Let's Rock.

So yeah, E3 was a while ago and it'd be a bit daft to go over it too much. To summarise in great brevity, Microsoft messed up badly and paved the way for Sony to win everyone over. Considering I've never been a big PlayStation follower and Microsoft repeatedly shoving their foot into their mouths has left me fairly disillusioned on the Xbox One front, I was left somewhat disheartened by the whole thing. And that was when I finally, after months of ignoring and even slightly mocking it, I realised I would quite like a Wii U.



Maybe I've gotten too old and set in my ways but what I really, really want in a games console is a games console. I don't care if I can watch TV on it, I'm not going to be won over by Netflix and Youtube features, and I'm not even that bothered by online services and the like. I just want something I can sit down at and play a game for an hour or so. And while it's held them back from really being the top player in the industry recently, the simplicity that I crave is pretty much exactly what Nintendo specialise in.




It might not have been anything as impactful as a new console announcement, but the line-up of pretty sweet looking titles shown off during Nintendo's E3 conference quietly won me over. Big titles like Super Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 8 look as good as you'd expect, though many were surprised by just how strong Mario Kart 8 appears graphically. More Donkey Kong Country is always nice. As an old fan of the SNES-era games it's pretty awesome to see the big ape back on top of the Nintendo mountain. The Wonderful 101 looks like good quirky fun. And the mysterious presumably working-titled X from Monolith Soft definitely looks right up my alley. Giant mechas are definitely capable of pushing most games into my searchlight.



And I'd obviously be lying if I didn't admit that the reveal of the next Smash Bros. didn't play a part in winning me back over to team Nintendo, just as I always expected it would. I'll be the first to admit that for a such a long-awaited reveal the E3 trailer was a little underwhelming, but that's not much of a concern. On the surface it doesn't seem as big a step-up from Brawl as each previous game in the series was from their own predecessor, but frankly I'll be more than happy if Smash Bros. for Wii U is just a shinier, prettier, bigger version of Brawl with all of the disappointing flaws hopefully ironed out. Even the reveal of Mega Man's inclusion, something I'd hoped for in Brawl, wasn't really shocking to me, unless you count my surprise at Capcom actually using the character to make some of their fans happy for a change. But despite its inevitability, the moment of the reveal proved to be awesome nonetheless.



All that said I still haven't managed to set aside enough money to pick a Wii U up just yet. I suppose it's a good thing that most of these awesome looking games still look to have a while left in the oven. You can bet that one day soon I'll be playing quite a lot of Monster Hunter 3 however.



Zee.
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