E3 2015 begins
Nintendo kicked off E3 2015 in a huge way yesterday with the first Nintendo World Championships in 25 years! The event saw sixteen competitors do battle in eight Nintendo video games—including modern hits, nostalgic classics, and even a new game reveal!
A few Pre-show surprises
Even before the Nintendo World Championships started, the company had a few big surprises up their sleeves for the fans watching live at the Los Angeles’ Nokia Center, and those tuning in to online stream. The first came during a special Pre-E3 Nintendo Treehouse stream where members of the treehouse showed off a never before seen level of Yoshi’s Woolly World. They played the game two player co-operative through a level featuring curtains that moved across the screen to reveal shadow platforms and hidden items. I was interested in this title before, but after seeing how much fun co-op mode is, now I’m even more excited!
Immediately following the demo, a video clip of Shigsato Itoi, the creator of the Mother trilogy of games, was shown where he announced that the first game in the series is releasing today under the name “Earthbound: Beginnings” for the Wii U Virtual Console. The Mother series was never a huge financial success for Nintendo (at least not compared to their flagship franchises like Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda), but the franchise has a sizable cult following, making this pretty exciting news.
Let the Championships, begin!
Next up was the Nintendo World Championships, hosted by Kevin Pereira, the famed former gaming commentator on G4’s Attack of the Show! He wasn’t the only celebrity in attendance though, as Kevin announced that eight well-known gaming personalities would join the winners of the Best Buy qualifying round that took place last month across the U.S. They were:
- Sinister1 (speedrunner)
- Cosmo (speedrunner)
- TheMexicanRunner (NES completionist)
- Bananas (speedrunner)
- Essentia (speedrunner)
- Trihex (speedrunner)
- Jovenshire (Smosh Games)
- Arin (Game Grumps)
There were four stages to the competition, laid out visually like a Super Mario Bros. level, with competitors playing a new game at each stage. Losers had to take a “pipe” to the Underground where they faced elimination from the championships. Here’s how it was represented:
Modern and Classic games
Over the duration of the competition, players duked it out in many games, including the recently released Splatoon, last year’s Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros., and the hot new upcoming title Super Mario Maker (they’ve now added the “Super” moniker, as it was previously called simply “Mario Maker”). Another welcome surprise came in Round 2 of the competition when Nintendo said that the next game would be Blastball for Nintendo 3DS, a previously unannounced game unveiled at the show.
Quote of the night has to go to Reggie Fils-Amie, who challenged Super Smash Bros. fighting legend Hungrybox and subsequently got destroyed, later saying: “I run a company for 16 hours a day. You play Smash for 16 hours a day.”
It was an amazing event overall, and what a great way to kick off E3!
Did you watch the Nintendo World Championships? Let me know what you thought about the competition in the comments section below!
For more E3 related information visit Best Buy Canada’s E3 Gaming Page
I watched the entire Nintendo World Championships and I have to agree it was an amazing event. Nintendo never fails to entertain, and Super Mario Maker left me speechless. Oh, and Yoshi’s Woolly World looked absolutely beautiful. I can see my family and I spending countless hours with this game.
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