If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ve probably noticed that I like Nintendo a lot. They are my absolute favorite video game developer and I’m always first in line to try out anything they have to offer. This is probably why I don’t have very fond memories of their 2015 E3 event. I hold them to a bit of a higher standard. But, it’s time to rewatch the event, and maybe I’ll come away from it a little more happy with it. Maybe.

The event starts with a skit of Satoru Iwata, Reggie Fils-Aime, and Shigeru Miyamoto, as portrayed by actual Jim Henson Muppets, making their way to a stage to begin announcing new games. When they arrive, they suddenly start transforming into Star Fox characters, all to introduce Star Fox Zero. I’m not gonna lie, this is the best.

Star Fox Zero looks cool, but to be clear, it also just came out a few weeks ago and I really like it. So, of course it looks good to me. After showing a trailer for the game, they transition to Miyamoto talking about coming up with the idea for Star Fox and some of the new concepts for the new game. It’s actually kind of cool, as this isn’t the kind of thing you expect from an E3 press conference.

Next up, Reggie welcomes us to the Nintendo Digital Event and discusses it’s theme of “transformation”. He points out things like Amiibo, the upcoming Nintendo theme parks, mobile games, and the NX as ways that Nintendo is transforming. He then introduces Karthik Bala from Activision to discuss Skylanders Super Chargers. The main focus of this segment is on the exclusive Nintendo Skylanders figures that can also be used as Amiibo. And yeah, this isn’t a very exciting segment, but it’s still cool to see this information presented as just two people talking, rather than as a big splashy stage show.

After a short Muppet skit of them dancing to the music that plays when Mario is invincible, we get a look at The Legend of Zelda: TriForce Heroes. It looks pretty fun, but only if you have two people to play it with. I haven’t played it, so I can’t actually say how it turned out. We also get to see Hyrule Warriors Legends, the 3DS version of the Wii U game, Hyrule Warriors. I was not a big fan of the original game, but still, it’s kind of cool to see it running on the 3DS.

We then get a series of trailers, starting with Metroid Prime: Federation Force. This game has gotten a lot of hate on the internet, but personally, I think it looks pretty fun. I’m pretty sure if it wasn’t for the lack of mainline Metroid games lately, no one would mind that this game exists. We also get trailers for Fire Emblem Fates and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, both of which only show CG cutscenes. They’re totally fine trailers, and I actually really want to try out Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Next, we get a really good trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles X, a game I’ve been playing a lot lately. It’s a really nice trailer that shows the story set up as well as some gameplay. Then we get a pair of Animal Crossing games, Happy Home Designer and Amiibo Festival. Both games are out now, and neither are particularly good, so not the most exciting thing to rewatch.

After that, we get another developer interview, this time for Yoshi’s Woolly World. The segment goes in depth on the creation of the Yarn Yoshi Amiibo as well as the functions of other Amiibo in the game. The whole game is adorable and looks like a lot of fun. It’s been out for awhile now, but unfortunately I haven’t played it yet. Rewatching this just reminded me that I really need to do that some time.

Next we get another series of trailers. Starting with Yo-Kai Watch, a Pokemon-like game that came out last year. I’ve played a demo for it, and it seems alright. Then we get trailers for Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam and Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash. Both games looks okay, but nothing terribly exciting.

Finally, we get one last developer interview, this time for Super Mario Maker. It’s really cool as it goes into not just Mario Maker, but also some of the design that went into the original Super Mario Bros. I’ve put in over one hundred hours into Mario Maker, and this segment really made me want to go back and put more time into it.

And that’s the Digital Event. Overall, I think this piece has sounded pretty positive. Unfortunately, I’m still leaving it feeling a little underwhelmed.  The one thing it’s really lacking is just one big surprise. Last year, we had Splatoon and Mario Maker come out of nowhere and surprise us. This year was largely just updates on stuff we already know about and small announcements. But, it was still fun.

And if you want to watch it yourself, you can find it on Nintendo’s YouTube page, right here.