Nintendo E3 Press Conference Wrapup Thread

[Queasy]

After their impressive E3 conference last year, I was wondering if there would be any surprises for Nintendo at this year's E3. There were no real surprises but a new snowboarding game for the Wii was announces along with Animal Crossing, Star Wars: Clone Wars, Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV, Call of Duty: World at War (using the Wii Zapper), Wii Sports: Resort, Wii Music and a passing mention of Wii Ware.

The DS was full of Pokemons, Spore, and a couple of others but a good surprise was made in the form of Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars coming to the DS.

One of the most interesting announcements came in the form of Wii Speak - a speaker phone that lets everyone in the room talk online with others while playing. So far it only looks like Animal Crossing will support it. I guess Nintendo is getting over their worry about talking online?

The other interesting announcement was actually made yesterday with the Wii Motion Plus accessory. They demo'd it in Wii Sports: Resort and the 1:1 motion mapping looked really good as they showed off a frisbee game, a jet ski game, and a sword-dueling game! The sword-dueling game is like Wii Boxing with swords...and a platform like Soul Calibur that you can fall off of. A jacket and Wii Motion Plus accessory will be sold with Wii Sports: Resort. Reggie called it the new standard in motion-sensing controls.

The show hit a real down note when Reggie and the other exec Cammie came out and talked sales numbers. I know this is necessary for these presentations and Nintendo has every right to gloat but Reggie and Cammie seemed to drag it out for way too long. Seriously, they could just put up a PowerPoint slide with the numbers and say, "That's right b!tches! Hardcore" and be done with it. Instead, they took up way too much time with.

The last game shown was Wii Music from Miyamoto. It can support numerous types of instruments where the Wii mote matches your movement and button presses to the music. This is the anti-Guitar Hero game because there is no competition and no precise timing of button presses. You can play with up to four people and create and share music videos. You can also use the Wii Fit board for the foot pedals of drums.

Reggie closed the show talking about the Wii not being a fad and breaking people's perceptions of how games should play to gain an advantage. He went on to say that they were working to gain the next advantage. Keep working Reggie, because IMHO, this press conference didn't show anything with that advantage.

What was missing?
- Wario - A fantastic video of a new Wario game came out last week. Why that wasn't saved for this conference is unfathomable.
- Kid Icarus
- Kirby

Animal Crossing: City Fold for the Wii

It's another one of those surprises we knew absolutely nothing about before hand! At Nintendo's E3 press conference this morning, Animal Crossing Wii was revealed to a captivated audience who haven't heard the dulcet tones of K.K. Slider in such a very long time. AC creator Katsuya Eguchi appeared on screen at the conference to announce the new title. "I wanted to create a software where players could feel like they are playing together if they are playing at different times"

Like other ANimal Crossing titles, the game has no required goals - a realistic world functioning on a 24-hour clock. Other new features involve a city you can visit with an auction site, and a chat room where players can talk using Wii Speak!

Wii Speak Microphone

At E3, Nintendo revealed Wii Speak, which appears to bring voice chat to the Wii via a speaker and microphone that go on top of the sensor bar.

It acts as a "community microphone" that lets everyone talk in a room, and users can also post messages to friends' cell phones and message boards. It was demonstrated alongside the new Animal Crossing: City Folk for Wii.

Wii Music with 50 Instruments

At Nintendo's E3 press conference this morning, the company showed off the long-rumored Wii Music. The game uses the Remote and Nunchuk, along with a foot tapping on the Wii Balance Board, to simulate a drum set. The game also lets players blow into the Wii Remote speaker to simulate the play of a saxophone. There will be over 50 insturments in the game, including the piano, violin, guitar and marimba.

"Wii Music is a slightly different play experience than you've seen with other music games," explained Nintendodesigner Shigeru Miyamoto. "Now most music games require you to press buttons with precise timing to symbols on screen, but we've designed Wii Music to allow everyone, inclusing those who can't read music to enjoy the experience of playing music." Instead of following a strict set of notes, Wii music will let players improvise and create their own music using the Wii. The game will record videos of your on-screen play sessions.

Shaun White's Snowboarding - Uses the Wii Fit board. White looks like a relative of Carrot Top.

Guitar Hero on Tour already getting a sequel this fall - Decades

In case you didn't get enough of looking completely ridiculous while strumming your Nintendo DS while it plays music, Nintendo has revealed the next version of Guitar Hero: On Tour, Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades. Details were slim on the new title...basically it was Nintendo letting us know that it was on its way ...but they did reveal that the game will feature song sharing between Nintendo DS handelds, which would mean one copy of the game has the potential to have a song the other doesn't? Could there be DS downloadable tracks in the near future? The mind boggles!

