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Discussion What Was Your Reaction To Nintendo's E3 2015 Presentation?

SpaceGodzilla

SpaceGodzilla

Did You Get that Thing I Sent You?
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often considered the worst E3 from Nintendo aside from the wii music presentation from E3 2008 (although at least that one had some good memes come out of it)
 
my firs time watching E3 was in 2010 because distinctly remember watching the Donkey Kong Country Returns announcement trailer on TV, so I had no real context for past E3's so with that said, E3 2015 is the first time I've ever experienced disappointment from a Nintendo presentation, and was the moment I stopped being such a fanboy to Nintendo and was critical of their decisions
 
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It was rough, I remember the animal crossing fake out…then realizing it was amiibo festival. It was clear by that point that they’d largely given up on the Wii U.
 
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General disappointment but with presumption they were hastily shifting to the next system and memory of E3 08 in comparison I feel I took things in stride pretty well.
 
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2015 was a financially desolate time for me so I watched the presentation through a cellphone on a spotty McDonalds Wifi. I remember thinking Tri Force Heroes looked interesting but also so weird it was immediately disappointing somehow and everything else was just awful. I walked away only being excited for Happy Home Designer. The puppets were funny at first and then quickly entered the "ok how long is this gonna be?" territory.
 
Supposedly the presentation took a big hit when new Retro Studios IP was delayed (and lately cancelled). It was going to be revealed at 2015 presentation and be announced as last big WiiU game
 
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I dragged it a lot online, then felt bad about it when they revealed Iwata was really sick later. I also have a bingo card from that time that was popular on Tumblr
 
I know it is the unpopular opinion but I didn't really have an issue with this presentation honestly, and I did have fun watching it. Even today, knowing how some of the games turned out, I still have pretty good memories of it and enjoy rewatching it. It definitely has the old Nintendo presentation-style (skits and developer interviews) that I don't really know if it would hold up today with how different Directs are but I still do like this presentation overall! I do want to preface that this was the second time I ever watched an E3 Presentation from Nintendo live, with 2014 being the first time, and I had only really found out about E3 in 2011 through the trailers they put on the 3DS e-Shop, so I've been watching ever since then!!

To me, back then, I was just excited to see what Nintendo was creating and, being a lot younger at the time, I also wasn't as familiar with a lot of the franchises Nintendo had so the games that most reacted badly to (Metroid Prime: Federation Force predominantly), I honestly didn't really think much about it. For most of the games that Nintendo showed, I got them on launch day, with Amiibo Festival being a Christmas gift that year and me getting Federation Force a little later after the Switch had came out. I think for me, seeing Nintendo games back then (and even now) meant a lot more than what exactly was being shown and from my limited scope of E3 presentations, it didn't have a sense of how large these showcases were so, again, Nintendo games being there was all I had needed! I also wasn't very much on the internet or looking at the reception to these showcases (back then, my main way of knowing what was being said about the E3 presentations was through the grades GameInformer would have in their magazines for each of the main ones) so that also probably helps my perception on it a lot!

Honestly, to me, looking back at the years of E3, the one that I don't look back on as fondly as the rest to is 2016 because of it mainly being a show for Breath of the Wild (and was just a Treehouse Live segment). However, this is only because I didn't know how much I'd end up loving Breath of the Wild so, I think if I had been more excited in the moment, I would've been a lot happier with Nintendo's showing that year (though they also did highlight other games during Treehouse in 2016 so I still had a lot to look forward to)! :)
 
OctoSplattack's Reaction to Nintendo E3 2015 in GIF form:

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EDIT: Overall... eh? I loved the puppets and I still have a soft spot for those developer deep-dives, but the show on the whole was just kinda... fine? Ultimately more confused than angry about stuff like Federation Force.
 
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LoneRanger said:
Supposedly the presentation took a big hit when new Retro Studios IP was delayed (and lately cancelled). It was going to be revealed at 2015 presentation and be announced as last big WiiU game
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Oh that's really interesting! I never heard this rumor before but it would explain why this showcase did lack the one major "heavy hitter" announcement that the E3 showcases do have
 
Extremely negative at the time, especially towards Metroid Prime Federation Force. The puppets were cool, but the game lineup they had was just pitiful (especially compared to the PS4 presentation that year).

Looking back and considering the overall context, I understand why it was so bad, but I still think it's pretty easily one of the worst presentations Nintendo's ever done, especially with how many of the games from that direct wound up being mediocre at best.
 
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I remember watching it during lunch in high school with a friend. I remember Federation Force was one of the brighter moments of the presentation because it didn't halt the entire pacing of the direct, which is saying a lot considering... it's Federation Force.
 
