Nintendo Pre-E3: Wara Wara

So, what you think? Me? I may say that I think Nintendo did a lot of right things in the video, a few mistakes and one, huge, unforgivable mistake. Let's start with all the good things.

Nintendo showed a lot of cool stuff that the Wii-U(hahaha) can do. Some of them will be under utilized by gamers, because the usefulness of it is limited. I liked how good and easy to use the system software seems, very clean (until thousands of Miis invade the screen, that is) and how it seems easy to pause the game to access contacts and such. All seems very practical.

I loved how Nintendo finally seems to get on-line correct and how they are giving it the due importance in today's gaming scenario. It seems we will not have awful Friend Codes and everything will be neatly integrated on the system firmware. Also, the screen on the gamepad will be very useful in the way we can communicate with each others without interfering in the game. A new message would pop-up in the gamepad instead of in the main screen, which is good.

I didn't like, though, the great number of names they used in that video. Too much names to keep track, and some really stupid. It is more confusing than should be, it is weird, like Wara Wara, and don't will help newcomers in getting in the system easily. The Pro Controller is nice, but I worry how many 3rd parties will completely forget the gamepad touchscreen because they will know gamers may not use it in the end.

Also, functions highlighted in the video like universal remote through the gamepad and how you can switch views between TV and gamepad are more gimmicks than really great features. The lack of price tag and specs also was a bummer, but their official presentation may correct it.

Now, the worst thing in that video...

This. This is how Nintendo, a videogame company see us, old time gamers. As nerds whose best friend is an action figure (the action figure being, in fact, the coolest thing on the video). They see dedicated gamers the same way mainstream media see us, as nerds who cannot have true friends. This was stupid as hell. As a game maker, Nintendo should know that not all gamers are like the guy on the pic, yet they decided to go with the stereotype. Nintendo fanboys will forgive it, but it shows how little Nintendo really care about their dedicated fans and how they still think videogames are for children and families, and only socially challenged adults would play games. This, Nintendo, is what ruined your presentation to me.

In the end, Nintendo did a great job showing their hardware (despite bad Iwata engrish) and get everyone who is a Nintendo fan excited and non-fans curious. If not by the big mistake of stereotyping old time gamers, I would say it was a very good presentation. Let's see just how much the Wii-U(hahahaha) will cost, because that will be the decisive factor here.