{"id":13644,"date":"2015-06-22T00:01:02","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T00:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=13644"},"modified":"2015-06-20T01:45:30","modified_gmt":"2015-06-20T01:45:30","slug":"e3-strikes-and-youre-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/22\/e3-strikes-and-youre-out\/","title":{"rendered":"E3 Strikes and You’re Out!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"E3LOGO\"<\/a>Well, another E3 has come and gone.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s time for me to complain about not being able to go to E3 AGAIN this year.\u00a0 But the games they showed at this year\u2019s Electronic Entertainment Expo were pretty neat, and still worth talking about, so here\u2019s a blog all about that.\u00a0 Enjoy!<\/p>\n

The Waah-bulence<\/strong><\/p>\n

But first I just have to complain and vent and get a few things off my chest.\u00a0 For the third year in a row, I was denied a press pass into E3.\u00a0 Which is annoying because I\u2019ve been going to most E3 shows since 1996.\u00a0 They claim the GamerDad site doesn\u2019t have enough numbers.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s a small site, but at PAX South\u2019s GamerParenting panel, they listed GamerDad as a good resource, so it has to be at least somewhat well known.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also heard of game companies getting passes for media to help promote their own games now.\u00a0 That just sounds wrong and a conflict of interests.\u00a0 I know it\u2019s a silly thing to complain about, and I hate to flash the disability card, but there are a lot of things I can\u2019t do because I\u2019ve been blind in my left eye since birth, so when I\u2019m denied something I CAN do, it just makes things even more annoying and discouraging.\u00a0 The reason why I titled this blog \u201cE3 Strikes and You\u2019re Out\u201d is because I\u2019ve been debating giving up on applying for any more press passes to the show after three declines, but I probably won\u2019t give up after all because I\u2019m too stubborn and bull-headed.\u00a0 And applying for a pass is still a good way to get contacts.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m glad that E3 is selective on who they let in, but I think they\u2019re shooting themselves in the foot since I would cover games a lot of places wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 I think they should look at experience as well as numbers, since I\u2019ve been reviewing games for nearly 20 years!<\/p>\n

One more thing I have to complain about is the Nintendo World Championships that Nintendo held before the show.\u00a0 I have good memories of the original event in 1990, in fact I even recently wrote a blog about it.\u00a0 So it was exciting to see it again.\u00a0 However, I didn\u2019t like that Nintendo allowed YouTube speedrunners and game reviewers into the competition as well as the winners from the Best Buy stores.\u00a0 Did those YouTube folks wait in line and compete like the rest did?\u00a0 Somehow I doubt it.\u00a0 I know Nintendo was probably trying to bring in people to attract attention to the competition.\u00a0 But that\u2019s just it, this wasn\u2019t just an event, it was a competition, so I think some fair play should\u2019ve been in order.\u00a0 But hey, what do I know?\u00a0 That\u2019s just my silly opinion.<\/p>\n

Nintendo\u2019s Pre-E3 Announcements.<\/strong><\/p>\n

OK that\u2019s enough complaining out of me.\u00a0 We\u2019ll first talk about Nintendo at E3 because they had the most games that interested me.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean they didn\u2019t have a few missteps at the show, because they certainly did.\u00a0 But on the whole they still enticed me with many games I\u2019ll be looking forward to playing.\u00a0 One thing they did correctly right off the bat was some of their Pre-E3 announcements to help generate hype, because most of them involved us players at home.\u00a0 Before the show even started, they released EarthBound Beginnings, the NES predecessor to the SNES RPG.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wonder it took them so long to release it, since it\u2019s been translated for more than 20 years.\u00a0 They also had a lot of new announcements regarding Smash Bros. content.\u00a0 While it was all pretty cool, my gosh, Nintendo, that sure is a lot of nickeling and diming.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re going to put a Street Fighter character in Smash, don\u2019t pick Ryu, he\u2019s boring!\u00a0 They should\u2019ve picked Cammy instead.\u00a0 I would\u2019ve bought that character.<\/p>\n

Nindies@Home<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another thing Nintendo did to generate hype for E3 and involve players at home was with their Nindies@Home program.\u00a0 What you could do was download demos for upcoming indie Wii U eShop titles, and even get a discount on the full game for downloading them!\u00a0 I\u2019m sure they were the same demos that you could see at the show, too!\u00a0 Best part is that I\u2019m on a lot of their press lists, so I\u2019ll probably get to review a lot of these games when they come out, too!\u00a0 Here are some descriptions of some of the ones I downloaded.<\/p>\n

Freedom Planet is what you get when you combine 2-D Sonic with Gunstar Heroes.\u00a0 In fact, I\u2019d say that if Sonic Team wants to get people to like Sonic again, they need to hire the Freedom Planet people.\u00a0 You can already play it on Steam, but I\u2019m glad they decided to put it on Wii U as well since it looks right at home on a console.<\/p>\n

