What I learned this past off season when reading baseball rumours, was to not believe them, especially for the Toronto Blue Jays. If there is a rumour of a trade or a free agent signing, chances are that it isn’t true. Believing these rumours will only set me up for disappointment, and I have come to realize that the hard way.
This realization also applies directly to today’s E3 Nintendo press conference. Nintendo had the opportunity to redeem themselves from last year’s poor showing of the Wii U and I wanted to believe that they had learned their lesson from the abysmal 3DS launch line-up. I wanted to believe that a rumour of a Metroid/Star Fox cross over was true. I wanted to believe that Miyamoto would tease us with a Zelda game. I wanted to believe that we would finally be able to play a 3D Mario game in HD. But they were only rumours, ultimately serving the purpose of feeding my excitement to buy the Wii U console.
So I think it’s only fair that I carry some of the blame for my disappointing reaction towards Nintendo’s second showing of the Wii U. But I will only take some of the blame because frankly, I’m having a really difficult time coming up with just one reason to purchase a Wii U on the launch day. Sure Pikmin and New Super Mario Bros. U both look great, but they are games I would buy in addition to what I actually wanted. Unfortunately, that game that I actually want, the game that will convince me to buy another piece of gaming hardware, does not yet exist.
I’m confident that we will eventually see a Zelda, Metroid and 3D Mario on Wii U further into its life cycle, yet I just can’t help but feel that Nintendo wasn’t ready. It seems as if they almost rushed this new piece of hardware out to support the rapidly declining sales of the Wii, despite not having system selling software.
A large emphasis during the conference went to showing how much third-party support Nintendo had. Games like Batman: Arkham City, Trine 2 and Darksiders 2 were shown, but all of these games have come out or will come out before the Wii U launch. There is just no reason to again purchase Batman, so this time, when I’m scanning; I see the display on my controller and not the TV. Along with the third-party support, there are the third-party exclusives. Games like Ubisoft’s Zombi U and Rayman Legends were shown, but again, those are the games I buy after I already own a console, not buy a console for.
So yeah, I’ll take some blame for expecting too much out of the conference, but at the same time, Nintendo gave me nothing to get excited about. That’s what ultimately makes me angry. I really wanted to like the Wii U, my body was ready to line up at BestBuy or Gamestop on launch day, as long as they showed me just one game. But they didn’t show me that one game; they showed me a handful of just OKAY games. Does this mean I will never buy a WiiU? Of course not. As long as Nintendo keeps making Mario, Zelda and Metroid games, I will continue to own Nintendo consoles. This time, it just won’t be necessarily at launch.