Nintendo's E3 2015

5/10. That's how I'd describe this year. Not atrocious but definitely not exciting.

Let's go through it game by game.

It started amazingly as predicted with Star Fox. I liked the whole Muppets thing they had going on at the start too, I'm glad Nintendo have made this 'E3 in the style of ...' a thing.

Anyway- Starfox looked great, back to basics with cool looking transforming vehicles. I'm glad so much attention is being put on it to really make it a class A title. Back in the days of Star Fox Assault it just came out in a sea of other games with no hype whatsoever. This time it'll be different.

And this was just the start of the amazing looking new games! Right?

Sadly not. In terms of the afformentioned 'Class A' titles I'd say Star Fox Zero was their only big reveal- and to be honest it wasn't technically speaking a reveal- we've known about it for a year.

We got the news of a small amiibo-skylanders crossover which is kinda interesting but ultimately dosen't interest me enough to go out and buy Skylanders.

Then OMG NEW ZELDA. 4 swordsy Zelda though. Still pretty cool but definitely dosen't have that sense of 'epic' that should really accompany Zelda. I liked A Link Between Worlds and it does look quite similar. I just hope there's an emphasis on the gameplay and storymode rather than on the multiplayer. They said it was online though so that could solve the 'I have no one to really play with' problem.

Hyrule Warriros 3DS looks nice but I'm not sure Tetra and the King of Red Lions are enough to warrant me buying the same game again.

And then comes Nintendo's biggest misfire in recent history. Metroid Prime...Federation Force? Nintendo- This is not Metroid Prime. The Metroid universe is sacred and respected- the feeling of isolation in those vast deep environments. This game shits on all of that- a party game with Power Rangers looking monsters and a football minigame. The fans wanted Metroid but definitely not like this. This could be really damaging for the series and for Nintendo.

Nope

Quite a few games I'm not too bothered with after that - never played a Fire Emblem game but it looked pretty good. The crossover I'm sure will please people- but not for me. Never played Zenoblade but again looked much like what we've seen before. And then that Animal Crossing room design game which I won't be rushing out to buy. It's just one section of what Animal Crossing is isolated into it's own game.

And then in an unpredicted turn of events Animal Crossing Wii U! And it's a board game? This actually pleases me a little. I'm a little tired of the standard Animal Crossing formula and I do enoy a board game. It doesn't look overly exciting but meh, could be alright.

10 minutes of Yoshi's Wooly World. Pliz. Stahp.

Yo-Kai Watch- what on earth is going on there.

Aaaaand the Mario and Luigi Paper Mario crossover restore my faith in humanity for just a bit. The game looks pretty fun- I just hope it feels more like Paper Mario than Mario and Luigi as appears to be the case. Just personal preference that i prefer that series- the first 2 games anyway.

Win indeed

Mario Tennis looks alright- we need a Mario sports title as there's not been one in ages. Just pretty similar looking to the rest of the series.

And by this point it must be building to the grand finale of Nintendo's E3. What game will they reveal?! How will they steal the whole show? Mario Maker yes yes very nice, we've seen you, but c'mon get to that epic last trailer!

What is this? A Mario montage? No more new games? Just this silliness. Nintendo- you make it hard for me to love you sometimes.

Me after realizing there was no finale-reveal trailer

It almost felt like a filler year this year before the big NX, Zelda and mobile announcments next year. Sure we have Starfox and few other interstingish titles coming but it's sadly looking like another quiet year for Nintendo fans.

Til next year Nintendo. Til next year.

A Quick E3 Prediction

It's Nintendo's E3 tomorrow and, as per, I'm super hyped. I'll unfortunately miss it live but will hopefully go in spoiler-free a few hours later. 

I wasn't too impressed with them last year but my Timehop tells me that 2 years ago I was blown away. So I hope they might be following a good year - bad year pattern which would of course make this year a good one. 

Here's my quick predictions. 

It starts with a Star Fox trailer and it looks great. We'll then get shown how we fly the Arwings using the Gamepad before announcing the range of Starfox Amiibo that will all be available before Christmas. 

Realistic Graphics like above

Then some filler- maybe Yoshi's Wooly World and another Pokemon spinoff before going into more detail about the leaked Hyrule Warriors 3DS game. 

After that will come the new Animal Crossing Wii U announcment complete with Amiibo set. 

We'll get some Splatoon DLC afer that, first showing some new original arenas before announcing a Mario Sunshine inspired level. At a guess Delfino Plaza. 

This will segway nicely into the Super Mario Sunshine HD announcement. 

Then will come the third-party and indie game sizzle reel and maybe a bit more on Xenoblade X and the new Fire Emblem. 

A quick reminder of existing DLC for Smash brothers and Mario kart while announcing Pack 3 for Mario Kart 8 made up of 'expert' tracks. 

A wee bit more on Mario Maker including the new Amiibo for the 30th anniversary. 

