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Classic Nintendo Franchises Live on with New Tech at E3

Classic Nintendo Franchises Live on with New Tech at E3

With the line to try Zelda: Spirit Tracks stretching outside and around Nintendo’s monolithic white E3 booth, it was pretty clear the company had a hit on its hands as soon as it attached the magic Z word. Naturally, we had to give it a shot as well.

Like Phantom Hourglass, which touched down in 2007, Spirit Tracks displays a top-down map on the upper DS LCD and a 3D view below. Controlling Link is still done by drawing a path from him with the stylus, only this time around, he’s got company: a knight that can be led around in the same fashion, helping to battle monsters and clear paths – like walking through fire he’s immune to in order to hit a switch on the other side and turn it off. Later levels use a train on tracks, just like the boat in Phantom Hourglass, which carries Link from place to place at whatever speed you set, shooting cannons to clear enemies (and stray cows) along the way.

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The New Super Mario Bros. for Wii hardly deviates from the Mario Bros. you know and love from the 90’s at all, but that can hardly be considered a fault. Playing with four players adds a considerable social element to the game, and the fact that you can vault off one another, free each other from the bubbles that you’re trapped in after respawn, and even carry each other around in Yoshi’s mouth makes it a fun, truly cooperative romp – not just four people playing simultaneously and ignoring one another.

Wii MotionPlus, which has been incubating within Nintendo for over a year, is now only a week from hitting store shelves, and we got an early chance to try it out early, along with Wii Sports Resort. The enhanced positioning technology made a clear difference in archery, where the most minute wavering translated to on-screen jitter, just like in real life. It made a respectable tech demo, but we hardly found it among the most exciting games – bicycling, table table tennis and the samurai sword slashing game looked like a lot more fun.

Nick Mokey
As Digital Trends’ Editor in Chief, Nick Mokey oversees an editorial team covering every gadget under the sun, along with…
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Play these 3DS and Wii U games before Nintendo shutters their online features
Captain Falcon in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

In April 2024, Nintendo will discontinue online services across its Wii U and 3DS consoles. While the eShops for both systems were shut down in March 2023, this will remove the online functionality of many apps and games, making gaming on either of these platforms an almost entirely offline experience. As a result, many games on those systems will lose important features and never be quite the same to play afterward. So, you'll need to get some gaming time in by next April if you want to refresh and preserve the memories of playing online on these two underdog Nintendo platforms.
While the aforementioned eShop closures make it impossible to buy new games digitally, plenty of games that you likely already own physical copies of or already had downloaded have online features that won't work properly come April 2024. As such, we recommend you play the following games online before the discontinuation of those services next year.
Kid Icarus Uprising

Kid Icarus Uprising is mostly remembered for its entertaining story, charismatic characters, and odd controls, but it also features a surprisingly fun multiplayer experience in Together Mode. In multiplayer, up to six players can use powerful weapons and abilities from the main adventure in one of two modes. Free-for-all lets players loose on a map, tasking them with racking up the most kills within a set time limit. Light vs. Dark is more complex, as two teams of three face off until enough players are defeated that one respawns as an angel; when that powered-up angel is killed, the match is over.
While far from balanced, Kid Icarus Uprising's Together Mode is one of the most entertaining competitive multiplayer experiences exclusive to 3DS. It can be played locally, using bots to fill in empty spots, so thankfully it won't stop working entirely. Still, it's not easy in 2023 to come across multiple people near you who have copies of Kid Icarus Uprising and want to play. As such, check out this cult classic 3DS game's hidden gem of a mode before praying that the rumors of a remaster eventually become true.
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The future of E3 is in question again as ESA reportedly seeks a 2025 reinvention
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The future of the once popular video game industry expo E3 is once again in question as the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) ended its partnership with ReedPop, the company that was helping it revitalize the event.

ReedPop is the company that runs events like PAX, EGX, and C2E2, and the ESA had brought them on board to help reimagine the in-person experience at E3. This was supposed to start with E3 2023, but it ended up being canceled a couple of months before it was supposed to take place. Clearly, the ReedPop and ESA partnership wasn't working well, so both companies have decided to move on. ESA CEO and president Stanley Pierre-Louis provided the following statement on the matter to GamesIndustry.biz.
"We appreciate ReedPop’s partnership over the past 14 months and support their ongoing efforts to bring industry and fans together through their various events. While the reach of E3 remains unmatched in our industry, we are continuing to explore how we can evolve it to best serve the video game industry and are evaluating every aspect of the event, from format to location. We are committed to our role as a convenor for the industry and look forward to sharing news about E3 in the coming months."
This seems to confirm a claim from the Los Angeles City Tourism Commission from earlier in the year that plans for E3 2024 and E3 2025 at the Los Angeles Convention Center had been canceled. That said, Pierre-Louis' statement and the GamesIndustry.biz report indicate that E3 2024 and E3 2025 aren't canceled outright.
GamesIndustry.biz notes that it's still possible for the event to take place in 2024 -- just not at the Los Angeles Convention Center -- and claims that the ESA is "working on a complete reinvention of the E3 show for 2025." We'll just have to wait and see if those plans actually come to fruition, though, as E3 has struggled to return to its former glory since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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ESA denies E3 2024 and 2025 have been canceled, despite LA tourism board’s claims
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There are conflicting reports over whether or not E3 2024 and E3 2025 will take place. A new document from the Los Angeles City Tourism Commission claims that both E3 2024 and E3 2025 have been canceled, but a spokesperson for the Entertainment Software Association claims no final decision has been made yet.

For over 20 years, the ESA held an event called E3 each June, where companies from around the video game industry would come together and show off their upcoming games. It got canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the ESA took 2022 off after a rough digital-only show in 2021. The expo was set to return in 2023, but was canceled in March after Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and other game companies pulled out of the event. E3's future was put into question after that, and now it looks like it might not be coming back for the foreseeable future.

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