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VIRTUALISATION E3: Nintendo fall back on old favourites and precision
VIRTUALISATION E3: Nintendo fall back on old favourites and precision | E3: Nintendo fall back on old favourites and precision |
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| by Mike Bantick | |
| Wednesday, 03 June 2009 | |
  
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What Nintendo delivered was indeed solid, new games from traditional franchises, some rehashing of already announced products and the obligatory surprising and bewildering new peripheral. Mario – as you would expect – was well represented with a new Super Mario Bros for the Wii, this time reinvented in classic 2D scrolling action for up to four players who can interact and co-operate. The well received Mario Galaxy, the 3D Mario adventure also gets a sequel in the form of Super Mario Galaxy 2. Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is a new RPG for Mario and his brother, this time taking place (Fantastic Voyage style) inside Bowser’s body. Unfortunately for Zelda fans, no new title was announced, this was somewhat of a surprise given the development cycle calculations done by the gaming press prior to the conference. Though Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks will be playable at this week’s E3 show. The ever popular Wii Fit gets a sequel promising to allow fans of Yoga to target specific body areas with their exercise. Wii Fit Plus also promises to track burned calories (joules) and features a number of new strength, yoga positions and fun games. Wii Fit Plus is aiming for a [northern] autumn release. Whilst we talk about health care, Satoru Iwata was on hand (geddit?) to announce the Wii Vitality Sensor. A clip device that fits to the index finger to measure pulse activity during a Wii session, the device is not wireless and no software was hinted at during the presentation, but Iwata hinted at games to help you relax, or even “fall asleep”! could be the result.  Nintendo North American President Reggie Fils-Aime once again demonstrated the accuracy of the Wii MotionPlus accessory, and again (after it got a run at E3 2008) used the Wii Sports sequel, Wii Sports Resort to highlight how well you will be able to shoot a bow and arrow at home come this July. Ubisoft’s Red Steel sequel should benefit from the Wii Motion Plus accuracy, where the original sword fighting title failed to impress Team Ninja have been given the reigns to break in a new Metroid game sometime in the future (2010), the conference was told little of this project apart from the intriguing name “The Other M”. The third party software announcements included, the already known about 3D shooter The Conduit, as well as Wii versions of popular franchises; Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles, Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers and Dead Space Extraction. Nintendo America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing spoke about the success of the Nintendo hand-held DSi. Sales in the US have passed the 1 million unit mark in only its second month on sale. Mario is also making an appearance on the hand held, in the form of Mario vs. Donkey Kong Minis March Again which will allow user created content to be shared with other DS owners. DSi owners will be able to upload and share their photos on Facebook, whilst Wario Ware DIY will allow games to be user-created from scratch, and shared with friends. All up, a reasonable conference from Nintendo, definitely a step up from last year, but nothing too startling to trump Microsoft’s earlier effort. Nintendo probably are not concerned in doing that however, as the competition still seems to be chasing them. |
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