Nintendo will live and die by how well their top tier characters do. First up is their pride and joy, Super Mario
Next up is one of my favorite games at E3 this year, Mario Kart 8. I have always been a fan of Mario Kart games and Mario Kart 8 is no different. Each Mario Kart game adds different things to the series and MK8 builds on that tradition. Anti-gravity is the newest addition to the Mario Kart series. Being able to drive on walls and upside down gives developers new ways to design racetracks. It also adds new things to worry about while driving such as different short cuts or item placement.
The game has 2 ways to steer your kart, with the control stick on the Game Pad or using the gyro-sensors in the Game Pad. I tried both control schemes and found myself enjoying the control stick method much easier and felt like the old days of Mario Kart driving. The Game Pad gyro method takes some time to get the hang of, like most of the games shown, but doesn’t take away from the game. You can change the control style before the race starts or during the race. Each race progressed in difficulty and the first race in typical Mario Kart fashion, taught you the basics of Mario Kart and showed off the new mechanics of the game. The Game Pad has a horn button on it and I know I will pushing it every chance I get, even though it doesn’t add much to the game play. Now if each character has their own victory theme like SNES Mario Kart and they might have something there.
Lastly, I played the demo for two Mario games for the 3DS. They were Yoshi’s New Island and Mario and Luigi: Dream Team. Yoshi’s New Island plays just like the Super Nintendo game with the same play mechanics. Yoshi and Baby Mario are at it again. The game has the same charm and look as the Super Nintendo version and why wouldn’t it? The two games are similar so it’s ideal for the games to look similar. I was waiting inline for the 3DS demos/prize wheel when I got to play Yoshi’s New Island, attached to one of the booth babes/tethered babes. I, like most people who played the game, didn’t like that Yoshi couldn’t run. Yoshi moves a little slow so a run button would have been perfect. Being able to shoot eggs is a Yoshi staple and it’s good to see Yoshi have this ability again. I found egg aiming easier than I thought it would be because before I played, I thought the aiming would be used with the touch screen. Luckily that wasn’t the case and it felt like I was playing one of my favorite games.
Mario and Luigi: Dream Team is the next installment in the Mario and Luigi saga. The Princess has been kidnaped again and it’s up to Mario and Luigi to save her. She has gone missing in the dream world and in order to save her, the Mario Brothers need to find a way into the dream world. Luigi takes a nap and opens the door to the dream world. In battle, Mario can use Luigi moves that create multiple copies to attack. This was another game I got to test while online for the prize wheel. I went right into the battle demo, to see how the controls were and they were pretty responsive. I could see how the game might feel repetitive like RPG’s do sometimes but Mario and Luigi games usually have great writing to counter that. Mario will be front and center during the rest of this year and the upcoming year. The way Mario goes will decide how Nintendo goes but from what I’ve seen, Nintendo will be in good hands.