Lovely Planet takes the graphics and music of Katamari Damacy and puts them in a FPS.\u00a0 But boy is that game hard!\u00a0 I hope they put an aiming reticule in the final version!\u00a0 And if they\u2019re trying to get people who don\u2019t normally play FPS games (like me) to enjoy it, don\u2019t make it so hard!\u00a0 I\u2019m really awful at these kinds of games!<\/p>\n

Runbow is a neat obstacle course, Smash Bros. style 2-D racing platforming game for up to eight players!\u00a0 The gimmick is that the background color changes which can make certain platforms disappear, so you have to anticipate which color comes next!\u00a0 The neat thing is that in the final version, you\u2019ll be able to play as other indie game characters like Shovel Knight, Guacamelee, Commander Video, and more!\u00a0 I hope I get to review this one, too!<\/p>\n

Extreme Exorcism is a 2-D shooter with 8-bit graphics for up to four players.\u00a0 The ghosts that you must shoot will follow the path you took on your last life, so remembering where you\u2019ve been will really help.\u00a0 One indie game that didn\u2019t have a demo (but I wish it did) was Shantae: Half-Genie Hero.\u00a0 I love the Shantae games so I can\u2019t wait for that.<\/p>\n

One last indie game that I have to talk about is Typoman.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 2-D platformer where you play as a little man made up of letters, and bypass obstacles by carrying letters to spell words.\u00a0 It reminds me of a really good game I reviewed on the iPad a year or so ago called Type:Rider.\u00a0 Typoman is a good example of one of the reasons why I like to go to E3.\u00a0 In the demo, there is a word that spells PART but when you get close, it flips and kills you with the word TRAP.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t figure out how to get past that part, but if I had a game developer or PR professional by my side, I\u2019d be able to figure it out and write more about the game!\u00a0 That\u2019s why even though technology can bring the E3 experience home, nothing can replace personal interactions.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I really like about going to E3, not the games, but the people!<\/p>\n

Nintendo Digital Event<\/strong><\/p>\n

OK, now we\u2019ll talk about the actual E3 stuff.\u00a0 I have to say that Nintendo did a good job on their Digital Event video.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t just show trailers to the games, but also insight as to how some of those games were made, too. And although I imagine a lot of people scoffed at this, I loved the use of puppets in the video!\u00a0 I read that the Jim Henson Company actually helped with those puppets!\u00a0 From now on, I don\u2019t want to hear from regular old Iwata, Miyamoto, and Reggie, I want to hear from their puppet forms!<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean Nintendo\u2019s E3 showing were perfect.\u00a0 There were a few missteps and disappointments, too.\u00a0 None of their games were very surprising, and you can really tell they\u2019re cashing in on the Amiibo craze to keep the Wii U afloat.\u00a0 You\u2019d think I\u2019d just explode that they announced TWO new Animal Crossing games.\u00a0 But one is just a home decorator and the other is a board game.\u00a0 Blah. Now, after looking at it a little more closely, the Happy Home Designer game is a bit more robust.\u00a0 But still.\u00a0 Of course, I\u2019m such a big Animal Crossing fan; I\u2019ll probably get them both anyway.\u00a0 And call me crazy, but I\u2019m not sure Metroid Prime: Federation Force is what Metroid fans really wanted.\u00a0 \u201c2-D Metroid Dread?\u00a0 Nah, you wanna play Metroid Soccer, right?\u201d\u00a0 Oh boy.\u00a0 But at the end of the day, Nintendo still had a lot of fun games that I can\u2019t wait to play, so let\u2019s take a look at some of those.<\/p>\n

Wii U<\/strong><\/p>\n

Their big game was probably Star Fox Zero.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a big Star Fox fan, but this one looks kind of fun so I\u2019ll probably pick it up and try it.\u00a0 At E3 I heard you could sit in Arwing cockpits.\u00a0 I wonder if they\u2019re the same ones they had when I went to E3 a long time ago when they showed off Star Fox 64!<\/p>\n

