I played a handful of levels created by Nintendo employees, and what hooked me in the end was the unpredictability of what I was playing. If you've played a Mario game enough times, you know what's coming in each and every level; where and what the next enemy is, where the secret Fire Flower is placed, how to cheat the system and skip to the end. But Super Mario Maker ensures that everyone who picks it up will have a unique experience, as well as the opportunity to create their own one-of-a-kind experiences. I found myself shouting and laughing along with the people I was playing with, overcome with genuine surprise and shock at how innovative and outright bizarre these user-made levels could be.
Super Mario Maker is a fever dream, one that you orchestrate yourself along with thousands of others, subjecting one another to your creations of fancy. It's a fresh way of looking at a series that has done nearly everything in the book already; instead of making another game, why not let the players make the game they want? I'm already itching to get my hands on it again, and to finish my perilous level of flying Bloopers and Wii Fit Trainer mushrooms.
Square Enix's role-playing game Final Fantasy 7 has had its PC version release date delayed to Winter this year, the company announced at its E3 press conference today. In addition, Square Enix confirmed that the game would be coming to iOS.
The news followed on after the company showed the trailer for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, which was
Square Enix is up next in the round of E3 2015 press conferences today. But what do they have in store?
Here's an ongoing live roundup of all the biggest news during today's Square Enix E3 2015 press conference. Feel free to keep refreshing the page for more news as it gets announced.
Previously Announced Games With New Info:
gets an appropriately explosive new gameplay trailer filled with explosions. Avalanche Studios took to the stage to announce that the game will release in North America on December 1, 2015 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. A hands-on trailer was also shown explaining the new features of the game.
During Nintendo's E3 2015 Direct presentation, the company revealed a new gameplay trailer for the next entry in the Mario Tennis series. This game will be called Ultra Smash, and it brings together the classic Mario Tennis gameplay, characters, and power-ups, but with the higher resolution graphics of the Wii U.
One of the new power-ups shown was the Mega Mushroom, which caused each player to grown in size (and seemingly strength) considerably.
Two disparate Mario worlds will collide in the newly announced Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam. Announced at Nintendo's E3 2015 Direct presentation, the game combines the RPG worlds of the Mario & Luigi saga along with Paper Mario.
The gameplay combines elements of both games, and you'll need the unique powers of both the physical and foldable forms to get pas puzzles and foil bad guys. The combat system seems to borrow elements of both the action-heavy overworld from Mario & Luigi, and the rhythm-focused combat from Paper Mario.
Later this year, the Wii U is getting a new game that mixes up Animal Crossing with a new set of Amiibo. The game, called Amiibo Festival, is a board-game like experience with and Animal Crossing-like setting.
Instead of running around your town collecting fish, fossils, and bells, you'll roll a set of dice--the marker you land on will determine whether you find something rare and exciting, or if you have to sacrifice your hard-earned wealth. The game was debuted during Nintendo's E3 2015 presentation, and few details were shown, but it looks like a multiplayer game that will require Amiibo to play.
Nintendo announced Metroid Prime: Federation Force for 3DS during its Digital Event at E3 2015, marking the return of the series after a five year hiatus following the release of , the first-person Nintendo DS game from 2006.
The game is coming in 2016, but there's no word if there's a single player component, or if Federation Force and Blast Ball are multiplayer experiences only. Stay tuned for more coverage of Nintendo games and Metroid Prime: Federation Force as it develops.
It looks like the , because Nintendo has just announced that it's bringing Hyrule Warriors Legends, a reimagining of the highly successful Wii U game, to 3DS. Due in early 2016, Hyrule Warriors Legends will contain every character from Hyrule Warriors, including DLC characters, in addition to two fresh faces: Tetra and The King of Red Lions. These two new characters will feel right at home as Koei Tecmo is also going to craft new stages based on The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker.
