Nintendo Silences Wii U Critics…For Now

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said that today’s episode of Nintendo Direct was going to be monumental, and that he had some major announcements to share with the Nintendo gaming community. By Mario’s mustache did Iwata deliver on his promise, and then some.

Nintendo Direct got of to a slow start, with Iwata speaking about the success and the uniqueness of Miiverse, especially with the sense of community that Wii U owners have.  This was followed with the announcement that Nintendo plans to roll out two system updates, one in the spring and the other in the summer, to bring new features to the system and for a mobile Miiverse app.

While increasing the speed of launching software and increasing the speed to go back to the Wii U dashboard were mentioned, the biggest feature that will be added is the Virtual Console. Not only is the Virtual Console coming to the Wii U, but it will have GamePad support, which will be a very nice feature indeed.

These early announcements, while nice to hear, are not really much to excited about…and Iwata knew this. It was all part of his game plan, get the dry stuff out of the way as quick as possible in order to give gamers what they want. Many detractors of Nintendo’s new system has said that there are no games coming out for the system, and that Nintendo may be focusing too much on the Nintendo 3DS. Iwata heard the detractors and decided to bring out the big guns.

While GAME & WARIO, Wii Fit U, and the newest entry into the Wii Party franchise may not convert nonbelievers, but the other announcements will make early adopters very happy.

One of the most interesting games announced during the Wii U’s unveil was Platinum Games‘ The Wonderful 101. The game, being led by Hideki Kamiya, looks to be a very fun spiritual successor to Viewtiful Joe. Instead of trying to explain it, why not just check out the trailer?

Of course, one does not talk about Platinum Games without mentioning Bayonetta 2, and while there was no gameplay shown there was an inside look that shows some development work being done on the anticipated sequel.

Shifting focus from the 3rd party for a moment was an announcement that a new 3D Mario game is in development for the Wii U, and that it will be playable at this year’s E3 presentation. Of course, you cannot mention a 3D Mario without stating that a Mario Kart is also being developed, and that will also be playable at E3. The two titles just go hand-in-hand for some reason. Rounding up the Mario related announcements was the reveal of  a brand new Yoshi game, which will be in the same style as the utterly fun and adorable Kirby’s Epic Yarn.

Remember when Nintendo was king when it came to RPGs? That was back, probably around the SNES days. Iwata seems to remember those days too, and he gladly revealed some exclusive RPGs just to satisfy fans of the genre.

First up was a very surprising collaboration project between Atlus and Nintendo. The two are joining forces to create Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem, two notoriously hard and popular franchises. Check out the trailer below.

Not satisfyied to just announce one RPG, Iwata revealed Monolith Soft’s newest project, which is know as Project X. For those that do not know, these are the folks that brought the world Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Xenoblade Chronicles. Check the reveal trailer below.

All great announcements, the games revealed were suited for not just the casual, but the hardcore audience as well. Mission accomplished Iwata, right? No, to finish off the program Iwata enthusiastically shed light on not one, but two The Legend of Zelda games for the system. It is not surprising that a brand new entry to series was announced, but no one really expected news so soon before E3. Eiji Aonuma, producer for the series, said that they are working on re-defining the series and that the new game is a while off towards completion. As an apology, they will be releasing an HD version of Wind Waker sometime in the fall.

Nintendo Direct did not disappoint, especially with all of the games being announce and being planned on being released sometime this year. So, what do you say? Is your Wii U ready for all this new software, and if so what are you looking forward to the most? For those that are interested you can watch the presentation in its entirety below.

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