Nintendo Carrying Its Load Alone, Announces 14 Titles At E3 Event

Nintendo took advantage of the E3 event this year to show off several first-party games coming for the Nintendo Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS game systems.

With the release of the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, Nintendo fans have watched their limited third-party game support crumble, and most have now come to grips with the fact that most third-party games aren't released on the Nintendo Wii U. Nintendo isn't blind to the situation though, and the company is working hard to support the system almost entirely with first-party games.

For most companies this would be a tough situation, but Nintendo is trying hard to carry the burden of supporting the Wii U almost entirely alone. Nintendo announced plans for 13 more games that will be released for the Wii U or the Nintendo 3DS over the coming year that will hopefully satisfy Nintendo fans.

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GameRelease DateGame Console
Starfox ZeroN/AWii U
Xeno Chronicles X12/4/2015Wii U
Yoshi's Woolly World10/16/2015Wii U
Yo-Kay WatchHoliday 2015Wii U
Mario Tennis Ultra SmashN/AWii U
Mario MakerSeptember 2015Wii U & 3DS
Mario and Luigi Paper JamN/A3DS
Hyrule Warriors Legends1st Quarter 20163DS
Metroid Prime Federation Force20163DS
Fire Emblem Fate20163DS
Animal Crossing Happy Home DesignerAutumn 20153DS
Animal Crossing Amiibo FestivalN/A3DS

A 14th game was also announced with a Japanese title, only called FE in English. Outside of the two English letters on the cover, no images of the game had any English, and the game demo was entirely in Japanese. For these reasons, I doubt the game will be released outside of Japan.

Of the other 13 games, six will be released for Wii U only. The most anticipated of these new games are Starfox Zero and Xeno Chronicles X. Although everyone loves to play a round of Mario from time to time, it certainly isn't the only game you would want to play. These two games are unique because they add some much needed diversity to the Wii U library.

The Nintendo 3DS will also see six game releases not available on Wii U. Though the Nintendo 3DS won't be getting the new Xeno Chronicles X, it arguably has a better list of games coming soon. The Fire Emblem series is probably the highest rated exclusive on 3DS, and the release of the new Fire Emblem Fates will undoubtedly be one of the top selling games on the console.

In addition to Fire Emblem Fates, 3DS users can also look forward to the release of Hyrule Warriors Legends, an adaptation of the earlier released Hyrule Warriors ported from Wii U. Hyrule Warriors Legends is just like the original but contains all the DLC and added characters from Hyrule Warriors, in addition to new stages and characters from the Zelda Wind Waker universe.

The remaining game will be released for both systems. Nintendo has been talking about the development of Mario Maker for at least a year now, and the game is nearly ready to come out.

All of these games should be released either in 2015 or the first part of 2016, but exact dates for most titles have not been set.

Update 6/16/16 9PM ET: Updated release date information for some titles.

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Michael Justin Allen Sexton is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers hardware component news, specializing in CPUs and motherboards.
  • turkey3_scratch
    The Nintendo E3 event was great. The beginning with the president and other executives of Nintendo being puppets was great and comical. Star Fox looks like a great game which I cannot wait to get my hands on. Unfortunately, the only Metroid game coming is for 3DS not Wii U, and the Animal Crossing games do not look very good (house designer and board game - what were they thinking). I am also very interested in Mario Maker. It will definitely trump all 2D mario games and also make them void for the future. I am also interested in Fire Emblem and Xeno Chronicles.
    Reply
  • Giroro
    All I want Is Advance Wars not yet another Fire Emblem... The only system I regret buying more than my 3DS, is a New 3DS.
    Reply
  • notsleep
    omg. nintendo is in trouble with that terrible lineup! with little to no 3rd party support, they won't last long. :O
    Reply
  • balister
    Why is it when I look at that StarFox 0 screen I have a sudden flash to 5 Nights at Freddy's? The StarFox characters look too much like animatronic puppets to me (just not looking all decayed and run down like the FNaF animatronics).
    Reply
  • Giroro
    Why is it when I look at that StarFox 0 screen I have a sudden flash to 5 Nights at Freddy's? The StarFox characters look too much like animatronic puppets to me (just not looking all decayed and run down like the FNaF animatronics).

    Because I think the Star Fox picture is of actual bad puppets.
    Reply
  • Larry Litmanen
    N00b question here, why doesn't Nintendo simply come with a controller in addition to what it has now (something like an XBONE controller) so all the same games can be played the same way they are played on other consoles.

    If Wii offered exactly the same AAA names as PS4 and XBOX one it would be a great console because it has pretty darn good exclusives.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    Nintendo should just pull a Sega and give up the hardware business entirely. Their consoles are pretty much just a niche market now. If they spent their time converting legacy titles to Android and iOS like Mario 64, all the older Mario games, and all the Zelda games, you know how much money they could make off that alone?
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    16067907 said:
    N00b question here, why doesn't Nintendo simply come with a controller in addition to what it has now (something like an XBONE controller) so all the same games can be played the same way they are played on other consoles.

    If Wii offered exactly the same AAA names as PS4 and XBOX one it would be a great console because it has pretty darn good exclusives.

    It does, the Wii U Pro Controller http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Wii-U-Pro-Controller-Black/dp/B009AFLXQQ
    Reply
  • dark_lord69
    Nintendo should just pull a Sega and give up the hardware business entirely. Their consoles are pretty much just a niche market now. If they spent their time converting legacy titles to Android and iOS like Mario 64, all the older Mario games, and all the Zelda games, you know how much money they could make off that alone?
    Preach on brother!
    I agree 100%
    Reply
  • festerovic
    People don't buy nintendo systems for 3rd party games, they buy them for 1st party games. Nintendo's entire history for every one of their consoles has been the same handful of franchises since NES days. Not knocking it, its reality. I think there are enough people who want those titles to support their lower cost systems going into the future.
    Reply