As of January, Nintendo has shipped more than one million units of Hyrule Warriors for Wii U worldwide. GameSpot reviewer Miguel Concepcion found the mix of Zelda-style objectives and Dynasty Warriors gameplay to be highly enjoyable, scoring the original Hyrule Warriors 8/10.
Nintendo may have been tight lipped about Zelda for Wii U at this year's E3, but it still had news for Zelda fans, including the announcement of a new 3DS game, The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes.
Triforce Heroes is very similar to the , where multiple players work together to solve puzzles and overcome dungeons. This time, only three characters can play together, but for the first time in a Zelda game, Triforce Heroes includes online multiplayer.
Stacking players into totems is meant to be a big part of puzzle solving, but there are also costumes that you can find or buy that give the wearer unique traits and abilities, such as a samurai outfit that gives you a spin attack, or a bomb outfit that turns regular bombs into much larger bombs.
Nintendo will unleash , the game that lets you make your own Super Mario Bros. levels on the Wii U and share them with players all over the world, on September 11, 2015. The release date was announced during Nintendo's E3 2015 Digital Event, and is part of Nintendo's celebration for the 30th Anniversary of the Mario Bros. series.
In addition to the release date, Nintendo demonstrated some of the new features coming to Super Mario Maker. So far, we knew that you could drag and drop items and characters from Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, and New Super Mario Bros, but we now know that you can manipulate the behavior of these items, including how they interact with one another. For example: you can now put Mario in a cloud and pilot him around a level while he shoots fireballs, for example. Goombas can now float and swim underwater, not unlike shrimp, according to Nintendo's Takashi Tezuka.
Amiibo fans can also look forward to playing as their favorite characters in Super Mario Maker; after touching an Amiibo to the GamePad, Mario will transform into whichever character's amiibo was used when he picks up a mushroom during the game.
In case people are worried that creating their own Mario levels will be a monumental task, Nintendo is providing a small, reference design book with examples of basic and complex design concepts, with every purchase of Super Mario Maker.
Finally, Nintendo will also release two, 8-bit style Mario amiibos to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of Nintendo's most iconic series.
During Nintendo's press conference today, the company announced that more new Amiibo are on the way along with "more games for them to inhabit." And one surprising new game you'll be able to use those Amiibo in is the upcoming .
Nintendo is release two Amiibo that will be able to cross-over into the Wii U version of Activision's figure-collecting game. Those two toys will be Hammer Slam Bowser with a Clown Cruiser vehicle and Turbo-Charged Donkey Kong with Barrel Blaster vehicle. The base of both figures will have a plastic piece on the base that lets you switch the figures compatibility between use as either an Amiibo or a Skylander.
Nintendo hosted its E3 digital event this morning, and among the many announcements were quite a few release dates. We've collected all of those announced so far for for you below; we'll continue to update this story with more as they're announced.
Wii U:
Star Fox Zero -- holiday 2015
3DS:
The Legend of Zelda: Triforce Heroes -- fall 2015
For details on everything else that was announced during today's Nintendo Direct, .
Nintendo is kicking off this morning's round of press conferences with their E3 2015 Nintendo Direct presentation. But what will they show?
Here's a live ongoing roundup of all the news as they get announced! Keep checking as time goes on for all the big news and announcements.
Previously Announced Games With New Info:
Nintendo revealed more about the new Star Fox game for Wii U. The game . These two new toys will be Hammer Slam Bowser with a Clown Cruiser vehicle and Turbo-Charged Donkey Kong with Barrel Blaster vehicle. The base of each will have a plastic piece it that lets you switch the figures compatibility between use as either an Amiibo or a Skylander.
Take a look at this announcement teaser for Transformers: Devastation, a third-person action-brawler game from Platinum Games and Activision.
Check out this pre-alpha trailer for Time Machine, a time travel dinosaur safari game exclusively for the Oculus Rift.
Check out 6 minutes of a Warzone match in Halo 5: Guardians captured at an event during E3 2015.
