Diary of an E3-Man 7

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The following are raw notes taken from E3 2018 Press Conferences. They are a mixture of details and opinions. The idea to post these is to show what it’s like to furiously write down notes in an effort to turn those notes into an article as well as whatever. It also portrays whatever gut feeling towards something was felt as it happened. The first section of notes are things I wrote down after the conference was over; what were the things/thoughts that stuck with me afterwards. The second section of notes cover the more play-by-play of the conference as things were happening what was being jotted down.

Nintendo - E3 2018

Things That Stood Out After the Show:

• This was a crazy showing, like, there is nothing to get Switch owners excited if you’re not into Smash Bros.

• Why tease Metroid last year if you can’t deliver on saying or showing anything throughout a full calendar year

• Bad look for this game and instantly gives me Microsoft 2014 vibes of trying to win back some hearts and minds by announcing a bunch of stuff, most that didn’t come to fruition, after the disastrous 2013 launch year of Xbox One

• This thing really was a bit of a mess, it seems like they dumped all that Smash info for half of the show, where I feel like fans enjoyed the trickle out of info of new characters and moves, etc slowly until the release of the game

• No info on the Nintendo Online stuff seems like a huge misstep

• This is an event more people are going to watch than a normal Direct and they needed to remind those folks that the Splatoon and Mario Kart they are playing now and the Smash they want to play early December isn’t going to be free to play online

• This is borderline embarrassing not mentioning this fact and any other details about the very quickly approaching deadline of paid online coming

• At least they didn’t show a Kingdom Hearts 3 trailer

Re-Watch:

• Mech game Daemon X Machina

• This game has a great look, like cell shaded mechs

• I’ll never play this thing, but it’s a different look for Nintendo who needs to further diversify

• I’m glad Xenoblades exists on Nintendo, it gives them something nobody else has and the people that want it are probably willing to dish out for their console to play it

• That Pokeball controller is dumb as hell, and will probably be impossible to find anywhere because Pokemon fandom is rabid

• Mario Party is bad, but a safe go for Nintendo

• Is this the only Fall game they have?

• Fire Emblem not coming 2018 was probably a crusher for Nintendo

• They need to take a break from Fire Emblem after this, it just feels like they are wearing the wheels off that wagon

• Overcooked 2 is a good get to show for Nintendo

• Probably not setting the world on fire, but a pretty successful indie game and the 2nd debuting on Switch day in date is good

• Nintendo has worked their asses off on indie games, especially compared to Wii and Wii U, and it’s kind of carrying them right now during a lull in big games

• New demo for Octopath Traveler seems smart, Nintendo seems to be supplying options for people to try games with demos, which gets them to turn their Switches on and check the store - smart

• Pretty good sizzle reel, albeit most of those games have already been out elsewhere

• Still no date of Dark Souls after it was pushed to “Summer” is a big bummer

• Wonder how many Wii U games remain that they’ll try to resell on Switch

• I think they’re showing every character in Smash

• Why are they doing this this way

• The reveals for Snake and like Pokemon Trainer being back were cool - this is probably what fans want

• This looks an awful lot like Smash 4 to me, I wonder how close to a 4.5 instead of a true sequel this thing is

• Curious to see how many new characters they did for this game I can’t imagine they go too much more

• Presumably not having Waluigi is a bummer and strange, like it’s a free character

• This thing is way too long and into the nitty gritty - seems like this would have worked better as a Smash Direct and not taking up 75 percent of an E3 showing

• Boy oh boy, this is loooooong

• I think they have shown / described each character twice in some shape or form

• I’m going to be honest… On my re-watch I had to skip like 10 minutes, because, gesh, I can’t watch through the differences in Roy’s voice samples and Bayonetta’s gun sounds again

• Are they reusing stages too… Hmm, starting to think this isn’t a true full sequel - getting some Crackdown 2 vibes here, except people are going to buy and play the hell out this of course

• They needed to add Ridley, just give the fans the Nintendo toy box they want at this point, good on them

• Ridley looks hilariously out of place next to like Kirby and Mario, and that’s why this series can be great

• No showing / mention of anything single player, if they’re adding Ridley and all past characters I hope they’re thinking about doing a Subspace Part 2 or something

• That was a bad showing for Nintendo, bummer, after an insanely strong first year, it’s starting to feel Wii Uish with wide gaps between games