The Themes of E3

The electronics Entertainment Expo happened a month ago, and I am giving my thoughts about it now. Why? Because it bored the living snot out of me. There were a few things that interested me, but for the most part it was pretty dull.

Kickstarter Won E3

Sure everyone said that Sony had all these cool games. But it turns out the really big reveal of Shenmue was for Kickstarter. Sony is just promoting the product. Not only that, before E3 the Metroidvania master IGA got $6 Million to make another game. Then there is Yooka Laylee which finished a little before that. Tons of games that I wanted to play, and for the most part they were talked about on kickstarter.

It’s true, kickstarter is not perfect and has problems. But the amount of good games that come out of it is changing the way the big companies are being seen. I was more enthusiastic for Bloodstained than I was for pretty much everything shown off in the expensive presentations.

Everything was aimed at 2001

Just about every game mentioned would have been great for 2001. Shenmue 3, a new Tony Hawk, Bloodstained, Halo something or other, and so much more would be perfect for a gamer who is just barely buying a PS2 or a Gamecube.

This push to nostalgia almost seemed to push the idea that the last generation never happened. The reason why is that those were the glory years for Sony and Microsoft. They are trying to bring back or move forward all of the great things they have done. Will the games be any good? Thats a good question, the Shenmue kickstarter seems to have stalled. Tony Hawk might have a new game, but the last few attempts were bad. I think IGA is going to pull it off, he has to.

Nintendo can go way further back, and they did. The Nintendo World Championship from the 80’s was brought back. The final game was based on gaming from the 80’s and early 90’s. They announced a full on remake of Star Fox 64, and brought in Earthbound the NES game.

Other companies like Ubisoft have not really had power until last generation. So they talked about more recent games only. It was weird to watch these shows because you could see how far back the companies went. Activision did not talk about Atari, or much of the 90’s. Square seems desperate to bring back the late 90’s.

There wasn’t a lot of future

The Hololens looked to me like the most forward thinking thing anyone had to offer. I was really impressed by how it worked, and the detail it showed. There is likely some smoke and mirrors involved, but the idea seems so cool.

There was a lot of presentations on VR, but in all honesty I didn’t care. I play games to be with friends and family. Sitting in a room, and not having anyone else there wouldn’t really work for me. No one can see what I am doing, or switch the controller back and forth. It’s a great idea, but not really for videogames I play.

That’s what caught me, the technology push felt more like the E3 when Sony and Microsoft suddenly wanted to make Wiimotes. They failed, and you could see that at all of the presentations. While everyone was singing the praised of these companies, all I could think was that it would be gone by next year.

It was a look backwards, and the forwards felt unsure. Nintendo said they would not talk about any new console coming out in the years to come. We have no idea what NX is or what it does, but holy crap is there a lot of speculation.

For the most part, the games I really want were presented on kickstarter. I watched Bloodstained with anticipation for every stretch goal. A lot of the games were looking back at older times, and I feel uneasy about that. Will any of those nostalgia games be fun? Then we have the problem of look toward the future, which is either VR, Hololens, or not being talked about. It felt really awkward.

After a day of watching folks play the games. I began to ignore E3, and play games I enjoyed. Right now I am playing Earthbound, and laughing at Itoi’s great work. I expect Mother 3 to be released next year on Virtual Console. Then I went and played some Splatoon. In other words, E3 just didn’t impress.