Following the Nintendo Press Conference on Tuesday, Nintendo offered a web follow up on Wednesday with the Nintendo All-Access 3DS Software Showcase. The 3DS Software Showcase offered some new, and not so new, insight to up and coming games for the 3DS, as well as some features for the Nintendo eStore. Though the showcase was insightful and entertaining, it still felt like Nintendo was holding back some details and they did not produce anything to ‘wow’ anyone. With that out of the way, let us take a look at the hits and misses of Nintendo’s All-Access 3DS Software Showcase.

Hosting the showcase was Nintendo of America’s Executive Vice President in charge of Sales and Marketing, Scott Moffitt. Moffitt opens the night by stating that the “best portable gaming is found on the 3DS console” and goes on to introduce future games to come by starting off with Konami’s Castlevania Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate.

The latest installment of the Castlevania series, Lords of Shadow: Mirror of Fate is part of the reboot of the Castlevania series. Features introduced for the game were the revival of whip swinging, secondary weapons such as the boomerang, map navigation via the touch screen, and four playable characters which currently include Trevor and Alucard. The gameplay really gives the game a retro feel going back to the original game series along with blending this style with the later games found on the DS. The game was announced to be released in the Fall of 2012.

Warren Spector and Peter Ong introduced Epic Mickey Power of Illusion. The game is its own story with no connection to the previous Epic Mickey title, but is in fact based off the classic Disney game Castle of Illusion (remarked as the best Mickey game to date). The game introduces a team up between Mickey and Oswald along with the ability to paint in object and the ability to erase enemies via the touch pad. The game is scheduled to be released November 16th of this year.

Nate Bihldorff discussed Paper Mario Sticker Star. Like Luigi’s Mansion, much of what was described about the game was mentioned in Nintendo’s previous Press Conference, with an addition of a few new examples. The new Paper Mario game heavily revolves around the new sticker system. Stickers are Mario’s means of attack, from basic attacks to item attacks, they are all sticker based. The RPG element has also been updated, which does not involve attacking enemies to earn XP. This time Mario must earn his health boost and attack boost by completing tasks or by finding hidden passages. The game is scheduled to be released during the holiday season.

Nate also discussed information on the New Super Mario Bros 2. The new Mario Bros game for the 3DS, as detailed in Nintendo’s Press Conference, is heavily coin based. Along with the usual game mode, a special counter has been added which keeps track of Mario’s coin count. This coin counter will play a heavy role in the new challenge mode that has been introduced, Coin Rush.

Coin Rush is a speed run mode with a twist, the twist being that the player must collect as much coins as he can while trying to make record time to add to their coin count. The game also introduces a co-op mode, in which the player and a friend can team up to beat the story. The last announcement is the return of the Tanooki suit and the ability to fly. New Super Mario Bros 2 is scheduled to be released August 19th in store and as a download.

The showcase also announced that the new Pokemon games Black and White 2 will be released on the 3DS. The games will also be able to function with Pokemon Dream Radar and Pokedex 3D Pro (both are exclusive releases through the Nintendo eStore). The release dates for the games have not yet been released.

Besides other third party games, again previously announced, the Showcase went into some new details about what’s new with the Nintendo eStore. The Nintendo eStore is looking to bridge the gap between stores and web purchases, by further expanding their catalog of games available for download and giving people the option of purchasing the game in a store or the option of purchasing a download card.

Overall, it was nice to see some more details about some of the hot games coming out for the 3DS, but a lot of it felt rehashed from the first press conference, with an exception of a few new details for Paper Mario and New Super Mario Bros 2. One game that Nintendo continued to leave out was Animal Crossing for the 3DS, a popular series that has had its share of success was yet again left out of Nintendo’s E3 showcase. In the end, the 3DS showcase was better than the Nintendo Press Conference, but still lacked a lot of game details and surprises that Nintendo really need at E3 this year.

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During Nintendo’s Press Conference at E3 2012, they introduced many new features the Wii U has to offer as well as some of the new games that will be released for the Wii U and the 3DS. Out of the list of games they announced, Nintendo Land seemed to get a lot of air time during the conference.

Taking up the mantle on discussing Nintendo Land was game designer and Manager at Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD) Katsuya Eguchi (Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, Animal Crossing, Wii Sports). The main thing that Katsuya wanted to get across about Nintendo Land was that like Wii Sports, its main purpose is a fun training tool to help its gamers with how the new Game Pad controller functions. Like Wii Tennis, once the gamer picks up the controller for the first time, they are able to jump right into the game with ease.

Nintendo Land is set up like a theme park, like Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure, in which there is a theme park hub and a series of character-theme based mini games. Nintendo Land is one of the few Nintendo games that creates a shared universe for their characters. With a total of twelve mini games in Nintendo Land, five of them were announced at Nintendo’s E3 Press Conference.

The first game Nintendo announced was Takamaru’s Ninja Castle. This game is a single-player shooting gallery game based on the characters from the Japanese game Nazo no Murasame-jō. The objective of the game is simple. The player uses the Game Pad to shoot shurikens at attacking ninjas. When using the Game Pad to shoot shurikens, if the player tilts or rotates the Pad to adjust the angle of the throw, and the faster the player swipes the shuriken, the further it launches. This is a simple game that shows the user the motion functionality of the Game Pad.

