E3 2014 Put Players First, Thanks to Nintendo

The opinions of this piece are the expression of the author and do not necessarily represent those of BagoGames as a whole. Enjoy!

We like to tell ourselves that this E3 was different. Whether it was the reveals, the demos, or the elaborately orchestrated stage shows, we all like to say there was something that stood out from the crowd, something different from among the pack. And this E3 did. The first E3 for the newest generation of gaming hardware, there was something fresh in the air. E3 put its game face on this year, and maybe it was all thanks to all but the likeliest of suspects of our friends at Nintendo.

It was hard to say there wasn’t apprehension for Nintendo this E3. Without the energy of a crowd, without Iwata’s commanding presence, there might’ve been every fear that Nintendo’s digital showing couldn’t possibly match the likes of Sony and Microsoft’s mega spotlights. Nintendo was going to be an empty chair the minute after Xbox and Playstation took the stage, and the result was something else entirely. True to form, Nintendo played it’s own game, and its following success couldn’t have been more welcome.

While Sony dressed up, Microsoft dressed down, and the two couldn’t have seemed more different for it. For Xbox, it was literally nothing but games, and all the ones you asked for. A new Forza, a new Crackdown, Halos old and new, even some indies thrown in for good sport, it was the Xbox One that gave us the its third-party lineup of Tomb Raiders and Far Cries first with not one mention of silly peripherals. Courtesy of a down-to-earth Phil Spencer, Microsoft talked the talk and walked its game-laden walk with a barrage of merchandise that pleasantly, if not a bit unceremoniously, kept the ball rolling.

If Microsoft’s conference may have been about games, then Sony’s was simply about, well, Sony. For Playstation, there was a kind of pride impossible to  ignore between the flat jokes and pointless politicking, only made worse by how many times we were reminded where the “greatest play.” No Man’s Sky and Arkham Knight impressed, but the amount of time spent on games was sparse comported to the sleep-inducing tech talk. And where was Driveclub? Caught up in LA traffic we suppose. At least the show was lucky enough to be bookended by Little Big Planet 3 and Uncharted 4, because there’s not much we can say about 1080p steampunk mustaches. Sony was needlessly self-approving, and that hardly sells a show that boils down to pandering to you.

If there’s anything the two shared this E3 though, it’s that either were equally predictable. You knew Microsoft was going to start off with its shooters, and you knew Sony was bound to dump Drake into some god-forsaken jungle. For that matter, most of its showings were downright grim, from the Assassin’s Creed’s guillotine to Dead Island’s zombie paradise. There’s, of course, nothing wrong with exploring the serious and gritty in games, but games can and should be so much more.

Instead, it was Nintendo’s comical presentation that was all about the gamers themselves, having some fun with its fans (“What about Star Fox?!”), and the personalities of its characters. Heck, we even saw Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime send Nintendo Prez Satoru Iwata flying in the air. From its first moments onward, Nintendo left us feeling like we had no idea what might happen next. It was funny, accessible, and most of all, different than anything Sony and Microsoft had up their sleeves, and free of the sloppy camera work and bugs that affect so many conference streams. More than that, it was about its own people too. There aren’t many places you can find Shigeru Miyamoto playing with Nintendo’s own games, or see Eiji Aonuma cluck like a cucco. Nintendo made the show floor personal and showed you why you need to play with them.

Granted, it did flag a bit. We didn’t really need however long Splatoon’s footage was or have Wii Sports Club tutored to us like kindergarteners. All the same, it was as exciting as it was agonizing how much of a dent the company’s amiibo figurines are going to have on our wallets. Yoshi, Link, Mario, Pikachu, they’re all too adorably adorable for their and our wallet’s sake to pass up, much less for leveling up our game characters like in Smash Bros. The technology isn’t new, but the given licenses are inescapably addicting, maybe more so than Skylanders or Disney Infinity given time. And that all fits in with a console finally finding ways to use that gamepad that’s so bent on having us throwing our weight around, giant robots and all.

Then there’s, of course, the variety to be had. From the fast and demanding action of Bayonetta 2 to the stylus-driven delights of Kirby and the Rainbow Curse to the empowering toolbox of Mario Maker, Nintendo made all kinds of games come alive on the Wii U, much more than an industry saturated with status-quo shooters. Even when they did haul out a shooter, it was a like rebellious bit of family fun like Splatoon and Codename S.T.E.A.M. that quite literally put a new coat of paint on the genre. Yoshi’s Woolly World might not be as revolutionary, but you can’t help but want to squeeze and hug it until it pops. We may never know what Tezuka mean when he said “There is certainly a key phrase that I have: It’s amazing Yoshi!”, but it was all the more hilarious. From there, the charm literally erupted with The Legend of Zelda. The open-world possibilities Aonuma teased are as daunting as the fun of Hyrule Warriors looks to be.

All that’s not to mention Smash Bros’ invitational being the real star of the show, actually holding one of its own in the form of its star studded tournament Nintendo put on themselves just down the road from the convention itself. Only the best smashers got on stage to preview probably the best demo of any game on the show floor, (maybe annoying commentators aside) and it paid off in spades if you ever saw this many cosplayers in one building before.

Maybe it all does boil down to exactly what Reggie’s described himself: “Nintendo game creators share one belief: there’s nothing wrong with having a little fun.” If anyone really can win a convention, then Nintendo most assuredly did for its fans in ways that Sony and Microsoft should only learn from come sometime soon. Whether the Wii U is on an upswing, who can say, but the fact of the matter is that Nintendo is here to stay, and every gamer is probably better off for it.

Tell us: What did you think of E3 2014? Give a shout out in the comments below!