Smash Bros Wii U, Mario Kart 8 and Super Mario 3D World shown off in Nintendo Direct E3 sicknote
Not holding their own press conference at this year’s E3, Nintendo used their now-familiar Nintendo Direct video showcase to tout their upcoming wares today instead.
Among the the new Wii U titles revealed were Super Mario 3D World (a take on the similarly named 3DS title), the gravity-defying Mario Kart 8, side-scrolling Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and a pair of Super Smash Bros titles for Wii U and the 3DS handheld.
While all the games on show promise to deliver the Nintendo fun and frolics we’ve come to expect from the company, there remains a worrying lack of third-party titles attached to the Wii U. With the notable exception of Bayonetta 2, nearly every other third-party title in the presentation is a multi-format offering – not the sort of games you need to sell systems.
More worrying still is that many of Nintendo’s own big party titles on show in the presentation don’t have firm release dates set and look unlikely to be ready in time for the Christmas holiday rush – the most lucrative period of the year when Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One will be duking it out.
Only a fool would write Nintendo off, given the constant creativity their hardware and games offer, but there seems little in the company’s current gaming launch strategy that looks set to reverse the current shaky footing the Wii U console is on anytime soon.
Watch the entire presentation in the video above.
