«Previous post | Next post»

During the four-day weekend of August 17 through 21 Nintendo was at this year’s Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. And while I don’t speak the German language. I’ve watched the Nintendo Deutschland streams and found it more interesting than the E3 presentation. The live streams didn’t showcase a lot of games (though the one trailer for the 3DS/Wii U title “Severed” caught my attention) but the real eye catchers were the three events that were shown throughout the weekend.

Each day started with “The Legend of Zelda: Das Quiz,” which was a trivia game that sort of played like Jeopardy (that had multiple choice questions). All three contestants start off by rolling a huge dice to see the order of turns. During the game, they’ll answer a series of questions that’s under the selected Rupee under a category. Getting a question right or wrong will result in one of the players to lose a heart. The prizes handed out were cool: third place got a Link Amiibo, second received a Legend of Zelda: Monopoly set, and first place were rewarded with a “Twilight Princess” box set.

This was the event that had the most special occurrences. One contest gave his Monopoly prize to a lucky Link (“Breath of the Wild”) cosplay lady after the quiz, and a birthday girl from the audience became a contestant on one of the following days. However, someone made the August 19th a special day after the quiz. A Zelda fan got on the stage with his lady and proposed to her in front of the audience (she said yes).

Even if these questions were in English, I would most likely get them wrong any ways.

The second event on the schedule for the weekend was the Battle Corner, where players (individual or teams depending on the game) compete for the top. The rewards were transparent pixel number trophies (based on which place they got of course) lit by LED lights from the base, which I thought were neat. Thursday was the “Pokken Tournament” event. While I’m more of the traditional Pokemon RPG player, I actually enjoyed watching the tournament. I know it’s Pokemon meets Iron Fist Tournament but the matches looked intense, especially when the Pokemon used for one of the match ups was Mewtwo vs Pikachu Libre (which was awesome).

I guess Cosplay Pikachu thought it could take on anyone.

Friday was the “Splatoon” Showdown. And the teams from ESL’s (the world’s largest eSports company) Splatoon Showdown tournament gathered at Gamescom 2016 for the finals. It was interesting to watch, but it was hard to see the gameplay. The screen had all eight players’ in-game cams shrunken down to the sides of the video with most of the space taken by the center, which had another cam focused between the players and commentators at top and the map at the bottom. It was a difficult Battle Corner to follow to say the least.

I don’t think we really need the logo for this one.

Saturday was the “Super Smash Bros” Wii U tournament. Much like the lyrics to “Kung Fu Fighting” the players were fast with frightening skills, but they seemed to have that expert timing. It’s the sort of gameplay that would get people interested into playing Smash again (at least for me). I think it’s also worth noting that the tournament utilized the GameCube Controller Adapter, showing that the GC gamepad is the best way to settle it in Smash.

It’s ridiculously huge sword versus fireballs and FLUDD!

Finally on Sunday, it was time for the “Mario Kart 8” tournament. The whole event had four players go head to head on the 200cc Tournament mode. And it was an experience to watch. It was fantastic to see a high-speed kart race on a number of tracks, with my personal favorite sight being Mute City of F-Zero fame (which was entertaining since one of the players picked Villager to drive the Blue Falcon kart). And during the awards ceremony “Mario” was present, which was kind of funny how he tried to remove the cloth covering the trophies with those giant gloved hands.

Even in Mario Kart you can show them your moves.

The final event on the streams was Nintendo’s “Die Haus Party” (The House Party). Tim Feldner hosted this event as he did in the other ones. However, he was more of a talk show host during this period of the streams. The stage itself was decorated with Nintendo themed furnishings, games, and other merchandise (which the second floor of my New Leaf house pales to in comparison), complete with a pixel fireplace. While this stage has been used throughout the weekend for all the events, it seemed better suited for The House Party.

The guests varied from developers to Let’s Players from YouTube (of the Deutschland region, of course). Shigeki Morimoto and others from GameFreak showcased the upcoming “Pokemon Sun” and “Pokemon Moon” by playing a round of Battle Royal (a new battle mode coming to this generation). Furthermore, they went ahead and showed one of the Z-Moves that will be featured in the game. Developers (from Square Enix) of the “Dragon Quest VII” remake also appeared on stage, talking about the game while answering a few questions. Other guests included the Let’s Player Steve of the Steve’s Super Fun Time Channel, Stefanie the Community Manager for “Monster Hunter” (who was wearing a cute Sophia cosplay), and the German chiptune band Melted Moon (Who played a remix of The Legend of Zelda theme).

I should have figured there was also Mario Connect Four.

Aside from interviewing guests, there were a few games on stage, showing off titles such as “Paper Mario: Color Clash” and “Fast Racing NEO,” along with some classics like “The Legend of Zelda” and “Metroid.” Speaking of games, there were a few people from the audience whom participated between discussions. The more difficult one was Amiibo Poker, where contestants tried to win an Amiibo or three by guessing if the next card is higher or lower. Another game was a live Puzzle Swap where two people try to match a picture (if Nintendo’s Puzzle Swap was crossed with StackenBlochen).

Then there was the “Pokémon GO” themed game where two contestants try to stick velcro balls on a target held up by “Pikachu,” which its appearance cracks me up (especially when they try to get it through the door on stage). Finally, there’s the Zelda treasure chests game where one lucky person could win tickets to The Legend of Zelda Symphony of the Goddesses, which are hidden in one of the three treasure chests (always a bummer to an empty one).

Things would have been interesting if Pikachu showed up with a pizza.

Nice indeed. However, there were a few hiccups during streaming (though these were hilarious audio occurrences), and during the “Paper Mario: Color Clash” stage playthrough Nintendo was experiencing some really serious problems. As The only audio sources that can be heard were from the microphones onstage and the Miitomo app that was playing for the streams’ intermission. Another audio mix up was the moment when Tim (I believe?) was explaining to an interpreter how their microphones will allow them to hear themselves as they talk. The last one I caught was Sunday’s accidental muted Toon Time during an episode of “Yo-Kai Watch”. This was a long one since the entire episode was mute (this could have been done purposely, but I wouldn’t know why they would).

And while E3 is the biggest event for journalists. The Nintendo Gamescom presentation is the sort of event that I actually would like to see more of. I know some things are better done as presentations and talk panels, but this was a nice change of pace from the events I’ve watched before. I guess I should learn German before the next Gamescom.

Credit:
Robin Ek – Editor