Super Smash Bros. Brawl

The Nintendo Wii U is struggling. The Xbox 360 continues to outsell it every month and some third-party publishers have already decided to halt development of new games for the device in favor of the new Microsoft and Sony hardware.

Nintendo, as usual, still has its big first-party games to rely on, and that’s what it plans to do this E3. In a tweet on Friday, the company revealed that it will discuss the new Super Smash Bros., 3D Mario, and Mario Kart games for Wii U during its next Nintendo Direct livestreaming presentation.

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/335416341957844992

Nintendo will air that episode before the start of the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in Los Angeles in early June. It is forgoing a major press event in favor of this direct-to-consumer approach. The company also plans to bring some of its games to Best Buy retail locations this summer around the country so that consumers can try the titles.

The Wii U continues to suffer a dearth of new games. Many of Nintendo’s planned “launch-window titles,” like Pikmin 3, still haven’t made it to consumers.