Nintendo E3 press conference wrap-up
Cammie Dunaway opened the event, greeting everyone in attendance at the Nokia theatre, Nokia Lounge and everyone watching at home. She talked about big surprises and little surprises and how today’s press event would deliver both. While there were some interesting announcements, I felt like Nintendo, despite leading in many of the categories it is competing in, really didn’t have any momentum by the end of its E3 press event.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
One of the first big surprises was a Wii version of New Super Mario Bros. This new game will offer four player same console play that can be played cooperatively or competitively depending on how you want to play. Players can play as Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad or Yellow Toad as they battle for coins, bop koopas, and use new items to beat each stage. A four player demonstration showed just how competitive players can get, stealing coins, popping bubbles (when players die they return in bubbles) and throwing each other at enemies and hazards. Of course all these features can be used for good instead of evil.
The game also offers some new suits like the Propeller, which shows up in the world as a P with a propeller on it. When you get this you can fly upward by shaking your Wii remote up and down vigorously. The game is playable on the show floor, and will be available this fall.
Wii Fit Plus
Next up was Wii Fit Plus, a new version of the fitness game offering new ways to work out and a more family friendly series of mini-games that promote both fun and fitness. Mini-games include platform leaping, juggling, balancing and more. The new Wii Fit title will be released as both a bundle and as standalone software this fall.
Wii Motion Plus and Wii Sports Resort
Reggie Reggie Fils-Aime took the stage to talk about Wii MotionPlus and how it will change things the way the Wii Balance Board has. A video montage showing players fooling around with various games is show off. Bill Trinen joins Reggie to show off some new games in Wii Sports Resort. He shows the beginning of the game, where players jump out of a plane to get to the resort island by skydiving. Next he shows off how archery works, followed by a game of one-on-one with Reggie. Wii MotionPlus is certainly interesting but it’s not new. Where’s the big surprises?
DS Software
Moving on to the DSi, Cammie returns to talk about new video editing software that will be released later in the year called FlipNote Studio. Golden Sun is coming to DS, as is a new girl game called Style Savvy. Ubisoft announced C.O.P. The Recruit, an open world action-adventure game in between. A new game called WarioWare DYI for DSi was announced, which will give players the ability to create and share their own little micro games free of charge. Interesting.
Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks got a brief mention - it’s on the show floor - so it gets no love apparently. Glory of Heracles, a “pick-up-and-play role-playing game” for DS, was also announced. Glory of Heracles features the eponymous Greek and a rich storyline coupled with a deep battle system, according to Nintendo. That game will be released in 2010.
Not Games
Mr. Iwata took the stage to talk about those core groups we mentioned at the beginning: active, will never play, and might someday play. Nintendo says that 295 million people are playing games in Japan, Europe and North America, and that there are 149 million that might be interested. So he sees great opportunity in all these demographics. A simpler number is thrown out - for every two people playing there is one person who is not. That’s Nintendo’s target to expand its base for DS and Wii.
One of the ways to bring new people in is with products that really have nothing to do with gaming. He mentions Brain Age and Wii fit as examples, and then unveils a new peripheral bundled with software called Wii Vitality Sensor. you attach it to your finger and play doctor like you just purchased the Time Life Books series ” Doctor: Home Edition.” It measures various things like heart rate and pulse and gives you the information. I didn’t catch when this will be released.
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Reggie returns to talk about another Mario game announcement: Super Mario Galaxy 2. While fans might be excited by this announcement, Reggie revealed later on in an interview with G4 that it won’t be coming out in 20098. Look for it sometime in 2010. The game looks like a souped up version of Galaxy with huge monsters, 360 degree worlds and puzzles, open skies and lots of fun involving Yoshi.
Metroid Prime, Team Ninja Style
Reggie takes some time to give a shout out to three third-party games that are edgier: Sega’s The Conduit, Capcom’s Resident Evil The Darkside Chronicles and EA’s Dead Space Extraction - all for Wii. This is of course a lead-in to the biggest announcement of the event: a new Metroid game.
The new game, Metroid M is being developed by Nintendo and Team Ninja and won’t be out until 2010. The game features a fully open 3D environment with huge enemies, lots of platforming and some interesting back story featuring everyone’s favorite Metroid character . In a separate interview Reggie revealed that Metroid Prime makers Retro Studios is working on a non-Metroid game that he won’t talk about. Interesting.
The End
And that was it. While Nintendo has some interesting stuff going on there was really nothing that exciting for 2009 that we haven’t already heard about prior to E3. New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Metroid M and Super Mario Galaxy 2 were the best announcements of the press conference.
