Nintendo of America recently shacked up at the W Hotel on South Beach and invited media to try out some of their upcoming first-party titles for Nintendo 3DS and WiiU. Cultist had the pleasure of playing some of these games for a couple of hours. Because journalism.

Get our impressions on where Nintendo's heading after the jump.

See also:

- The Booth Babes of E3: Awesome or Offensive?

5. Nostalgia's here to stay.

One of the surprises out of Nintendo's E3 Direct event (in lieu of a splashy press conference) was the return of an old friend, Donkey Kong.

Nintendo is an expert when it comes to tugging at the heartstrings of now-adults who grew up with iconic characters such as Mario, Zelda, and Donkey Kong. They are such great characters, you're only a tech improvement away from shelling out for the latest installment. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is no different--we found ourselves humming along to the familiar refrains while collecting bananas, Diddy (Kong) on our back with his trademark baseball cap. The old magic is still there, plus the addition of making the world more of a 3D environment.

4. The return of the drunken house party game!

Wii Party U will provide 80 different party games for your next shindig this October. We played one particular entry which used the Wii U gamepad in a game of charades. You take a picture of the suggested face with the gamepad, and the rest of the party has to guess what you're trying to convey. Thankfully, it doesn't appear to have a "suggest a face" feature, otherwise we'd probably flood it with "Comiendo mierda."

3. DAT WII U GAMEPAD.

Between the one gamepad vs. three Wiimotes options in Wii Party U and the map/playback features in the adorable and gorgeous Pikmin 3, Nintendo is bringing it in terms of first party second screen experiences. The gamepad also allows for entire games to be played on it while freeing the TV for something else--a great option in homes where TV space is at a premium.