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27 Playable Wii Games At E3
The Nintendo conference seemed to be the perfect opposite of Sony's conference yesterday. It was polished, the presenters were poised, and the demos conveyed exactly the message they were aiming for. Notable info includes 27 playable Wii titles on the E3 floor, a speaker in the Wii controller, a StarFox title for the DS, and a confirmation of motion sensor in the nunchuck attachment. There will be two versions of Twilight Princess (one for Wii, one for GC) and they'll both be out on Wii launch day. Launch is slated for Q4 of this year. The presenters kept the launch price and date under wraps as the tone of the event was inspiration, not information. The number of playable games available this week confirms their commitment to a launch date this year, and the hilarious tennis game played onstage by the Nintendo honchos and the contest winner made their 'playing = believing' slogan really hit home. More flash than substance, but a solid presentation overall
Well, I've already decided that out of the next-gen consoles I'll be preordering, the Wii is the one I won't be selling on eBay for megabux.
Interesting that Nintendo have finally conceeded to having two different versions of Twilight Princess, rather than a Gamecube game that would have added Wii functionality.
Mayomato and Scott won in the end. It was funny watching them all goof off.
You can mod your friends, you can mod your nose, but you can't mod your friend's nose.
The presentation also showed that almost every sports game will make big use of the controller.... from Madden to tennis to running (which the Wii sees as the controller being shaken up and down as you make a jogging motion) to driving (as a simulated wheel that should have more resolution than a 1/4" stick can have) to obviously sword fighting.
Also, the Wii controller will have a rumble feature, but the PS3 controller won't? Is that right?
It looks like shoppers this holiday season will be able to pick from all the next-gen consoles.
:-)
I keep on saying this: It's way too soon to say that Sony won't screw up the launch and miss the holiday release date.
But the depressing thought is that, even though we now know beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Nintendo Wii is the superior system, I still expect Sony to dominate this holiday season.
Part of it is that, like it or not, Nintendo is treated like a kid's toy. Sony is treated like it's a "professional" system, which is doubly stupid when talking about games, but there you have it. I think Nintendo is trying to go for Apple's "stylish and powerful" image with the Wii, and while that's worked fairly well for the iPod (and, in a way, the Nintendo DS), I'm not sure it'll work for the Wii.
The other part is that there are so many sequels coming out for the PS3, and while gamers will complain about sequels to no end, they'll still buy them. It may be the PS3, but all the games are at least at "4" for the PS3. You've got Metal Gear Solid 4, Devil May Cry 4, Final Fantasy 13 (13?! don't people ever try new things?), all coming out for the PS3. And despite the fact that they're all rehashed sequels, people will undoubtably buy the PS3 for them, and ignore the Wii as a "kid's toy".
So the PS3 will look professional, cost more, and have worse games. And I've got this depressing feeling that people will buy it because of those, and not in spite of those. There are times I really hate the general public.
I think that Nintendo has a good chance of taking a lot of names this generation. Previous generations, parents would by consoles for their kids. Chances are, they could buy a Wii for the whole family to enjoy. I think the unique interaction possibilites with Wii is enough to make sure people have one at the house in case a party breaks out. ;-)
You are in a maze of little twisting passages, all different.
Nintendo's probably rethinking their pricing now that Sony has high price of $499 & $599. Some Nintendo analyst is problably figuring out if they add another $50 to the cost of the system.
My gut feeling was that it was going to be $249 but now Nintendo might try for $299.
Low: They kept showing a Mario game (Mario Galaxies or something), but I either missed the details or they didn't talk about it. Where's Mario 128? ...That was Mario 128. It has a new name now.
I expect you'll hear about it when it's on the show floor tomorrow?
Personally I thought the Mario Galaxy trailer was the best part of the entire press conference, especially when you got the sense that you could actually see how the controller movements were translating into mario's movements. It just made me really happy, it looks like we're finally getting the 3D mario game Nintendo's been trying to make for years but never quite pulled off.