Another big deal was Super Mario Maker, which is basically LittleBigPlanet with Mario.\u00a0 I\u2019m not too big on games that let you build your own levels, but I\u2019ll probably give this one a try, too, because it does look kind of fun.\u00a0 It looks like it has a sort of Mario Paint motif, too, and I loved Mario Paint back in the day.\u00a0 Another Mario-related game is Yoshi\u2019s Woolly World, which looks adorable and Game of the Year quality.\u00a0 I have a lot of good memories playing Yoshi games with family and friends, so I\u2019m really looking forward to this one, too.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve GOT to have that Yarn Yoshi Amiibo!\u00a0 One last Mario game on Wii U was Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash.\u00a0 I might skip out on that one since I\u2019m not a big tennis fan, but if it ends up being really fun, maybe I\u2019ll get it anyway.<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, one game I\u2019m looking forward to on the Wii U is Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Waters.\u00a0 You\u2019d think I wouldn\u2019t play games like this, since I mostly dabble in cutesy fare.\u00a0 But sometimes I do like to play a more \u2018grown up\u2019 game, and I like ghosts.\u00a0 Plus I also enjoyed Spirit Camera on the 3DS, and that was actually a Fatal Frame game, too.\u00a0 I\u2019ll just have to put on my big boy pants to play it!\u00a0 (Nintendo REALLY needs a Pokemon Snap game on Wii U).\u00a0 One last question, though.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t Nintendo make FAST Racing Neo be an F-Zero title?\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 Nintendo had a bunch of other games, too, but I don\u2019t really care about the Fire Emblem and Xenoblade stuff.<\/p>\n

3DS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nintendo had a lot of 3DS stuff, too.\u00a0 One complaint I have is they never made it clear in their videos if all their games will work on the old 3DS as well as the \u2018new\u2019 one\u00a0 All the gameplay was done on New 3DS systems, so that\u2019s why I was a little confused.<\/p>\n

One game that they had that I haven\u2019t seen much coverage on is Yo-Kai Watch, and that could be a big kids\u2019 game this year.\u00a0 Yokai in Japanese is a word that encompasses all manner of ghosts, goblins, spirits, and monsters.\u00a0 Many of these mythical Yokai have a strong impact on Japanese culture and can even be seen in video games.\u00a0 I think they\u2019re pretty interesting.\u00a0 Anyway, in the game you play as a kid who befriends, collects, and battles all sorts of Yokai monsters.\u00a0 So it\u2019s like Pokemon with ghosts.\u00a0 The game is made by Level 5, who makes a lot of nifty games.\u00a0 It even has a kind of Ni no Kuni-ish vibe to it, which was another Level 5 title.\u00a0 Yo-Kai Watch is very popular in Japan, and they\u2019re already on their third game!\u00a0 There is also an anime cartoon, and it\u2019ll be released in the US this fall!\u00a0 Will it be as big as Pokemon?\u00a0 Probably not, but we\u2019ll just have to see!<\/p>\n

They also had a couple of new Zelda 3DS titles.\u00a0 I\u2019m really excited about Triforce Heroes because I loved Four Swords and it was one of the best multiplayer gaming experiences I\u2019ve ever had!\u00a0 Even though this one is just three Links, I\u2019m still going to enjoy playing some \u201cThree Swords.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s actually one of the best games at E3 that I read about!\u00a0 Hyrule Warriors Legends was also shown, and while it looks cool, I already have the game on my Wii U so I may not get this one.<\/p>\n

There is also a crossover game of Mario RPGs with Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam.\u00a0 I\u2019m worried about this one because the last two games in both series were lacking.\u00a0 Dream Team was fun but was way too long and meandering, and bosses took forever to beat.\u00a0 And Sticker Star was just flat out awful.\u00a0 But I am REALLY looking forward to Chibi Robo: Zip Lash.\u00a0 I love the Chibi Robo games, and this one\u2019s a 2-D platformer.\u00a0 It\u2019ll even have a Chibi Robo Amiibo!\u00a0 Needless to say, I\u2019ve already got this one reserved at GameStop!<\/p>\n

Microsoft & Sony<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all I have to say about Nintendo.\u00a0 Sorry for talking so much about them, but they just have most of the games that interest me right now.\u00a0 I still like Microsoft and Sony and enjoyed the 360 and PS3, but there just isn\u2019t anything on the Xbox One or PS4 that interest me enough to buy a new console.\u00a0 But one good thing both companies did at E3 was make some announcements that made the new consoles more tempting to me.\u00a0 For the Xbox One, Rare had a collection of 30 of their classic games!\u00a0 And another company had Cuphead, a 2-D action game with graphics that looked like a 1930\u2019s cartoon!\u00a0 They also announced Xbox One backwards compatibility, which sounds cool but I bet there\u2019s a catch somewhere.\u00a0 The 360 couldn\u2019t play ALL Xbox games, and even the PS2 couldn\u2019t play every PSOne game out there.\u00a0 Sony also had some good games for the PS4, too.\u00a0 One was Tearaway Unfolded, which looked like a 3-D platformer made out of paper.\u00a0 And they had a Ratchet & Clank remake.\u00a0 All these games make their new consoles look more tempting to me, but right now I\u2019m happy with what I have.<\/p>\n

