E3 2012 – Geekscape Goes Hands On With Pikmin 3 And The WiiU!
I’m going to put fuller thoughts into the podcast later today but, without the presence of Team Ico’s “The Last Guardian” or “GTA 5”, Nintendo’s WiiU was my main focus at E3 this year. And when Nintendo’s press conference started with the short clip of Miyamoto’s office and little Pikmin running around I lost my damn mind. Just ask Brian Walton. He was sitting right next to me and I was literally screaming. Not one of my prouder moments, but fuck it, I’m getting Pikmin 3!
When the convention doors opened, I b-lined it for Nintendo and stood in line for Pikmin 3. Unlike last year, I only had to wait through two people to get my chance with Pikmin 3 and the new WiiU tablet controls. Really, Pikmin is still Pikmin and I’m 100% okay with that. The Wii-mote controls handle just like Pikmin 1 & 2 do on the current Wii and the first batch of the game that I played was an exploration/collection run through a small map. The biggest boost is the graphics. The game looks gorgeous. The plant leaves and other environmental elements look photo realistic and the animations are smooth. Controlling is really easy and I could actually stay on top of my team of Pikmin a lot more fluidly with the Wii-mote. And the Rock Pikmin are a great addition for delivering damage to enemies and breaking down barriers quickly. The new elements of having your Pikmin also build bridges and other items is fantastic as well.
The new friends I made at E3…
I also got to play through the boss battle, commanding my Pikmin to take down a giant armored caterpillar. I handled this one like a Nintendo vet, first using the Rock Pikmin to shatter the boss’ exterior and then using my Red Pikmin to cling to him and dispense some damage. I know that only two players had stepped up before me… but you’re reading the words of a writer who wrecked that boss in record time. I throttled him.
I slaughtered this thing… SLAUGHTERED IT.
The Wii-U tablet ads a lot to the game. Not only can you control your reticle using the tablet’s gyroscope and accelerometer, but the tablet’s display screen doubles as an overworld map that helps you keep track of your various Pikmin scattered around the map. I found the tablet to be lightweight and really easy to use. Having a map of the entire area at my finger tips also helped the game a lot. You don’t have to go into sub-menus now in order to access your inventory or select commands. It made the entire experience much more fluid. I hope this is a Day 1 release.
On the other hand is Tank! Tank! Tank!, a competitive port of a popular Japanese arcade game that left the person next to me asking “is this a downloadable title?” Yeah. I agree. Between the graphics and the thin gameplay, there’s not a whole lot here. It is cool to use the camera on the Wii-U pad to take a photo to use as your avatar, but the game itself feels like something you would have played on the PS1. You literally pilot a tank against 3 other characters, or cooperatively work with them to take out enemies, while blasting a ton of junk and picking up power ups. The graphics weren’t great, the game wasn’t that unique and if it wasn’t for the controls, and the fact that I could play and pilot through my Wii-U pad screen instead of share a screen with the other players, I’d say it was completely forgettable.
Tank! Tank! Tank! kinda tanked tanked tanked…
Beyond that, I played around with a graphics display demo called Wii-U Panorama, which showcased the 360 degree graphics capability of the system. I watched pre-filmed demos of real world locations and events and could turn the Wii-U pad in 360 degree directions to get better vantage points on everything I was seeing. It was graphically impressive, but I don’t see anyone buying this unless there’s a way to add your own footage (I don’t possibly see how). I do hope it comes packaged with the system, because it’ll make it a lot easier to explain the technology to house-guests who heard about the Wii-U on the local news.
Okay, those are my hands on thoughts. I didn’t get to visit NintendoLand in my short time but I did experience a few more things. Check out my Geekscapepod Podcast later today with some further thoughts on E3, etc. and keep checking the site for my thoughts on the mech battler Hawken and Star Wars 1313!
