E3 is here again and day 2 has just started a few hours ago. Also just a few hours ago, Nintendo's Media Briefing/Press Conference started and went on for a little more than an hour.
Typical of a Nintendo E3 conference in the past few years was to give some statistics and then unveil some new stuff. Here are some highlights I got and some impressions. Oh yeah, Reggie Fil-Aimes was the main speaker (just like before).
Wii Zapper
This is similar to the
prototype unveiled before but this time, the nunchuk attachment is also used. It's two handed so you'll be holding it
like a tommy gun. It's going to be sold at a MSRP $19.95. A bit expensive considering it's just a mount, but I guess the finish & quality adds to the price...oh yeah, the branding too.
One important thing to note here is that it
still uses IR for pointing. It's quite sad that they didn't opt to have a light gun-like device instead since it would work better with the upcoming games (Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad and Medal of Honor). Well, fortunately it's also going to be packaged with one or two of these games. I doubt that I'll shell out money for these.
I just can't get over the idea of not having a light gun.
Mario Kart & Wii Wheel
Reggie talked about how the DS was using the
Nintendo Wifi Connection (NFC) and the 250+ M wifi sessions (5.5 M DS user has already played online). [Hahaha, I love playing Tetris DS online.]
Reggie then mentioned that the Wii already had Pokemon Battle Revolution where players could bring their Pokemon to the online arena. Well, for me it wasn't really that good since it lacked the matchmaking capabilities and statistics. Good thing he also promises other games that will go online (Aw, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption isn't one of them).
What seemed like a promising online experience was playing
Mario Strikers Charged online and I read about this article weeks before and this game seems like something to keep an eye on.
Also, he announced Mario Kart for the Wii! Reggie said that this
wasn't the Mario Kart we used to play because of its online capabilities. One interesting thing is that he mentions that there will be multiple players playing real time. He just didn't mention how many (he just said to stay tuned). Oh how I wish they'd develop F-Zero for the Wii and have a 30-player (or at least a 12-player) online cup. I really enjoyed
F-Zero GX on the Gamecube...
Reggie said that in Mario Kart for the Wii, there was a tool that could help novice players & veteran players and even out the ground. Enter the Wii Wheel. It's basically a little wheel with a diameter of a Wii Remote and an inch. I don't really get how this will leverage the other novice players...well, maybe less intimidating controller? But still...
What was kind of awkward was that Reggie seemed to pause for an applause after showing the Wii Wheel but didn't get any applause. Well, if I were there, I wouldn't really applause, too. The attachment seemed pretty much useless (well, I could be wrong but for now, that's what I think).
Brawl
On a short note, they said that
Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be released this
December 3! w00t!
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
No new info here, but any demo of Zelda is
sweet.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
There was a short demonstration on MP3 and no new info was said. Well, there was that Z-Locking but still had free aiming. So you could do a circle-strafe while having full control of your aim.
Satoru Iwata speaks
The fourth president of Nintendo basically talked about separating the psychological barriers between novice players and veteran players. He said that the Wii Zapper & the Wii Wheel does just that. I can't help but think, is there something more to these attachments? I still find it weird.
After that, he said that best game designs combine all player levels and combine them. Whee~! Let's bring the family closer together.
Nintendo: We're just getting started.
Some other upcoming games shown during the PressCon were
Brain Age 2,
Super Mario Galaxy, Flash Focus, and MyWord Coach.
Brain Age 2 has been on my wish list and still is. More brain games and it'll be released this August 20!
Super Mario Galaxy is also coming this November 12. News has been satisfactory for Super Mario Galaxy so nothing unexpected.
There's also a vision training 'game', Flash Focus, that has activities to improve the eyes from range to visual focus. It has activities like a baseball strike zone and seems quite interesting. Japan's having all the fun right now but it'll localized to the US pretty soon.
There's also MyWord Coach from Ubisoft. This was announced months back and what's weird was that there's also going to be a MyLife Coach. Mentoring you on different aspects of life?
Shigeru Miyamoto: "Have you been getting your sweat on lately?"!
Good old Shiggy was there to talk about a new game:
WiiFit. Nope, it's not a game of trying to fit little pieces together. It's a health game. Also, it will be using something called a
Wii Balance Board. This may sound weird but this really interested me. This reminded me of that old FamiCom game with the mat and there were different activities you could perform such as running. It was quite a workout then.
So, what's up with WiiFit? There are different activities which include step aerobics, hula-hoops, yoga poses ...This is done through sensors on the foot pads. It seems to be pressure sensitive in key areas such that it can sense where your center of gravity is and how it shifts (in real time) and can determine your weight (not so sure about this but seems so). The device is also very thin and can also act as an interface with games (whole body input). Skate/snow boarding games anyone? In addition to that, it's also wireless!
In WiiFit, they showed how it measured the center of gravity, BMI (an approximation) and had graphs for the statistics. These statistics could also be compared with the statistics of the other users. Do I see the Biggest Loser: Home Edition?
What's the rationale behind WiiFit? Since the Wii was usually placed in the living room, what they wanted to do was to make the Wii more relevant to everyone in the household. To achieve this, they thought of
health.
Let's go back to the game. Three fitness trainers (well, they said they were fitness trainers) demonstrated the game through three activities:
- One legged stretch: It was basically a stretching exercise and the challenge here was to keep the balance at the center while doing this.
- Step aerobics: Aside from stepping on the board and stepping off, it has been coated with a Dance Dance Revolution-like feel to it that you had to follow the steps according to what's shown on screen.
- Sideways twist: You basically twisting body left & right. The balance & on-screen feedback makes sure you perform the different exercises correctly.
During the show, they seemed to have some calibration problems but overall, it seems like a promising device...although might not be used by a lot of games.
Just in case I didn't mention the other features in WiiFit, in the list were muscle training (push-ups and all that), yoga exercises and other fun games such as Soccer heading (leaning left to right to "head" the balls, while dodging anything else that comes flying in.
In Closing...
They said that they want to steal precious minutes from other activities for video games. Rawr. I say rawr indeed.
Aside from that, they said consumers are no longer satisfied with consuming entertainment (points to Flickr, facebook, etc.). Reggie said: "The future should belong to all of us."
Reggie mentions about the WiiWare and how it's being opened to partner developers. I can't help but think: how about
us? We're the consumers right? Can't we have our share of the action? Does that mean no 'homebrew' software from the consumers? I hope they open that possibility up...
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IGN has already posted about this conference and if you want more detail and photos, you might want to
check this out.
