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.

Image Courtesey of  Sklathill

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