Reflections on Nintendo's E3 showing...

Though I am most assuredly an ex-gamer, I watched Nintendo's E3 show. (I did not bother with the other two consoles because I am enthused with neither the Car nor Gun genre of games.) There was a lot of interesting stuff on display--particularly heartening was the large number of playable women in their games, though sadly, except for Midna (who is an imp) and some of the Mii Fighters they showed for Smash Bros., POC were nonexistent.

Smash Bros. continues to surprise with its character roster, though I remain saddened by the loss of Subspace Emissary, which was essentially an unusually entertaining crossover fanfiction wrapped around a fairly solid Kirby game. Hyrule Warriors is shaping up to be actually interesting--if you've played one Dynasty Warriors, you've played them all, but I haven't played one in a decade and it looks like the Zelda skin they're slapping on is pretty well-crafted.

Speaking of Zelda, I have no opinion about the new Zelda game because they haven't shown us the new Zelda game. They've shown us an open field that may or may not be pre-rendered, and a chase scene that definitely is.

Yoshi's Woolly World looks good. Kirby and the Rainbow Curse looks good. Xenoblade Chronicles makes my Xenogears/saga-loving heart sing. Pretty much the only things they showed that I'm not enthused about are the Amiibos, which are blatantly a way to favor players with extra cash to throw at games, and Bayonetta, which is a series I don't care about in a genre I don't care about.

And so the whole thing makes me a little sad. It's the first time I've missed video games in the months since I last played one--indeed, the first time I noticed it's been months since I played one. It's not like I made a conscious choice to quit gaming. It's just that for a few months now, when I have free time I've picked up a book or the TV remote, not a controller. It's just that I didn't finish the last three games I bought, even though I enjoyed them. It's just that video games cost a lot of money and take a lot of time, two things I don't really have at the moment.

Ultimately, what it comes down to is that I can either do this blog or play video games, and I know which is the better choice. But still... twinge of regret.