Nintendo then introduced Luigi’s Ghost Mansion. This is a five player survival maze set in the Luigi Mansion universe. The ability to hold up to five players on one console makes this game unique. Four people can play using a Wiimote and one person can use the Game Pad. The objective of the game is to hunt the ghost with flashlights before the time limit runs out or before the ghost takes them out. The four Wiimote players are the humans, and the ghost is controlled by the player using the Game Pad.

The Wiimote users play the game on the T.V. while they hunt for the ghost that they can’t see (the Wiimote vibrates when the player is near the ghost), while the Game Pad user plays the game on the Pad’s screen. This player can see where everyone is and hunt them down one by one. This type of gameplay is what Nintendo advertises as Asymmetric Gameplay, in which the same game is played differently depending on if the players are using the Wiimote or the Game Pad. Luigi’s Ghost Mansion is a very interesting mini game from Nintendo Land because of this Assymetric Gameplay.

Animal Crossing: Sweet Day is a simple collecting game that also involves 5 players. Four Wiimote users run around trying to gather the most candy while the Game Pad user plays as Chasers trying to stop the other players. Other than the Chaser, this game is as simple as it gets, but still entertaining for a basic mini game.

Donkey Kong Crash Course is a single-player cart driving game in which the player tilts the Game Pad to move the cart back and forth as they navigate through a maze resembling levels from Mario vs. Donkey Kong. The objective is fairly basic, collect as many bananas as you can without dying.

The last game that was announced at E3 was The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest. Battle Quest is a three player rail shooter game in which two players using the Wiimotes play as swordsmen while the Game Pad user plays an archer. The game relies heavily on cooperation, the swordsmen take on close range enemies while the archer takes on enemies at a distance, as well as hitting switches that come along the way. The players also share a health bar, so once the five hearts are used up, it’s game over for everyone.

Nintendo Land looks to be a very promising introduction to how the Wii U functions, and with any luck Nintendo Land will come with the Wii U based Wii Sports on the Wii. With seven more games that have yet to be unveiled, Nintendo keeps us waiting for what surprises they have in store for us with Nintendo Land.

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It has been five years since the last Paper Mario game with Super Paper Mario, a good game but the weakest in the series. In E3 2011, Nintendo announced a new Paper Mario game, simply known as Paper Mario 3DS. But at E3 2012 Nintendo reintroduced Paper Mario 3DS at their press conference giving Paper Mario its official name, Sticker Star. Due to the time constraint of their conference, the audience only got a taste of what was to come from this new Paper Mario game. Yet for those of us willing to sit through another hour of game showcases after Nintendo’s lackluster performance, we got a true sample of what is to come with Paper Mario Sticker Star.

Discussing and giving a play through of the game was Nate Bihldorff, senior localization manager and producer for Nintendo Treehouse (Paper Mario Series, Mario and Luigi series, and Animal Crossing). Nate talks about all the features of the game as he plays through it, showing the audience how the new fighting and RPG system work. The one key point Nate made about the Paper Mario series, is that Paper Mario always tries for something new. But what does Nintendo offer with the next Paper Mario installment?

Stickers! The title says it all, this Paper Mario game is all about collecting stickers, and these stickers are used for everything, from completing tasks to fighting. The combat system for Sticker Star is nothing like the previous three Paper Mario games, in that the player’s only means of attack are through the use of stickers. From basic jumping, to hammer attacks, to item and special attacks, the player must collect different types of in order to attack, or even defend. As for the real time action commands for attacking and defending, they are still there like in the first two Paper Mario games.

Another new feature added is the Battle Spinner. The Battle Spinner functions similarly to the bonus spinner from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, except the payoff is different. In Sticker Star, the player only has one battle slot to attack with, but when the player is up against multiple enemies at once, the player has the option to invest coins into the Battle Spinner. When the Battle Spinner is activated, a slot machine event pops up, and if the player gets matching images, they can increase their battle slots to gain the ability to use multiple stickers in one turn.

A new mode has also been added simply known as Paperization. In Paperization mode, Mario pops off the screen as it shifts into a isometric plane which Mario can then place stickers he’s earned to complete tasks such as placing flower stickers in a Toad’s garden, or placing a giant fan in the background to move a windmill. Paperization mode is used to complete various tasks and unlocking secrets which gains the players more stickers as well as special stats boost items.

These stat boost items replace the leveling up system as used in the previous Paper Mario games. The RPG element is still in the game but with a different twist. Instead of defeating enemies to earn XP to level up, players must explore different parts of the world to help the townsfolk or to find hidden passages to earn special items such as Health Boosts, Attack Boosts, and Increased Sticker Slots. This leveling up system is a bit of a stretch for many RPG fans, but is a concept that can only be critiqued through experience.

Paper Mario Sticker Star shows much promise and looks to be the true third installment of the Paper Mario series. With a completely new battle system, a new leveling up system, and beautiful design that can really pull off the true potential of the 3DS, Paper Mario Sticker Star looks to be a must have for the system. With the release date bumped back to the Holiday Season, fans anticipating the game must wait longer before they can go sticker crazy with Mario and friends.

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