Bonus – E3 2010, Nintendo Press Conference

DIRECT DOWNLOAD – RSS Feed – iTunes – Send us
Feedback! – More episodes

(Runtime: 18 minutes)

Phew, that was some press conference. After Microsoft’s brutally
awkward conference yesterday, a lot of us were left wondering if
video games truly had all fell into the dreadful mediocrity of
motion-control gimmicks. Boy, did Nintendo prove us wrong! (I
know, who would’ve guessed THAT, right?)



Reggie Fils-Aime, president of the North American division of
the game publisher and console manufacturer unveiled new title
after new title in a rapid-fire series of announcements, surely
sating the appetites of even the most hardcore Nintendo
fanboys. First off, legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto showed
off the new Wii Zelda title, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward
Sword. During an admittedly awkward demonstration (held up by
so-called “interference” with the Wii’s motion-sensing
capabilities), Miyamoto gave us a glimpse into the new control
scheme in which the sword is mapped to the Wiimote and the
shield is mapped to the nunchuck and the graphical style, which
marries the matured designs of Twilight Princess to the cel
shading of The Wind Waker while presumably running on the Super
Mario Galaxy graphics engine. At the very end of the
presentation, Miyamoto tried his very best to gracefully tell
the audience that Skyward Sword still needs a lot of work done,
and will take until 2011 before it’s finished.




Video Games | Zelda: Skyward Sword | E3 2010: Debut Trailer


XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii




But it wasn’t long before Reggie launched into what we all
expected from a Nintendo presentation casual games. However,
much to my surprise, we only saw two new casual games: Mario
Sports Mix (think Wii Sports with Mario) and Wii Party (think
Mario Party with Miis). The former will hit shelves sometime in
2011, while Reggie promised that we’ll see the latter this
holiday season. Meanwhile, Ubisoft presented a trailer for Just
Dance 2 on the Wii, which will hit this fall.


On the third party front, Nintendo didn’t have very much to
show off, though the titles themselves were certainly worth
talking about. First is a remake (or maybe it’s a sequel) of
Goldeneye, the beloved Nintendo 64 first-person shooter that
has stuck in many gamers’ minds as a reminder of the golden
days (har har) of Nintendo’s consoles. After that was Disney’s
Epic Mickey, featuring a fascinating discussion of the
importance of play style from designer Warren Specter. The game
will feature choices between solving puzzles by creating or
destroying the environment, which Specter hopes will provide a
rich experience that is different for every player.


Meanwhile, Nintendo unveiled the subtitle, a new trailer, and a
2010 holiday season release date for their previously announced
Golden Sun DS sequel, now entitled Golden Sun: Dark Dawn.
Additionally, the Wii will see the release of Kirby’s Epic
Yarn, the first Kirby console game since the Gamecube’s Kirby
Air Ride (2003) and the first side-scrolling console Kirby game
since Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (2000) on yes my friends the
Nintendo 64. Kirby’s Epic Yarn, which sports an interesting new
art style reminiscent of the Super Nintendo’s Kirby’s Dream
Land 3 (1997), is already prepped for release this fall. We
also got a trailer for the Team Ninja-developed Metroid: Other
M, which will arrive on August 31.




Video Games | Kirby’s Epic Yarn | E3 2010: Debut Trailer


XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii




Last but certainly not least, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata
stepped on stage to present the Nintendo 3DS, a successor to
the DS that features a touch screen on the bottom and a
slightly larger 3-D screen on the top half (It displays 3-D
WITHOUT glasses). The left side of the handheld has a “slide
pad” that acts as an analog stick, the insides have a motion
sensor and a gyro sensor, and the system can display more
powerful graphics than the current DS models. Additionally, the
front of the device features two cameras, allowing the 3DS to
take 3-D photographs. On the software side of things, Iwata
confirmed that the 3DS is capable of playing 3-D Hollywood
movies, and Nintendo has already partnered with Disney, Warner
Bros., and Dreamworks to provide that content. Finally, a slew
of third-party developers, including CAPCOM, EA, Harmonix,
Konami, Level-5, and Ubisoft, have signed on to create games
for the system, and some of the confirmed games (first- and
third-party) are listed below:


Kid Icarus: Uprising from Kirby/Smash Bros. developer
Masahiro Sakurai and Sora Ltd.

A new Nintendogs game from Miyamoto

a Metal Gear Solid game from Kojima himself

an Assassin’s Creed game from Ubisoft

a “completely original Resident Evil game” from CAPCOM



Overall, I was very impressed with Nintendo’s press conference.
While a lot of the technology (3DS, swordfighting with Wii
MotionPlus) still seems a little wonky or hazy
[[EDIT: and I was very disappointed in the
continued lack of any new IPs]], their presentation was
refreshing in how to-the-point it was. Nintendo made it clear
much moreso than Microsoft did with their awful Kinect
presentations that this was all about games, and whether you
are interested in their titles or not, it’s hard to deny that
they put on a damn good show.


For more news and commentary out of E3 2010, check back
with our E3 2010 label page.