This morning in Japan, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata held Nintendo Direct, a press conference that aimed to outline the future of Wii U. It definitely did not disappoint as many new games and features were announced for the console.
Here are the highlights of what was announced at the conference:
Games
- New 3D Mario: The team that created the Super Mario Galaxy games will be creating a new 3D Mario game which will be plyable at this years E3.
- New Mario Kart: Also playable at this years E3 will be the next game in the Mario Kart franchise.
- Two Zelda Games: A HD version of Wind Waker will be making its way onto the Wii U, as will a brand new Zelda game.
- Yoshi’s Epic Yarn: After the unbelievably cute Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi will now get his chance to kill you with cuteness.
- Wii Fit U: No surprises here, it was only a matter of time before the Wii Fit hit the Wii U.
- New Monolith Soft Game: The makers of Xenoblade will be creating a new game for the Wii U.
- Virtual Console: The virtual console will arrive in an update for the Wii U, bringing many NES and SNES games to the system.
Also announced were updates to the software with the aim of improving the system, shortening the load times on the Wii U GamePad being specifically mentioned.
So quite a lot was announced then, but really there were no surprises here. Nintendo heavily rely on their existing franchises so new Mario, Mario Kart and Zelda games were easy to predict. Frankly it would be outrageous if they didn’t make these games. Some new exciting announcements would have been nice, maybe even an attempt to start a new franchise that didn’t rely on existing characters.
What are your thoughts on these announcements? Do you wish Nintendo was a bit more creative these days? Let me know in the comments below.
