Drawn on the Fourth of July

Happy Independence Day, folks! I thought I'd share a few sketches I did on Miiverse, since many of them will vanish from Nintendo's social network after the E3 community is retired on the 7th. I'll offer brief descriptions of what inspired each drawing, just so you're not lost.

The presenters at this year's E3 had a funny habit of toying with the expectations of more dedicated gamers. Someone at Sony thought it would be cute to mention the Japanese exclusive Vib-Ribbon, released for the Vectrex Playstation at the turn of the century, before quickly changing the subject to the latest Mortal Kombat. I'm sure MK X will be terrific, if the last game in the series is any indication, but tossing out a reference to a sleeper hit without any news of an American release is just mean.

Not to be outdone, Nintendo of America president and Dick York stunt double Reginald Fils-Aime responded to demands for a US release of Mother 3 by roasting gamers alive with a fire flower. (Well, it was a Robot Chicken sketch, but still.) I'm not sure why this is such an unreasonable request. The Wii U's got support for Game Boy Advance games! The game's already been translated to English by its fans! Stop dragging your feet and make with the goods!

I posted this drawing to express my frustration with the games shown at Sony and Microsoft's press events. With a few rare exceptions, they were exclusively presented in 3D... dark, dreary, and disgusting. Can we give the zombie slaying a rest?

Luckily, Nintendo heeded my call, and injected plenty of color into a show that was in desperate need of it. In fact, color is the whole point of Splatoon, a third-person shooter where you blast both opponents and your surroundings with ink. The stars of Splatoon have just been introduced, and they're already generating a ton of fan art, both on Miiverse and the general internet.

This image was prompted by a brief fascination with the PS Vita release Tearaway, along with a growing disinterest in the work of Shigeru Miyamoto. Maybe he's getting old, or maybe his creativity is actively being suppressed by Nintendo. Either way, it just doesn't seem like he's firing on all cylinders. 

Double entendres, in my Nintendo game? It's more likely than you think! The game is not nearly as scandalous as its subtitle would suggest, starring cosmic whales jousting with each other in the inky void of space. Nevertheless, it's hard to believe Nintendo let Breakfall get away with that name on its consoles. 

In case you missed it, Dutch electronics firm Philips is suing Nintendo over some dubious motion control patents. Philips also made two subpar game consoles, the Magnavox Odyssey2 and the CD-i, making me wonder if they're planning a comeback...

Finally, here's a drawing I call Handheld over Stormy Waters. This got a warm reception on Miiverse, with 215 yeahs and fifteen comments. I'm a little amazed it wasn't removed from the service due to the reference to a competing system, but I guess Nintendo doesn't care as long as it's an unflattering reference.

Speaking of the Vita, I'll be reviewing its games, uh, soon-ish. When I get around to it. Honest. Stay tuned!