Alright so I've reviewed Sony's booth, I've reviewed Microsoft's booth and here is Nintendo's review.
So I just got out of HaloFest and headed straight for Nintendo's booth. I noticed right aways that Nintendo's booth is about one third the size of Microsoft's and half that of Sony's. But size of the booth does not limit how many games were being shown and how many staff members were on hand.
The first game I saw was Ocarina of Time 3D, their were like 16 demo stations. I was extremely dissapointed because OoT has been out for some time and I think it would have been better for Nintendo to showcase other 3DS titles in its place. However plenty of people were playing and didn't seem to mind the fact it had already been released.
Skipping over OoT I noticed that Nintendo had brought their big guns,StarFox64, Kid Icarus, MarioKart7 and Super Mario 3D Land were all playable. So I decided to check them all out.
First was StarFox64. It was just as I remembered it I sat playing a bit and the Nintendo guy was chatting with me about the game. I decided mid game to ask a question, I was like How much new content is in this game. He then replied "I don't know, I never played the origional" I held my tongue and then asked if I could save between levels. The Nintendo employee said "I'm not sure" I was like how can you not know that. He then told me that he had actually only played the PAX demo a few hours prior to PAX and had never had any time to check it out prior. He was like "I've played for about twenty minutes". I then decided to ask the big question "How long have you worked at Nintendo and what is your job". He replied he had worked at Nintendo for two months and his job was to teach people how to play video games. I continued playing the game but I was really un-impressed with the lack of knowledge and experiance the Nintendo employee had. The game was just as good as ever and the graphics were pretty awsome.
I then went onto Super Mario 3D Land, this game was sweet. Its everything you'd think of when playing a Mario platformer. Also the employee who showcased the game actually knew some basic knowledge. Infact he had worked for Nintendo for over a year in product development. I took the chance to ask about WiiU, he said he was involved with it. I told him I had recently read an article that Nintendo had downgraded the controller from the initial dev kit. I said the chips inside were downgraded and the screen resolution and controller itself were apparently built cheaper. I asked him if Nintendo was actually cutting costs, he laughed and told me that he could not officially comment on anything regarding WiiU as the product is in development. However he said "That doesn't sound like Nintendo and isn't something I think we would do" I asked him if that meant the story was false and he said again "It doesn't sound like us, but again I can't officially say anything". I then talked to him abit about the game and he was very informative, I re-lined up four times so I could play all four of the playable demo's. The Nintendo employee chatted with me the whole time I was in line.
I told him that Sony has actual developers at their booth and asked why Nintendo never has actual developers present. He told me that it is because all of Nintendo's games come from Japan. But I countered and said last year when DKC:R was at PAX nobody from Retro was present. I then said that TreeHouse and Nintendo's localization teams should have some sort of presence. He then told me that he didn't know why no actual developers were at PAX, said he would ask his superiors. I then asked I said Reggie works in Redmond he lives in this area why isn't he here? I told him even an hour of Reggie being on the show floor signing autographs or meeting fans would draw in tons of gamers and press to the booth. But then said Reggie to my knowledge has never been to PAX. The employee then responded he only has ever talked to Reggie once in the lunch room. But he doesn't know why Reggie couldn't ever make an appearance and agreed it would be a very good idea. He said he would ask his supervisor why Reggie or any other higher up is never at PAX when he gets back to his office.
After spending about 45 minutes playing Super Mario 3D Land and being in line so that I could finish all four demo's. It was time to say good bye to the great Nintendo employee and head to MarioKart7.
MarioKart7 was the best looking MarioKart game I have played. The 3D was amazing just as good as Nintendogs and Ocarina Of Time. During the demo you got to fly with a hang glider as well as dive under water. Initially I was sceptical but gliding was seemless and underwater was just the same as driving out of water. The gameplay was awsome so then came my questions for the Nintendo guy. He tried his best to asnwer the questions. I asked him about the online features such as whether it would use friend codes, he then said online was being kept secret. I then asked him if balloon battle would make a comeback as free for all like that of MarioKartDS or Team Battle from MarioKart:Wii. He said he wasn't sure what modes would be included and that I should wait for Nintendo to release more info. I asked him a few other questions but again he didn't know anything about the product. He said he had only played the demo as I had and only knew about what was in the demo. I finally asked him how long he had worked for Nintendo and he said a few months.
Then it was onto the Kid Icarus demo. I stood in line to play and gotta say the game looks beautiful. The game's levels are all split into two sections half on rails flying , half hack and slash or shooting. Great concepts however I quickly noticed a problem, you aim with the stylus however you need to press the triggers and at time the a and b buttons. It is very difficult to fly with one hand while pressing buttons and aiming the stylus with the other. My hand cramped up before the demo was done and I was having alot of trouble aiming the stylus while hitting the triggers and buttons. The gameplay was pretty fun however and the boss battle was mind blowing. This time the Nintendo employee wasn't really there, he briefly told me the controls but when I tried talking to him walked off. I guess their was multiple stations but the other Nintendo employees had been very talkative. I didn't get to ask many if any questions about Kid Icarus the employee came back as I was leaving and gave me some AR cards which he said would be of use when the game launched.
