Nintendo's E3 digital event
Open-world Zelda! Mario Maker! Amiibo! Splatoon!
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Nintendo's Digital Event was a hoot! Open-world Zelda! Mario Maker! Something that looks like Star Fox! Yoshi's Woolly World! Splatoon! We also got to see Amiibo - the little NFC toys - close up and learn more about them.
Read on for our full live text coverage. Check out our E3 2014 guide for an overview of what's happening at E3.
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
Here's Shigeru Miyamoto playing the new Star Fox game for Wii U - one of tonight's announcements. What else would you like to see revealed?
If you answer Metroid, you are correct.
Here's the full story on that leaked Star Fox Wii U title.
New Star Fox is awesome news, but the story also says that Miyamoto is presenting some new experimental IP he's working on, which is arguably just as exciting.
Anyway, 40 minutes until the presentation starts.
Two minutes to go! At least we can assume this one will start on time. Are you all seated comfortably?
Go go go!
Looks like the Digital Event is being run by Robot Chicken.
I'm so confused.
Aha, it's a Smash Bros skit (presumably) with Iwata and Reggie beating each other up.
Here we go - Iwata and Reggie's Miis are fighting in Super Smash Bros. Wii U.
Reggie has kicked Iwata's ass. For now.
Uh oh, Iwata pulls out a Mario NFP character and drops it on the GamePad. Mario appears in the game and crushes Reggie.
Fine work all round.
Masahiro Sakurai is on screen now chatting about Super Smash Bros.
Using a Mii fighter lets anyone join the game.
Mii fighters will come in three categories - brawlers, sword fighters and gunners.
Each type is treated as a separate fighter and each one can choose four special moves from 12 options.
Sakurai says, logically, that this is the ultimate answer to all those questions he gets about bringing other characters into the game.
We're approaching the release date for the 3DS version, says Sakurai, but it's taking a while and requires lots of debugging.
Home Run content is back.
Fudce: It's a Mii, Mario!
Fine work.
October 3rd on 3DS, holiday 2014 on Wii U.
Reggie's on screen again. He's got that Mario figure Iwata used earlier in hand.
This Mario toy is one of the first in a new line of toys called "amiibo".
It uses near-field tech to bring the characters to life in games.
It's a two-way stream as well. This means your figure's data can change as you play.
Super Smash Bros. will be the first game to support Amiibo toys.
Amiibo play is also being prepared for other Nintendo games, including Mario Kart 8.
More details soon, says Reggie.
Bill Trinen is hosting a dedicated Amiibo video at Nintendo.com or on YouTube to explain more details.
Reggie wants to give us a sneak peak at some other games.
He's harking back to the days of Super Mario World. "I bet you remember the first game you fell in love with," he suggests.
New Nintendo stuff will underscore the point that there's never been a better time to play games on Nintendo platforms, says Reggie.
Their philosophy is there's never a bad time to have a little fun.
We're onto developer stories now. Lots of YARN on screen.
Good-Feel is talking about Yoshi's Woolly World, which looks gorgeous.
The yarn is used as the basis for gameplay elements, like pulling strands to solve environmental puzzles.
The difference between Mario and this Yoshi game is that Mario is about performing challenging tasks in a time limit, but Yoshi doesn't have a time limit, so you're free to explore the vast game worlds at your leisure.
There's a two-player mode too.
One Yoshi can eat up and spit out the other one wherever he likes, allowing you to grief the other player or, you know, solve puzzles.
To help get the look and feel of the game right, Good-Feel made little Yoshi toys and other stuff out of actual yarn. We see some cute examples on the video.
The way the yarn floor under foot dips as Yoshi walks along it is lovely. Anyway, out in 2015.
OMG, looks like they're giving Captain Toad his own game?
Here he is cracking his way through levels that go beyond the isometric stages from Super Mario 3D World.
Captain Toad Treasure Tracker - holiday 2014.
Back to the Robot Chicken stuff.
The Legend of Zelda is next.
Eiji Aonuma is on screen. This one is about revisiting the conventions of the Zelda series, he reminds us.
He's talking about the older versions - exploring large spaces in 2D - and how they lost some of that in 3D.
It was very hard to create a large world where everything felt connected, he says.
Oh wow.
This is the new world of Zelda, says Aonuma. It's gorgeous - a huge vista, an open world.
You no longer have to follow a set path and play through the environment in a particular order.
Powerful enemies appearing in such a peaceful world is a defining feature of the Zelda series, Aonuma reminds us. "That's one convention we can keep, right?"
