Nintendo conference

So here is my review of my Nintendo E3 predictions (in italics) and the announcements made.

- Release dates are given for Super Mario Galaxy and Smash Brothers Brawl (both Christmas 2007)

Yep, got this right (although in Europe Smash Brothers Brawl will slip until early 2008)

- It is announced that Animal Crossing, Mario Kart and Nintendogs are being developed for the Wii and footage of these is shown. They are not due to be released until 2008. All will feature online play.

1 out of 3 isn’t bad!

- The Wii will be released in new colours. Probably black and pink.

No sign of any new colours yet – give it time…

- Wiisports 2 is announced. This also has online play.

Nope – but I’m sure it must be in development going by how popular Wiisports has become.

- Wiimusic is shown in full and Nintendo pushes this as the next big thing.

No mention of Wiimusic at all. This was shown last E3 as a possible project and I really thought that it would form a full game.

- An online mode is revealed for Metroid Prime 3 (although this is probably wishful thinking on my part).

Nope – disproved prior to E3.

- Wiihealth is announced – including a heart rate monitor attachment for the Wiimote.

I was close, oh so very close with this one. Instead of Wiihealth we have Wii Fit.

- A new 2D Mario game is shown for the DS.

Nope, nada.

- Nintendcats is announced for the DS.

Nope – it would appear that Nintendo are satisfied with purely dogs at present.

I have to say that the Nintendo presentation wasn’t as good as Sony’s and from what I’ve read, the Microsoft’s presentation wasn’t that spectacular either. Also a large part of Nintendo’s presentation seemed to be just to congratulate themselves, showing way too many youtube video’s and media stories concerning Wii and DS hype. The standout points and other points of interest for me were as follows:

- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. This is looking better than ever and seeing as it is now confirmed as out on 26 October 2007 in Europe, has immediately jumped to the top of my birthday list. From what I’ve read, the control method with the wiimote works perfectly.

- Wii Zapper. Not entirely convinced by this, kinda looks like a cheap plastic shell for the Wiimote and nunchuck. It’s good to here that they are packaging this with sample games similar to Wiiplay. As such, I may pick one up.

- Mario Kart Wii. This is what I wanted to hear. I’m a little concerned by the plastic wheel shell that it will come with, but it was also announced that there will be different control methods. The important part is that Mario Kart Wii will be online. Now, I’m good at Mario Kart, I’d even go so far to say that I’m damn good at Mario Kart, as such, I look forward to ruling completely on online Mario Kart for the Wii :)

- Wii Fit. Doesn’t really interest me much. A very strange, Nintendo-like concept which is aimed squarely at attracting as many non-gamers outside the core demographics as possible. I can see that it will do just that, as well as focusing media attention once more to the Wii when this is released with the inevitable “I lost weight playing games” type of stories. Also, just showed the trailer for this to Roz and Elliot – they both seemed rather enthusiastic about it!

- Super Mario Galaxy. Still my most anticipate game for any system, and it will be out in Europe in time for Christmas. What’s more, if nothing else, this picture below so far has been my highlight for E3:


How can you possibly beat Mario in a Bumblebee suit? It simply redefines cute :)