Square-Enix<\/strong><\/p>\n

They made a big splash when they announced the Final Fantasy 7 remake.\u00a0 But it wasn\u2019t that big of a deal to me.\u00a0 While I appreciated how different it was, I really didn\u2019t like FF7 that much.\u00a0 There are two kinds of people in this world: those who like FF7 more, and those who like FF6 more.\u00a0 You can probably guess where I fit in.\u00a0 I would just explode if they made a FF6 remake!\u00a0 But I guess if they had to remake something, FF7 is a good choice since it\u2019s so popular and the original game hasn\u2019t aged well AT ALL!\u00a0 I bet there is one character who will look good in the remake, if you know what I mean.\u00a0 Actually I was more excited about World of Final Fantasy, since it looks a lot cuter.\u00a0 It\u2019s just Final Fantasy Pokemon, though.\u00a0 They also showed a tiny bit of Kingdom Hearts 3, but neither it nor the FF7 remake has a release date, so who knows when we\u2019ll see them.<\/p>\n

Activision<\/strong><\/p>\n

Skylanders is a big deal at GamerDad.com and it was the most talked about game at the GamerParenting panel I attended at PAX South.\u00a0 So when they added vehicles to the new Skylanders Supercharged, I knew I\u2019d have to review that when it comes out!\u00a0 Even more exciting is that in the Wii U version, they\u2019ll have Skylander figures of Bowser and Donkey Kong!\u00a0 You can guess which version I hope to review!\u00a0 Skylanders and Amiibo have put Disney Infinity in a distant third for me, and Disney Infinity 3.0 now has Star Wars, too!\u00a0 But I guess they\u2019re all good games for kids.\u00a0 Speaking of kids, Activision also had a new Transformer game that looks just like the old 80\u2019s cartoon. \u00a0It\u2019s titled Transformers: Devastation, but I think I\u2019m going to rename it, \u201cCary\u2019s Childhood: The Game.\u201d<\/p>\n

LEGO Dimensions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking of Skylanders, LEGO is doing their own type of game with real life LEGOs you can put in play!\u00a0 I hope I get to review it, since I\u2019ve been able to review nearly every other LEGO game out there.\u00a0 But even if I don\u2019t, I\u2019ll have to break down and buy it because they have levels based on Portal!\u00a0 And I LOVE the Portal games.\u00a0 I hate it that some people are calling it \u2018Portal for Preschoolers.\u2019\u00a0 I guess I just don\u2019t like snarky comments like that.\u00a0 I think it looks cool and will probably be the closest thing we get to a new Portal game for quite a while.<\/p>\n

Misc. Games<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if I should be disappointed with the lack of smaller third party companies at E3, or the lack of game reviewers who covered their stuff.\u00a0 But I do know Natsume was supposed to show a new retro-styled Harvest Moon game for Wii U and PC.\u00a0 Little Orbit showed a bunch of licensed titles based on Adventure Time, Monster High, Barbie, and Kung Fu Panda.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the quality of those titles may be questionable, but I\u2019m kind of interested in the Adventure Time game because it\u2019s called Jake and Finn Investigations, and that makes it sound like it might be a parody on the Phoenix Wright series!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure what all Capcom showed, but I think they had Street Fighter V.\u00a0 I\u2019m not too terribly interested in that, but it does have Cammy in it so that\u2019s cool.\u00a0 They also announced Mega Man Legacy Collection, which has the first six Mega Man games on it.\u00a0 That\u2019s a bit disappointing since the last compilation over ten years ago had way more Mega Man games than that.\u00a0 Deep Silver is publishing Mighty No. 9, which is the spiritual successor to Mega Man, so we\u2019ll have to see how that goes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m guessing Namco was at E3, but you wouldn\u2019t know it from the news coverage.\u00a0 I guess they have a new fighting game with anime characters call J-Stars Victory, and a new RPG in the Tales series called Tales of Zestria (I hear my favorite game music composer, Go Shiina, is working on it).\u00a0 But no new Pac-Man game?\u00a0 Bummer!\u00a0 And was SEGA at E3 at all?\u00a0 I know they have a new 3DS Sonic Boom game coming out, but I didn\u2019t hear about anything from them at the show.<\/p>\n

Conclusions<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all my impressions about E3.\u00a0 Or at least the coverage of E3, since I didn\u2019t get to go.\u00a0 Still bummed about that, can\u2019t help it.\u00a0 In the comments section, let me know if there was any E3 news you think I would\u2019ve liked that I missed, and let me know what your favorite E3 games and news was.\u00a0 There was certainly a LOT more games shown than I talked about!\u00a0 Until next time, later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, another E3 has come and gone.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s time for me to complain about not being able to go to E3 AGAIN this year.\u00a0 But the games they showed at this year\u2019s Electronic Entertainment Expo were pretty neat, and still worth talking about, so here\u2019s a blog all about that.\u00a0 Enjoy! The Waah-bulence But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13643,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13644"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13646,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13644\/revisions\/13646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}