Another E3 has come and gone this year. We were hit with a lot of exciting news, and Nintendo has once again put on a great show. With the introduction of the Wii-U home console and its starting line up of games, as well as a preview of the quality 3DS titles on their way make this a good year to be a Nintendo fan. After watching both presentations, I had the impression that Nintendo is going to focus on keeping hard core gamers happy with a steady flow of enjoyable first and third party games while still having titles that appeal to the more casual gamer fan base that was built with the Wii system.

Nintendo has always been an innovative company, and they have proved this once again with the introduction of Miiverse. Miiverse is a way for Wii-U owners to see what games other gamers are playing, as well as trade tips and socialize with players around the world; all from the comfort of their living room.  I found this idea of never gaming alone to be really intriguing. I immediately had thoughts about the days when the Internet was not so prevalent, and when you were stuck on a game you relied on your friends gaming advice to succeed.  This feeling of having your own personal and collaborative gaming community could be revived thanks to Miiverse.

The Wii-U controller itself seems to be a perfect blend of interactivity and functionality. Using the controller’s touch screen for selecting items and viewing maps looks very natural, and using the controller’s screen to perform certain actions in a game looks fun and easy instead of being aggravating and cumbersome. Having the option to continue playing your game exclusively on the controller’s touch screen is also a welcome feature that will be used by many large families who share a TV.  With this new controller, I feel that Nintendo has learned from the Wii and DS systems how to implement a controller’s unique functions without hindering game play.

Games are ultimately what make a system successful or not, and it seems like Nintendo is taking their games very seriously this year.  With Pikmin 3, New Super Mario Bros U, Nintendo Land, and a plethora of other strong third party games to be available at launch, gamers should have plenty to do with their new system right away. Now that the system is capable of outputting in HD, the games look absolutely gorgeous. Of all the titles shown, Nintendo Land is the one that sticks out the most to me.  As they talked more about the game, the more I felt the game was developed for both gamers as well as third party developers. Each mini game in Nintendo Land focuses on using the Wii-U controller and Wii controllers in unique ways. I get the feeling these mini games are meant to not only entertain, but to coach developers into thinking outside of the box when designing games for the Wii-U system.

The Nintendo 3DS also got plenty of love this year at E3. With big names like Luigi’s Mansion, Paper Mario, New Super Mario Bros, Kingdom Hearts, and Castlevania to name just a few, 3DS owners should look forward to having a ton of great games coming their way. I was the most excited for this because I feel that the 3DS’s library of games is lacking in the amount of quality titles available.

All in all, this E3 was a pretty good one for Nintendo. They showed off new innovations in gaming and how we can use gaming as a social outlet. During all of these previews of innovations, we were also promised to have the third party support that the other console had, and that Nintendo owners deserved.  It is going to be an exciting holiday season for both Nintendo and its fans. If Nintendo keeps its pledge of innovation and 3rd party support while fans use the Wii-U’s innovations to create a strong gaming community, the Wii-U and 3DS will have a lot to offer to everyone.