Welcome to The Doctor's Prognosis! I am your humble host, Dr. C-LOS. Here, I will let you know my thoughts on various forms of entertainment including film, TV, and video games. Enjoy!
Conan O'Brien took a trip to E3 last week and had a chance to check out Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. for one of his "Clueless Gamer" segments. The result was the following hilarious review.....
Catch Conan on TBS weeknights at 11/10c. For more great Conan videos like this, make sure to check out the official Team Coco website and the official Conan YouTube page.
Super Smash Bros. is scheduled to release on the 3DS on October 3rd, while the Wii U version is scheduled for this year's holiday season.
Hot off the heals of announcing the Mii fighters and Palutena, Nintendo officially announces Pac-Man for Super Smash Bros for the Wii U and 3DS. Check out the trailer here!
Pac-Man's inclusion means that four major gaming mascots will be taking on the fighting stage at the same time for the first time. Players will be able to duke it out between Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, and Pac-Man in a fight for gaming supremacy.
It also looks like Mr. Game & Watch will be making a return to help Pac-Man fight for the honor of 1980 gaming icons. The cast is definitely shaping up to be one of the best in the series ever.
Super Smash Bros. is scheduled to release on the 3DS on October 3rd, while the Wii U version is scheduled for this year's holiday season.
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.
Welcome to another edition of The Doctor's Prognosis! E3 is done and it's time to contemplate what we've seen once again.
Microsoft
Why is the Xbox my most used console, yet Miscrosoft continues to disappoint every year with their conferences? The gist of it was this, Microsoft wants the Xbox to be your primary media hub. You can play games, watch movies and ESPN, and now link up with your iOS, Android, and/or Windows Mobile devices with what they call Xbox SmartGlass.
I like the idea of being able to watch almost anything on my Xbox. I wouldn't need cable or satellite any longer so it would save me money. But unfortunately, I want to see games from E3. And they focused almost entirely on how the Xbox is going to rule the world. Not to mention the overly long Usher sing and dance routine.
So what did I like? Halo 4 looks ok. Nice graphics but I'm not excited for it. I like Gears of War but it feels a little early for a new one to be announced. Though I do like that it's supposed to be VERY difficult. Resident Evil 6 looks like fun too. But what I like best from the MS conference was the South Park RPG!
They made fun of Microsoft and made me excited for their game all at the same time. I love me some South Park, and The Stick of Truth could be a hilarious good time.
Sony
I was actually impressed with Sony's press conference. That's saying a lot since I tend to use my PS3 primarily as a BD player. Sony focused on games for the most part, faulting mainly with that Wonderbook demo thing. I guess that's good for the kids.
First, I was very impressed with Beyond: Two Souls. It looks amazing. The story has me intrigued and I want to see what happens to the main character, played by Ellen Page. In fact the in-game character looks exactly like Ellen Page!
The other game that impressed me was The Last of Us.
The gameplay looks so visceral. I see myself playing this when it comes out. And I'm actually looking forward to using my PS3 as more than just a BD player. Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale looks like a fun game as well. It's basically a Smash Bros rip-off, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The new God of War could be fun too.
Bravo Sony on a good conference overall.
Nintendo
With the exception of the WiiFit stuff, I think Nintendo did a good job overall with showing off games. Nothing too exciting, though I like Pikmin 3 a lot.
I like how Miyamoto teases giving away the red Pikmin before being all, "Haha no. It's mine!" I can see myself buying that along with maybe Ubisoft's ZombiU.
On that note, Ubisoft looks to be very gung-ho on the WiiU tablet controller, which can only be a good thing. It has the potential for innovation. There were also a lot of 3rd party games shown, but many of them are older games. Arkham City: Armored Edition adds some tablet functionality, but it's unlikely to make you want to buy the game again.
Thankfully, Nintendo also showed off New Super Mario Bros. U and a new Paper Mario. Good stuff but nothing terribly exciting. I want to see a true next-gen Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc.
They closed off their show with NintendoLand, which is a game based in a theme park filled with minigames. These minigames are supposed to show off what the tablet can do. This should really be a pack-in game with the WiiU. I just can't see anybody clamoring to buy this thing. Even worse, the graphics look like a vanilla Wii game. They're still using the same Miis. Beef the graphics up a bit! Show off what your console can do!
Overall a good show but could have been better. I'm still excited to see what else they have up the pipeline.
Bonus!
What else got my attention?
Watch Dogs looks like it has an interesting premise.
Dishonored also caught my attention. I'm getting a Bioshock meets Assassin's Creed vibe from it.
And anything from PlatinumGames is going to be on my radar. Project P-100 for the WiiU looks like one to watch.
Now if I had to pick a winner of E3, I'd have to say Sony pulled it off this year with their conference. I can't believe I just typed that. I think Nintendo and MS have good things going for them, but Sony actually got me excited to play some games. And in the end, that's what is most important coming from the biggest game show of the year.
So what did YOU think? Which games got you most excited? What did you feel was lackluster? Let me know your thoughts on E3!