Rockstar Games Announces Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS?

The newest entry in the Grand Theft Auto series for Nintendo's handheld system this winter

NEW YORK?(BUSINESS WIRE)?Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is proud to announce Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Developed by Rockstar Leeds in conjunction with series creators Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be available on the Nintendo DS? in North America and Europe this winter.

"This is a game that will deliver a rich, fast-paced and intense 'Grand Theft Auto' experience that will be truly unique to Nintendo's handheld platform," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "Rockstar Leeds, along with the team at Rockstar North, has built upon a decade of progressive design on Grand Theft Auto, and has created something fundamentally fresh and immersive."

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is an entirely original entry into the critically acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series, and brings a new level of interactivity to its sprawling open environments. With the use of the DS touch screen, players will navigate their way through the streets as they uncover the truth behind an epic tale of crime and corruption within the Triad crime syndicate, delivering the unprecedented amount of depth that has become a true trademark of the franchise.

For more information about Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, visit: [L=http://www.rockstargames.com/chinatownwars]http://www.rockstargames.com/chinatownwars">Grand Theft Auto: ChinaTown Wars for the DS]http://kotaku.com/5025403/gta-coming-to-the-ds-with-china-town-wars

 

[NikolaeVarius]

That was..probably worse than the RIDDDDGEEE RACCERRR conference

Nintendo has abandoned the hardcore

 

[SAWYER]

WORST.E3.SHOWING.EVER

 

[ViRGE]

I tend to give Nintendo a lot of leeway, but that was pretty lame. Wii Music could be cool, but then again Guitar Hero and Rock Band are quickly burning out the music genre.

 

[ChaoZ]

The conference was really, really bad. It's kinda ironic how that guy say the Wii came out big names to attract veteran gamers and new games to get casual gamers in. It's all casual from now on...

 

[tw1164]

Very disappointing

On a side note, Nintendo needs to stop creating all this addon crap, I'm running out of room to store it

 

[abaez]

As a PC gamer for a long time now, this was of course disappointing.

But when you think about it, Nintendo is going straight to the people who bought the Wii in the first place. I know my sisters will love the new Wii Sports and Music and the speak thing.

 

[Modeps]

I asked this in the other thread, but lemme put it here instead. WiiSpeak, how the hell is this thing going to work properly? I'm not an audiophile, but I'd think that a conference microphone would need to be sensitive and pick up lots of stuff in the room, right? So, if you've got audio coming out of your TV... will the microphone pick that up?

What happened to Kid Icarus? Is there anything coming out this holiday worth owning a Wii for? (Is AC:TF coming out this year?) Where's the first party Wii Ware?

I swear to fucking god Nintendo, if you announce one more piece of bullshit addon crap, I may very well smash my wii with a sledge. Why isn't WiiMotion Plus built into your wiimotes in the first place? What I dont understand is, WiiSports was one of the better uses of the Wiimote (although golf showed it wasnt sensitive enough). You're basically admitting that your hardware isnt good enough with all these extras... and you're causing your target 'casual' audience to plunk down a ton of cash, which now looks like more than a PS3.

Seriously... give me a break.

edit: oh, and where's the alternative storage solution?

 

[erwos]

I have to say, that wasn't terribly good. More mini-games and some ports. I think the only things I could even muster up the enthusiasm to care about were ACW+WiiSpeak and GTA-DS. Wii Sports Resort? Give me a break.

 

[lupi]

A new star wars game?

And COD designed to be used as a gun, yeah baby.


For the sales they could have just showed the image of the money printer.

 

[CasioTech]

sweet jesus the wii is gearing up for another awesome year. Wii music looks to be teh sex and you can use your wiifit board to play the drum pedals, that's fucking siiiiick. On top of all the great stuff lined up which they are keeping a secret but let out 'rumors' which are 99% true.

and another animal crossing that's awesome, animal crossing is one of the best nintendo games ever made. I just sold an old animal crossing for $40 on ebay (sealed.) I should hold on to them until the new one comes out, then they'll really be worth big bucks (like mgs:ts is going for $70 in mint condition)

I hope wiimusic comes out soon.

