Nintendo E3 Conference

Well, I managed to find a webcast of the E3 Nintendo conference that wasn’t banned by the evil office webfilter. All in all it was pretty short, but packed with delicious info, like so much nougat. So much so that to contain it in a single post is maddening, but I shall try.

First off, the games look good, but not great. Nothing on the caliber of, say, Gears of War—to be fair, the game Disaster looked nice though it may have been CG. I missed the opening bits, thanks to the aformentioned web filter. Let’s get straight to the meat then: Zelda with Wii functionality.

The game is played with the nunchaku control. Movement and z-targeting controlled with the nunchaku hand, other functions with the Wiimote. Arrow aiming is first person with the Wiimote, as well as a radial menu for selecting items. Throwing boxes, parrying, the spin attack, and other things can be accomplished using various gestures with both the Wiimote and the nunchaku. One of the cooler features is the rumored speaker in the control. Nintendo confirmed its existence, showing off its function for positional sound. The control speaker emitted the sounds of the bow being drawn and the arrow being fired while the TV speakers play the sound of the impact. This gives the impression of the arrow moving through 3D space. Very nice. And thrusting the nunchaku down to do the downthrust? Pure effing genius.

Next up, Red Steel. I’m sorry to say I was underwhelmed. It looked nice, but it definitely had a work in progress feel to it. I suppose we’ll hear some more accurate accounts when people have had a chance to play it on the floor. The sword fighting looked pretty fun, but the gunplay bothered me. The turn speed was way too slow for a shooter. Granted, Red Steel may not be intended as a twitch shooter, but I hope that you can adjust the turn speed.

And of coures, lots of DS games:

• Mario Hoops (3-on-3 basketball)
• Star Fox DS
• Yoshi’s Island 2
• Diddy Kong Racing
• Zelda

The highlight of the conference had to be the announcement of the “First to Play” contest winner. Sir Shigeru walked out on stage first, to introduce a Wii tennis title (included in the launch compilation title Wii Sports). The game plays how you would expect, forehands, backhands, even topspin and slices. Miyamoto showcased the game with Reggie Fils-Aime for a minute. Then it was time to play doubles.

Reggie got Satoru Iwata as his partner, which left Shiggy with no one. Who better to play than the contest winner! So, now we have three Nintendo men and the contest winner. For me, this was the pivotal moment of the show. Here we have someone—who has never laid hands on a Wiimote before—playing a game. And he took to it instantly. No awkward “what the hell am I doing” moment. He just played the game. I immediately pictured playing this with my dad. He’s a tennis nut. And the thing is, he’d be able to play this game.

Wow. Nintendo, I didn’t consider myself a fanboy, but I think you’ve just made me one. In fact, I just now realized that no price was announced. You know what? I don’t care. Gimme a Wii.

If you’d like a more detailed account, head over to any games dedicated site. There is a metric ton of material out there I’m sure.