E3: Did Nintendo’s new way of presenting at E3 actually work?

Nintendo decided to buck the trend of giving a live presentation at this year's E3 by trying something new: they took to their Nintendo Direct service, a video stream they use throughout the year to announce new games and features for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS.

And instead of only having games out on the show floor, they're bringing games to Best Buy locations across North America in order to bring E3 "directly to gamers" and let everyone have a chance to try the games announced for themselves (if you're near a Best Buy location, of course).

So did Nintendo's attempt at democratizing E3 work? In a word, no.

Despite multiple livestreams, the vast majority of tweets being sent out were people complaining of technical issues with the livestream. At no point was it worse than the very end, when Nintendo revealed their big game announcement: Super Smash Bros. coming to both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. The game will also include two new characters: The Villager from Animal Crossing and Mega Man from the Mega Man series. But many of us watching didn't get that, as the video cut off abruptly partway through the Smash Bros. reveal.

[ Full Coverage: Electronic Entertainment Expo 2013 ]

But that wasn't the only problem with Nintendo doing a livestream independent of E3. Somehow, the spectacle that many of us have come to expect during the largest North American gaming conference was lost in the Nintendo Direct presentation. There were no big lights, no multiple screens, and most lacking of all, no crowd of journalists reacting to news as titles were announced. The reveal of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for Wii U would have at least elicited a few oohs and ahhs from the crowd, but as it was, it kind of fell flat.

All hope is not lost, though, depending on how well Nintendo's in-store promotions go on June 12 and June 15 in Best Buy stores. Following the official Nintendo Direct stream, Nintendo of America COO Reggie Fils-Aime announced that Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD will all be playable demos at the events. Depending on how people react to actually being able to play the games without being at E3, Nintendo could still come out of this week no worse off than they were going into it.

Here's a list of all the games that were mentioned during today's Nintendo Direct presentation:

• Pokemon X, Pokemon Y (Nintendo 3DS)

• Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)

• Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)

• Wii Party U (Wii U - delayed until October)

• Wii Fit U (Wii U - delayed until December)

• Art Academy (Wii U)

• Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag (Wii U)

• Batman: Arkham Origins (Wii U)

• Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate (Nintendo 3DS)

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut (Wii U)

• Disney Infinity (Wii U)

• Just Dance 2014 (Wii U)

• Rayman Legends (Wii U)

• Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure (Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo DS)

• Disney's Planes (Wii U, Nintendo 3DS)

• Shin Megami Tensei IV (Nintendo 3DS)

• Skylanders SWAP Force (Wii U)

• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist (Wii U)

• Sonic: Lost World (Wii U)

• Watch Dogs (Wii U)

• Ballpoint Universe (Wii U eShop)

• Cloudberry Kingdom (Wii U eShop)

• Coaster Crazy Deluxe (Wii U eShop)

• DuckTales: Remastered (Wii U eShop)

• Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara (Wii U eShop)

• Mutant Mudds Deluxe (Wii U eShop)

• Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty (Wii U eShop)

• Scram Kitty and His Buddy on Rails (Wii U eShop)

• Shovel Knight (Wii U eShop)

• Spin the Bottle: Bumpie's Party (Wii U eShop)

• A World of Keflings (Wii U eShop)

• The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD (Wii U)

• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)

• The Wonderful 101 (Wii U)

• Bayonetta 2 (Wii U)

• X (Wii U)

• Super Smash Bros. (Wii U, Nintendo 3DS)

If you suffered through the lagging livestream and want to watch it uninterrupted, you can view the YouTube version now:

Need to know what’s hot in tech? Follow @yrightclick on Twitter!