And it'll end on an almighty high- the reveal of a 2D Metroid game on 3DS - Metroid Dread- the game that everyone wants. 

These are of course predictions. If I was to add to the wishlist I'd ask for some F-Zero as well. And I wouldn't say no to Mario galaxy 3 or some more Zelda footage- even though Ninty have said themselves these won't be happening. 

Tomorrow can't come soon enough!

The Smiler Incident

As I arrived home from my holiday after a week of fun at the beach and riding rollercoasters at Portaventura I immediately came face to face with news articles that made me feel physically sick. At first 'Alton Towers Rollercoaster Crash' sounded like a clickbait title, Nemesis would be stuck at the top of it's lift hill or something. But it became apparent that something serious had happened and it made me question the absolute faith I have, in terms of health and safety, in Merlin (who own Alton Towers as well as Thorpe Park, London Dungeons etc) and the theme park industry in general.

The Technicalities

For those still a little unclear on what happened on Tuesday, one of the The Smiler's trains slammed full force into the back of another train that had failed to make it all the way round the track. It's the equivalent of a car rear-ending another in a queue of traffic possibly made worse if the car in front actually had some backwards momentum as well.

Obviously rides of this scale and complexity have fail-safe system to prevent this type of thing happening but in the case of The Smiler these fail-safe devices...failed.

Rollercoasters nowadays are built in sections where a train can only enter the next section of track after sensors on the rides give the all-clear to say there is nothing blocking the track ahead. They act like the red and green traffic lights at the top of water slides.

For one of these to fail is the equivalent of a lift door failing to stop closing even though there is a body in the way and crushing that person. It just doesn't happen yet through some bizarre error the sensors have malfunctioned here and let one train through into a section of track even though the track wasn't clear.

The other puzzling question is why didn't the empty train in front make it round to make it roll back and block the track? If i was to speculate I'd imagine something must have been jammed in the wheels or on the track to slow it to such a speed that it couldn't make it all the way round the inversion.

Due to the complexity of the Smiler's track it became very dangerous to remove the passengers from the train as the safety mechanism holding them in was doing the job it was supposed to do. Coupled with the height and angle the trains were in it made an evacuation very difficult- if the incident had happened on a lift hill or somewhere more likely to have a ride error I'd imagine the evacuation would have gone much smoother.

The Industry

A crash of this scale has a knock on effect on not just Alton Towers but the theme park industry in general. People go on rollercoasters to feel fear without actually being in any real danger. Widely reported-on incidents like this make that faux-danger feel more real therefore ruining the experience of the rollercoaster.

As much as it pains me to say it I think this might be the end for The Smiler. It's a great shame for a number of reasons; firstly as it was as rollercoaster-god John Wardley's last project he worked on and was something he was especially proud of. After milestones such as Nemesis, Oblivion and Stampida in Spain his last masterpiece now carries with it a nasty reputation. The Smiler is a rollercoaster achievement- it's a genuine shame that it will probably not re-open, in it's current state anyhow.

Any chance of another coaster project at Alton Towers happening in the near future is wiped clean off the table. How do you advertise a scary looking ride so soon after an incident that brought with it real danger. Less people would ride the Saw ride at Thorpe Park if the blood up the walls was actually real.

This is a real blow for Alton Towers who will have to re-do all their theming and landscaping that went along with The Smiler. It's not a simple case of packing it all up and starting again like a travelling fun fair- The Smiler was supposed to be there for decades.

I don't know much about the stock market but I know what kind of effect this has had on Merlin. To clarify this just isn't Alton Towers's problem- it's also Thorpe park, Lego Land, Chessington as well as many attractions around the world. Their reputation has taken a beating. When you hear about an incident happening at a rickety old fun fair you can half understand why. This is the equivelent of finding half a mouse in your risotto at The Ritz. Merlin are world-class in the theme park world- you don't expect it to happen.

The Stigma

Perhaps worst of all is what this crash does to the public's opinion on theme parks in general. I've already seen a headline 'do you let your children ride rollercoasters?' as well as 'Are rollercoasters safe?'. In regards the second article I have the answer- yes. Rollercoasters are safe but nothing in this world is ever 100%. They could write a headline 'Do you let your children go on aeroplanes?' since in the past there have been plane crashes. It's just unfortunate that this 0.00000000001% incident of rollercoaster malfunction has happened at such a reputable theme park.

I urge people to continue to support Alton Towers and continue to ride rollercoasters. There's no way I can defend what happened on the 2nd of June 2015 but so much health and safety go into these rides that the chances of an incident happening is still ridiculously slim (although as has been shown still technically possible).

A dark time for rollercoasters but a time in which the industry and Merlin in particular can hopefully recover from.

The art and joy that come from incredible theme park rides is too grand to be killed by just one incident, no matter how gut-wrenching it was.