Lewis Packwood Opinions

A few thoughts on today’s Nintendo Direct

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from today’s Nintendo Direct, seeing as Nintendo have said they won’t be revealing the NX just yet, even though it’s supposedly imminent. So what would they be showing then? Surely the pipes for the 3DS and Wii U must be a little dry right now as development swaps to the NX? Well, yes and no. There was nothing to really set the world alight in the presentation, but a few things made me sit up and notice, and even perhaps let out the odd ‘ooooooh’.

  • The reveal that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is out to download RIGHT NOW from the Wii U virtual console only served to make me chastise myself for the fact that I still haven’t gotten around to playing this game, DESPITE OWNING IT SINCE LAUNCH. I am mentally moving it up in the ‘to play’ order in my head as I write this.
  • zelda amiibosThose Zelda 30th anniversary amiibos were a nice surprise, and yet more fuel for my amiibo addition. To be honest, none is as cool as the Wolf Link amiibo that came out a little while back, not to mention the stonkingly brilliant Breath of the Wild amiibos that are on their way, but Ocarina Link is pretty cool. Look at him there, all wistful.
  • crrmmkewiae0w1bjpg-2c51a9_765wSpeaking of amiibos, the Poochy amiibo is just taking cuteness to the next level. I’m tempted to get it just to sit next to Yarn Yoshi on my shelf, even though I wasn’t too fussed about Yoshi’s Woolly World as a game.
  • Oooooh, another StreetPass Mii Plaza update! So now you can have 100 Miis in your plaza instead of just 10? And you can opt to skip most of the dialogue? And there are five new games that have been designed to be played in extremely short bursts? It’s like they read my mental tick list of all the things I wanted them to do to improve this. OK, the 3DS is going back into my bag, we’re-a-going Mii hunting.
  • 20160901_084223Ever Oasis is without doubt my highlight of the presentation. It’s from Grezzo, who did the wonderful 3DS conversion of Majora’s Mask, and Koichi Ishii, creator of the Mana series, is behind it. I love the idea of expanding your desert oasis and attracting more people to live there – building up bases and getting people to live in them was one of my highlights of Xenoblade Chronicles.
  • Now this was a surprise – a 2D Pikmin game for the 3DS. Looks kind of interesting, but I can’t help feel it might simplify the gameplay a little too much. And now it’s billed as an ‘action game’ rather than the puzzle/resource gathering game of old. Hmmm. I’m all for more Pikmin games, as I loved the first three, but I’m currently not sold on its reinvention as a 2D platformer thing. Guess we’ll have to wait and see how it turns out…
  • I’m looking forward to the rerelease of Dragon Quest VII – I’ve never played a Dragon Quest game, and I reckon it’s about damn time I tried one. I remember when Dragon Quest VIII was released when I was living in Japan, and pretty much the whole country stopped just to play that game. Happily, that’s coming to the 3DS as well in 2017 – nice to know there’s another one lined up if I enjoy number seven.
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Spirit Justice is obviously a must buy when it’s released on 8th September. Shame they seem to have skipped out on releasing the Sherlock Holmes one in the west though.
  • WiiUDS_JotunValhallaEdition_03_image912wOut of all the indie games in the line-up, the one that stood out by a country mile was Jotun: Valhalla Edition. The hand-drawn graphics look amazing. Apparently it came out for PC last year, but this is the first time I’ve heard of it. I’ve no idea whether it’s any good or not, but I’m tempted to buy it for the graphics alone.

So, despite no news of the NX, it turns out there’s plenty of upcoming Nintendo games that I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on – not to mention some tasty-looking amiibos. So much for whittling down the backlog.

Anyway, here’s the whole presentation if you want to give it a watch: