So, as we spent a lot of time in Nintendo’s booth (it was one of the biggest areas and most other booths did not actually have too much we wanted to wait in line for 2+ hours to try) and took tons of pictures including two videos so I figured this would be a good place to start. I will say that I was disappointed by one thing though… No Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer on the showfloor! I was looking forward to playing it so much and was heart broken to see it nowhere to be found. Regardless, enjoy these pictures of the showfloor of Nintendo’s Area along with other fun Nintendo things such as some cool stands and controllers by PDP! Due to the amount of pictures, please click the Read More to see them all!
Last Day of Press Conferences
So, today was the last day of press conferences and before I get to Nintendo, I want to say I sadly don’t have much to say about Square Enix or PC Gaming. In general, anything that interested me had already been shown at another press conference. Just Cause 3 from Square Enix looked okay and it was nice seeing more footage of Beyond Eyes during the PC Gaming conference, but I wish there was more that really grabbed my attention (though, I’ll admit my attention/hopes for the latter were drained once we saw how they started with all the gore).
Nintendo, despite what a lot of people seem to saying, I feel did a good job for the most part. I really enjoyed it, I’m hyped up, and while I think some concerns are completely valid, I think throwing a fit because “omgthisgamewasn’tsaidanditshouldhavebeen” is incredibly silly. I’m disappointed Style Savvy 3 was not mentioned at all (and at this point, probably won’t be until shortly before the game comes out like Girls Mode 3 did in Japan where it was announced only about a month and a half prior), but that doesn’t make Nintendo any worse. Unravel does remain my “new game announced hype”, but Nintendo easily continues to have the most games I’m truly excited about.
I will say my one big issue with Nintendo though is just… it’s a digital event. There’s no reason they need to be as short as they are with several games only being tossed onto the Youtube channel as trailers. I know some eventually get brought up on the Treehouse, but I’d love to see the Treehouse used more just for gameplay and questions and showing features of things versus announcements and even then, some never get mentioned at all. I’m guessing the main thing is because these things didn’t work with the Digital Presentation’s “theme” this year, but I honestly think they still could’ve pulled it off in a good way. And as much as I enjoyed the silliness of both last year’s and this year’s Nintendo conferences, if it’d be easier for them to have more time and show off more without doing things like that, I’d probably prefer it. I do love dancing Miyamoto, Iwata, and Reggie muppets though:
This will never cease to be amusing to me.
Getting on to the actual games, rather than going in order I’m actually going to go by system. This is because a lot of games, despite being playable at E3, were only sent to trailers and I feel this will be a better way to get them organized. Some games will easily have more comments than others. I also quickly want to bring up the LetsSuperMario–It’s such a neat way to celebrate the anniversary and even helps a great charity so I think it was a really nice feature of the stream, even if the transition felt a bit sudden. I think it was a nice finisher in a way though. Now, onto the games! Or well, the ones that grabbed my attention enough for me to say anything :P
Wii U
- Super Mario Maker: This is a game I thought looked okay originally and just figured it’d be fun, so why not? But as newer and newer things are shown and more crazy levels are made and features grow, I just get more and more excited by it. Knowing this kind of formula is actually how some of the original stages were made is pretty unbelieveable in itself. I generally have felt I wouldn’t be able to make anything interesting, but knowing that makes me feel like maybe I can make something cool. Or at least something much happier and peaceful in comparison to the terrifying levels we’ve seen the Treehouse employees make. I also adore how they did the Amiibo feature. First of all, these old-styled Mario Amiibo look amazing:
I honestly want both. I hope they won’t be too hard to get. Maybe one will be sold solo and the other will only be sold with the game? I just hope the supply is much higher when they come out. As for the other Amiibo feature, I’m not sure what character I will play as in Mario Maker–it’ll be hard to decide! But knowing that using other Amiibo can make it so you can play levels as Link or Isabelle is just really amazing. I mean, look how cute they look:
- Yoshi’s Woolly World: In a similar boat, Yoshi’s Woolly World also gets me more excited as I see more of it. The Amiibo for it look adorable, all the Amiibo are great, and I’m just very excited for it. My biggest issue is the fact that Europe & Australia get the game in June, Japan gets it in July, and we do not get it until October… This just makes no sense for me? It’s done. The Amiibo are ready. It’s in English… so why the delay? :( This is like the delay with Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney–there were no dub or line changes or puzzle changes and they didn’t even redo Luke’s voice so the delay made no sense.
- Star Fox: Zero: I will admit I’m not a big Star Fox fan–it’s not that I dislike it, but it’s a game that while I enjoyed, I never felt the need to play any additional games. My first and only Star Fox game was the one for the Nintendo 64. While I still feel kind of similar for this game, I really love the transforming Arwing:
I can’t decide if it’s more cute or cool. - Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival: This game seems to have angered a lot of people and for the most part, I’m not entirely sure why. I do think the start of it was a bit of a tease (though, the fact that they only showed NPCs and not a Villager meant it wasn’t as bad as it could have been in my opinion), but as someone who really enjoys Mario Party (and preferred it when there wasn’t a car), the fact that they are doing an Animal Crossing party type of game actually has me really excited. Plus, the Amiibo are adorable:
I need them all. I really hope the Villager Amiibo will be useable as well and let you pick a Villager or something. That said, I do think it’s messed up that an Amiibo is required to play the game. Part of why I didn’t get into Skylanders and Disney Infinity is because so much of the game is locked unless you get these figures. I liked how Amiibo were bonuses if anything versus the main core of the gameplay so seeing a game that requires them is really disheartening–especially as the supply hasn’t been great either. - Genei Ibun Roku #FE: I’ll be honest, I don’t really have much interest in the game. However, this intrigues me and I’m really curious about it:
- Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash: Mario Tennis is actually my favorite Mario Sports title. That said, I’ve felt the Mario sport titles just haven’t been as good as new iterations are made so I’m not sure how to feel about it just yet.
3DS
- Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes: In a similar reign to Star Fox, while I liked Four Swords, it was never one of my top favorites so this game doesn’t jump out at me either. Besides my concerns about what happened to purple!Link, I think the main way to sum up my feelings right now is intrigued. I have mixed feelings on the outfits due to my usual issues with tying skills/stats to outfits, but as I see them more as power-ups in this game, I find it doesn’t take as much away from it. Also, Link can wear Zelda’s dress:
It makes me wonder what other outfits they may give him too (if there is a Cucco outfit, Link better be able to control an army of them.) - Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer: When it comes to games I’ve already been excited about, Happy Home Designer is still #1. The more I hear about it, the more excited I get. I just love so much about it. So many people are criticizing it and the thing is, this shows so many opportunities for when we do get the next Animal Crossing game. We can place houses. We can set up exteriors. We can do so much more with interiors (and there are some new items in there and not to mention the new character that was shown). For all we know, we may be able to make the next town from the ground up. I feel people are focusing so much on the “but this isn’t a real Animal Crossing game” and not enough on what it could mean for a full Animal Crossing game. And personally, I have nothing against the spin-off. It focuses on my favorite parts of Animal Crossing and I couldn’t be more excited for it. I will say I am very worried about the cards though. There are 100 in the first set, it’s already been confirmed more sets are planned, and there are already over 330 different characters in Animal Crossing: New Leaf alone. Collecting them is going to be hard and I really hope there will be a large supply of them and I can find people to trade with. And also places to buy boxes of cards because I will need them. The card packs are also adorable:
- YO-KAI WATCH: This is one of those games where I’m just not sure how I will like it or not, but it looks cute and seems like a combination of Pokemon and Puzzles/Quests and those are two things I enjoy very much so I am looking forward to playing it at some point.
- Fire Emblem Fates: As long as Casual mode is back, I’m positive I will be getting this. I really enjoyed Awakening and it reminds me of Awakening a lot. I’m guessing there is no marriage in the game due to the fact that half the cast is your family or step-family, but I still find the characters interesting. I just wish I could decide which side to go with. Still super excited about the StreetPass feature too.
- Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam: I wish I could be excited about this game, but I mostly feel apprehensive. I’ve never been too big on the Mario & Luigi RPG series and the Paper Mario stuff in the game looks like it is more out of Sticker Star which I really didn’t enjoy. I think it would’ve been better throwing normal Mario & Luigi into the Paper Mario World instead if they wanted to do a crossover.
- Hyrule Warriors Legends: I’m still not fully bought over when it comes to Hyrule Warriors (though, I still love Zelda’s attire), but the ocarina at the end makes me hopeful Saria and the other sages will end up making an appearance in the game too at some point. I do hope they will let people buy the new characters as DLC if they have the Wii U version though.
- Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon: It has all the Pokemon and the personality quiz back so I’m pretty excited. I’m still sad that they didn’t add a few more options beyond the starters (Riolu is the only one and I don’t really count Pikachu)–I think adding other Pokemon who could Mega Evolve along with old PMD classics like Skitty, Meowth, and Eevee would’ve been nice.
Misc.
- Skylanders Amiibo: Honestly, the fact that they can be used for both games is really really cool. I also love the stands. But besides being official, they just feel like customs–they’re nearly the same Amiibo with some armor and a different base. I am curious if they will do more though. Maybe Skylanders can at least help with the stock problem. I do wonder what aisle they will be in though.
- I’ve already spoke about the other Amiibo in my last post so I won’t go over them again.
And finally, while technically mentioned over in Japan and not really part of all this:
I AM SO EXCITED THIS IS GETTING A SEQUEL AND I REALLY HOPE IT COMES OVER HERE!
And that’s it for Nintendo! Like I said, I really did enjoy a lot of their presentation and I feel most of the complaints were either because people assumed they’d talk about something they already said they wouldn’t or due to thinking too far ahead about rumors.
Anyway, expect show floor pictures sometime soon! I haven’t decided yet if I want to do them in parts or all at once–I think it’ll depend on just how many pictures there are. I am leaning towards putting them all together though.
The Second Day of Press Conferences
So, it is the second day of press conferences! Before I start, I did want to mention that I officially got my E3 Pass today!:
I absolutely adore the lanyard. We also took quite a few photos of of the Los Angeles Convention Center’s exterior all set up.
I look forward to taking lots of photos inside tomorrow!
Getting back to the main subject, I know I didn’t say anything about Bethesda yesterday, but there really wasn’t anything more for me to say beyond what I said on Twitter. I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting to have much to say for Microsoft either, but I was still pretty hopeful as my Xbox One is kind of lonely when the only gave we have is Sunset Overdrive.
While only a few games caught my eye, I think the biggest thing was with the features announced such as backwards compatibility (although, it seems to only be a certain amount of digital games right now–really hoping this increases), EA Access, and the new controller that will work for both Xbox One and PCs/Windows 10. As for the previously mentioned games, it was mostly a mixed bag for me. Halo has gone downhill for me for a long time–I’m still a bit intrigued, but not enough to really give it another shot so I didn’t really think much about Halo 5. Maybe one day though. The plot does seem interesting in itself, but at the same time I just feel kind of mixed overall.
Recore came up next and the main highlight for me was cute Robot dog:
Look how cute it is. I was really upset what happened as it went (please stop doing that to dogs, games. Seriously, these three things need to stop: Post Apocolyptic settings (it’s one thing if it’s just a brief history lesson–it’s another if it is essentially the entire basis of the game), Zombies, and hurting innocent animals/people/things), but was happy to see it “revive” into a Bigger Cute Robot Dog:
You live on, cute Robot Dog. From the ending/title shot, it looks like you’ll get many Robot friends (including little Robot dog back) which seems pretty neat:
But it’s hard to tell how I’ll feel about the game without truly knowing what it’s about. I will, however, take an actual little robot dog. Just saying.
Forza always manages to look fancy, but Forza has just never been my car/racing game of choice. It does look nice though, but I’d really have to see more before I decided anything–graphics are generally the last thing on my list unless something genuinely freaks me out. Cuphead is another example of a game that does a great job fitting its style, but I’m not sure how much I’d enjoy actually playing it. Tomb Raider was shown next which I AM excited for, but was disappointed that they focused much more on a lot of Ice Climbing and Running over puzzles and actual Tomb Raiding:
I also really want to know what happened to her friend? Please stop making Lara lose more friends and family. She’s been hurt enough.
Anyway, this brings us to the next game that ended up getting a good amount of my attention, Beyond Eyes:
It looks very pretty and I’m interested in how the game plays. And the last game that caught my attention during Microsoft’s –Sea of Thieves:
It looks pretty and interesting so I’m looking to see more of it. Rare Replay also looks pretty cool, but as someone who still has all her consoles and old games, I just don’t have a need for it. But yes, that finishes up my interests with Microsoft’s conference!
Next up was EA’s. I didn’t really know what to expect nor did I have high hopes, but EA actually had the game that excited me most today–we’ll get to it though. The new Need for Speed looks interesting–I feel the last couple have kind of depended on various gimmicks so it’s nice to see one that may have finally let those go. SWTOR’s next expansion was shown next and I always end up feeling a bit sad when it comes to that MMO–I actually really enjoyed it before it went Free to Play and it makes me sad that the Free to Play was handled as poorly as it was. Supposedly it’s gotten “better”, but I don’t think most of my issues will ever be fixed. For now, please enjoy this lovely artwork of mine and Zero’s SWTOR characters before we stopped playing:
(Beautiful Artwork by sakonma)
Following the bittersweetness of the above, the game I spoke to at the beginning started–Unravel:
An adorable game that follows the adventures of Yarny. Look at him:
Look how cute he is. I need a Yarny Doll so badly. The game reminds me of both LittleBigPlanet and Yoshi’s Woolly World and I just already love it to pieces. If no new games are shown by Nintendo and Square Enix tomorrow, this definitely wins the game I am most excited for out of new games I’ve heard (and even high up there overall). And even if they do show new games, Unravel will easily still have a top spot, if not tied with another game to first.
EA didn’t get anymore of my attention after that, but it was okay. Yarny’s awesomeness in Unravel was enough.
Ubisoft’s started next and I’ll be honest, Ubisoft is probably going to be my least favorite panel of the year. That isn’t to say it had nothing I was interested in (though, it didn’t have much), but I just am… tired of Ubisoft’s atmosphere at E3 lately. I don’t like the random concerts for Just Dance, I don’t find their host funny, I feel like the vulgarity goes up during their conferences (along with rather gory/awkward trailers), and I just find it rather uncomfortable and disappointing. It feels like I’m watching a Frat Party. As for the only thing that did catch my attention fully with Ubisoft, it was Trackmania Turbo:
I never played the original but it looks pretty fun. I also was a bit intrigued by Ghost Recon Wildlands. I think the idea of a Black Ops-kind of team taking down bad guys is pretty interesting, but I don’t think I’ll end up getting it–the game just looks way too gory for my tastes.
And while I have no interest in the game itself, this was still kind of cool:
Finally, this brings us over to Sony. Sony had quite a few bombshell announcements, but nothing that was really enough to get me too excited. While I think Trico (the cute Puppy-Gryffindor) is adorable, I never had much interest in The Last Guardian. Horizon: Zero Dawn seemed a bit interesting, but most likely isn’t my kind of game. Media Molecule’s game was next though and it’s something I’m still debating on. It’s hard to describe so if you haven’t seen it, I’d recommend watching it yourself. These were probably my favorite parts:
I loved the remix of Row Row Row Your Boat during the Bear-Zombie fight too though. The game almost sounds like a more free form of LittleBigPlanet. Unfortunately, I just don’t know if I’d ever be able to create much of anything, but maybe it’d still be fun just to explore others’ creations. And I would love to have plushies that looked like that little Polar Bear and the cute Teddy Bear on the Piano at the end.
We then moved onto Firewatch which is apparently a pretty cool mystery game and I am quite excited! Plus you can hold a cute turtle:
That is awesome in itself. I hope the turtle plays a part somehow. It’s too cute not to. Next was a very cute Final Fantasy game called World of Final Fantasy. I really love the chibi graphics they used and actually think it looks better than when they switch them off:
I mean, look at them. Look how cute they are.
This was then followed by the announcement of an HD Remake of Final Fantasy VII which is a very special game to me. However, I don’t see myself picking up the HD remake. Aerith is my favorite character and considering what happens to her (and that it’s likely never going to change), I’d rather not see that in HD. I do hope there will be lots of videos of Chocobo Races. That was really the main focuses for me, but I do want to bring up Shenmue III and the next Arkham game. I don’t recall ever playing Shenmue, but the characters seemed familiar to me. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about Sony essentially advertising the game’s Kickstarter like that. Not that they shouldn’t advertise, but I feel they could’ve easily covered the game itself over showing a Kickstarter for it and telling everyone to go pledge. It was just kind of surprising to me and I wonder how that could effect things for other games in the future. Going back to the game itself, it does look nice, but I’ll need to see more and look up a bit of the past games before I make up my mind on it. As for the Arkham series, that trailer was incredibly creepy. Kind of like the Dead Rising 2 trailer from last year, it was just incredibly unsettling and I wish I didn’t see it.
The last two things to catch my attention were Disney Infinity and Uncharted. Despite my love of Disney, I just can not seem to get into Disney Infinity and I’m not sure I ever will–so many exclusives between consoles honestly doesn’t help. As for Uncharted, I’ve never actually played one, but they just make me more and more curious. Maybe one day.
Anyway, I am looking forward to the press conferences tomorrow and my first day on the Show Floor! ^__^
Smash Direct & Nintendo World Championships
So, today was a pretty exciting day! To kick off the morning was a fun Smash announcement of many things coming today or really soon. While some people leaked certain aspects, I feel it was still incredibly hyped up to actually see everything introduced. I especially enjoyed the introduction videos. Roy hitting Koopaling Roy out still amuses me.
Despite not being a big fan of Roy or Ryu, I was impressed with what they did with both characters. Roy definitely seems like an improvement (and different enough) and Ryu obviously had a lot of work put into him.
All the costumes look great, though, I don’t think any will replace the ones I’m using. Isabelle’s is a little odd, but I love that they made the party popper her “gun”–plus, Nintendo made such cute screenshots for it:
I also really like the stage Ryu comes with and was happy to see the Kirby Dreamland Stage back (now please bring back Fountain of Dreams). The big highlight for me though was everything involving Amiibo. For one, all DLC fighters have been confirmed to get Amiibo–I always figured this would be the case, but so many people seemed to think otherwise. Zero especially is quite happy as he wants Roy. Plus, all of this is available today! …Which would be great if I wasn’t here in California :P But I’m happy for those who have been able to buy/download the new DLC already. The really happy announcement, for me anyway, though was that Mii Fighters are getting Amiibo!:
While I am excited for all three, one complaint I noticed a lot is something I still need to agree with–why not have the ability for people to order custom ones? With all the parts being already known, it’d just be a matter of making the faces. I remember during an old Nintendo Minute, there was a contest to win a Mario Kart 8 3D Printed Sculpture of your Mii in a kart or on a Bike and that they would later be available to be bought. That is something I’ve been looking forward to and have been pretty disappointed that it seems to have not happened yet (if it ever is going to happen). I’d love something of my Mii (with the Peach suit) in the Prancer Kart with the Cloud Glider and Wooden Wheels.
Going back to the Mii Fighters though, it almost feels like a missed opportunity. I’ll still get them in hopes of customizing one day, but I think it’d be great if Nintendo ended up doing that. Moving on to the other Amiibo announced, it seems we’ll be getting them with our wave scheduled for the Fall. I’m not too interested in Falco, but I am pretty excited for these three:
While I was mostly only planning to get the first two, we decided to get Mr. Game & Watch too after seeing all his poses:
It’s just something really cool to do. Of course, he isn’t the only one with “variants”–R.O.B.’s appearance is different in Japan:
I really want to get both this one and the version for the other regions. I’ll probably customize the latter to the pink version, but I love the Famicom coloring and will be keeping that one as is. There were a few other Amiibo leaks after the announcement, but I’m sure they will be announced on the 16th so I will save those until then–short version is I want them all though.
Going back to stages, I’m super excited to see stages reappearing from the original game. I kind of wish Saffron City would come back too as I’d love to see another Pokemon stage beyond stadium, but seeing Hyrule Castle and Peach’s Castle back is really awesome. It makes me sad more stages may not be able to be added, but I hope maybe they will find a way to add more. The Miiverse Stage is also pretty cool and I love how the support messages work–though, I don’t know if they will manage to stay supportive. I think they will end up needing a lot of modding…
While I don’t expect to use the Tourneys mode much, it was nice to see it brought back up. It seems to be scehduled for August at the moment just like a lot of the Splatoon stuff. I feel like August is going to be pretty crazy. I am pretty excited for the Youtube functionality though–I have a few fun replays that I look forward to uploading to my Youtube channel. There’s no date for it yet, but I hope it manages to come out this year.
After that, we headed to Nokia Theater to line up for the Nintendo World Championships. We even got to see some E3 banners along the way:
Despite getting there somewhat early, the line was already quite long and we were already around the corner from the theater… We did get to see how close the Los Angeles Convention Center is though!:
We’ll be picking up our passes there tomorrow.
Despite when we got in line, we ended up being mostly towards the early-middle if anything. The line grew a lot:
And there were quite a good amount of people in front of us:
As for the front of the line, these people lined up the night before:
The person at the End of the Line had a sign in the same style.
In general, waiting on the line wasn’t too bad. People were nice, tons of StreetPasses, weather was good (cloudy with a breeze), and it was a nice time. Someone even set up all their Amiibo:
The only real issue was once the clouds parted and the Sun shown through–the temperature shot up very quickly and a nice relaxing time in line turned into hoping not to get completely sunburned. The delay in letting people in just made it a bit worse. They at least sold shirts though!:
They were $25 each. We made sure to buy one:
Regardless, it was a really fun time. I won’t talk to much about the actual Championship beyond a few highlights so if you haven’t watched it yet, I’d highly recommend doing so:
The stage looked pretty amazing:
The lights gave the stage a really neat effect, but I could’ve lived without having them flashing me in the eyes every so often or the blinking near the end which caused a bit of a headache.
There was even a cool sign someone made:
The 16 Contestants all had pretty cool black versions of the shirts with the logo and lettering in a shimmery gold:
As for the events themselves, it was honestly all really exciting. Splatoon made me cringe at times due to seeing how many spots they didn’t ink, but besides that… :P We even received two new announcements with Earthbound Beginnings (Mother 1) and Blast Ball. I know some people were really hoping for Mother 3 over Mother 1, but there’s still a chance we could hear something on Wednesday.
There was also finally the match challenged last year during the Smash Brothers Tournament between Reggie and an awesome Jigglypuff player, Hungrybox:
I will say the biggest thing that ended up getting me really excited though was the final round on Mario Maker. The levels were absolutely insane and both John and Cosmo did an amazing job.
I think those levels would have made me cry. I’m kind of scared what levels the Treehouse may have put into the game, if any, after seeing these.
And the Champion trophy is pretty awesome:
Finally, I shall end this with the awesome Thank You screen:
Super Mario World is my favorite 2D Mario game to this day so seeing that picture made me really happy. I really hope Nintendo does the Championship again next year and continues with it rather than once every 25 years :P I was only one when the first Championship happened and after getting to experience this one, I just really want to see it back again.
A Busy Weekend – E3 & Pokemon Symphonic Evolutions
I didn’t expect things to be so crazy ahead of time, but out of nowhere, things just got really busy. Here I was, just preparing for E3 streams, setting up things for future posts, and even trying to figure out where some would be more fitting (please vote if you haven’t yet!) when I actually received the opportunity to go to E3 which was exciting in itself. To receive a response of actually being able to go, I was ecstatic and thus, all plans began. I have not yet decided if I want to focus on writing or videos while at E3 (I may do both), but I’m just so happy I get to go! I hope we might be able to stop by the Nintendo Championships at the Nokia Theater as well. I’m still trying to figure out how I should prepare more, what to bring, where to go, what I have access to (probably just the showfloor but still!)… Regardless, I’m super excited.
As for yesterday’s excitement, it was the Pokemon Symphony!
I had been wanting to go since the day it was announced and was super sad I couldn’t try to go to Pokemon Worlds last year to see it (we just had too much happening at once). It would’ve also been my first time going to Pokemon Worlds–I don’t know if I’ll go this year (Boston is further away than DC and we have a lot going on this year with Wedding plans), but I hope to go one day.