I was one of those people who played Mario Sunshine and thought the wierd little abstract "bonus levels" were the best part, and went "You know, I wish they'd just release a game of nothing but these Mario Sunshine minilevels". Now they're doing that.
It was odd though how some of the most interesting stuff in that conference just kind of flashed by in four seconds of video. What was that "Disaster: Day of Disaster" thing or whatever? You could have blinked and missed that entire game. In fact I think I did.
I drive several cars...
The Mini Cooper is very very fun. Totally unrefined ride, doesn't present itself as well as a more elaborate or expensive sports car, but it's quick, nimble, and fun. Just fun.
The Mitsubishi Endeavor is a generic SUV. It's got leather and a loud stereo. You can do a lot with it, and it serves many purposes. Generic and useful.
The Dodge Viper is neurotic, takes it's design and engineering queues from many sources, but when the stars align and you find a situation to use it nothing is better.
In case you haven't caught on I'm making a very VERY poor attempt at generalizing that these 3 consoles are as far apart as you can get within the same arena of "nextGen Consoles". Mini = Wii. SUV = 360. PS3 = hypothetical viper.
Seems to me instead of arguing which is better (makes about as much sense as arguing if Starbucks makes a better cup of coffee than Burger King makes weird commercials) we should be revelling in the fact these billion dollar companies are competing fo fiercly to create a product we'll buy. Dance, monkeys! Also I will be buying PS3 and Wii. The 360 seems to fade out somewhere...
And no, I don't drive a viper, but I hear they're not slow.
Enter the "off-topic" mod...
Was it just me or did anyone else hear Iwata mention the Opera Web browser when talking about the Wii? This would be the first console since the Dreamcast to have that built in ability.
"By the same logic, if he has no good reason for what he says, he is just making noise and we need pay him no attention.
So it seems that the work Opera did in making the webbrowser for the DS hasn't gone to waste -- it's going to be the integrated browser in Wii too. But, has Nintendo made any mention of an internal HD yet? I haven't seen anything in their specs about data storage, except mention that the Wii-motes will hold the save games.
Add another $50 to the system and throw in a second controller (at maybe a $10 cost to them) and a first-party title (at maybe a $2 cost to them), call it a bundle, give them a Nintendo Power subscription, and you're sold. Your margins go up, your first-party launch title gets free sales and gets the word out there, and people don't get sticker shock at the register.
Well, they're bring out really innovative hardware and this is the first time they've really proven it will work and people are really excited about it now. They're going to be much cheaper than the competition and to people like me who don't buy many games or play many games anymore, I'm ready to throw down for this.
Not to mention Mario and Zelda on the same day?! That Tennis game is going to be rather uber as well.
So yeah I agree, Nintendo is really taken advantage of the fact XBox and PS have nothing new but amazing graphics with a super high premium. They can come in from behind with a truly innovative game play system and a cheap price tag. The graphics won't dazzle everyone but they'll be fine.
I'm actually excited about a video game system again.
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
It's E3, you either steal the show or you get totally ignored. If they save the release date for a months time they will have the news all to themselvs as everyone else burnt themselvs out at E3.
Nintendo arn't pulling punchs this time round. They got MAJOR press the week before E3 (hence stealing all the "WTF will they do at E3!?" press in 1 switch sweep), then they came out the corner swinging like a drunk hobo with the games list. They really are in an awesome position to dominate E3 from the week before to several weeks later.
I like muppets.
Annoyingly, that's nothing without developer support... the DS only just got its first good FPS, with no others in the pipeline that I'm aware of, and it has excellent control options for FPSes. Yet the Xbox with its unfriendly controller is overflowing with them.
Wii does at least have Red Steel, Call of Duty 3 and Metroid Prime 3 (though the gamecube versions weren't really FPSes hopefully this one will go more Hunters style), so it seems like developers might pay some attention this time. Fingers crossed.
Also, where's my DS RTS game! Still not even freaking Pikmin DS! Or a 4X game! I'm pretty disappointed by the DS games they announced, though I love the ones I already have so that's OK.
wake up, brownsteve, people have already gotten past the name.
Although the moon is smaller than the earth, it is farther away.