Nintendo E3 Prediction/Wish List Part 1 - WiiU Games

First off, I apologize for how belated this post is. I was hoping to have this out about a week ago, but I moved into a new apartment and completely underestimated how much of my time and energy it would take. That, and I just got my internet hooked up today. So without further ado, my half prediction/half wish list of Nintendo's WiiU lineup during E3:

The Legend of Zelda U (EAD Group 3)


The first technical leap for Zelda since the 2000 tech demo. Hype level overload.

So we all know this one is coming. Nintendo is hoping that Hyrule Warriors will scratch people's Zelda itch this year, but let's be honest: it won't. The game may end up being great, maybe the best Dynasty Warriors style game ever. But at the end of the day it's no "real" Zelda game. EAD 3's sequel won't be coming in 2014, but I think sometime in 2015 is a safe bet. If they're insistent on forcing the GamePad on people (I huge mistake in my opinion), then show off how useful it will be for navigation, inventory, and puzzles in Zelda. Oh, and make it pretty. Not "realistic", but pretty. That always helps.

Yarn Yoshi (Good Feel)


The art style looks great. Let's just hope the game is actually good...

What the hell happened to this game? They announced it about a year and a half ago as Good Feel's spiritual successor to Kirby's Epic Yarn and the first console Yoshi game since Yoshi's Story. Then they went completely dark as far as I can tell. The lukewarm reception of Yoshi's New Island on 3DS may have had something to do with this. Either way, I'd love to see this game pop up at E3 in one of Nintendo's live streams, and this may end up as a late 2014/early 2015 title given the lengthy development time.

Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem (Atlus and Intelligent Systems)


Nintendo's gone a bit crossover happy recently, and that's not a bad thing.

This one was announced at the same Nintendo Direct Yarn Yoshi debuted at, and it too has mostly gone dark since then. Given how early the title was in development, this one makes a little more sense. SMT and Fire Emblem both have pretty rabid fan bases, and this crossover was brilliant on Nintendo's part. Those are the types of gamers who would go out and buy a console for this title, assuming it's good (which it probably will be given the pedigree of both developers). If they want to get the hype train moving for 2015, now's the time to give this a nice big proper reveal.

Animal Crossing U (EAD Group 2)


Probably not what console Animal Crossing fans were looking for...

So this one hasn't been announced yet, but we all know it's coming eventually, right? EAD 2 does two things: they make casual games like the Wii Series and Nintendo Land, and they make Animal Crossing sequels. Every Nintendo system has gotten one since the Gamecube, and with New Leaf being released in late 2012 in Japan I figure the next game on WiiU is well into development. No chance of it hitting this year, but a teaser at the show would be nice. The Animal Crossing Plaza thing is cool I guess but we know what fans really want here, and it's not some glorified companion app for the 3DS game.

New Pokemon RPG (Genius Sonority)


More this, less "remember those episodes of Pokemon when they fought in a stadium?!

While the Pokemon games have been major critical and commercial successes for Nintendo's handhelds, they've never really got it quite right on consoles. Game Freak has been pretty explicit in stating they have no desire to ever develop a console game themselves, and in all honesty they have enough work with the yearly handheld titles. Stadium and Battle Revolution were competent as extensions of those games, but Coliseum and Gale of Darkness is where the series needs to go. They were flawed titles, but the idea of a great, fully 3D Pokemon role playing game on consoles is something fans have been clamoring for. You wanna push hardware Nintendo? Get Genius Sonority on the phone (they made the Gamecube and Wii titles) and give them all the resources they need to make a truly great WiiU Pokemon game.

Paper Mario U (Vanpool and Intelligent Systems)


Nostalgia level over 9000.

The recent 3DS sequel "Sticker Star" wasn't as well received as the first three Paper Mario games, but it was respectable in its own right. While I don't see this as being a key title for Nintendo's console, it's the smaller games like these that tide fans over between the major releases. Given the complete lack of all third party support on WiiU going forward, these types of games are more important than they've ever been. Intelligent Systems has been working on other things recently, so I would expect Vanpool to take up lead on this (they assisted on Sticker Star) for a mid 2015 release, likely away from the inevitably packed holiday season.

Other WiiU Games:

Monolith's sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles, tentatively known as "X", is supposed to be hitting both Japan and the West before the end of the year. Am I the only one who feels like we don't know a ton about it, though? We've seen a fair amount of gameplay footage on this, just not a lot of it recently. I figure this one will get plenty of stream time at E3. I expect Bayonetta 2 to get a solid amount of time as well, just maybe not as much. While Xenoblade was a critical darling, Bayonetta is realistically a pretty niche title. The sequel wasn't greenlit by Sega for a reason. And after the sales of Wonderful 101, I doubt Nintendo is gonna dedicate a massive amount of time to this one knowing that it probably won't do gangbusters.


I can't lie. For tech on par with a 8+ year old console this looks impressive.

And of course, we have the two games that we've been hearing a ton about recently: Super Smash Bros U and Hyrule Warriors. I figure both will get at least one or two major character reveals along with Western release dates. And just to get people talking, I'm sure they'll show off a new mode or something we don't know beyond the requisite "here's a bunch of gameplay footage for both, now go out and buy a WiiU to play these games with all the characters you love". Cause they're definitely going to do that too.

That's all I got for you today. It's a pretty reasonable predictions list but one I figure people would be happy to see come to fruition. My write up for the 3DS one is pretty much done at this point, and should be up either today or tomorrow. Fair warning, it's a lot less plausible than this one. Spoiler alert: Mother 4 is on my game reveal list. Yea, really. In the meantime, why not check out my blog for Microsoft's conference, along with the two that I did for Sony's big show? If you like what you read, why not give it an upvote or throw your two cents below? I'd love to hear what you guys think, as always.

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