Puppets were cute but at the time not a single game from that presentation interested me other than Mario Maker (though I did pick up Fire Emblem Fates several years later).

But yeah it was really evident that Nintendo was winding down the Wii U at that time, so many confusing games there.
 
I only bought a Wii U later that summer for Splatoon, because it looked incredibly cool (worth every penny). Prior to this the Wii U didn't seem worth it to me so I wasn't very invested in it...I don't remember my reaction towards this E3 at all
 
I remember feeling....kinda underwhelmed, but mostly I thought I probably just had high standards compared to the prior year and thought it was fine overall. Then I went online and saw a lot of vitriol. Which I sort of had a weird reaction to; I agreed with a lot of the points being made, and seeing the lineup at a distance (instead of the way it was presented in the direct) DID lower my opinion of it. But I didn't and still don't think it was that bad. Sony's that year blew my mind.

This year was also interesting for me. For the entire decade prior I saw people online take time off work and school to watch E3, and as someone who was fully locked into the gaming hype cycle at that time, it was something I always wanted to do. This was the first year ever where it was feasible for me (barring 2008, which.....there wasn't a lot going on during), so I did. for a few days straight I did nothing but watch the E3 live stream coverage. And at the end of it I felt like I had just wasted a bunch of my time, though the press conferences themselves were worth it. That was the last time I ever got super into E3.

Btw, the real dire non-2008 E3s were 2011 and 2012. Nintendo had two chances to show us why the Wii U mattered and they blew it both times.
 
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I don't remember much about that presentation specifically, other than watching Metroid fans absolutely go frothing-at-the-mouth crazy because Federation Force dared to exist.
 
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I remember being super disappointed by the Amiibo Festival reveal, and then the Star Fox reveal was kind of neat until I saw more of it and it kind of just looked like Star Fox 64 again. I guess triforce heroes was interesting to me but still wasn't a big deal for me. 2015 was super disappointing, but I think Nintendo's presence at E3 2016 was far more disappointing for me as they only really focused on Breath of the Wild at that time and I wasn't that big of a Zelda fan tbh, so I just tried to watch the treehouse live bits hoping for small game announcements and stuff.
 
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I was very happy to see Star Fox. Very indifferent towards Federation Force. I figured it was just a little spin off before the real deal.

Though there was this little docu-piece on Miyamoto and his inspiration for Star Fox that just came off so stupid to me. And normally I love learning anything about Nintendo’s developers and their inspirations. However there is this shot of Miyamoto, leaning against something I think, one of those arches maybe. His eyes focused off camera, like he is thinking intently about life or something. Something about it just came off so phony and over done.

The presentation was pretty lame over all aside from the muppets but that whole docu-story on Star Fox just made the whole thing feel even worse. It’s funny because I really really enjoyed Star Fox 0, but that little portion of the direct made it seem like they were presenting Star Fox as the next big mega hit.
 
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Hmm... I was 16, I was definitely checked out of fighting for Nintendo online by that point (My Wii U was a glorified Internet Browser at this stage). I don't remember being "upset" though, maybe like, just feeling "done"?

I wasn't a part of the Metroid Federation Force attack brigade as I did not have much of a strong connection with Metroid.
 
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I thought it was awful, I was so disappointed. E3 was never as good to me if Nintendo disappointed. Sony's and Microsoft's presentations were good so was happy with that but seeing Nintendo's e3 was a blow.

The puppet skit was good, but far too long and thought star fox looked really poor visually and didn't like the look of the gameplay. Spent far too long on skylanders. Zelda Triforce Heroes I was completely indifferent to and while I had never played a metroid game at the time, I thought the metroid prime federation force game was a poor announcement. Same with amiibo festival, no interest in animal crossing but I knew it wasn't what fans wanted. The Mario tennis game looked meh and to end with just a celebration of Mario videos I thought was such a terrible way to end the show. The Wii U was dead
 
Splatoon had just launched so I was still on cloud 9. It was also the height of the amiibo shortages so I was also in the middle of a war.

All that said, it was pretty clear after that presentation that the Wii-U was on borrowed time.
 
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I remember liking it overall just for Triforce Heroes and finally seeing TMS. It helped not being checked into fandom and having basically zero expectations going in though.
 
Honestly, it was great to me. Maybe not one of the best Directs ever, but it had plenty of games to be excited about. But then that’s pretty much every Direct to me. Though I guess that just comes along with being a Nintendo fan who actually plays and enjoys the entire spectrum of Nintendo games, not just a select few series or genres.
 
