3. Shulk Comes to Smash Bros.
Whatcha gonna do, gamer, when Shulkamania runs wild on you?!
Okay, so Shulk wasn’t the only big thing about Smash Bros. But come on, given our history, you have to expect this to be somewhere in our retrospective.
But since this is a Smash related moment, how about we talk about all of them here?
First things first, Nintendo seemed to be more open with its series’ competitive scene, creating a specific For Glory mode in online play. But it didn’t stop there as they invited 16 people from the competitive circuit to participate in a tournament at E3. And it continued with a 3DS tournament at PAX later in the year. Heck, it looks like they brought back the GameCube controller to more or less help with competitive play.
And then there were a number of other announcements as well. At E3, Nintendo revealed that Pac-Man would join the roster. This is not only the Bandai Namco character we all expected when it was revealed that they would help Sakurai and his team develop the game but it brought together four of the biggest mascots in video games history: Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, and Pac-Man.
I’m pretty sure most of you won’t get this reference, but this felt like the latest entry of Super Smash Bros. was becoming the 2002 Detroit Red Wings of video games.
But then there was the announcement that Mewtwo would be coming back in DLC form. The beloved Melee character was missing from Brawl, which resulted in some uproar by fans. Mewtwo will first go to those that purchased and registered both versions of the game and is expected to release to the masses afterwards as paid DLC.
Moving on to Shulk, this was a welcomed announcement here. It of course wasn’t the only announcement of the day that was either by Nintendo or Xenoblade-related (the 3DS port of Xenoblade and the New 3DS were also announced that day). But it would be the first of those that we would get to try out.
So how does he play? Well, not having either version, I can’t tell you directly. However, I have heard that he plays well. For a testimonial, here’s contributor Andrew Mathieu:
“He’s a great character and it’s nice to see him featured in Smash Bros., giving Ness and the Fire Emblem characters a run for their money.”
Well, there you have it.
…I feel like I’m missing something… Let me try this.
SHULK SMASH!
2. Nintendo Turns 125
So, what do you get a company that has a rainy day fund that laughs at most governments?
This year was Nintendo’s 125th year as a company. As some of you may know, Nintendo started as a card company, creating Hanafuda cards. What you may not know is that this started a revival of the game in the country, partially thanks to the Yakuza using the cards in gambling parlors.
You know, for kids.
Actually, Nintendo still makes Hanafuda cards to this day. As a matter of fact, up until recently, you could’ve gotten special Mario themed Hanafuda cards from Club Nintendo. But you can still import cards from Japan, featuring a number of different designs.
For the first 60+ years, this was enough for Nintendo. However, Hiroshi Yamauchi saw the limitations of being a pure playing card company and decided to diversify. This included selling instant rice, running a taxi company, creating a love hotel, and having a TV network. These things nearly bankrupted Nintendo.
Geez, scandals and bankruptcy. I think we have learned today that sex leads to nothing good.
But as we know, they survived, thanks in part to the man that would create the Game Boy (in 1988), Gunpei Yokoi. He created the Ultra Hand, Nintendo’s first big success in the toy market. From there, Nintendo would move into electronics, which led to the Color TV-Game series of home consoles, which would then lead to the Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System.
Since we all pretty much know Nintendo’s history after that, let’s just skip to the more recent stuff. We start with something that intrigued us when it was revealed. This is the Quality of Life platform that Nintendo will look to launch.
What is this platform? Well, from all appearances, Quality of Life deals with the elderly and allowing them to live comfortably at home. Basically, it would be a way to improve their… quality of life. With Japan’s growing senior citizen population, this is expected to make Nintendo a lot of money… assuming it works.
It wasn’t the only potential money making venture Nintendo jumped into. The amiibo was announced at E3 as a line of interactive toys, similar to the Skylanders from Activision and the Disney Infinity figures. While they aren’t being used as protagonists in any game at the moment, they can be used in a number of games to add certain elements.
Of course, the amiibo was just a small part of the E3 presentation as Nintendo made their presence known throughout the conference. The company started with a solid Digital Event Tuesday morning, streamed hours of content on their Twitch channel, and had a very successful Smash Bros. tournament. In short, Nintendo absolutely nailed E3 this year.
So, when you take all that happened and add in the successful games released this year, this was a very good birthday for Nintendo.
