In the aftermath of E3, watching Sony and Microsoft vie for top of the heap, and watching the PC market remain in its usual calm and aloof otherspace, one thing that seemed light on the information was Nintendo. But after seeing Nintendo's run at E3 glory, I was left with one doozy of a question to ask and answer: Nintendo, what in the world are you doing?

Nintendo's E3 was marked by the appearance of puppets, though the second I saw them all I could think about was an old joke from "The Simpsons" where the family went to Japan. A poster on one of the buildings called attention to a local channel's "Digital Puppet News Team", which was pretty much what I got out of Nintendo.

But the puppet show wasn't the only interesting point of the presentation. The appearance of Star Fox Zero made for a huge hit, and brought one of Big N's biggest brands back into the limelight, front and center. New games in the Legend of Zelda and Metroid veins brought mixed reactions, with some just happy to see the properties in question and others downright dismayed by what was shown. Plus it's impossible to ignore Xenoblade Chronicles X, a surprisingly sharp-looking affair.

That having been said, Nintendo had its share of disappointments. No one was talking NX, and quite a bit of time was dropped on the newest Amiibos, leading some to note that almost a third of the E3 presentation focused on toys. The appearance of Legend of Zelda was limited by the fact that it wasn't the grand open world version but rather an action game with multiplayer, in more of the Four Swords vein.

Calling Nintendo's affair a mixed bag would be easy enough to do if it weren't for one key point: the so-called "Nindies." I was chatting with an old friend via Facebook, and he pointed out a few exciting titles. While I wasn't exactly impressed by Rive, which looked like nothing so much as a retread of Bangai-O from the Dreamcast days, and Freedom Planet looked like some weird hybrid of Mega Man and Sonic the Hedgehog, what really caught my attention was Typoman. This was one of the strangest gameplay elements I'd ever seen, calling on players to move letters around to spell words that would activate key elements on screen. For instance, the word "Rain" was generating a storm directly over a ditch that couldn't be crossed. The key to passing that particular puzzle lay in the letter D hanging by a rope nearby. Players were to swing on the rope, moving the letter D next to the word rain and forming a new word, "drain". This in turn would empty the ditch and allow players to move on. A clever new option, and an interesting new title.

It made me wonder if maybe Nintendo was set to put a little more focus on its indie titles as well as its first-party operations. It's been losing ground in the third-party market for years now, but the idea that Nintendo might be working harder on unusual experiences and third-party indies might just be a market worth pursuing. Let Microsoft and Sony fight over the core gamer market; Nintendo has plenty of offerings for the casual gamer. Casual gaming worked quite well with the Wii, and maybe lightning can strike twice.

Only time will tell just how far this all goes, but Nintendo may have more of a strategy than some would give it credit for. That might just give it an edge in a whole new league.