I told you so.

"Hey, our console is struggling, shouldn't we show a trailer for Zelda to get people hyped about Wii U?"
"Nah, let's show them a new playable character in yet another platformer."

Tropical Freeze is my most anticipated game bar none, but this was the WRONG game to show here.
The stupidity of post-2010 Nintendo knows no bounds.

They weren't thinking, and that was the problem.

I'm not bothered by the fact that they showed it nearly as much as I am bothered by how bad it looks.

Seriously, looks like returns on the dolphin emulator. Retro can do better, much better.

They seriously have to have another project, because no way this took 4 years.

Not gonna lie. I was hoping it wasn't Zelda, because this terrible show doesn't deserve Zelda.

Edit: Or any major reveal, come to think of it.

But... realistic fur.

Considering how terrible the show was... Announcing anything zomfg would change the theme of this show

He's got a point - there's no way this took 4 years.

Because, you know, DKCR has been out for 3.

Is this the Wii U hate/doom thread? If not I'm walking away.

Soooo Cranky Kong eh? This will help with the Wii U sales for sure. I can totally see millions of people rushing to get a Wii U now.

I want to pose a plausible explanation for the sequence of events that may have transpired...

1. The people behind the VGX approached Reggie with an offer to showcase a game. Knowing that the Wii U isn't doing quite as well as they'd like it to, Reggie takes interest in the offer.

2. Reggie contacts Iwata and explains the offer, and says he'd like to show something off.

3. Iwata tells Reggie that he can't show off anything that they weren't already planning on showing off around this time, especially at a relatively minor event. Reggie pushes for things like a Zelda U teaser, or things like that, but Iwata is resolute that these things are not yet to be shown.

4. Reggie asks if there's anything that Nintendo were about to announce, and Iwata mentions that, with DKC:TF set for release early next year, they were planning on doing a bit of hyping for that game. It was going to be one of the announcements in a Nintendo Direct to coincide with the release of Miiverse on 3DS (which is expected within a day or two, just after the Nintendo Network downtime), but there was a DKC:TF reveal that they wouldn't mind bringing forward a few days - Cranky Kong as a playable character.

5. Reggie decides that it's better than nothing, and accepts the situation as it is.

Reggie isn't "just a puppet", remember. He makes a lot of decisions. But many of his decisions need to be given the OK by the head office in Japan. This is especially true with regards to game reveals - he can't just decide to reveal things that are currently being kept secret, because it affects all of Nintendo, not just Nintendo of America.

So basically, the scenario I just put forward demonstrates that there is an entirely rational reason for what happened. And the always-critical internet gaming community naturally took it as an offence. The rest of the audience will probably take it for what it is - a bit of video for an upcoming Wii U game.

Don't get me wrong - I'm disappointed that Nintendo didn't have something big to show. But I'm neither offended nor concerned by the fact that they didn't. As some have pointed out, there really wasn't any big reveal during it at all.

Indeed, I take great heart in the fact that gamers are so up-in-arms about Nintendo's failure to show off anything big. It shows how much passion is really out there for Nintendo. Nobody was up-in-arms about Sony skipping the show entirely. Nobody was concerned about the lack of any big announcements from Microsoft. Only Nintendo is generating the passion of gaming right now. And that gives me hope that Wii U sales will be growing more over the next few months.