Tuesday, July 15, 2008

E3: Day 2


Now, it's Nintendo's turn at the mic.

Nice way to start off. Shawn White is demonstrating the new Wii balance board, and demostrates how the board is used in his game, "Shawn White: Snowboarding". And now, Shawn's offering tips to one of the Nintendo higher ups. The demo looks great, and White's endorsement is awesome.

Nintendo just gets it sometimes. The Wii balance board makes the snowboarding game awesome. Now, just thinking about the cost of the Wii, the board, and the game just makes me sad and poor. But, for those who already have a Wii, the board looks like a great addition, and White's game provides a great supporting game.

Now, we are joined by Nintendo's CEO. Nice information, but the guy's got a thick accent. Makes it hard to appreciate what he's got to say. Get some interpreters, guys! How are we gamers going to appreciate what lies ahead for the Wii, if we can't understand what the hell is being said about it?

Okay, way too much of a lecture from the CEO. More games, please.

Okay, on to Animal Crossing. Apparently, gamers can interact with a living world, where animals live cooperatively with the gamers Miis. (Seems nice to anybody who hasn't quite hit puberty yet.)

Now the CEO of Nintendo of America is on the stage. No hard to understand accents here. He begins by talking about the Nintendo DS, and it's strong sales. (Something I'll never understand. The "two window" thing just didn't do it for me, and the Palm pilot rip-off pen is a pain in the neck. I tend to think the PSP is a better hand-held, but that'd just me.)

Okay, I'm fast forwarding. I don't need to be told how many units a handheld has sold.

Finally! A Star Wars game for the Wii. LucasArts' Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be available for the Wii, with players able to finally use their controllers as light sabers. (About time, Nintendo. But, hey, better late than never.)

Also, the new Call of Duty game will be available for the Wii. The graphics look great, and the gameplay is impressive.

And, now we're back to more DS info. Boring! Now, more stats about DS sales.

Interesting fact: The DS' Guitar Hero: On Tour has sold 300,000 units. Gee, that means that there are 300,000 disappointed people out there! The game just isn't the same on the DS, but that's a discussion for another day, and another blog.

Okay, here's something cool. The game Spore will be available on the DS. Spore's an interesting game. The ability to create your own world, and populate it with creatures of your own design is pretty interesting. Props to the DS for that one.

Oh, no. Another Pokemon game. Quick! I gotta find the remote!

But, before I press the "fast forward" button, though, here's something interesting. Nintendo will have a version of Grand Theft Auto on the DS.

What? Huh? Why is a kid-friendly portable gaming system featuring a port of Grand Theft Auto? Isn't that like having porn on Nickelodeon? Nintendo seems like it's having an identity crisis.

Now, back to the Wii. Now we've got the Wii Motion Plus, an added piece that fits onto the Wii remote, and allows for even more motion sensitivity. The controller allows for perfectly sync'd motion that perfectly replicates the person's hand motion step for step. Impressive. The first game that will utilize this new added piece will be Wii Sports Resort. The game takes the Wii Sports concept outdoors. Now, I'm checking out a sword fighting game that will be featured on Wii Sports Resort. We'll have a long wait, though, for the game. It's due out in Spring 09.

And now, music. We start with a drummer using the Wii motion controller on a drum set. Awesome! We're now being introduced to Wii Music, where the motion controller allows the player to be able to play a variety of instruments. Right now, we're watching the guy playing drums still, and now another guy playing a jazz tune on a saxophone. (Nope, no actual saxophone necessary. Just your regular Wii controller. Amazing. Very, very cool.)

The game will allow you to play 50 instruments. 50 instruments! Whoa. Now, we've got a guy playing violin. Very impressive. The drum kit can actually be augmented by the Wii balance board, allowing the player to use the board to control the bass drum.

Wow, up to four players can all play at the same time. On the stage, we've got four players, and our guest drummer playing what else? The theme to Super Mario Bros. (Very, very awesome!)

And, with that, Nintendo wraps up.

Very impressive. Overall good press conference.

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