Today is Nintendo"s turn to take a kick at the ol" E3 bucket. Microsoft came out with all guns blazing yesterday and Sony is still to come, but how exactly the did Nintendo do? Neowin was live blogging the event, but just in case you missed it, here are some of our impressions.
New Super Mario Bros
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): The game looked like a rehash of the original Super Mario Bros for NES, but with one twist, it"s four player multiplayer. While it certainly gave the Mario series a nice twist, I wasn"t too impressed. Comes out Holiday 2009.
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): I thought the game looked great, love the bright colours and the world design taken from NSMB on the DS. Not too sure about the co-op modes yet, but I"ll reserve judgement until I see more.
Wii Fit+
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): Nintendo is updating the software to the Wii Fit Balance Board to add new exercises and new games. They seem to try to tackle the problem of people stop using it after two weeks, which may work because it gives people the option to fully customize their workouts. A nice update for Balance Board users and comes out Fall 2009.
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): Honestly, I couldn"t be any less interested. As far as I am concerned it"s just more mini games which are fun for five minutes before you"re bored of them and the balance board is collecting dust again.
Wii Resort
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): Not impressed. It looks like an updated version of Wii Sports with different games.
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): I liked the look of the basketball game, but that was all really. Again, just more rehashs of the mini games and shovelware.
Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers for Wii
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): Looked pretty cool, but that"s because I love final fantasy games. This game is nothing really new, but it was nice to see a new trailer for the game.
Kingdom Hearts for DS
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): A new DS game from the Kingdom hearts franchise. Never really played the previous game so this didn"t really tickle my fancy. Graphics looked great though.
Mario and Luigi - Bowsers Inside Story for DS
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): Didn"t look to impressive. Just looked like another typical Mario game. Coming this fall to North America.
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): Quite excited to see a new game in the franchise, but I hope it goes beyond more of the same.
Golden Sun DS
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): I know Dave is excited for this, but I have never really been a fan of the series. From what i gather from Dave, it should be good.
Mario vs Donkey Kong for DS
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): This main draw to the game is you can create your own levels, but the game looked like it was Lemmings. Available as a download only via DSWare.
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): Never even heard of the series before today. Can"t say I was impressed by the trailer. I"ll definitely follow the development though and try the game out.
Upload to Facebook
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): With the DSi"s camera, you can now upload videos to youtube. Seems pretty cool, but nothing too impressive. Just another example of social sites entering the gaming world.
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): Seems to be a popular feature this year at E3. I"m not sure how many casual gamers will use Facebook though, especially the younger crowd.
Vitality Sensor for Wii
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): I don"t really see the point of this. It allows you to take your heart rate and other things of that nature while playing games. Why? I have no idea.
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): I thought it was a lie detector at first haha. Another useless add-on in my opinion.
Mario Galaxy 2
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): I loved the first one, thought it was the best game I played in years. This one should be good, why you may ask? YOSHI!!!!
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): I was initially excited when they were leading up to the trailer. As soon as it started though all my excitment died. It"s clearly using so many resources from Super Mario Galaxy. There"s no need to cash in on Mario like this.
The Conduit
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): Another game that is exclusive to the Wii from Sega. Looked kinda cool and pretty visual appealing. Should be a nice change from the typical Wii games.
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): Honestly, I wasn"t impressed. Sega haven"t created the best games for quite some time now. I don"t see this doing any better.
Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): Looked pretty cool. The graphics were gorgeous for the Wii. This should definitely be a top seller when it comes out.
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): I love Resident Evil, definitely looking forward to this. It looked fantastic in the trailer.
Dead Space Extraction
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): While the first one didn"t sell well for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, i loved it. I can"t see it doing very well though, especially with past sales of the game and Nintendo"s Wii audience. Hopefully i am wrong and it sells well, because this franchise deserves it.
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): I wasn"t a great fan of the first game but the trailer for Extraction did look very interesting and there was plenty of action going on. Very nice to see more mature games making it onto the Wii.
Metroid Other M
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): Made by Team Ninja (guys who brought us Ninja Gaiden). The game looked intense and I kind of wish I didn"t sell my wii so I could play this game. This was the most impressive part of the show for me for sure.
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): What have they done! Why on earth would they go to Team Ninja to develop a Metroid game. I don"t see it ending well. From the brief clips it just looked like Ninja Gaiden with a new layer of pain, heck I think I even spotted some of Ryu"s moves. Disappointed to say the least.
Final Thoughts
Garrett Dodd (rajputwarrior): This presentation sucked, and that is me being nice. It was boring, strung out and most of what was shown had already been seen. I guess Nintendo went into with the attitude of "we are the best right now, we have nothing to prove."
Andrew Gallacher (DrunknMunky): Overall, pretty disappointing but they didn"t make a fool of themselfs at least, which is better than last year. I was disappointed in Iwata"s speach, he was the most important man in the room who everybody should have been listening to closely. Instead I found myself zoning out and checking the forums to see other"s reactions.