I didn't think much of it but I didn't hate it really. Just sort of indifferent. When you've seen Nintendo's E3 2008 presentation, it can't go any lower than that.
 
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I had no idea this Direct was considered so poor. My only memory if it is watching with my brother, having a decently good time, and being excited about Paper Jam (which didn't end well but I won't hold that against the commercial).
 
It could've been a good Direct but from what I remember, everything was handled so badly. For exemple, I remember :
  • Hyrule Warriors 3DS was announced on youtube a few days before the Direct, the exact same trailer was shown during the Direct.
  • Starfox was also a huge announcement but it looked visually so bad, it disappointed lots of people as well.
  • Animal Crossing WiiU was shown right after Happy Home Designer 3DS, everyone thought it was a brand new game, but it was just a party game.
  • Metroid Federation Force was a disappointment, as well as Mario Tennis WiiU.
  • Not even saying that they announced a few weeks before the conference that Zelda BoTW wouldn't be showed at E3. Just for Miyamoto or Aonuma (can't remember which one of those said it) to say "we almost included it at the last moment" a few days after the conference. 💀

Splatoon was released 2 weeks before (and holiday 2014 and H1 2015 were pretty cool for the WiiU in terms of software), it was a huge success, they could've made more announcement about it. They could've announced Zelda TPHD (march 2016) and Paper Mario (october 2016) but with this Direct, Nintendo probably wanted everyone to know that the WiiU was dead.
 
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When the opening segment was a prolonged focus on Skylanders I knew we were in for a bad time.

They could've had a better E3 Direct if they saved some do that weekend's early reveals (e.g. Mother 1 release on the VC) for the Direct. I think there was a Smash DLC announcement that could've been saved for it too.
 
Coco98bisFR said:
It could've been a good Direct but from what I remember, everything was handled so badly. For exemple, I remember :
  • Hyrule Warriors 3DS was announced on youtube a few days before the Direct, the exact same trailer was shown during the Direct.
  • Starfox was also a huge announcement but it looked visually so bad, it disappointed lots of people as well.
  • Animal Crossing WiiU was shown right after Happy Home Designer 3DS, everyone thought it was a brand new game, but it was just a party game.
  • Metroid Federation Force was a disappointment, as well as Mario Tennis WiiU.
  • Not even saying that they announced a few weeks before the conference that Zelda BoTW wouldn't be showed at E3. Just for Miyamoto or Aonuma to say "we almost included it at the last moment" a few days after the conference. 💀

Splatoon was released 2 weeks before (and holiday 2014 and H1 2015 were pretty cool for the WiiU in terms of software), it was a huge success, they could've made more announcement about it. They could've announced Zelda TPHD (march 2016) and Paper Mario (october 2016) but with this Direct, Nintendo probably wanted everyone to know that the WiiU was dead.
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Starfox zero looked bad? I had a very hard time with the controls of that game which makes me prefer the n64 original but I remember Starfox zero looking visually like eye candy. I still think its looks pretty good.
 
From Wiki (since no one bothered to fully list what was actually announced, and I couldn't remember myself):

"Nintendo, for a third consecutive E3, decided to forego hosting a traditional press conference in favor of a Nintendo Digital Event—a pre-recorded video presentation that was streamed online on June 16 at 9:00 a.m. with an accompanying press release.[9] Prior to E3, Nintendo also held an event, the Nintendo World Championships 2015 (a competition in which a group of players participated in a multi-round competition across multiple Nintendo games), and also featured the announcement of new content for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U,[13] EarthBound Beginnings, Blast Ball, and new gameplay of Super Mario Maker as part of the competition's finale.[14][15] During the Digital Event, Nintendo announced Star Fox Zero, amiibo figures compatible with Skylanders: SuperChargers, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, Hyrule Warriors Legends, Metroid Prime: Federation Force, Fire Emblem Fates, Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE, showed footage of Xenoblade Chronicles X, announced Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival, showed footage of Yoshi's Woolly World, announced Yo-kai Watch, Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and showed footage of Super Mario Maker."



Based on this, Xenoblade Chronicles X footage would've been the best thing to come out of it really IMO, with Star Fox Zero being a nice surprise at the time, though the end result did not turn out so hot. Overall, pretty underwhelming, but again XCX would've been THE saving grace as that game delivered, and more.
 
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I was in the middle of my period of losing interest in games but saw it was on whilst looking for something to watch whilst cooking and just had it on in the background. I casually enjoyed it and then didn't think about it again. There were some insane reactions on Twitter and I think they just made me smile.

Sometimes I wish I could go back to being a casual lady again. It was so much easier.
 
