Impressions of Nintendo's Fall Media Summit

Nintendo's recent event has left a warm feeling in many Nintendo fan's hearts. After E3, so people claimed Nintendo was abandoning the hardcore. Though this certainly wasn't the case, it did seem that Nintendo was focusing more of their time and effort on more expanded audience games. A month or so ago, Nintendo announced they were having two press conferences, one in the United States, and the other in Japan. Though the info from the U.S. one was embargoed until Monday, a lot of news came out of the Japan one, and here are my impressions of the event. (For a recap of all the news that came out of this event, check out this page on NeoGAF.) Here's my impressions of all the news... Enjoy!

DSi


Definitely the biggest announcement at the show, the newly redesign of the DS sports a lot of new features. The most notable feature being the two cameras, one on the outside, the other on the inside. These open up a whole new realm of innovation for games. Plus it functions as a digital camera, so you'll be able to put them on your computer and on you Wii Photo Channel.

Some more additions, are the SD card slot, an Internet browser (probably a lot like the Wii's one, as it's powered by Opera), slightly larger screens, and an apps store, much like the iPhone's. I'm guessing Nintendo will also use this as a chance for classic Game Boy and GBA games to be downloaded and stored on the new flash drive. Nintendo also took out the GBA slot, which is kind of a mistake in my opinion, as how will Activision continue their Guitar Hero: On Tour series?

The DSi is supposed to be released later this year in Japan, sometime in Spring 2009 in Europe, and in Late 2009 in the US, which sucks for me, as an American, I'll have to wait a whole year. Nonetheless, this is a day one purchase for me. And I'm incredibly relieved I didn't pick up a DS Lite in the past few months.

New Games


The three, biggest announcements in games had to be Punch-Out!! Wii, Sin & Punishment 2 (Wii), and Mario & Luigi 3 (DS). Punch-Out!! looks to retain that classic arcade feel with overly exaggerated characters. Sin & Punishment 2 is the equal to the Japan-only N64 release that was supposed really good (it was later released on the Virtual Console, but I have yet to check it out). Thirdly is Mario & Luigi 3, which is supposed to be released as a launch title for the DSi. All three games look very excellent, even in the early stages of development.

"Play it on Wii" Titles

Nintendo plans on releasing a lot of their best core GameCube titles on the Wii later this year (in Japan at lesat) and through out next year. They're not ports, but remakes. Their probably going to be cheaper too. The seven games confirmed so far are: DK Jungle Beat, Pikmin, Pikmin 2, Chibi-Robo, Mario Power Tennis, Metroid Prime, and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. All of the games seem prime choices to implement Wii controls (especially the Pikmin's and Metroid Primes). I'll probably pick up most of these, since I never owned a GameCube (I know, I know, you can chew me out in the comments). I'm surprised Super Mario Sunshine and Wind Waker aren't in that list, but I'm sure we'll probably get those sooner or later. For a full information, check out the IGN article detailing each game...

Wii Storage Solution


The long awaited storage solution for the Wii is here. You'll be able to load and save directly off SD cards. It's not a hard drive as some were expecting but, hey, it'll make do. It seems strange that Nintendo took so long for just this, but at least it's here.

Missing...

Though the event had some pretty good news, there were several games missing from the conference. Disaster: Day of Crisis and Fatal Frame 4 are both like this. Both have been released in Japan, published by Nintendo. So you'd expect some kind of showing or at least a release date for the US. But none of this was found. Also notably missing was the rumored Kid Icarus. Whatever happened to Matt (from IGN)'s prediction of it showing at E3? I'm actually starting to doubt the existence of it.

And that round it up. What were your impressions of the Media Summit? Did I get something wrong or miss something big? Leave a comment below...

Round-up of Nintendo Media Summit news

Todays was day one of Nintendo's NA event and soon will be day two of their Japan event and you may be flooded with news from sites like GoNintendo, IGN, and various blogs across the web. It's a like a mini-E3! So I've rounded up some of what I felt was the most important info (mostly from GoNintendo). Enjoy!


Nintendo Media Summit (Japan) live blog - GoNintendo

Nintendo Media Summit (North America) live blog - GoNintendo

Nintendo DS game montage - GameTrailers

Nintendo Wii game montage - GameTrailers

October Nintendo Game Conference (Japan) News and Information - SuperPhillip Central

Trailers: Punch Out!!, Mario & Luigi RPG 3, The Conduit, Sin & Punishment 2, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - GoNintendo

Wii, DS North American Release Dates - GoNintendo

Nintendo’s Holiday 2008: Wii Speak Channel, Club Nintendo, More Surprises - GoNintendo

If anything else comes up throughout the night I'll edit it.

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.

Video Game Mascots, Old vs. New

Many video game characters, such as Mario have been around since the 8-bit days. Some, like Sonic, are a bit more recent and appeared in the 16-bit era of the SNES and Genesis. But nonetheless, a lot of video game mascots have had quite a bit of history. The character themselves probably have changed in their overall look too. Tonight I'll be discussing various video game characters (think Mario, Pac-Man, etc.) and which look I prefer, retro or present.

Mario

What better place to start than the face of the video game industry: Mario. As you can see with the above photo, Mario is a clear indication of how much graphical change has happened since the early days of video games. Mario now sports snazzy bright blue overalls in place of his 8-bit red pair. On his hands are shiny, white gloves (strange that they're not dirty, seeing all the goombas he's squashed and bricks he's broken). His eyes are also now a baby blue. In short, the new Mario is cooler. But the 8-bit Mario will still have a place in my heart.

Winner: New

Pac-Man

Pac-Man is another very iconic video game character. The original games are extremely fun (especially Ms. Pac-Man). The only "cool" feature worth mentioning on the new Pac-Man are his eyes. Which are actually tiny, darkened Pac-Mans (or -Men?). Clever, and about the only thing clever about the new version. From the bright red boots to his orange, boxing gloves, this isn't Pac-Man.

Winner: Old

Sonic

As you can see from the image above, Sonic hasn't changed too much (while the old is just art, it still depicts what Sonic looked like in those days). The changes are subtle, but for the best. On his shoes are now buckles. His eyes now have color, emerald green. And his overall look is older and more badass. The older version looks like some Saturday morning cartoon. So thus, this match goes to the new.

Winner: New

And that rounds off my article. I know it's a little short but I'm getting real tired and about to fall asleep on my keyboard. I'll probably do a second one of these. Maybe with more mascots. Like Link, Samus, Mega Man, Bomberman, Crash, etc. Sorry guys, I'm dead tired and falling asleep as we speak. Later.... nt bbvg vb jkl;;;lk;nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

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)...
  

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.