The B-List: Notes From Nintendo

You already know about the high-octane announcements that came out of Nintendo's press conference. Out of my twelve pages of notes, however, a few things stand out that you might have missed. I apologize for the punny title (it’s my last name, get it?), but everyone needs a schtick, right?

I had to watch Miyamoto to understand the Zelda demo. You always look at the screen during game presentations – watching some dude man a gamepad conveys no useful information. During the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword demo, I found myself having to force my attention to Miyamoto’s gestures to understand why I should care about what I was seeing. This seems like a small thing, but I’ve never had to do that before in the thousands of game demos I’ve seen in my career. Hopefully Nintendo’s excuse about wireless interference is legit and the control isn’t as awkward as it looked at times.

The enemies’ screams when whipped are hilarious. I couldn’t suppress my giggles at the squeals coming from Link’s enemies as Miyamoto whipped them in the face. The best part is that you can’t kill anything bigger than bats with the whip itself, so you’re free to continue the torment as long as it maintains your interest. Yeah, it’s sadistic, but don’t tell me you never ran over a pedestrian in GTA just for the hell of it.

The scorpion boss Link faces uses the same blocking  mechanic as the plants. Nintendo didn’t show off live gameplay of this, but the trailer reel that played after Miyamoto’s demo clearly showed the scorpion boss using the same vertical/horizontal blocking method that the plants used to protect the weak spots inside its pincers. Between the scorpion, the dudes with swords, and the plants, that’s three enemies already shown that use the same mechanic…

Mario Party Mix includes nationball. You probably called it something different when you were a kid, but this game was easily my playground favorite. You put teams on either end of a tennis court, basketball court, or similarly shaped playing field. Then you try to peg each other with playground balls – but if your throw gets caught, you’re out instead. Unless I miss my guess, that’s exactly what the mystery game in Mario Party Mix is. I couldn’t be more excited unless it was pinguard.

Mickey’s ink effects looks awesome. The Epic Mickey demo was impressive overall, but this one little detail stood out. As Mickey moves, little streamers of ink fly off of him just like in the art from the GI cover last year. It’s an incredible effect that does a great job of selling a sense of motion and contributes a lot to the overall tangible paint aesthetic. Between the cool demo and Warren Spector’s obvious affection for the source material, I’m sold on Epic Mickey.

I’m not interested in “taking Metroid down new emotional corridors.” The Metroid: Other M trailer focused on Samus’s face under her helmet several times, clearly trying to sell the story via her expressions. Then Reggie talked about how Team Ninja is focusing on storytelling, yadda yadda. I’m not feeling it. The beauty of Metroid – and I’m a huge fan; Metroid Prime is my favorite title of the last console generation bar none – is in the way it sells a story with a minimalist musical score and a sense of desolation and desperation imparted by the visuals. If you have to resort to telling the story via a bunch of explicit cutscenes and dialogue, you’re doing it wrong (in Metroid, anyway). Reggie paid lip service to the franchise’s traditions, but I’m not buying it yet. Hopefully the final game proves me wrong.

Donkey Kong Country Returns makes awesome use of its backgrounds. I love me some DKC, and I can’t wait to play it (holiday 2010 release, yay!). The thing that struck me the most about the brief trailer at Nintendo’s press conference was its excellent use of its environments to create gameplay. A giant octopus smashing out platforms with its tentacles  and a pirate ship firing cannonballs both appeared, and one sequence showed DK and Diddy being fired onto another 2D plane from a barrel. I have nothing else to say about this but hell yes.

Kid Icarus Uprising moves really fast. While everyone else was nerding out over Nintendo resurrecting yet another dead C-list franchise, I was marveling at how fast the game moves. Starting with Halo, unusual control schemes and new technologies have slowed down the action to accommodate the imprecision inherent in changing gameplay paradigms. Kid Icarus moves more like Ninja Gaiden than Zelda. I’m surprised and impressed that Nintendo seems to be aiming at core gamers with its big first-party 3DS launch title.

Come back later for more observations from E3 and beyond that you wouldn't find on anyone's news feed, and try to enjoy all the crazy news coming out of LA this week as much as we are!