This was the second time I’ve been to one of Nintendo’s symphonies with the first one being the Zelda one (Symphony of the Goddesses). The one thing I’ve realized while I generally love a lot more Zelda music than Pokemon, Pokemon is a stronger game of my childhood so it was two vastly different experiences in a way. Both times though, we’ve been kind of unlucky with where we sat… Our seats themselves were great:
But most of the people around us were… iffy. While we just had people behind us in the Zelda Symphony talking annoyingly behind us the entire time, this time we had two people in front of us who like encouraging people to start screaming at the screen for Who the Pokemon was which encouraged the little boy behind us to start screaming in our ears with who was on the screen. It was fine when people were saying it, but maybe be polite to the people around you? Just saying.
I will say one thing we had to deal with in both symphonies though were people who felt the need to start cheering while a song was going. And just… if people are going to the symphony–they want to hear the music–not you cheering and whistling. >> It’s one thing if audience participation is asked, but it’s another when someone just feels like cheering loudly because of what song it may be.
Moving on, one thing that surprised me is I didn’t feel as connected/strongly about any songs from the first generation. Kanto & Johto are generally the regions that strike the most nostalgia for me for many reasons, but when it comes down to it, a lot of my favorite songs from those regions are ones that stayed around like the Pokemon Center theme and the Bike theme (though, that has changed up a bit recently unfortunately). I didn’t expect the first song to really grab me to be the Routes of Sinnoh which I found really beautiful. That isn’t to say I didn’t like anything from the earlier gens–Ancients of Hoenn and Falling Ashes were nice. I also liked Ecuteak City and Born to be a Champion. And Pallet Town is always nice to listen to.
Similarly, despite not being a big fan of N, I really enjoyed Farewell and N-counter:
I was very sad my favorite Black & White theme was not included though: The Rival Theme. Similarly, I don’t think anything was included from Black 2 & White 2 and I would’ve loved to hear the Champion Iris Battle Music.
And when it came to X/Y, An Eternal Prison made me cry. Of course, they did show the same scenes that made me cry in the game which may have added to it. In general, I really liked all of the music used for Gen 6/Kalos which surprised me as beyond certain features (like customization), the region itself wasn’t too special to me.
I was so excited for the two bonus songs though. “Gotta Catch ’em All” while not being my favorite opening is still very special to me and I love hearing it. I was surprised that so few people sang to it and even more so, it felt like maybe less than 50 people even knew the second verse. So, here it is for all of you who did not realize the first opening has a second verse:
Every challenge along the way
with courage I will face
I will battle everyday
to claim my rightful place.Come with me; the time is right
There’s no better team.
Arm in Arm we’ll win the fight
It’s always been our dream.
After that, Kiseki started which is easily one of my all-time favorites (and always makes me cry). It was so nice actually getting to hear it be sung. I really want to hear it in all the different languages in a beautiful medley of awesome and unity. And each version separate. And just, we need a CD for the Pokemon Symphonic Evolutions that also includes that. Thank you. :P
E3 Announcements Beginning – Nintendo’s Micro Direct & Natsume’s Harvest Moon: Seeds of Memory
With E3 only about 2 weeks away, it’s no surprise that a lot of announcements are starting to pop up. While I generally try to stay surprised for some and not pay too much attention to news cropping up (too many people sometimes try to throw fake news in and I’d rather just not get my hopes up), it’s always exciting when something does get my attention.
I’ll start with the Micro Direct (and the “Translated” Project Treasure trailer that went up yesterday. While not everything in the Japanese Nintendo Direct was mentioned (it’s unlikely we’ll even see anything), I was very happy to see it start with Chibi Robo coming over along with the Amiibo! It will only be available with the game so I really hope I catch a pre-order for it. I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about another 2D Platformer game, but it looks fun.
We also got some fun Splatoon announcements and I had fun trying out ranked last night. I don’t think it’s really my thing as I’m really awful with anything besides the roller and the roller just isn’t great on Ranked. It’s good to quickly clear an area, but unless you claim it first and have a lot of people helping defend it, it really doesn’t feel helpful enough. And it’s incredibly hard to claim it back with a roller if the other team has everyone there defending it. I still wish these modes could be done outside ranked though.
The new gun based off the NES Zapper is pretty neat too. Though, as usual, I still can’t aim at all with it. I really enjoyed the new stage, but am surprised it isn’t available in the Battle Dojo. Hopefully it shows up there too. I wonder if we’ll see another addition for Splatoon at E3? While I knew Ranked was coming as soon as enough people hit E3, the new stage and gun were surprises. It makes me wonder how much may already be done and not put up yet though.
Finally, the last thing that really caught my eye was the announcement of LBX. I’ve never seen the show, but I really like the robot customization and it kind of reminds me of the SD Gundam Capsule Fighters game.
