Personally, I enjoyed watching the Digital Event...until it was over, at which point I was left feeling kinda 'meh' about it. Don't get me wrong, the tone was all about fun and color and experiences and it got me excited, but it also felt very, very short (especially compared to the Microsoft & Sony conferences). So how would I have improved the Digital Event?
1) Nintendo showed plenty of games, but we know that there are more coming...specifically for the eShop from indie developers. Nintendo keeps talking about how important the indie games are, and how great they are for the eShop, etc., etc. - well then turn the spotlight on them! They released a sizzle reel of upcoming eShop games, which is great, but why not include it in the main presentation? It adds a little extra run time to the presentation, shines the light on some very promising upcoming games, and it's a boost for Nintendo in the eyes of the small developer community. Win-win!
2) As feared, several games that had been believed/thought/hoped to be coming in 2014 have been unceremoniously pushed back to 2015. "X", Yarn Yoshi, etc. It seems to me that Nintendo was saying 'hey, NEXT year for Wii U will be great!', leaving me wondering, what the hell is coming still for 2014? Which leads me to #3...
3) Nintendo has a small but precious window of time here. They are riding high on the momentum that Mario Kart 8 has given to the Wii U. There's hype, there's excitement, there's actual movement of hardware units...Nintendo should have finished out the Digital Event by clearly, cleanly explaining why I need to own a Wii U now, and doing so by very simply listing, in chronological order, the rest of their 2014 line-up (as it currently stands). Bam! Screen shot of Hyrule Warriors (release Sept). Bam! Screen shot Bayonetta 2 (October), Bam! Captain Toad screen shot (nebulous 'holiday 2014'' window), etc. including the precious few 3rd party games (Watch Dogs, Just Dance 2015, Sonic Boom, CoD?) as well. Make me want a Wii U NOW and not in 2015.
4) V-I-R-T-U-A-L C-O-N-S-O-L-E. Come on, Nintendo!!! A sizzle real of upcoming eShop games and another sizzle reel of upcoming virtual console games. Tease me! Tantalize me!
Overall I liked the presentation. The production values were solid and it had an immense amount of charm. The couple new games I saw looked promising (the more I saw of Splatoon the more I smiled - looks pretty awesome). But I feel like the back half of 2014 is looking kind of barren, which is distressing.
What do you think?
Bah!
