Well, Nintendo's E3 announcements were excellent! Chock full of reveals and surprises PLUS more than half of the games they showed are coming out this year! They really learned a lot from the weak points of last year's E3 showing.
The new Legend of Zelda for Wii U was the announcement everyone was expecting, but that didn't make it any less surprising. The visual style is very striking and the fact that they are going back to the open world, go anywhere play style of the original NES game is very exciting. Definitely one of the highlights of the event.
Xenoblade Chronicles X was the announcement that I was hoping for, and it delivered. The gameplay that was shown later on Treehouse Live gave such a vast amount of information for a title that didn't even have a name prior to the event. My personal pick for best reveal at the event.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was unexpected, but completely in a good way. Not only does Toad finally get the spotlight, but he does so in a fun, colorful action-puzzle game. Assuming this game has the substance that it needs to last longer than a couple of days play, this one will be a very strong title for the console.
The biggest surprise was definitely Mario Maker. Being able to make and share custom Mario levels with such an easy-to-learn tool set is enough to sell this game. Of course, they take it one step further by allowing you to toggle between Super Mario Bros and New Super Mario Bros visual styles on the fly! While clearly Nintendo's answer to LittleBigPlanet, I don't think anyone will fault them with such a solid outlet for creativity on the Wii U.
The Wii U entry in the Star Fox series is showing great potential. Bayonetta 2 gets bonus points for including the original game. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse looks like a fun console follow-up to Kirby: Canvas Curse on the DS. Yoshi's Wooly World takes the visual style and unique gameplay of Kirby's Epic Warn to the next level. Hyrule Warriors is quickly proving to be much more than a cheap cash-in, and will definitely sate the appetite of both Zelda and Dynasty Warriors fans alike. The new Super Smash Bros adds Mii characters with three different play styles, the goddess Palutena and the dot-gobbling Pac-Man to its roster along with support for Nintendo's new NFC technology Amiibo. Pokemon Alpha Sapphire / Omega Ruby look to be shaping up as nice successors to X and Y. Level 5 RPG, Fantasy Life, will surely bring hours of entertainment to 3DS gamers. And, lastly, Splatoon looks to be adding some much needed creativity and originality to the far-too-stale for far-too-long 'shooter' genre.
Of the thirteen games mentioned above, seven of them are coming in the next six months! I am so glad to be dusting off my Wii U and, by the looks of it, keeping it dust-free for the next 18 months and beyond.