Going to events becomes part of life’s routine over time. After all, with Cubed3 being eight years old now, travelling all over the place is now like second nature…yet the fatigue factor never subsides and the whole ‘Amsterdam Experience’ was nothing like the norm that people may expect. Special cakes and a quick visit to the Red Light District were certainly not the order of the day, with a tiresome event full of last minute changes and confusion being the reality. However, the Nintendo 3DS arrived with a slew of games in tow, and hey, that was the true purpose of the adventure. Taking place at the end of January, Cubed3 looks back to see what was taken from the event and how it may have helped or hindered the 3DS launch in the US and Europe.
Rather than complaining about the changes in flights, missing Nintendo representatives at Schipol Airport, being told there would be chance to freshen up at the hotel first and then instead being taken straight to the venue (with our luggage!), as well as finding out the location where the presentation was taking place was a refurbished air-hanger affair that was absolutely freezing inside, it may be best to jump straight to the positives for the sake of brevity (not that we are ungrateful, Nintendo – thanks for the invite!). After all, whilst annoying at the time, it has been just over a month since it all happened and things have simmered down considerably.
Nintendo’s main aim with 3DS during the main conference was to show how Third Parties are backing the system with more support than ever. In order to prove this, Ubisoft, Konami and Capcom staff were brought on stage to talk about their upcoming releases, whilst Jonathan Ross acted as host in-between, with sprinklings of Laurent Fischer and Satoru Shibata from the European Nintendo arm rounding off the line-up. As far as general presentations go, despite sounding intriguing, it was all thoroughly disappointing. Unfortunately, in this day and age there needs to be something surprising to catch the attention of attendees. However, nothing like that appeared and the eager audience was ‘treated’ to a re-hash of what was revealed following the Japanese event earlier in January, except without any mention of Level-5’s strong support, Square Enixs Kingdom Hearts, or even Konamis Metal Gear Solid that was shown mid-way through 2010.
In fairness, there was a huge amount on the trailer shown, but a vast amount of titles were from Ubisoft, and whilst we should be thankful that the Imagine series was not present, nor any form of Animalz titles appeared, seeing yet more Rabbids and Tom Clancy did not exactly enthral the crowd. It does not matter that Ubisofts launch games may well be of a high standard overall, it was a case of people watching not being inspired in the slightest. Another shocker was a half-baked, clearly rushed version of Pro Evolution Soccer with a default camera that looked awkward as it followed the player with the ball around, and lacking any online Wi-Fi matches (something that even the two DS iterations were able to cope with!). Okay, Konami was quick to brag about how this is the first time Pro Evolution Soccer has launched with a new piece of hardware (forgetting the International Superstar Soccer series completely, it seems), but everyone knows the inevitable 2012 edition will be here later in the year, so it kind of makes this half-hearted effort extremely redundant.
However, the shining light came in the form of Capcom, a developer that has definitely started pushing the system considerably right from the off. Between the graphically stunning Super Street Fighter IV 3D to Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D and plans for Mega Man Legends 3 on the horizon, as well as Resident Evil Revelations, it is clear that it is continuing its trend of pushing Nintendos hardware more than other developers.
Nintendo itself has been somewhat quiet, comparatively, stepping back at launch to allow Third Parties room to breathe after continuous accusations that the Kyoto-based company always dominates sales on its own systems to the point that some other developers end up seeking opportunities on different formats. The Monster Games-developed Pilotwings Resort and Masahiro Sakurais revival of Kid Icarus gained the majority of the attention, with the former being akin to a Wii Sports spin-off, and the latter similar to Sin and Punishment in places, while everything else took more of a backseat. Even The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and nintendogs + cats did not cause mass panic amongst the crowd.
The trouble with the Nintendo 3DS is that it is very difficult to convey how it works in words, or even in screenshots and video clips. It is something that really needs to be experienced in person, and what Nintendo did in Amsterdam was restrict that solo experience by having swarms of representatives hovering around constantly. Normally at events it is a case of having somebody on-hand to give guidance if stuck, yet in this instance people were almost sitting on your shoulder as you played the demo, constantly talking and distracting people from the general 3D atmosphere. Thankfully, though, Capcoms Resident Evil and Street Figher entries were exceptions to this, with those in attendance having plenty of time to be left to their own devices and familiarise themselves with how the titles work and the extent of the 3D functionality. In all honesty, though, whilst the extra depth was impressive to a degree, the 3D included in these types of traditional releases does not really appear to have much added much to the overall experience, just as certain new movies are not particularly enhanced by the inclusion of 3D.
Nintendo may be taking a step back from the launch of the system to providing more breathing space for other developers, but it is the range of Augmented Reality cards that are included free of charge in the pack that impress the most, showing off the capabilities of the Nintendo 3DS, as has already been discussed in-depth in the AR Games: Target Shooting mini-game accessed from the Question Mark Block card included in the retail box. These little treats alone back up the comments from Laurent Fischer during the conference about how Nintendo has been exploring the idea of 3D since the days of the humble 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System.
The gyro-sensor cannot be ignored either, with both The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Steel Diver making clever use of the feature (to move the first-person camera in the former, and to change the periscope perspective in the latter), as well as SEGAs Super Monkey Ball 3D using it for tilt control of the simians-trapped-in-balls as you head towards the final goal. It is one of those features that people seem to be overlooking, but following the success of motion controls on Wii, and the inclusion of tilting in new mobile handsets, it was imperative that Nintendo included something similar for 3DS and the result is very pleasing indeed.
StreetPass and SpotPass may seem like unusual concepts, yet they are also key inclusions from Nintendo. One is the ability to transfer data between systems in sleep mode when travelling (or even automatically battle or exchange gifts in certain games), and the other gives access to various pieces of download data, with Nintendo teaming up with the likes of BT in the UK to offer plenty of Wi-Fi Hotspot access around the country. This will come is very useful when EuroSport begins its delivery of 3D video to the system, the deal with BSkyB is finalised for 3D clips, and Aardmans exclusive one-minute Shaun the Sheep short episodes start transmitting.
There were so many positives to take away from the Amsterdam event that looking back now, the hiccoughs with the arrangements of getting over there and sorting out hotels were mere minor blips that should not in any way detract from the wonder that is the 3DS. It was even revealed that there will be no Friend Codes anymore, with the system having its own ID that is spread around automatically to avoid hassle. Therefore, despite jokes from Yoshinori Ono-san (of Street Fighter IV fame) about how he had the crowd was there to see the Virtual Boy 2, the whole event just further proved how much there is to look forward to when the final hardware arrives in Europe on 25th March, 2011.