The last major Nintendo game I wanted to check out was SkywardSword. I got in line to play, their was three demo modes however I had not seen much third party content and didn't have time to play all three. The three modes were flying, dungeon and boss battle. I watched the player ahead of me play boss battle and it looked pretty trippy. When I got my turn I selected Dungeon and entered the dungeon. I had to use the flying beetle to hit a button and explored the dungeon. However I quickly ran into a huge group of Deku Baba's. Unlike previous Deku plants these either had a slant virtically or horizontally. In order to kill the plants you need to slash in the corresponding way. However WiiMotion+ is really , really accurate and you need to have perfect percision. I managed to kill one plant but the rest were tearing me apart finally the Nintendo employee told me to use my arrows as I wasn't having much luck slashing them. So with a few arrows I took them out. Later I ran into a skeleton character who kicked my butt and killed me. In conclusion the addition of WM+ makes Skyward Sword far more difficult to play then Twilight Princess, I'm not sure if its just the WM+ or also the difficulty being higher but the game definatly was far more difficult then I remember previous Zelda titles being.
Anyways while playing the Skyward Sword I had a chance to talk to the Nintendo employee. She was extatic about Zelda saying she named her dog Impa and was getting a tattoo of the TriForce. I asked her how I would go about contacting Nintendo Of Canada, she had no clue. I asked if I could get her business card but she said she was not allowed to talk about products. I was trying to learn about who to contact about Nintendo Of Canada. I wanted to get some contact info. She finally told me that their was a Nintendo PR person walking around PAX and that I should ask the person. She told me that the PR rep would know about Nintendo Of Canada operations, however she told me that the PR rep was wearing a Mario shirt with an exhibitor badge, however she said that the PR rep could be anywhere on the show floor or outside in the handheld lounge or in the lobby. Well the show floor is huge and the lounge was three stories. With over 20,000 people walking around spotting the Nintendo Rep would be almost impossible. However I decided to try.
I started by scouring the show floor however couldn't find the rep anywhere. I then decided to check out the rest of Nintendo's showings at PAX. I went out to the handheld gaming lounge.
While in the lounge I noticed Nintendo had Kirby's Return to Dream Land playable. I decided to step in and play the game, I joined in four player co-op and had a blast it played alot like the two player co-op in Brawl. It felt like a genuine Kirby game, however a Nintendo employee was not present to talk to about the game. I played a level before deciding to check out Kirby's other title Mass Attack.
I sat down and played Kirby's Mass Attack it was pretty cool , old school Kirby mixed with Pikmin. Make sure you have the right amount of Kirby's to open doors, bring down enemies and unlock certain things. The demo was amazing and I really enjoyed it. I got finished up and again no Nintendo employee present at least none that I could see.
I decided to check out the Pokemon booth. They had a huge AR code to be scanned to see a giant Reshiram. I also got a free T-shirt and four free AR cards. The Nintendo employee uploaded the Pokedex data for all three so I could use the AR card. He allowed me to take a few cards for myself and I left.
I spent a few minutes asking around about the Nintendo rep. However nobody knew where they were. I asked when the rep would come by their booth and nobody knew when or if the rep would come by. Finally I gave up, checked out Fortune Street wasn't all that impressed. Fortune Street appeared to be alot like monopoly a board game configuration. I asked if the game had anything more to it like MarioParty and the guy said their was about six minigames. I decided to stop playing fairly quick after buying some property. On my way out they were handing out Kirby Cotton Candy so I took some and completed my tour of the Nintendo booth.
In conclusion Nintendo's games were by far the most enjoyable of any of the three major companies. However the staff members representing Nintendo should not have been. I mean if your going to represent a game then you need to have knowledge of that product. Playing the demo I'm playing at PAX. Having never played the origional StarFox64, having no knowledge of the product. Thats embarrasing, also why were so many employees so new. I mean the most senior one had worked for Nintendo a year the other three told me they had worked for Nintendo for a few months.
I was pretty turned off by the lack of developers and staff with knowledge of Nintendo. Sony's booth was staffed entirely by developers who knew their products inside and out. Microsoft's booth was over flowing with 343 guys who knew Halo in and out. Nintendo's booth had a ton of new employees who didn't know anything about the products they were demoing.
So games great, staff enthuisiastic as hell but not that knowledgable. No PR person or developers to talk to left all my questions un-answered. A huge part of what makes a booth good to me is talking to the developers and staff about the products and getting knowledge. Their was absolutely no knowledge except the one guy who had worked at Nintendo for a year.
Again I was impressed by the games but not the staff. Not that its the staffs fault as many of them worked for Nintendo for only months, but Nintendo should have given them hands on time with the demo prior to PAX and they should have been informed about the games in greater detail. I knew more about most of the games then the Nintendo employees.
Anyways thats my review of Nintendo's PAX booth. Look tomorow for my final wrap up of PAX on the Gaming Board!
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
