E3 2011: Nintendo 3DS Titles

So Nintendo had dozens of employees wearing some incredibly attractive harnesses with 3DSes attached to them. After the E3 2011 press conference, we got to play several “key new titles” coming soon to the 3DS. We didn’t get a chance to play all of them, but we did briefly check out Mario Kart 3D, Star Fox 3D, and Luigi’s Mansion 2.

So I’m going to start with the game that excites me most, Luigi’s Mansion 2. See, my first real game console was the Gamecube. And my first game for it was Luigi’s Mansion. So when I heard they were making a SEQUEL, I nearly came.

So yeah, the gameplay seemed pretty similar to the first game. You use a bright flash to stun the ghosts, and then start sucking them up into your vacuum. During the sucking bits, you can tilt the screen to help suck them even faster… I really hope that Nintendo realizes that when you have a bubble of a few inches which you need to keep your head within, it is a really bad idea to have that screen get moved around as a part of gameplay. According to Reggie Fil-Aime, the game will feature all the characters from the original game, and will take place in multiple mansions.

Next up we have Mario Kart 3D. The biggest new feature here seems to be that you can customize your Kart even more. After choosing your character, you can choose which body, tires, and glider (yes the karts have hang gliders attached this time) you want, and into the game. Aside from the addition of the hang glider, there’s new coins on the tracks which you can pick up and… Well I’m not really sure what they do, but there’s going to be a more full demo at the booth which we’ll be visiting tomorrow.

Fun fact: E3 2011 is probably the only place on earth where there’s no line for the woman’s bathroom and a massive line for the men’s.

Anyway, lastly we have Star Fox 3D. There’s not a whole lot to say about this game. It’s Star Fox 64, but on the 3DS. Controls worked well, graphics are the same as they were on the N64, and yes you get yelled at to do a barrel roll. We did hear a bit about the multiplayer which was not available to demo at this time. One of the fun little features is that when you kill someone, the front camera will take a shot of the player and show it to you.

That’s all from Nintendo’s E3 2011 press conference. We’ll have more in depth demos on the show floor tomorrow. Stay tuned for screen shots and video as soon as we can find wifi suitable for such tasks.