You may all remember one year ago, when Nintendo's E3 plans for 2016 were to have (for the most part) one game, and one game only: Zelda, the one that we would come to know as Breath of the Wild. This decision was obviously met with heavy criticism from GAF and many communities across the internet. It's extremely interesting to go back and look at the thread where that was announced last year: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1215125
This was particularly crazy for a few reasons:
1. Nintendo did not show the NX (what we would come to know as the Switch) at E3 2016, and the Wii U was on it's last legs, and Zelda was those last legs. Even then Zelda was barely it's last legs as I would imagine the Switch release had more popularity.
2. Only one game (even though that wasn't completely true), but the E3 focus was 90% on that one game.
As time went on between the announcement and actual unveiling of the game, it became more apparent that Nintendo was extremely confident in Zelda to have that be their only game. Technically BotW wasn't the only game there: There were appearances by 3DS games such as Rhythm Heaven Megamix (which got a surprise digital release during E3), Ever Oasis, and of course Pokemon Sun and Moon. The focus was mostly on Zelda though.
Understandably, most thought Nintendo was crazy. Wii U was a flop, Zelda was it's only game on the horizon (other than the imminently releasing Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, which didn't do particularly well sales wise), and on top of that it was already confirmed to be an NX (Switch) game at that point.
What was shown was incredible, and at least for me personally, far above and beyond what I had hoped it would be. In my opinion, Nintendo made the right call on that. The demo had the entire Great Plateau to explore, that was still only a fraction of the entire game. Watching the Treehouse stream and see all the "Holy shit that works!" moments was incredible. Many gifs/webms were made out of footage from the stream. One in particular sticks out in my mind:
Using the grass the Guardian lit on fire, jumping off the horse, and using the glider to ride the updraft and shoot an arrow into it's eye. It was truly impressive to see stuff like this just work, and to this day people are STILL discovering stuff that works in the full game.
The full game ended up going beyond the hype for me as well, and 3 months later I still attest that it's my favorite game of all time. I realize not everyone likes it as much as I did, but I think most if not all can agree it was a very good game, even if it's not your favorite game or even favorite Zelda game.
This year Nintendo isn't going 100% with the same strategy, but definitely close to it. The presentation will be 30 minutes, and there will be other games there, but it does seem like the focus on Mario. I expect Mario will be great, but I don't know if it will quite hit that "wow" factor that Breath of the Wild hit. I am definitely excited for it though.
What do you think? Did Nintendo make the right decision last year with showing (for the most part) only one game?
This was particularly crazy for a few reasons:
1. Nintendo did not show the NX (what we would come to know as the Switch) at E3 2016, and the Wii U was on it's last legs, and Zelda was those last legs. Even then Zelda was barely it's last legs as I would imagine the Switch release had more popularity.
2. Only one game (even though that wasn't completely true), but the E3 focus was 90% on that one game.
As time went on between the announcement and actual unveiling of the game, it became more apparent that Nintendo was extremely confident in Zelda to have that be their only game. Technically BotW wasn't the only game there: There were appearances by 3DS games such as Rhythm Heaven Megamix (which got a surprise digital release during E3), Ever Oasis, and of course Pokemon Sun and Moon. The focus was mostly on Zelda though.
Understandably, most thought Nintendo was crazy. Wii U was a flop, Zelda was it's only game on the horizon (other than the imminently releasing Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, which didn't do particularly well sales wise), and on top of that it was already confirmed to be an NX (Switch) game at that point.
What was shown was incredible, and at least for me personally, far above and beyond what I had hoped it would be. In my opinion, Nintendo made the right call on that. The demo had the entire Great Plateau to explore, that was still only a fraction of the entire game. Watching the Treehouse stream and see all the "Holy shit that works!" moments was incredible. Many gifs/webms were made out of footage from the stream. One in particular sticks out in my mind:
Using the grass the Guardian lit on fire, jumping off the horse, and using the glider to ride the updraft and shoot an arrow into it's eye. It was truly impressive to see stuff like this just work, and to this day people are STILL discovering stuff that works in the full game.
The full game ended up going beyond the hype for me as well, and 3 months later I still attest that it's my favorite game of all time. I realize not everyone likes it as much as I did, but I think most if not all can agree it was a very good game, even if it's not your favorite game or even favorite Zelda game.
This year Nintendo isn't going 100% with the same strategy, but definitely close to it. The presentation will be 30 minutes, and there will be other games there, but it does seem like the focus on Mario. I expect Mario will be great, but I don't know if it will quite hit that "wow" factor that Breath of the Wild hit. I am definitely excited for it though.
What do you think? Did Nintendo make the right decision last year with showing (for the most part) only one game?