Watching Link race along through the environment on Epona while a robotic-magical sort of enemy chases him down. He fires a mythical looking bow at it. 2015.
That's it for Zelda. Now this is Alpha Ruby and Omega Sapphire Pokemon remakes for 3DS.
We don't have a date for these... We do now - 21st November.
Bayonetta 2 up next.
I could swear that was a giant enemy crab.
Bayonetta 1 and 2 in the same package this October.
Onto Hyrule Warriors next.
Includes Midna from Twilight Princess, which is new, I think.
You can play two players by using both TV and GamePad.
Hyrule Warriors - 26th September.
What's this then? Some sort of Kirby rainbow drawing game?
Draw lines on the screen, which Kirby then follows, collecting stuff and avoiding enemies.
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse. 2015.
X.
This is Monolith Soft's X, which looks riotously mental.
X is now called Xenoblade Chronicles, also due 2015.
Oh wow, it's Mario Maker.
It looks like high-def Super Mario Bros., except you can pause it and move stuff around. A touch interface lets you create your own levels.
You can also use the more modern New Super Mario Bros. art style.
It's on Wii U and it's due out... 2015.
Next thing... Orange paint is fired at the Wii U logo. Now blue paint. Er.
Apparently it's called Splatoon.
Splatoon is an eight-player, four-on-four online multiplayer action game.
Players splatter territory with ink to control it. The team with the most territory wins.
You can switch between being a squid and a person. As a person you fire ink. As a squid you swim really fast in your own ink.
Fire ink up a wall and then switch to a squid to climb up through it.
Laying down ink gives you more real estate to move around in in squid form, using your various abilities. Uses gyro for control. GamePad also displays map.
You can tell by glancing at the map and seeing where the ink is distributed what people are up to.
The GamePad also lets you tap on icons representing other players, which blasts you into the air and sends you to their side.
The firing arc of ink also gives away your position more than bullets in regular shooters.
They're talking about the various tactics you can use, lurking in ink to stay out of sight etc.
You never feel like you're playing alone or in a vacuum because of the way ink is spread so visibly around.
Well, Splatoon then. New Nintendo IP! Cool concepts! What's not to like?
Due out... 2015.
Reggie's back. "That just about wraps up things."
There will be a post-show on Twitch, says Reggie, with more stuff they couldn't fit in.
The Nintendo Lounge will continue to showcase stuff during the week, says Reggie, and Miyamoto will pop in.
Here's one more little teaser.
Looks Smash Bros related. Link is fighting Kid Icarus.
Aha, Palutena is confirmed for Smash Bros.
No Star Fox on the stream then, despite the leak. Perhaps it will show up in Nintendo's other activities during E3.
Nope, here it is!
Miyamoto says he's been working on games that use the GamePad and the TV screen.
He will have fun experiences on the show floor, he says.
They don't call it out as Star Fox though.
Now we're onto the post-show, so it's officially over. Keep watching for a recap on things like Amiibo and the games discussed.
We should be seeing the Bill Trinen video about Amiibo next.
Here he is. He's in the Nintendo Treehouse playing with Mario and Samus toys.
Amiibo will be created for a variety of Nintendo characters, games and series, Trinen explains.
The detailing on the models is lovely.
Ooh, here's a Link figure and a Wii Fit Trainer video. Each figure "contains the spirit of the character they represent". That character appears in battle as soon as you touch it onto the Wii U GamePad.
Through battle you can increase overall level and pick up new tactics, which are stored on the model.
Customising special moves also adds character to your Amiibos, which comes in handy when you rock them out to play Smash Bros with your friends.
Battling Amiibo against other human players levels them up faster.
When Super Smash Bros. Wii U launches this winter, there will be a bunch of Amiibo available. We see 10 on screen.
Mario Party 10, Mario Kart 8, Captain Toad and others will also end up with Amiibo support.
More games and figures are in the works, says Trinen, and there will be a 3DS peripheral released next year that lets you use Amiibo with the handheld.
That's it for Trinen's video.
More stuff in the post-show. Level-5's Fantasy Life will launch on 24th October.
Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright launches on 29th August for 3DS - presumably these are all US dates.
They're talking about Mario Party 10 on the post-show now. One player gets to play as Bowser, being a jerk to other players.
And it utilises Amiibo too, as discussed by Trinen.
Right, we're going to knock the live text on the head. Hope you enjoyed all that! Loads of great new stuff as far as I could see. Keep an eye on EG this week for lots of in-depth stuff on Nintendo's line-up - we have some pretty cool appointments.