Also, I know lots of people are excited for Bravely Default’s sequel being confirmed to come over. Everything else that was shown during Japan’s Direct (which I’ve already talked about) was relatively the same so I’ll just leave it at that for now with Nintendo :P
Moving on to the other big announcement to catch my eye was Natsume announcing their newest Harvest Moon game:
The game will be available on Wii U and PC (along with iOS and Android) and I’m pretty excited for it. Lost Valley wasn’t perfect, but it was interesting for what it was. There were things I liked and things I didn’t like and overall, it was pretty even. I mostly just found the game somewhat slow and a bit small. The farm area almost feels too big, but the other areas are just so tiny and I wouldn’t mind giving up some Farm land to make other areas more expansive. My biggest issue was just how long it really took to landscape. Time moves a bit too fast then and you’re required to do so much of it… plus, just how long until you can even get a hammer. I’m glad I’ve been playing it slowly as I’m pretty interested in the DLC with the new Bachelor and Bachelorette:
I kind of hope there won’t be DLC ones in the future though as it’d stink if you did already settle on someone and then DLC added someone you actually really liked. Going back to the landscaping issues, I just wish you could do more to easily get places… It just takes so long to properly make a staircase down/up and while I’m not a huge fan of Vanilla Minecraft (I think I’ll stick to Pixelmon), once I learned the whole jump and place trick, getting around was a lot easier (but building still takes forever).
I know a lot of people are pretty much shrugging the game to the side due to the whole XSEED/Natsume thing, but after how incredibly disappointing Story of Seasons was for me, I will happily look forward to a game that is hoping to go more oldschool. Harvest Moon 64 and Harvest Moon: A New Beginning are my two favorite games and generally, the things that made the latter not beat 64 are relatively small (and yet, are mostly what made it to Story of Seasons). While all the customization-related things (Your Farm, House, and Appearance) in Story of Seasons are great, nearly everything else in the game was super disappointing to me.
-Feeling of the Classic games, but with a modern twist. (If it’s Harvest Moon 64 combined with A New Beginning, I could cry)
-5 Bachelors and Bachelorettes. Yay for more choices.
-Collecting Memory Seeds seems to be the main story: ” Seeds can be unlocked in many ways, such as giving a villager their favorite item, catching a giant fish, or by raising their first cow. Players will need to be up to the challenge of collecting all of the Seeds of Memories!” It reminds me of the whole Power Berries which I loved collecting in Harvest Moon 64.
-Apparently you can also have a Bobcat as a pet. I hope I can have a Bobcat and a dog. I love pets.
The game will be coming out in Winter and it feels like ages since we last had a console Harvest Moon game. I’m pretty sure I’ll get it on the Wii U over the PC, but we shall see. Regardless, I’m going to stay optimistic about it :) I envy those going to E3–their booth looked amazing last year from what I saw from pictures and I can only imagine how it’ll look this year too. If you’re going, hug the giant inflatable cow for me.
Tomodachi Life: June Updates
Can you believe it’s been almost a year since Tomodachi Life released here in North America? This Friday is its 1 year anniversary! And of course, we have the latest SpotPass item…:
The Graduation Cap is back! It comes in 3 new colors–Green, Black, and Cream and still costs $15. Whether we’ll see brand new items as the year continues or just new colors for items we’ve already gotten like this is unknown. I’m not sure which I’d prefer though. Probably both.
As usual, it’s still mostly just been travel updates! Before we get to those though, let’s talk about other stuff. Despite knowing of this news report, I only finally got it recently:
There’s so many news reports, I honestly don’t know if I will ever see them all.
I’ve also had more couples trying to propose, but it seems everytime ends with failure.
I’m not sure why it feels so hard lately. I hope they ask again soon.
For those already married though, new babies are still being born too:
Finally, like I said, the majority of things happening are just more from the kids who have been traveling:
I also found out what happens if a divorced couple receives a letter from one of their kids–they meet in the mother’s apartment:
And two news updates to finish off this update:
Despite having played for so long, there’s still so many couples I want together and lots I still need to do. Hopefully I can get it all done one day!
Note: I received the game early from Nintendo. Thank you, Nintendo! :D If you are interested in Tomodachi Life, you may want to look into picking it up!
Japan’s 5/31 Nintendo Direct Thoughts
So, Japan had a Nintendo Direct today! I’m a little sad that it wasn’t a global Direct, but with announcements obviously more focused for Japan it’s understandable as to why. Regardless, there were a few things that stood out for me which I want to bring up here and hope we’ll hear more about at E3.
To start, we’ll talk about Fire Emblem If/the next Fire Emblem game. We got to hear a little about the StreetPass feature and the main hub (My Castle) looks so cute:
I love that you can place buildings/customize it to an extent (along with even use the buildings) and the different looks you can have! I think they did a really nice job even if the function is still relatively the same as Awakening’s with having the ability to battle the others’ team, but I just think the entire area is adorable and it’s gotten me really excited. I’m still looking forward to seeing more of the character customization too.
