Here’s a few random musings on E3, plus stuff you may have missed at the event.
Neil Druckmann, the Vice President of a small company called Naughty Dog, got the chance to meet a hero of his at E3… Can you guess who it was? That’s right, some unknown guy called Shigeru Miyamoto. The bearded Druckmann shared the following enthusiastic tweet of the notable meeting between the pair:
Druckmann And Miyamoto
I’ve been going to E3 since 1997. Every year I was hoping to run into Mr. Miyamoto and let him know how much his games have impacted my life. This year I finally got to sit down and chat with one of my heroes. Big thanks to @DWBakes for setting up our meeting. pic.twitter.com/ogWq6fPIdf
— Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) June 15, 2018
Druckmann himself is a big Super Mario fan, but what about Miyamoto? Has he played The Last of Us and the Uncharted games, for example? At the very least, we’d like to think both of them spoke about their enjoyment in creating some of the highest rated games of all time.
No doubt it’s a great look for the, seemingly, maturing industry.
E3 Is Changing, Reggie And Keighley Play Aces
Aside from the solid showings of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate., the Xenoblade 2 – Torna: The Golden Country DLC and Fire Emblem: Three Houses, it was still a muted E3 for Nintendo.
That might be down to the fact that new games are now announced all year round and, crucially, the old formats are changing – in fact, from everyone. With random Nintendo Directs every few months, loaded PlayStation Experiences at the end of the year (PSX), and other major shows taking announcements away every year, I don’t believe the event carries the same weight it once had.
I know, tell that to Microsoft at E3… hats off, Phil, that was some impressive stuff.
Moving on, another ‘historic’ meeting took place between Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aimé and games journalist Geoff Keighley. It’s a tradition at E3 that both of them meet and play against each other. This time they managed to squeeze in some Mario Tennis Aces. You can check out the video here:
We both had crazy schedules this year, but in the last hour of @e3 2018, we made it happen: Geoff vs. Reggie in Mario Tennis Aces! 12 years after our first E3 tennis battle in Wii Sports. pic.twitter.com/7rPkqiDSN3
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) June 16, 2018
It’s always desirable to see execs show a human side and Fils-Aimé’s more formal appearance takes a bit of a break in the video. With that said, Reggie’s no stranger to keeping that sense of whimsy going at all times. Not bitter, nor too saccharine about it, he simply stated last year at E3 that Nintendo wasn’t interested in conflating games with the continual bleakness of modern politics:
‘Making political statements are for other people to do. We want people to smile and have fun when they play our games.’
Mario Tennis Aces itself is out this week. Going from the free online tournament demo, it’s much better than whatever the insufficient Ultra Smash was trying to be. The online mode in Aces is stupidly intense, with crazy skill levels on show. The single player RPG-style content seems to have meat on its bones as well (invoking Mario Tennis: Power Tour for the GBA back in 2005).
Anyway, that’s all I have time to muse on, if you got this far, thanks, as always, for reading.