Club Nintendo interview with Reggie and Miyamoto (summary)

A Latin America Nintendo magazine, Club Nintendo, recently had an interview with Reggie Fils-Aimé and Shigeru Miyamoto. Two GoNintendo readers, Demian Chrisanti and worrybomb, translated the most important parts, which I have posted below.

• Miyamota confirms they're working on Zelda and Pikmin but says nothing about Wii Motion Plus.
• The Zelda team is working on a special version for the Wii as opposed to Twilight Princess since it started out on the Gamecube.
• Shigeru says that the Wii Remote will fit very well with a title like Pikmin.
• When asked about a new Zelda DS title, Shigeru said nothing since Eiji Aonuma is a very busy man (he last oversaw Link’s Crossbow Training).
• Club Nintendo says that Wario Land: Shake It! plays just like the past versions. When asked if Mario and Metroid will follow suit one day, Shigeru says he can’t say anything now but that Nintendo always makes top notch products and that they will have to see them (Nintendo) in the future to know more.
• Miyamota says there won't be a lot more (first-party) peripherals, they have enough already.
• When asked about hard drive solution, Miyamota says to expect an announcement in the future since they're working on possible technologies. Reggie says they’re not making a “hard drive” but will come up with a better solution.
• Reggie says Animal Crossing is not casual and that they’re gonna have GTA on the DS for the hardcore gamers.
• When asked if Animal Crossing will be the new beginning point on how you play a game online on the Wii, Reggie says Mario Kart functions very well through the Wi-Fi connection with no problems and that Animal Crossing will be a fantastic experience on Wi-Fi with the Wii Speak being a great addition.
• When asked about Microsoft's avatars, Reggie says "imitating is a way of flattering, so we're very flattered."
• When asked about DS redesign, Reggie says a console redesign will happen when the sales go down, not up.

Quite a bit of information in there. Hopefully the hard drive solution is the holographic storage solution that Nintendo looked into a little while ago. Or more likely it's just SD Card or USB support.

Miis vs. Avatars

Microsoft's Avatars

If you follow the internet, you may know a thing or two about Microsoft's Avatars. Basically they're Microsoft's answer to Nintendo Miis. So will they dethrone Nintendo's little characters? Microsoft may think so, but I as a gamer see many flaws in their plans. Read on to see my analysis as to why I think so. Enjoy!

First off, Nintendo's Miis have been there since the beginning. The moment you bought a Wii, you could turn it on, adjust some of the settings and set to making Miis of yourself and family. And since the Wii's launch dozens of games have used Miis to some extent. Everything from Wii Play and Wii Sports, which allowed you to actually play as your Mii, to Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, which had you use a Mii for your save slot. Genius? I dare say so. But then Avatars are a different story... The XBox 360 has been around for almost three years, and Avatars have just been announced. So that means all those games that could've used them won't or will need some sort of patch, which can be a hassle for gamers and developers. Plus the Wii had Wii Sports packaged in. The game was great fun for a little while and the Mii integration was nice. It was great if you didn't have any other titles at the time. But the 360 doesn't have a packaged game like the Wii, so no using your Avatars right off the bat, which will suck for people who don't buy a lot of games.

Nintendo's Miis

Currently, there are only three games in development that are going to use Microsoft's Avatars: UNO Rush, 1 vs. 100, and Scene It? Box Office Smash, all casual catered games. Which brings up my next point. As you may be aware of, the Wii is a more family friendly console. Sure they're hardcore games too, but if you're thinking about buying a sytem for your mom or grandma, you usually don't think of the 360. But with Avatars, Microsoft is trying to cater to the casual folk. And I don't really think that's a good idea. Most of the buyers and player of Microsoft's XBox 360 are more core players. Most 360 owners buy the system for games like GTA, Gears of War, and Halo 3, not Avatars. While on the Wii, Miis are used in a variety of casual things, because casuals play the Wii. Stuff like Everybody Votes Channel and Check Mii Out Channel thrive on the Wii because of the expanded userbase. This isn't so much the story on the 360.

So overall, the Miis are better in my opinion. The main two reasons being that they've been on the system since launch and the Wii is more casual friendly.

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)...