The Good and Bad of E3 2008 - Nintendo and Microsoft

My last E3 article... Nintendo and Microsoft only because those were the Media Briefings I watched, maybe I'll watch Sony's sometime and post something, but it's unlikely.

The Good

• Animal Crossing: City Fold announcement and footage/creator interview (looks very cool).
• WiiSpeak peripheral announcement (aka the Wii's voice chat).
• Guitar Hero: On Tour sequel will feature "trading songs" feature (allowing Guitar Hero: On Tour and Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades to trade songs).
• Wii Sports Resort announcement (looks really entertaining).
• Wii MotionPlus demoed (allowing 1:1 motions of the Wii).

The Bad

• Cammy Dunaway (god she's annoying).
• Shawn White demoing Shawn White Snowboarding (looks mediocre, and the Flying Tomato's pretty annoying too).
• Wii Music (um...).

The Unexpected

• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars announcement (for the DS).
• No news of "core" games. Pikmin? Mario? Zelda? Punch-Out!!? Nintendo franchises (Other than Animal Crossing)? o_O

The Good

• Fallout 3 demoed (looks very cool).
• Resident Evil 5 demoed and co-op announced (co-op looks very sweet).
• Fable 2 demoed (looks interesting, especially the co-op).
• Gears of War 2 demoed (looks very, very bad ass).
• Geometry Wars 2, Galaga Legions, and Portal Still Alive annouced for XBLA.
• Netflix for Live users!

The Bad

• Microsoft Miis, er, I mean Avatars.
• The new Dashboard (looks quite a bit like Apple's Cover Flow).
  
• "Casual" games: You're In the Movies, Lips, and Uno Rush.

The Unexpected

• Final Fantasy XIII for the 360 announcement (no longer a PS3 exclusive).
• No showing of Microsoft's rumored motion controls or remote (thank god!).

The Good, the Bad, and the Unexpected

• May be coming soon (don't count on it)...
  

Upcoming Wii Games - Part 2 Post-E3

It's over... *sigh*

As you may remember I did a little article before E3 about what games for the Nitendo Wii I was looking forward too. Well, E3's come and gone, I've read every posible preview and hands-on of the games that were showcased there, and now I've come up with a few more games that I really can't wait for. Enjoy!

The Conduit

Platform(s): Wii
Release Date: Q1 2009 (USA)
I totally forgot about this game on my first article. But I hadn't really seen any articles or interviews at that time for me to remember. But with the flood of E3 previews, I have to say I'm even more excited. While the FPS is the genre that covers a lot of the games on both the PS3 and XBox 360, it's been rarely touched on the Wii. Strange, seeing that the controls work very well if done right (e.g. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2.) And the graphics are some of the best seen on Wii occording to video game journalists from sites such as IGN and GoNintendo. After the IGN exclusive reveal of the game in April 17, 2008, I've been looking forward to this game quite a bit and I really can't wait. But I guess I don't care about that wait actually, even more time for them the make the game awesome.

Animal Crossing: City Folk

System(s): Wii
Release Date: November 16, 2008
What's so good about the newest iteration of Animal Crossing? It's supposedly the same old Animal Crossing we've come to love with some new features, voice chat via Nintendo's strange WiiSpeak, keyboard support, and Wii remote IR functionality for all menus, environments and everything in between. Sounds great, right? I sure hope so, because I'm ready to enter the AC universe again.

Wii Sports Resort

System(s): Wii
Release Date: Spring 2009
The sequel to Wii Sports, the game packaged with the Wii to show off the motion controls, is shaping up the be along those same lines. But instead of motion sensing that it's showing off, it's enhanced motion sensing via the Wii MotionPlus, a little peripheral that plugs into the bottom of the Wii remote and lets you do 1:1 motion controls. It's supposed to have around ten different games packaged in. The ones we've seen are Frisbee, Jet Skiing (above), and Fencing. All of which look very cool. With Wii Sports, I had a great deal of fun even if it was limited. And since it comes with the MotionPlus, this looks like a must buy for me.

Last time I had a couple of games I wasn't so sure of, or that I hadn't seen enough of to make a full decision. Two of these were hardcore-geared titles Fatal Frame 4 (aka Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse) from Nintendo and Capcom's Moster Hunter 3, which disappointedly we saw nothing of at E3 2008. Another game I'm not so sure about but will keep my eyes open for is MadWorld, which we've seen some videos of at E3 and looks gruesome and kinda cool.

That rounds up my second article about the games I'm looking forward too. In case you missed the first, it's here. And here's a complete list (so far) of the games I can't wait for:

de Blob September 26, 2008 (USA)
Wario Land: Shake It! September 29, 2008 (USA)
Guitar Hero: World Tour October 27, 2008 (USA)
Animal Crossing: City Folk November 16, 2008 (USA)
Mega Man 9 Fall/Winter 2008 (USA)
The Conduit Q1 2009 (USA)
Wii Sports Resort Spring 2009 (USA)

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.

