My Personal Reaction to that Wii U Concept Video [E3 2012]

Non-specific Action Figure approves of this post. God knows why.

So, lasses and gents, today happens to be the big day. After a rather poor conference from Microsoft and a wholly underwhelming one from Sony, we've reached the big one: Nintendo's E3 2012 presentation. Well, almost. Anyway, this post is something of a heads-up for the conference, which takes place here in the UK at 5:30PM, so buckle up, maybe grab some snacks and get ready. Before that, though, I'm here to discuss something from a few days back. Many fans, myself included, were surprised to hear that the big N would be airing a pre-E3 presentation based around some concepts for the Wii U, and it helped tie-up many loose ends regarding what we should expect from the conference today. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata opened the pre-recorded show by informing us that his company's E3 presentation will consist almost entirely of new games for the Wii U, explaining why he happened to be holding a presentation on the console before most people expected. In this half an hour showing, Iwata revealed the new latest model of the Wii U controller, now known as the Game Pad (in a direct reference to the NES pad's nickname) as well as the Wii U Pro controller, a new, not unusual but very sleek traditional method of play. The main bulk of the presentation, however, involved Miiverse, Nintendo's response to those who wish that the company would get involved in the networking side of gaming. It looks brilliant, to say the least.

However, you shouldn't misinterpret the topic of this post. Yes, it's based on Nintendo Direct presentation that took place on Sunday evening, but to be more specific, this post involves my personal reaction to a certain film shown during 30-minute video. If you watched the show, then yes, it's that film. To show off the concept of Miiverse before Iwata even chose to discuss it himself, Nintendo created a short film that will go down in the company's history books. With this 'concept film', the big N chose not to go for a realistic, tame demonstration, but something utterly ridiculous and completely degrading. And it was brilliant. Americanised and packed with hilarity, bad acting and various jokes that will most definitely be looked back on for years to come, I can't see myself forgetting this film, which I must stress is no bad thing. Why? Because the video gets the point across, despite the undignified face of the film itself. I now fully understand Miiverse from the get-go, and it's all thanks to the ridiculous Wii U adventures of Todd and his mates. And it's this film that has spawned quite possibly the most pointless piece of writing I have ever produced. Still, try to enjoy this in-depth analysis...



The film opens up with the introduction of the protagonist, the just mentioned Todd, playing some zombie game on his Wii U. The over-emphasisation of this scene, as well as the rest of the film, is utterly hilarious. The moderately camp Todd excersises his vocal chords with screams of "OH, OH NO, ZOMBIES ARE AFTER ME, OH, OH GOD!!" followed by "You won't think I'm so tasty after this bullet sandwich, BOOM!" ...you get the idea. Anyway, Todd soon reaches what he refers to as the 'Zombie Boss' and attempts to unleash even more bullet sandwiches, but this time it doesn't work. In his own words, he's out of bullets, his bear trap is useless and his button presses are ineffectual. This is where we're first introduced to Miiverse, following Todd's converse with the hilarious 'Non-specific Action Figure'. The ridiculous protagonist sends out an SOS message regarding the 'big scary zombie boss that breaks down doors' through the network and, after literally a few milliseconds, he receives quite a few responses (I'm pretty sure that won't actually happen in real life, especially to someone like Todd). "Me too, what do I do? Boo-hoo" is one of the many responses, read out loud in Todd's hilarious accent. Simultaneously in another location, Todd's (only?) friend is reading his post on his iPhone. That's right, Miiverse message will be viewable on non-Nintendo handheld devices over the internet.

Back to the film, Todd's mate informs the star of the show that his virtual adversary is "a pain in the capital B". Sounds like an episode of The Big Bang Theory, to me. Soon, however, Todd informs his friend that he's already received a handy response on Miiverse, showing off more of the social networking system's clever capabilities. 'OctoG123' informs Todd on how to beat the zombie, before later letting him know that he's got to upgrade his scanner. Hilariously, OctoG is old enough to be Todd's grandpa. Yes, kids, the elderly are better at videogames than you. This scene also shows off video chat, another capability of Wii U's Miiverse. Soon, the video is wrapped up through a final scene of hilarious celebration over the defeat of the 'zombie boss', and non-specific action figure has a smile on his face. The nonsensical drama of the video is truly hilarious, to be sure, and the best thing about it is that, while it's not at all serious, it informs the viewer of the exciting things made possible through Wii U, and it has me pumped for the conference. Speaking of which, Nintendo's big presentation begins in an hour at the time of writing, so I'm going to go and grab some snacks. For now, thank you for reading the worst, most pointless post I have ever written, and have a fantastic E3!

I didn't even mention half of the hilarious gags found in the film I discussed in this post, so if you want to see it in motion, check it out by clicking this link!