Nintendo E3 Showcase

At a studio in Shoreditch is home to a small event held by Nintendo, giving a hands-on with some of Nintendo’s games that were shown at this year’s E3.

Super Mario Maker

This was Nintendo’s highlight for the event and from E3, while being a fantastic way to celebrate Mario’s 30th anniversary. Super Mario Maker is a creation tool video game that allows players to immerse their creative sides into designing their own Mario adventures. Players can design any manner of level designs with visual styles from the 8bit Super Mario Bros to Super Mario World.
I was blown away with what was possible using just the basic elements of design. Nintendo once again show an intuition for all kinds of easy tricks to change everything into what you want, through shaking objects, combining them together with one another, and so on. Basic features such as silhouettes of where Mario has been make it easy to make precise jumps with the editor, and players need not fret over impossible levels, because unbeatable levels can’t be uploaded. Before long, you’re letting Mario loose on your creation with a mere press of a button. Within a short period of time, I had made a basic level with a few neat tricks that I had discovered by trial and error, something which the game is very forgiving in, making it very easy and quick to undo or erase mistakes at will.
Overall, Super Mario Maker is shaping up to be everything a fan could want out of it. If you want to see just what can be done with these tools, check out footage of the game from the Nintendo World Championships at E3. The game releases September 11th.

Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes

Compared to the usual line of Zelda games, this one feels a little more casual, a little easier to get into. Zelda games have always varied in difficulty of course, but this seems aimed towards a newer audience than the hardcore Zelda fans. Similar to A Link between Worlds, Triforce Heroes is a top-down adventure game with strong elements of co-op gameplay. It’s important as you’ll need to work together in order to proceed through many parts, whether it’s timing different manoeuvres together, or using the Totem ability, which allows the three Links to stack on top of each other and hit higher up objects, or reach raised platforms.
This game does make working together an easy task through simple emoticons that allow you to communicate instructions to each other, as well as the ability to see what the other player sees by tapping their link icon that helps immensely in the right place. Another option at the start of each mission is to pick an individual costume for your Link with each having its own ability, such as increased drop rate for hearts, or firing three arrows instead of one from the bow. When you reach an end-of-dungeon boss, teamwork is again emphasised, in particular with the two bosses I tried, with the Totem ability. Hopefully they find plenty of ways to be creative with that ability.
So far, Triforce Heroes looks promising for those who want a simple and fun co-op experience on their 3DS.

Starfox Zero

Next up was a game I had been looking forward to playing; the long-awaited return of Fox McCloud to active duty, in Starfox Zero. I got to play two distinct levels; the first was on Corneria, which served as a simple introduction to how the game worked. The TV screen works as your third-person camera, mainly used for controlling your craft as it manoeuvres across the landscape, through valleys, under arches and over roads littered with ground-based enemies. Your gamepad screen acts as your cockpit camera, and is used for precise shots that are made using the motion controls. It can be a little disorientating at first, having to not only watch where you’re flying so you can dodge, but your shooting so you can actually hit the enemy, but after a little practice it wasn’t too bad. A little more and I’d imagine it would feel more second-nature, particularly to 3DS players. The gameplay in Corneria felt varied and fun, from flying through tight cliffs while shooting down the enemy, to defending a tower from spider-like tanks, to tearing apart an incoming attack ship. The battles are hectic, and the action just keeps coming.
The second mission saw me engage in one massive dogfight within the depths of space. The enemies were everywhere, and it’s you and the rest of the Starfox team against them. What felt refreshing was that it didn’t feel like other games where the AI only sees you as an enemy; your teammates have presence, and they weren’t invincible as you might expect from other games. I’d frequently hear someone like Slippy or Falco call out that they were being tailed, and if you turned to face them, you could help them out by blasting the enemy into shrapnel. It was nice to not feel like the only bullet sponge in the game. Starfox Zero is scheduled to be released late this year, and I do hope that stays true, as I’m very eager to play more of this game.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

Paper Jam is an RPG featuring the 3D iterations of Mario & Luigi, and Paper Mario working together to defeat the team of 3D and Paper Bowser, who have teamed up following Luigi accidentally setting the residents of Paper Mario’s world loose. I played one quest and one boss battle. In both the over-world and in battles, each character is controlled with a separate button, and while this would seem to have certain uses depending on the situation, I found it to be an unnecessary complication of simple mechanics. For instance, in battle, you take turns inputting commands, as you would expect in a turn-based RPG, so the different button for each character feels pointless, except for when you are dodging attacks. It goes to irritating in the over-world, where you have to press all three at once in order to make jumps or avoid enemies, as you are unlikely to be in a situation, as far as I can tell, where you would only need to dodge/jump with one character. I liked the idea of adding different elements to boss battles, such as a break in the Piranha Plant battle where the 3D duo run away from the plant while Paper Mario flies away, and either Mario or Luigi can grab onto Paper Mario in plane form to dodge incoming attacks. It’s a neat little trick to spice up the bosses and hopefully is used in creative ways. Overall, I’m not convinced by Paper Jam’s style of gameplay, but it shows promise in areas, and hopefully Nintendo can use their creativity to best utilize what works here. The game launches in 2016.

Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash

Last, but certainly not least, is Nintendo’s little robot, Chibi-Robo! Zip Lash. This side-scrolling platformer sees you take control of the eponymous robot as he moves through each level, fighting off enemies and reaching out to far-off platforms with his power cord. Gameplay is simple yet fun, and easy to get used to, with two distinct attacks that also double as abilities for Chibi-Robo to use to his advantage in certain areas. These abilities can also be upgraded using pickups that can be collected as progress is made through the levels.
Also for collection is a variety of consumables from the real world, which in this version were mostly Japanese in flavour. The assistant on hand informed me that, come release over in the UK, the items will be of a more local variety. The levels in the sample version demonstrated the variety that the game has to offer, such as a level where Chibi-Robo is surfing along with his battery draining fast, requiring the player to charge up on the fly with powerups. From what I played, this looks like a fun platformer to add to anyone’s 3DS collection, and while before having a hands-on I wasn’t really looking at this game, now I’m looking forward to its release later this year.