My E3 Predictions: The Aftermath

Wii Sports Resort, which I didn't predict, and is looking pretty cool...

As you may recall, way back in May, I wrote a little article concerning what I had predicted we'd see at Nintendo's press conference. Well now that the Nintendo E3 Media Briefing is over, how many of my predicted games showed up? Read on to find out...

The first game I predicted way back when was Kid Icarus. There were so many signs, such as him being in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and not to mention the IGN crew had pretty much confirmed it in their podcasts. But alas no mention of Kid Icarus at the press conference. I was 99% sure of it being there, but I guess there's always that 1%. But it seems like it's still in development, as IGN stated in an interview with Miyamoto.

As for Animal Crossing Wii, that's another story. I was pretty sure this was going to be shown at E3 also, and it was. It's now titled Animal Crossing: City Folk. It looks pretty cool, but it also looks very similar to the previous AC's for the DS and GameCube.

Pikmin 3? Nope it wasn't there either.

Disastor: Day of Crisis wasn't there in any shape or form. This has led me to believe it's gone the path of Project HAMMER and we won't be hearing of it anymore.

Wii Music was there and it looked interesting. You'll be able to play classic Nintendo tunes on over 50 instuments which looked cool. But it also looks overly simplistic. I'll just have to wait and see.

For some strange reason there was no storage solution announced for the Wii at E3. No SD Card support. No USB hard-drive support. Nothing. Strange and starting to piss me off just a little.

Voice chat was announced at the Expo. But it's very strange looking. Instead of a headset, you have a little device that sits above you TV and takes in the sounds of you living room and projects them to people you're playing games with. It's very strange and I can't see why not just a headset. Also, if you're wondering, you'll only be able to chat with people on your friends list (surprise, surprise!).

As for the DS, little was announced other than a very unexpected Grand Theft Auto game. Nothing like the New Super Mario Bros. 2 I had predicted.

Well there you have it. It seems I'm not the best at seeing the future. I was right on 3 things and wrong on 5. But hey, who knows, maybe Nintendo will announce some big title at the end of E3 (like in 2006 with SSBB). Just don't get your hopes up; I did that when E3 was coming up and was severely disappointed with Nintendo's showcase.

Upcoming Wii Games

I've been seeing a lot of articles like this lately, and I decided to write one of my own.

It will be upon us soon...

With E3 just around the corner, there will definitely be some new games to look forward to. But rewind back to the present, and there are already quite a few Wii games to be excited for. Today I've chosen the games that I'm hungry for every bit of news and every little tidbit about. Enjoy!

de Blob

Platform(s): Wii, DS
Release Date: September 26, 2008 (USA)
This colorful platformer from THQ is shaping up to be awesome. The core concept (in case you haven't heard) is that all the color of the city it's set in has been drained by these evil corportation. And it's your job as de Blob, who can absorb colors, to repaint the city and wipe out the evil corporation known as I.N.K.T. With the flood of recent previews and hands-ons, this is one game I'm really looking forward to.

Wario Land: Shake It!

Platform(s): Wii
Release Date: September 29, 2008 (USA)
Wario returns to his classic series of Wario Land in his latest Wii game. And man does it look fun. The hand drawn style and 2-platforming goodness all add up to another of my most excited games. You hold the Wii-remote classic NES style and it sort of reminds me of Super Paper Mario. Unfortunately there is waggle in the game, such as to get coins out of a bag or to fling yourself up. I only hope they incorporate the shaking parts good, such as in Super Paper Mario.

Guitar Hero: World Tour

Platform(s): PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii, Xbox 360
Release Date: October 27, 2008 (USA)
The first time I had heard of the fourth true entry into the Guitar Hero series was in my magazine Game Informer. There it was only title Guitar Hero 4. Now with the internet abuzz with news and screens of the game, it is titled Guitar Hero: World Tour. It seems to take everything in Rock Band and make it better. It has the four instruments of Rock Band: guitar, bass, microphone, and drums. The drums also look very cool and different from Rock Band's. Another neat feature is the ability to make your own songs. Since the Wii is my only system, I'll be getting it for that. And let me tell you, the Wii version is shaping up to be as good as the XBox 360 and PS3 versions (excluding graphics); it even will have the same downloadable content, a first for any Wii title!

Mega Man 9

Platform(s): WiiWare
Release Date: Fall/Winter 2008 (USA)
Capcom was really thinking about the fans when they decided to make Mega Man 9. With 8-bit graphics, 8-bit music, and Mega Man 2 difficulty, the game practically screams fan service. It's been looking very cool lately. It'll even have downloadable content! I'm really digging the style and can't wait for it.