 

[warcrow]

(repost from official E3 thread)

Some of that stuff is interesting and looks fun, but I cannot hide the fact that I'm disappointed overall. A new Mario and Zelda--ok we get it--thanks. I dont think anyone doubted that Nintendo was working on those sequels but how about giving us at least a nibble of info? Even if it's just a logo like Rockstar did with GTA: China Wars.

This new "Steve Jobs" approach Nintendo is taking with some of their reveals kinda sucks.

 

[R Nilla]

Super Mario Sluggers was also not mentioned, and it comes out next month. You'd think they would want to pimp this game.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: R Nilla
Super Mario Sluggers was also not mentioned, and it comes out next month. You'd think they would want to pimp this game.

You don't use your press conference to announce a game everyone already knows about. I'm sure Sluggers will be on the show floor for people to play.

Overall, I thought their announcements were ok. Nothing blew me away, but it didn't disappoint either. Clone Wars could be pretty cool for sure. Kids will love Wii Music, they'll sell a bazillion of those.

 

[CasioTech]

nintendo doesn't need to hype their stuff like other companies. It's not a stretch to say that most of the games you guys think are good are that way only because they are overhyped and played out by your friends. So I don't know if it's mass hysteria or just being brainwashed by the 'greatest game ever.' I'm not impressed with all the boring shooting games that keep coming out for xbox and ps3.

more shooting, more explosions and more amazing graphics can only keep me entertained for so long. Everything has been done countless times to the point where it's mundane and there is nothing which stands out so when Nintendo makes something, it's intuitive and revolutionary (ie mario galaxy) but it doesn't come along often.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
That was..probably worse than the RIDDDDGEEE RACCERRR conference

Nothing beats that show, ROFL.

 

[Wreckem]

All I can say is thank god there is Sony and Microsoft.

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
That was..probably worse than the RIDDDDGEEE RACCERRR conference

Nothing beats that show, ROFL.

...for massive damage.

 

[Cabages]

Nothing I am interested in at all.

I dont like where Nintendo is going.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: CasioTech
It's not a stretch to say that most of the games you guys think are good are that way only because they are overhyped and played out by your friends.

However, it is a stretch to say that people only play particular games because they are told by hype that it's good. If a person is playing a game consistently, then it's safe to assume that they think it's good. And if they think it's good, who are you to say they are wrong in their opinion?

 

[oznerol]

Originally posted by: blurredvision

Originally posted by: CasioTech
It's not a stretch to say that most of the games you guys think are good are that way only because they are overhyped and played out by your friends.

However, it is a stretch to say that people only play particular games because they are told by hype that it's good. If a person is playing a game consistently, then it's safe to assume that they think it's good. And if they think it's good, who are you to say they are wrong in their opinion?

Don't feed the animals.

 

[Tom]

has pikmin for wii been officially announced already ?

if not i hope there is one.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

If anyone wants to know, Nintendo has released info on a couple of games.

Such as Kirby for the DS

 

[Onund]

Originally posted by: Modeps
I asked this in the other thread, but lemme put it here instead. WiiSpeak, how the hell is this thing going to work properly? I'm not an audiophile, but I'd think that a conference microphone would need to be sensitive and pick up lots of stuff in the room, right? So, if you've got audio coming out of your TV... will the microphone pick that up?

What happened to Kid Icarus? Is there anything coming out this holiday worth owning a Wii for? (Is AC:TF coming out this year?) Where's the first party Wii Ware?

I swear to fucking god Nintendo, if you announce one more piece of bullshit addon crap, I may very well smash my wii with a sledge. Why isn't WiiMotion Plus built into your wiimotes in the first place? What I dont understand is, WiiSports was one of the better uses of the Wiimote (although golf showed it wasnt sensitive enough). You're basically admitting that your hardware isnt good enough with all these extras... and you're causing your target 'casual' audience to plunk down a ton of cash, which now looks like more than a PS3.

Seriously... give me a break.

edit: oh, and where's the alternative storage solution?

Animal crossing is scheduled for a holiday release.

As for the conference microphone, I don't see it being a huge problem. Webcams deal with this sort of stuff all the time, not to mention speaker phones. I'm sure there are lots of solutions for that. Not to say that at times it may have echo problems but it should be ok.

What I want to know is will the microphone work its way backwards into titles? Thinking of Mario Kart specifically.

btw, $29.99 for the mic.

 

[randomlinh]

that was a highly disappointing press release. COD will be nice, since I can't stand the dual analog sticks, but that's hardly anything to sneeze at. Cool stuff, yes. There's so much potential.. but nothing to be seen.