Nintendo at E3 2014

I went back and forth with whether to do this post. I know this is my blog and I can post whatever I want to, but I did ideally want to keep this blog for personal style related stuff only. However I also feel like in order to accurately represent me, I can't not share my thoughts on Nintendo's E3 presentation this year. So I'm going to post this, and if you don't care about gaming, feel free to skip it. I will say that I have a dream that one day fashion and gaming will join each other hand in hand. I mean hey, there was that one time Prada used Final Fantasy characters to model their clothes.  And I've always admired how rookie mag seems to be a resource aimed towards that fashion blogger crowd, but also discusses gaming (and much more). So baby steps, right? I'd like to think the fashion lovers and gamers overlap at some point.

For those of you that follow me on Facebook, you're aware that I practically live Facebooked (the Facebook equivalent of live tweeted?) Nintendo E3 the other day. I always look forward to E3 each year, and this was the first time in a long time that I had the day free to watch live. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a huge convention where gaming companies share the games and consoles that they've been working on. I grew up as a Nintendo kid, and while I do play on other gaming systems, it's Nintendo, and specifically Zelda that I look forward to each year at E3. The past 2 years, Nintendo has been quite underwhelming. Nintendoland and the Wii U were in the works, and neither had gained any credibility. So finally this year I was given some games to look forward to, and a reason to finally want a Wii U. I'm going to share the top 5 upcoming Nintendo games that I'm most excited about. In no particular order:

1. Yoshi's Wooly World


This game looks so amazing. Its been a really long time since we've seen any Yoshi games, in fact the last one I bought was Yoshi's Story for the N64 when I was in the 4th grade. I love how this looks like a mix of Yoshi's Story and the superior Yoshi's Island from the 90s. Plus the yarn aspect gives it a fun new twist. Kind of like what Paper Mario did with the Mario franchise. I'm crossing my fingers that it's as good as it looks. I love that like fashion, gaming seems to take what was good about the past and modernize it. Similar to how old trends are brought back and made cool again, concepts from old games are still utilized and modernized, and this is a perfect example.

2. Hyrule Warriors

Upon first sight of this game, I wasn't expecting much. But now that I've seen more gameplay, I think it looks pretty cool. This game is essentially just the game Dynasty Warriors, but with Zelda characters instead. It has been declared separate from the official Zelda timeline (I'm a huge Zelda timeline nerd). Series producer Eiji Anouma states that Hyrule Warriors "exists as a separate dimension," and is not an existing part of the main canon timeline. So the characters are all from the past Zelda games, and it gives the creators a way to explain why these characters are all together fighting alongside each other. I don't think it will be the best game I've ever played, but I think there's something fun about combining characters from other games and having them team up. I mean hey, that's how Super Smash Bros. has succeeded so much over the years. 3. Mario Maker


Here's another game that I thought would be incredibly boring. But leave it to Nintendo to demo their games in an intriguing way. This one kind of reminded me of the game Mario Paint, which was a SNES game released in the early 90s that allowed you to create pictures, animations, and music using Mario characters. Mario Maker allows you to create your own Mario levels, and the part I loved is that you can choose to play it in multiple Mario modes. Your created course can look like NES Mario, or it can be displayed the way that the newer Wii Mario games look. It's really awesome, and surprisingly looks like it would be fun to play with friends, creating courses for them to try to beat and vice versa, as opposed to my original assumption that it was more of a single player game. 4. Legend of Zelda (Unnamed) 

THIS. This was everything I was looking forward to this year. And of course it ended up being one of the shorter, vaguer trailers of the event. This created all kinds of drama, with people arguing over whether the video features Link, or some new mysterious female character. It has now been confirmed that it is in fact Link, and this is actual gameplay, not just a pre-rendered video. I'm in love with what I've seen so far, and now it's just a waiting game. The concept of Hyrule being an open world waiting to be explored is something I've crossed my fingers for year after year. Twilight Princess was nice because Hyrule field was larger than it has previously been, but this, this is complete freedom. There is no linear path to take. Everything has to be discovered by exploration. I can't wait to see more of this game as it unravels. Skyward Sword, the most recent installment in the series, didn't impress me (I could write a whole essay on that, don't get me started). Aside from beautiful cut scenes in Skyward Sword, parts of that game just didn't seem complete to me, and I wasn't a fan of the animation or character representation. However, I have a really good feeling about this new one.
5. Super Smash Bros. 


Rather than show any specific trailers for the new Super Smash Bros., I wanted to share the first ever Super Smash Bros. Invitational. They had a pre-selected group of people, including some Super Smash Bros. champions of the past, play a Super Smash Bros. tournament live with the new game. It was so fun to watch, and I think it best represents the new game, as it shows actual gameplay. Super Smash Bros. Melee will always be my favorite of the series, I really don't care for Brawl, but this new one looks like the perfect combination of Melee's speed and movement with Brawl's improved graphics, new items, and beautiful courses. This is another one I have really high hopes for. As far as the new amiibo concept, which involves saving data for each character in an actual action figure that you can touch to your Wii U pad to use, it seems like a cool idea, but an idea that I'll be too lazy to bother with. Although I wouldn't mind just owning the action figures. I also wasn't wowed by the concept of letting Mii's play and fight in the game now. That kind of defeats the reason that I play Super Smash Bros. Aside from all of that though, I can't wait to get my hands on it.