarily as a menu screen - and while I think that could have significant positive ramifications for gaming (which I'll talk about later), I'd like to see more innovative uses for the tech. That's why ZombiU - the game with the world's stupidest title - was surprising, as you can see in the trailer, they have a wide array of different uses for the Game Pad's separate screen.

Some of them are less than appealing - gyroscope-based camera control needs to die whether it's optional or not - but stuff like hacking and sniping could be fun if done correctly.

We'll likely see more innovative use of the Wii U controller in games outside of the action genre however - as demonstrated by Nintendo's Pikmin 3 and Platinum Games' Pikmin-esque Project P-100. We don't yet have video of Luigi's Ghost Mansion: Haunting Hijinks, but its multiplayer pits one person as a ghost against the others - using the Game Pad's screen to provide a different view of the game. With the other players unable to see your position, it will make for some fun local multiplayer.

There seem to be some great looking games coming out for the platform - I'm still excited for Rayman Legends and Scribblenauts Unlimited looks great. The hit of the event for me however, is LEGO City: Undercover - I love the direction Traveller's Tales have been taking the LEGO games. What do you think of Nintendo's line up? Let us know in the comments below!

Edit: As reader cstek helpfully pointed out, Luigi's Mansion 2 is the 3DS game, the Wii U title is Luigi's Ghost Mansion: Haunting Hijinks. And SiNG is a Nintendo title. That was one hell of a long day.