In which Wii U gets a real introduction

Last year after E3 I wrote a two-part blog entry covering almost every major game announced by Nintendo. It was a big year for them, with big new installments for several of their main franchises as well as unveiling the new system. This year was not quite like that.

This year, Nintendo put 90% of the focus of their presentation on the Wii U and its capabilities. There was little coverage on upcoming 3DS games, most of which were already announced in 2011 anyway. This year, Nintendo really wanted and needed the Wii U to impress us.

And to be honest, it sort of did, and sort of didn't. They managed to lay some old concerns about the system to rest, but unfortunately they also created some new ones, namely the library. But we'll get to that later. First off, what looked good? What did they fix?

Definitely the controller design, for one thing. I wasn't especially confident in their choice to add a screen to the controller when it was first shown, especially after they'd said that they are trying to appeal to the "hardcore" crowd this time around. While there's potential in an idea like that, there's also a big possibility that it simply won't work. If 3rd party developers had a hard time incorporating the Wii's motion controls into games well, the Wii U's touch screen would be an even bigger hurdle. Wisely, they gave us a glimpse of what an HD Zelda game on the Wii U would look like to appeal to the fanboys, and then, likely against Sakurai's wishes, announced that he'd be making a new Super Smash Bros. game as well. If anything could get the hardcores to give the Wii U a shot, that would.

And this year, not only did they make some needed adjustments to the controller, such as turning the sliders into joysticks and making the whole thing easier to grip, but they added this bad boy to sweeten the deal. They call it a "pro controller," and for some reason I really dig it. I'm okay with the gamepad, but that SNES-gamecube controller crossbreed really hits me the right way.

But, despite what Reggie might tell you, this year was not about the games. Pikmin 3 got some nice time in the spotlight, but other than that, the Wii U is lacking in must-play material, which needs to be taken care of soon unless Nintendo wants a repeat of the 3DS's slow start. They're insisting that it will come out this year, but what do they have that will get sales going? Aside from some ports, some Lego crap, and some insubstantial party games, they have maybe four decent launch titles here. I really doubt that Scribblenauts, Rayman, and New Super Mario Bros. U (sporting a strangely "off" art style) can single-handedly sell this console. And that's not to mention the still-looming concern of the price tag.

There's not much more going on for 3DS. Outside the random assorted stuff, there's two games containing Mickey Mouse, and three Mario games: Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (hell yeah), Paper Mario: Sticker Star (seems a bit light on story for a Paper Mario game) and another New Super Mario Bros. game, this one making the odd decision to have gathering coins as the center of focus. Wario had better be in it.

There you have it. Nintendo's E3 conference in a nutshell. It certainly looks to be an uncertain future for the big N. Could we be seeing the end of their reign caused by the massive success of the Wii? Or is their hold on the gaming industry only growing tighter? We must remember that for Nintendo to fail, either Microsoft or Sony or both need to succeed, but it seems Nintendo's competition continue to make slip-ups of their own. I never really enjoyed the console wars anyway. Whichever company ends up winning, there will always be fanboys on all sides making sure you know which system is really best, so... here's to six more years of immature bickering!