For me, the introduction to video games came on a Nintendo system, so I was definitely excited to attend Nintendo’s press conference as my first ever E3 event. After listening to the presentation all I can say is that I’m going to be a very poor man in the near future. After listening to the guys talk about how poorly they viewed the Activision event last night I was blown away by everything that Nintedo said—basically, I want everything that was discussed.
They started off with the new Zelda: Skyward Sword game using the Wii Motion Plus and while I was a bit disappointed by the graphics, the gameplay looks fantastic. In the last Zelda game for the Wii you shook the controller to swing your sword and various other things, but in Skyward Sword your motions with the Wiimote are translated exactly into what you see on the screen, even the to point where enemies block your movements and you have to strike in specific ways (horizontally or vertically) to defeat the enemies. The bow mechanics actually require the motions of firing a real bow and you can lob, drop and roll bombs with the appropriate motion.
After Zelda they talked about a few other games that were coming out—a new Mario Sports game, a new Kirby game, a remake of the old classic Golden Eye and a few others before they came to the other big title I was hoping to hear more about: Disney’s Epic Mickey. As they mentioned in the presentation there haven’t been many different games available that have focused around Mickey Mouse and I for one am glad that that is changing with this game. The style of game in definitely a cool concept—with Mickey being armed with both a paintbrush and a can of paint thinner. To solve the puzzles you can either paint new parts to the scene or use the paint thinner to remove obstacles in your way. Travel from one area to another will be done in side scrolling “cartoons” that recreate scenes from classic Disney cartoons. The one that we were shown was done in a Steamboat Willie style and I was very impressed. I have always loved the entire Disney franchise and I am very excited to see a quality game set in the Disney universe that includeds many beloved (and even more obscure) characters that we’ve all grown up on.
The final presentation was the most outstanding—the upcoming 3DS. I have never owned a DS but I definitely will be saving my pennies to be able to buy this upon launch. The titles of games that will be available at launch is incredible (Kingdom Hearts 3D, Street Fighter 3D, Metal Gear Solid, Ninja Gaiden) and I cannot wait to demo the system later at E3. The ability to take 3D pictures using the 3DS is also something that sounds pretty cool. The 3DS will use wireless connection with no montly fee (I hope its at least 801.11N) and some of the co-op games that were briefly shown look really cool. Overall for my first ever experience at E3 Nintendo definitely blew any expectations I had out of the water and I cannot wait to see what else is in store in the next few days.
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