Games At Nintendo's E3 Press Conference

There could be quite a few different words to describe what many gamers, such as myself felt when they watched/read about Nintendo's Press Conference at E3 yesterday. Disappointment. Surprise. WTF? I pretty much felt all of those and more. It sort of felt like Nintendo forgot a lot of games and franchises. Where's the much rumored Kid Icarus? What about returning to classic Nintendo franchises like Pikmin, F-Zero, and Punch Out? Well, even if we didn't see those games, I still have quite a few impressions of the games that were announced... Enjoy!

Animal Crossing: City Folk


The three first-party Nintendo games shown at the Conference were Animal Crossing: City Folk, Wii Music, and Wii Sports Resort. So I'll start talking about Animal Crossing first. It was confirmed a day or so before E3, so that surprise was kind of ruined for me. But it was still cool to see it in action. The game looks quite a bit similar to the two previous games on the GameCube and DS. It also has that strange curved horizon like in the DS one. I can't really argue whether I prefer the GC view better, as I've never played that version. From some recent previews I've read, the game also looks a bit more about exploring the town and city, which is very cool in my opinion. It was announced at E3 alongside the WiiSpeak, an interesting peripheral that is Nintendo's answer to voice chat. It seems a little strange but it's a start. USB Keyboard support is being utilized too, which is another nice addition. Animal Crossing: City Folk looks like that classic AC we've come to love, but also brings some new, nicely integrated additions too.

Wii Sports Resorts

Wii MotionPlus

Wii Sports 2, or Wii Sports Resort is the sequel to the game packaged with the Wii. The original was there to show off the motion control abilities of the Wii remote. Similar to it's predecessor, Wii Sports Resort is being packaged with the MotionPlus device. This peripheral makes 1:1 motion controls on the Wii possible. And with the demonstration at E3, it's shaping up to be great. The game will include around 10 different games, along the same lines as Wii Sports. Three were shown at the Press Conference: Frisbee, jet skiing, and sword fighting. They all look surprisingly fun, and they seemed to work very well. The sword dueling one in particular showed off how the new MotionPlus can truly mimic your motions. The game is actually one of the coolest being shown for the Wii currently.

Wii Music

I'm actually pretty disappointed with Wii Music as of late. The things that have me excited about it are the variety in instruments you can play (over 50, if Nintendo is to be believed) and the classic Nintendo tracks you play in the game (such as F-Zero, Zelda, and Super Mario Bros.). But from E3's presentation, it looks very simplistic and dumbed down. No scrolling notes, just two buttons on most of the instruments that control the sounds. On the contrary, the drum set looks interesting, as the foot pedals are controlled by the Wii Balance Board and the Wii remote and Nunchuk control where you hit the drums. Overall, the games needs to have a bit more challenge than what was seen for me to be excited. But it's still a while away, and who knows what will happen?

Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades


Sounds cool. But it seems kind of soon to announce a sequel, but Activision is known for pulling out multiple sequels, not necessarily a good nor bad thing. A cool feature of it include the ability to share songs with someone who has the original version and vice-versa. I'll definitely be keeping my eyes and ears open for this.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars


Grand Theft Auto's coming to the DS! And it's set in Liberty City! End of story. What? Any other details or maybe even a teaser trailer? Nope. Hmm... Interesting. I wound have guessed Rockstar to bring the GTA series to the Wii or PSP way before the DS, but whatever. As I said before, this'll be interesting. Too bad we don't even have a single screen or anything, just some stupid logo.

So those were the games that were announced at Nintendo's Press Conference. Really, the highlights of the show were Nintendo's announcements: Animal Crossing, Wii Sports 2, Wii Music, Wii MotionPlus, and WiiSpeak. While it disappointed many a fan, I for one was somewhat impressed. I was a little underwhelmed at the lack of Kid Icarus, Zelda, Mario, Pikmin, or Punch-Out!!, but it wasn't all that bad of an E3 Press Conference.