Image from popularmechanics.com

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone inside the "whinecore" audience who thought Nintendo had anything to offer at E3, despite a bevy of exciting hardware announcements, Animal Crossing, voice chat, and Pikmin. Yet the pattern established by the Wii and DS a few years ago holds true: outside the enthusiast press, Nintendo still reigns surpreme.

Popular Mechanics gave Wii Sports Resort some much deserving love- here is the sequel to Wii Sports, which is without question a landmark title in the video game industry, for better or for worse (obviously here we'd vote for better). Wii Sports Resort features realistic sword play, which is the headliner of the package, but frisbee has been rated highly, as well as the Waverace inspired game.

Read.

Fanboy hate is embarassing (image by Rob Howard for House of Nintendo).

Amid all of the turmoil surrounding the Nintendo press conference, Miyamoto has come out and made his attempt to calm the masses. And, to his credit, he didn't just shrug his shoulders and diss the core gamer (which is what Reggie seems to do in these situations). He said:

I think that there's probably one other element to it, and that's that our view of how we use E3 has changed. For a very long time, E3 was an event where - and certainly Nintendo included - catered specifically to the core gamer. Now we look at more ... an opportunity for us to introduce new concepts and new types of play that we intend to bring to the broader audience, particularly because of the media that gathers at E3 now.

So while attending an E3 event like this, they might be given the impression that Nintendo is no longer focusing on the games that appeal to the core gamer, in fact we're still working on many of those titles, but it's just not the type of event where we'll be showcasing that anymore.

There there, disappointed core gamer! Your games are coming! Just relax, and one dose of The Conduit and call me in the morning.

Seriously though, I wish Nintendo had made some indication of this in their presser. Announcing the new Pikmin game would have been a good idea also. So much of Nintendo's showing at E3 this year can be summed up with this: great content and poor execution. In reality, we have improvement to the control scheme, voice chat, Animal Crossing and Pikmin, extremely likely Zelda and a confirmed Pikmin title, and of course there's the Conduit, High Voltage's amazing FPS game that is knocking everybody's socks off with its fast play and Xbox 360/PS3 type graphics.

Via gonintendo.

"Winers."

So all is said and done at Nintendo's E3 presser. Here were my thoughts:

Great on the hardware end, below average on software. Animal Crossing was something we all knew about, so that wasn't a big deal. Wii Music is exciting, but the IGN guys are talking it down pretty badly. I disagree with them fundamentally, which deserves a seperate post (which I'll make later this week).

Still, we expected a Kid Icarus game, and maybe some news of something else, anything else. It seems, though, that the AAA games just aren't ready for prime time yet. They are clearly in development, but they are not ready for imminent, 2008 release.

On the hardware front, I thought Nintendo had a great conference. I'm pumped about Motion Plus, and the possibilities it can provide. I'm also excited about the voice chat solution. That's 2 major solutions to issues we'd been discussing on this blog for months and months. I only expected one solution to be unveiled, and that was the storage space problem; so I'm pleasantly surprised that we have two big items coming out on the hardware side.

So, all in all, there is plenty to be happy about. But you wouldn't know it from the internets. My goodness, the forums that I lurk at are foaming at the mouth. It seems the word on the street is:

1. No hardcore games announced, other than Animal Crossing.

That's a legit beef. Let's hope for more such announcements later in the year.

2. Motion Plus is what should have been released a year and a half ago.

This is crap. A company tries totally untested tech, on a console that nobody thinks can sell, so it is understandable that they would be conservative. Now that they have succeeded, they are expanding the capabilities of the console, even when they don't actually have to yet. They could have waited on Wii 2.0 for such changes. I don't buy this gripe, and I think it is hogwash.

All in all, the amount of bile on the net is sickening- let's get a grip, folks. There was plenty of good stuff here, and some of the things you wanted to see were probably just too early in development. That isn't to say Nintendo had a great conference- no, I'd give it about a C. But it simply is not the dismal failure some seem to think it is.

E3 is always a big time of year for game industry wonks like myself, so I thought I would share my thoughts on "the other guys," since some of you definitely own the other systems.

Microsoft's presser is already in the books, and most of the chatter is Microsoft's Avatar system and "casual" gaming overtures: all of which are blatant Wii ripoffs. The avatars, developed by Rare, fail to have the iconic look of Miis, and are of course totally late to the party. Let's face: The Japanese are far better at cuteness than a UK based game developer.

These overtures have, in fact, angered many Xbox fans. You have to remember that the 360 is supposed to be the hardcore gamer's console of choice. Hence the now famous "Wii60" moniker: that is, owning a Wii to get that unique, new experience, while owning a 360 to get traditional games, or "hardcore" games.

However, what is missed by many is that, despite Sony gaining incredible ground this year (the PS3 is here to stay, no doubt- I even went out and bought one), the PS3's slow start has cost them, big time: Final Fantasy XIII is now a cross platform title- Sony loses another exclusive title.

Really, Microsoft should have focused all of its efforts in declaring itself the "winner" amongst the hardcore. But the problem is, Microsoft has never been intent on having the best game console. Instead, it wants to dominate the living room, and it wants your console and your PC talking to each other in an epic entertainment hub.

Ironically, Nintendo, by making a console that was simple and fun, have in fact grabbed all that extra audience Microsofit (and Sony) were hoping to get. That isn't a fad, that's a fact of this generation, and the identities have been set. The good news for Microsoft, though, is that they are winning the early war for the hardcore gamers, but they are squandering that with silly avatar system announcements.

Overall, I'd say the Microsoft presser is a microcosm of their whole situation in the industry right now: they have inherent advantages, but make many small mistakes that limit their success.

We are mere hours away from Nintendo's big press conference- and we already had one small dissapointment: no Kid Icarus at E3.

However, any sadness over that vanished when the Motion Plus add on was announced.

Check out the details from Nintendo's official site:

Nintendo's upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo's commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing.

And pic:


From Nintendo.com

I think this is a huge, megaton announcement. After initial excitement, many of us have realized the limitations on the Wii's hardware. Great as it is, the actual applications have been mostly limited to waggle (waving the controller to approximate button presses) and IR control (using an on screen pointer to simulate something like a light gun game). The technology just hasn't been enough to do some of the exciting things that we all hoped Wii can do.

Now, with this add on, the possibilities are endless. I fully expect Nintendo to have a really fantastic game(s) to show off the new tech, and you can bet the third parties are excited.

Way to go Nintendo: this is epic win.

via gonintendo.

It's almost E3, and a action adventure Kid Icarus game, new IP, and other Nintendo surprises are all dancing in our heads. Almost every year, Nintendo comes out a winner at this conference, because (unlike the other companies) they keep a very tight lid on things.

Well, something got out early, and that's "Captain Rainbow." Here's the premise:

You are a super hero and star of a popular TV show. Your ratings drop, so you go to an island inhabited by Nintendo C-list stars, such as the thing that spits out eggs in Super Mario II, and characters from the original NES Tennis game.

It sounds zany, crazy, and... I sorta like it. But I have to doubt that this game is what Nintendo is going to be pushing hard at E3. Captain Rainbow, while interesting, doesn't have hit potential in the US, in my opinion.