24 June 2016
Closing the main conferences was once again Nintendo, and my prediction of a live staged event this year wasn't quite true. They were livestreaming an event called Nintendo Treehouse Live, with presenters interviewing developers, but nothing on stage. It was certainly better than last year's pre-produced muppet show.
We knew the new Zelda game would be the focus and they showed a brilliant new trailer to kick things off. It showed a range of environments, skills and enemies in a beautifully made trailer, with the all important strapline revealed at the end... The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. A fitting name for the immersion with nature in this game.
Then Nintendo rolled into Pokémon Sun and Moon. Which would have been fine if they'd unveiled new content. Instead it was a trailer already revealed, followed by a 40 minute gameplay demo from the beginning of the game! To make matters worse, some of the basic elements of a Pokémon game were being explained. It was ridiculously long and no doubt annoyed everyone watching, even Pokémon fans. At the very end there was one new gameplay concept introduced - a free-for-all battle mode for up to 4 players. This does look cool and considerably multiplies Pokémon tactics, especially in the competitive scene.
After this ordeal, a developer of Zelda was interviewed and no doubt Nintendo fans instantly woke up, eager for more info on Zelda. However I don't think they were prepared for the amount of info Nintendo was about to share. A full 20 minutes of the start of the game, with some gaming media having access to an hour's worth of live gameplay.
First of all I must admit to having no prior knowledge or experience of any Zelda game. But I was genuinely hooked by the game's gorgeous art style and incredibly open world. After Link wakes up from his deep "slumber" (funny direct translation I reckon), the entire map is available to explore. Link can also jump, which seems so obvious but is the first game in the series to do so, which shows how old the previous games are. Loot gathering and basic combat were shown off, but the climbing caught my eye. We're so used to highlighted edges to jump and climb to in several games over the past two console generations, with the likes of Uncharted and Assassin's Creed. But Link just climbed automatically up any surface, be it rock faces or trees, just like Spider-Man. It looked slightly odd, but I love how Nintendo are doing they're own thing with this mechanic. The stamina gauge is a nice touch too, meaning Link can't run, climb or swim forever.
This closed Nintendo's mini E3 event, and despite the appalling structure, it was a good live show with Zelda completely stealing the limelight. To the point where even non-Zelda fans are fully interested and many media outlets have awarded it with their game of the show.