E3 2011 Wrap Up: Nintendo's Hits & Misses

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Nintendo was the one to watch at this year’s E3, and depending on who you ask, they stole the show. While some may not be impressed with the reveal of the Wii U (which did leave some things to be desired), Nintendo’s new touchscreen controller is the talk of the gaming community, and that is precisely what Nintendo wants.

It was strange that Nintendo’s reveal focused primarily on the new console’s controller, which indicates to some – particularly Nintendo’s investors – that there’s nothing special about the Wii U hardware. Indeed, the console is only said to be on par with Xbox 360 and PS3, which means that while Nintendo will finally be on level playing ground with its competitors, it will only be for the last part of this console generation. Once Microsoft and Sony release their next generation consoles, the Wii U will fall behind as far as hardware is concerned.

But Nintendo has never viewed itself as part of the console wars, and that mentality has allowed for gaming innovations like the Wii’s motion controller and (possibly) this new touchscreen controller. Marching to the beat of your own drum is a double-edged sword though, with third party developers shying away from Nintendo consoles in years past – something that Nintendo promises to fix with this latest console.

Will the Wii U be as big a hit as the Wii? Time will tell, but if Nintendo wants to achieve the same level of success, it behooves them to not forget about the casual market while they try to convince hardcore gamers that the Wii U is for them, too. For now though, here’s the rest of the Nintendo news to come out of E3:

• Wii U Hardcore Shooter Coming From Ubisoft
• Pikmin 3 Coming To Wii U
• Nintendo Wii U Discs Can Hold 25GB Of Data
• Nintendo President Satoru Iwata Says That Wii U Will Be More Expensive Than Wii
• Super Smash Bros. Wii U Not In Development Yet
• Gold Zelda Wiimote Coming From Nintendo
• Nintendo Wii U Won’t Play GameCube Games
• Wii U Does Away With Friend Codes
• Ubisoft Unveils Killer Freaks From Outer Space
• Nintendo Admits That Wii U Game Footage Is From Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 & PC
• Bioshock Infinite On WiiU May Show Up
• Each Wii U Console Will Only Support One Touchscreen Controller
• Darksiders II Already Running On Wii U
• Nintendo Stock Price Down 10% After Wii U Announcement
• Iwata Confused By Nintendo Stock Slide On Wii U
• Nintendo Wii U Controller Screen Resolution Disappoints Some
• Wii U Release Date Accidentally Announced By Sega Executive?
• Is The Wii U Too Little Too Late?

What do you think – did Nintendo knock it out of the park, or did the Wii U reveal fall flat? Did Nintendo have the best press conference at E3? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!