Not so sure about...
Listed above are the games I'm really excited about; most of those will probably be day one purchases for me (or maybe shortly after). But there are several games I'm not so sure about. the first of these is Star Wars: The Force Unleased. Being set between Episodes III and IV, it looks like a cool entry into the Star Wars universe. But I'm still cautious about the game. Because there's been quite a few good Star Wars games, but there's been a lot of bad ones too. Another game I'm not to sure about is Deadly Creatues, which, if you haven't heard, is being published by THQ (same as de Blob). Basically in the game you take control of either a scorpion or tarantula and play through these environments from their views, fighting other bugs and snake/lizard bosses. It's also supposed to have some sort of interesting back story involving humans.

To round off my article there are two other games I'm pretty excited for, just I don't know a whole lot about them. They are Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse and Monster Hunter 3. Both look pretty cool, but I haven't seen many articles about them.

And that rounds up my most anticipated games for the Wii. What games are you excited for? Agree/disagree with my picks? Tell me in the comments.

Nintendo E3 Predictions

With no Nintendo news for the last month or so and E3 coming up, it's pretty safe to assume Nintendo has some big games they're planning to show off and the Expo. Some of the games are practically confirmed, whiles others I'm not so sure of. Read on to see my predictions for Nintendo at E3 '08

Kid Icarus

The crew at IGN have practically confirmed it in some of their latest podcasts. And rumors have been floated all over the web about the rebirth of Nintendo's classic franchise.

Pretty boy Pit from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Seeing that only two games have ever been released in the series (the last one in 1991 for the GameBoy), this will have been around 17 years since a Kid Icarus game was released. He appeared in Brawl too. So it's safe to say I'm 99% sure he'll be at E3.


Animal Crossing Wii

Animal Crossing for the Wii has been pretty much confirmed by Nintendo when they were first showing off the abilities of the WiiConnect24 service. Think of it, sending letters to your friend's town and visiting their towns (maybe even while they're away!) And with Pay-to-Play recently announced from Nintendo, what better game to utilize that new service than Nintendo's own Animal Crossing? Just as they advertised when the Wii was first confirmed, think of waking up in the morning to find out you received something household item or piece of clothing from Nintendo. Animal Crossing is also very likely to be at E3.


Pikmin 3

There haven't been any rumors or news about a third Pikmin game, but as Miyamoto said in an interview with IGN, "I certainly don't think we've seen the last of Pikmin."

The Wii controls would fit the RTS elements of Pikmin pretty well; so it'd definitely work. Just like Pit, Captain Olimar starred in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, so I bet we'll see Pikmin 3 in some form at E3. But I could be wrong on this one.


Disaster: Day of Crisis

Very little has been heard about this realistic survival game from Nintendo. For any of you who haven't heard of it, D:DoC was announced way back at the 2006 E3. And a year later at the next E3, the NOA's Beth Llewelyn said in an interview that it was still in development. With very little news since then, Nintendo fans such as myself hope that it doesn't turn into a Project H.A.M.M.E.R. and just fade away.

Besides the Wii Sports/Play/Fit franchise, Pikmin and Animal Crossing were the last original Nintendo series to be created. D:DoC could create a cool new universe for Nintendo to work with and expand. That's always good.


Wii Music

Imagine playing a classic Mario or Zelda tune...

And rounding up the Wii games is Wii Music! We've heard a little bit about this at previous E3's and other events. What is known about it is that Miis are used and you'll be able to conduct full orchestras. This will most likely be at E3 also.


Hard Drive/SD Card Support

This is a subject that has been hard pressed by fanboys and professional journalists alike. And it is a fact! The Wii needs some form of Hard Drive support! Whether its being able to load stuff off SD cards, USB hard drive support, or some other form of storage, it has too happen soon. With the recent launch of the downloadable WiiWare games, I found my self taking off almost all of my downloaded channels (yes even the Nintendo and Internet) and a couple of Virtual Console games to make enough room. Equal amounts of rumors have circulated the web of either a hard drive coming and it not. I desperately hope its the former and we'll see it at E3, but I really don't know.


Voice Chat

Voice chat is an aspect of online gaming that, while Microsoft and Sony have used in all of their online games, Nintendo shuns it. Especially in games like Smash Bros. and Mario Kart it seems idiotic not to have it. Nintendo wants people's online gaming to be safe. But if this is the case, why not just have parental controls like limiting or restricting online and voice chat? Come on! Nevertheless, I have a feeling we'll see Voice Chat in some shape or form at the Expo. Hopefully.


On the DS... (DS2?)

To finish off the article I'll talk about the Nintendo DS at E3. The only game I can really think of being announced their is New Super Mario Bros. 2. The first was one of my favorites for the DS. It would sell very well, so I can see Nintendo taking the same path and releasing another.

Fire Mario, what a bad ass

I bet they'll also announce some of the new DS colors that have been seen across the web. I've seen a new red, blue, and green DS Lite. Which brings me to my next topic... the next DS. Dubbed DS2 in the media, it'll be here sooner or later and what better time to announce it than E3? Though it's not too probable, it could happen.

Well that rounds it up for my E3 predictions. Sorry about the lack of DS stuff but I'm trying to lean this blog towards a more Wii-centered audience. Like my picks? Think I forgot something? That's what the comments are for.