Nintendo E3 Digital Event Impressions; Open-World LEGEND OF ZELDA Announced

E3 is under way, and Nintendo finally put out their digital event presentation. Take a look at the full digital event here!

The digital event was quite entertaining with lots of great inside humor that Nintendo fans can really get into. Let's look at the highlights!

For those not willing to wade through the entire Nintendo Digital Event, here is the announcement trailer for the new Legend of Zelda for the Wii U!

The game is a departure from previous iterations in that the level design allows for much more free-roaming in a huge open world. A big part of the gameplay is figuring out how to get to all the destinations you can see in the far off distance. The art design is similar to the painterly style of Skyward Sword, which probably helps render such far distances in a way that is pleasing to the eye.

This is the game I am most pumped to play in the foreseeable future. Cannot wait to see more. Legend of Zelda for the Wii U is scheduled for release in 2015.

Another great reveal was being able to use your Mii in Super Smash Bros. Fortunately, this wasn't just an after-thought as the Miis are customizable with various fighting styles to choose from. The Miis were also put in as a way to create and play as characters that didn't make the final roster.

The long rumored Palutena from the Kid Icarus series was officially announced for Super Smash Bros. She rounds out a great cast of characters filled with a healthy proportion of strong female fighters such as Samus Aran, Princess Zelda, and Rosalina. In addition, the trailer seems to hint that Dark Pit may be a playable character as well, or an alternate skin for Pit.

Nintendo also introduced their Amiibo figures, a line reminiscent of Disney Infinity and Skylanders. The Amiibos are supposed to be compatible with several games including Mario Kart 8, but the only Amiibo demo shown off was with Super Smash Bros.

The new Amiibo figures... Nintendo really wants your money.

You can place an Amiibo on the Wii U gamepad, and have that character fight for your Mii in Super Smash Bros. These characters can be trained and leveled up, but cannot be used as regular fighters, so they feel more like helpers for your Mii.

Amiibos definitely have a lot of potential. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo decides to use them in the future.

Nintendo also showed off Mario Maker, an interesting new game that lets you create and play your own Mario levels. The trailer does a good job showing off how fun and challenging created levels can be. Definitely a fun tool for budding game designers.

Another standout title was Yoshi's Woolly World. The gameplay appears to be a cross between classic Yoshi games and Kirby's Epic Yarn. The game's graphical style on the Wii U looks amazing. It definitely catches the eye. It just goes to show how much art design can help a game stand out from the rest.


Of course, there are a lot more games to see during E3, but these were the ones that stood out the most to me.

Cannot wait to see what else Nintendo shows in the future. Time will tell if their slate of games will win over the hearts of gamers, but that Zelda game alone has me wanting to buy a Wii U. Nintendo was out to steal the thunder with that announcement.

Nintendo brought out their big gun today.

For even more games and videos, make sure to check out the official Nintendo@E3 website and their official YouTube page.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 Review

Hello and welcome to a long overdue edition of the Doctor's Prognosis! I am your humble host, Dr. C-LOS. Been very busy with work and school but everything is going really well. In the spirit of the month of Halloween, I have been playing both Castlevania: Lords of Shadow on the 360, and Castlevania: Harmony of Despair for XBox Live. My friend pointed out that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow abbreviated is C-LOS. :P

Now on to the main event!

SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 REVIEW

Super Mario Galaxy won the coveted Doctor's Prognosis' Game of the Year award back in 2007. So this sequel had a lot to live up to. Would Nintendo simply rest on their laurels and churn out the same old kind of stuff we saw last time? Fortunately, they did not.

The whole game could have looked like this and we all would have still bought it.

While SMG2 does indeed have many similarities to the first game (collecting stars, crazy gravity, etc.), the developers went out of their way to inject fresh challenges throughout. For example, Nintendo could have relied heavily on the old power-ups such as Ghost Mario and Bee Mario. Instead, while still present, these power-ups are scarce. Thus making room for the new power-ups such as the boulder-like Rock Mario, and the platform-creating Cloud Mario. Such new power-ups create new challenges for Mario to overcome.

My favorite new power-up, Cloud Mario, can create up to 3 platforms anywhere!

One of the best new power-ups, is also an old friend: the return of Yoshi! Point the Wii remote at enemies on screen to help Yoshi gobble them up and earn you star bits. Yoshi, just like the other power-ups, presents new challenges to overcome such as using Yoshi's tongue to swing around the levels, or eating certain fruits to gain even more abilities. One such fruit is the blue fruit which turns Yoshi blue, fills him with air, and allows him to float around for a bit. Red fruits make Yoshi red and give him the ability to run really fast for a while. Learning to use Yoshi will get you very far in the game and is a big part of the fun and challenge.

Yoshi changes color and gains special abilities when he eats certain fruits.

Of course with all the new power-ups comes some great new level designs creating new challenges whether it is tailored to using the power-ups, or simply testing your timing and patience. Nintendo got very wicked with their level designs and present a game even more challenging than the previous one. Difficulty will range from very easy, to extremely hard.

Awesome boss fights are another part of the fun and challenge.

The beauty about SMG2 is that it can appeal to anyone of any age and of any ability in playing games. There are many ways to go throughout the game and collect stars that new gamers can avoid the more difficult levels and challenges. Meanwhile, hardcore gamers will relish the difficulty of obtaining every star (this reviewer lost about 50 men, and the feeling in his arms, just to get the final star).

You might feel like this after getting all the stars. I did.

Also worth mentioning, the music is just as good as the previous game. Once again, Nintendo did not rest on their laurels and composed a lot of new music. Of course, there are some from the last game, but those are used sparingly. And of course, there are still arrangements of Mario games of yore. But they always seem to be used where it seems most appropriate as opposed to just being thrown in for nostalgia sake. And more importantly, purple coins are back (in both the level and musical sense)!



As has been the focus of this review, Nintendo could have indeed been lazy and churned out a game very similar to what we had in the first Super Mario Galaxy and it would still have been a great game. But instead we have an incredible game with some imaginative level design, and some wicked difficulty. The game is also much more streamlined, eschewing the giant spaceship world hub for a Mario-shaped spacecraft that will quickly take you to the level you want. And while it would be pushing it to say they raised the bar as much as they did with the first SMG, it would also be extremely difficult to find anything objectively wrong with the game. This is a game where if you die, it is your own fault. Not because the camera was in the way, or because the game was unfair, but because you timed your jump incorrectly, or pushed the analog stick too far to the right. There are not many games like that out there but Mario usually seems to fit into this category. And this Mario game definitely fits into that category. And that is why, with some hesitation, and still unable to come up with any good reason to the contrary, Super Mario Galaxy 2 gets a 10 out of 10.

"Yahoo!" "Yoshi!"

I hope you enjoyed my review! I almost did not give the game a 10 because of the motion controlled levels. It was my least favorite part but I realized I still could not put my controller down and had fun doing them. And they were really challenging. Nintendo is diabolical I tell you!

And yes I really did get every single star. And yes it did take me about 50 lives to get the last one. My arm was in terrible condition by the time I got it. If you want to know, the last star takes place in the most difficult level in the game, and you have to finish it without getting hit a single time! You must be masochistic to attempt it! Or stupid...... Oh wait! :P

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the latest edition of The Doctor's Prognosis! Hopefully the next one won't be so far off. Don't forget to make another appointment! See you soon!