Next thing that caught my attention was Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. I’m really surprised it’ll be a full game! I still plan to get it and I’m excited for it, but it just didn’t sound like there was enough for that to happen. Maybe it has more than originally expected. It’s scheduled for July in Japan while Fall for us (why must we wait so much longer ;~; Hopefully it won’t be as long as the New Leaf wait) and the Amiibo cards will be in 3-card packs which I find a bit worrying.
There’s just tons of villagers that are easily more popular and trying to get all of them and having to trade cards and etc. is going to be pretty rough. I hope I can buy a box of cards. >_> The NFC comes out July 30th in Japan though (the same day)–I hope it’s region free as I’d love to import one to have it ASAP. The game can also be bought with it for a cheaper price and the box art is so cute:
The special faceplate for it is also really pretty–too bad we still don’t have the smaller New 3DS here:
After that, we finally got to learn more about Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon! It thankfully does look like a full game and not a freemium which is a huge relief. The game itself is still pretty much what you expect, but I love how the town looks:
The cutscenes look like they are going to be great and thankfully, not only are all the currently known Pokemon in it, there are also more Pokemon to choose from this time around:
Unfortunately, not only does it seem the personality quiz is still gone, but it’s just the starters plus Pikachu (who yes, is technically a starter for yellow) and Riolu. It seems I’ll never get to play as Skitty again :( (Yes, I know you can change later, but it’s still not the Player character just because you are controlling them) I was really looking forward to seeing more starting Pokemon beyond the traditional game starters. The game will be coming out in September in Japan. Regardless, just seeing the bigger Pokemon choice and not knowing it’s freemium makes me happy. I’ll probably pick either Piplup or Oshawott again. I’m leaning towards Piplup though.
Next is a new Chibi Robo game! My only experience was with the last 3DS game, but I had a lot of fun with it. I’m not entirely sure I will get it yet or not (especially as I don’t care much for the 2D parts), but I do hope it comes over… Mostly as the Amiibo is adorable:
And I want it so badly.
After Doctor Mario, the next Mario & Sonic at the Olympic games popped up. I was very surprised to see Nabbit being added to the cast–I’d think he’d just steal the medals regardless. I’m not entirely sure if I will get it just yet, but it does look kind of fun and I’d be interested on how it would be on the Wii U if it’s not just motion controls. I especially like the hula hoop game.
Finishing up the last highlight for me were more Wooly Yoshi colors! There are so many options and I have no idea how I’m going to pick my favorite, but here are a few highlights of some favorites that were shown out of the group cutscene:
With my new PC disc here, I think this could be a really fun Wii U game to stream.
I also just want to make a note on Project Treasure–I’m not too sure what kind of game it is yet (though, it doesn’t seem to be my thing), but I like her outfit:
It seems like you’re a group of treasure hunters who go through cursed enemies/guard enemies or something to find new artifacts and things? I do enjoy exploring and collecting, but the enemies are kind of creepy.
And for the final mention here–Monster Hunter Poka-Poka Airou Village DX. I’ve never really cared much for the Monster Hunter series, but this looks really cute:
At the moment, details are still vague but it seems to be a more cartoony (and almost laid back) Monster Hunter (and there’s mentions of planned Animal Crossing collaborations),so I may want to pick it up–I hope it finds its way over here too. I just kind of wish it still wasn’t so bloody >> But I will have to see how I feel once their is more information.
But yes, I hope we hear about a lot of these, if not all of them, during E3. More info was declared for Project Treasure “this Summer” and June is when Summer starts so I’m going to keep optimistic for more news.
Splatoon Review
Splatoon is Nintendo’s newest IP and a new take on a team third person shooter being much more objective-based with any kind of enemy defeating being much more secondary. One big thing with Splatoon though is it’s kind of hard to show how fun it is without actually playing. While I can think of a few exceptions, many people I know were in the same boat as me–“Well, it looks okay, but…” and once we actually got to try it, suddenly we understood just how fun it could be.
Overall, the game manages to bring a lot of uniqueness in a genre that tends to feel a bit overdone at this point and while I do have some nitpicks, it’s a game I’ve been enjoying quite a bit. Plus there will be free DLC throughout the year and that’s always a nice bonus. But yes, we should probably get into the full part of the review before I discuss everything here!
Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon Thoughts
So, today a brand new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon was announced for this Winter.
Part of me is pretty excited; afterall, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is one of my favorite side games. On the otherhand, the the last Pokémon Mystery Dungeon game was my least favorite to date. While the story was still good, I disliked nearly everything else. Even if personality quizzes do not return, I hope we will have more Pokemon to choose from this time and maybe even have all Pokemon in it.
As it is, the title makes me worried that it will be a free-to-play/freemium game and I just do not see it working well for this kind of game…
Right now though, the only information we have so far is below.
Players can look forward to even greater, randomly created dungeons that change each time they enter. In Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon, players will battle alongside Legendary and Mythical Pokémon to save the world in a sweeping tale of adventure and mystery.
Hopefully we will hear more information at E3. At the very least, I’m sure Mega Evolutions will be in the game.