I thought the puppets were cute and for a brief, a very brief moment, I felt the Wii U might actually be worth pursuing.
 
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Lugia667 said:
even then I thought Metroid Fans were overreacting like immature babies
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This. I'm a diehard Metroid fan and my reaction to Federation Force was one of indifference more than anything else. Kind of like "oh, well at least the Metroid brand is still alive." I was downright confused to see the seething hatred among the fandom and the petitions to get it cancelled. I was really embarrassed to be a Metroid fan at that point. I didn't think the game looked great necessarily but it being seen as an absolute abomination and an insult that needed to be wiped from the face of the Earth was such a baffling overreaction. It was clear that it wasn't the end-all-be-all of Metroid; in fact, I saw it as a sign that the series had life in it and would continue as normal shortly.
 
It was Nintendo's "Wii U is not our future" moment. It was obvious the Wii U was a lost cause at that point, but the Switch wasn't ready to be shown off yet. So they threw together some cheap projects to buy some time until their next system was ready.
 
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federation force was more disappointment and confusion then any anger from me, ultra smash and amiibo festival on the other hand legit made me question if Nintendo gave a shit anymore (the answer was yes just not for the wii u)
 
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Started off amazing. When the signoff for the Tri Force Heroes segment was read as slow as it was, I was like "uhhh are they killing time?" and then the rest of the showcase happened and my faith was destroyed lol. Such a bad E3 for them.
 
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Honestly, during the show and for a little while after, I was in denial. I really wanted to believe that aside from how much Federation Force had annoyed me that it was a cool show. But it sank in soon enough just how disappointing it was, most of all Star Fox Zero. At the time, the game looked great, and I was just grateful to get anything Star Fox related, but when it became clear it was just another rehash of the original story I felt down. Eventually just thinking it over for a while I realized how just about everything had disappointed me in the show. I’d argue it says it all that their “one last thing” of this presentation was a silly Mario celebration without new games…
 
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You know, at the time, I didn't really hate it.

For context: that year's Sony conference? The conference of dreams, the show the majority of the hardcore base loved and proclaimed as the instant winner of E3? It didn't really do much for me at the time! The biggest news?
  • The Last Guardian (a re-reveal of a game announced ages ago, still not coming out for over a year from the conference)
  • FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE (a remake for a game that was beloved but that I had yet to play with no release date in sight - still was waiting for Kingdom Hearts III at the time, too - and wouldn't end up coming out for five years)
  • Shenmue III (a new entry in a beloved series that I have never played, also this was an announcement for a Kickstarter, not even the game!)
  • Horizon Zero Dawn (New IP, okay, actually pretty good, but you can tell discussion was more about those first three in the hardcore circles)
Now, to actually call it a bad show would be foolish. I'm actually still really looking forward to playing FFVII Remake and Rebirth, though I want to play the original first. But those are my thoughts in 2024, and my thoughts in 2015 weren't in that place. Maybe if I were a few years older, got to play FFVII and Shenmue in their prime and not just hear about it, or played Team Ico's other titles to understand the hype surrounding this re-announcement, it would have done more for me. Alas, I was not the target for this show, and I did not come away very interested.

So when Nintendo comes in and shows off a couple of interesting titles:
  • A fun event with the Nintendo World Championships
  • A new Mario Tennis, my favorite Mario sports spinoff
  • Mario & Luigi crossing over with Paper Mario, that had amazing potential
  • Earthbound Zero finally getting an official release as Earthbound Beginnings
  • A new multiplayer 3DS Zelda to tide things over before the new Wii U Zelda game
  • Star Fox was alive! Neat!
  • Still really hyped for Mario Maker, can't wait for that!
And even some...weird ideas:
  • Skylanders crossover? Okay. I was collecting Amiibo, sure, but I could make an exception.
  • Animal Crossing...board game? Why not a main entry?
  • That Blast Ball thing was part of a multiplayer Metroid spinoff?
  • SMT x FE is...uh, going in a unique direction, isn't it?
...I was like, "Sure, why not?" A kinda weird show that wasn't the best paced (oh, Woolly World, not a bad game at all, but we didn't need this overly long and sluggish coverage when most of the world was getting the game in just a few weeks), but a few games that fit my specific niches that I could really look forward to. Now, in hindsight, lots of these would end up being underwhelming (Paper Jam took the least interesting aspects from each franchise for its crossover, Triforce Heroes was not really my thing) to straight up bad to me (Mario Tennis Ultra Smash is perhaps the worst Mario sports game, Amiibo Festival was rather dull, Federation Force was...poorly timed, at the least). But back then, in my little Nintendo bubble, I was alright with it.
 
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