News > Liveblogging the Nintendo Press Conference
July 11, 2007
In a little less than an hour, the Nintendo Press Conference for this year's E3 should be getting underway. I'll be reporting on the new announcements as they hit, so prepare yourself to obsessively refresh this page! All times are PDT.
9:00 - Things are getting started
9:04 - Reggie is happy :) I wouldn't want to see him mad, he's gigantic.
9:05 - Interesting, the videogames industry is growing massively, Reggie thinks it will take it's place as a staple of entertainment, alongside movies and television, primarily thanks to the expansion to non-gamers that Nintendo made with DS and the Wii.
9:09 - The DS makes up 25% of all vg hardware sales in the US. That thing is like CRACK.
9:10 - Sales to older gamers and women are up massively for Nintendo, ahead of Sony and Microsoft. Is this the demographic that games will be targeting from here on out?
9:14 - Still talking about DS and Wii sales... get to some games! I'm gonna beat Reggie with a wiimote if he doesn't get to the meat here.
9:16 - 100 new games for the Wii coming!
9:17 - I have no clue what's going on with this video here... I think these are fan videos? A guy dressed up like Wario just chopped some dude. That was cool.
9:18 - The Wii Zapper. Looks like the nunchuck is trying to rear-mount the wiimote. Kind of like a mutated Super Scope in shape.
9:19 - Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles will use the Wii Zapper to let you shoot stuff up :)
9:20 - Ghost Squad coming to the Wii, using the Zapper, looks to be an on-rails shooter.
9:21 - Wii Zapper is coming with a game, at $19.99. People are clapping. I mean, it's just a plastic housing you put your wiimote and nunchuck into... It does have a trigger though.
9:22 - Soul Calibur and a new WWE wrestling game for the Wii. Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword for the DS. DQ Sword early next year - I played that in Tokyo actually. It was decent fun.
9:23 - Ah, Mario and Sonic together in Olympic Games. Nothing new. Smash Bros. Brawl hitting the streets on Dec. 3rd.
9:25 - People from thehylia.com in a video here. Damn, why isn't the Wad Squad in this video? You like that right? I just made that up, the Wad Squad.
9:26 - Eddie: "dude looked like he was about to vomit potato soup" - on the guy from thehylia.com. I laughed so hard I hit my head.
9:27 - Playing some Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, for the DS. Looks cool, but it isn't exactly breaking news.
9:30 - A real live girl! Playing some Metroid Prime 3. She could've taken some time to dress up at least. Her pants have holes big enough to drive a truck through. Several trucks. Prime 3 lets you do something called hypermode, powers you up but corrupts you... Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely? Nice, teaching us morals there, Nintendo.
9:33 - Another random video.
9:34 - Stuff about online connectivity. "Nintendo players amazed by connecting with players around the world." WiiWare. It's funny for Reggie to be boasting about this, let's hope Nintendo actually delivers for once with online play. Nintendo has always been the weakest in this area. Mii's compared online.
9:36 - "Will Nintendo ever get serious about real online gaming?" That's a pretty good question. Mario Strikers Charged will support it, too bad Metroid Prime 3, what we were just looking at, won't.
9:38 - Dragon Quest for the DS will let you battle online against other players. I like that. Oo, Reggie said he's gonna let me "show my stuff" online. That's hot.
9:39 - Mario Kart for Wii :) 1st quarter next year, online play. Donkey Kong is riding a rhino! That's cool. Online battle mode! Ha, a custom Wii Wheel that debuts with Mario Kart for the Wii. Yet another wiimote housing. This one lets you use the wiimote like in ExciteTruck, I'm guessing.
9:41 - More videos about the news media reception of the Wii and the DS. Oh cool, Cheapy D from CheapAssGamer. He's so bald, I wonder whether he ever had hair in the first place.
9:44 - Satoru Iwata coming out! Let's see how his English is. Hmm, not so bad. Overall, this press conference is like a Nintendo gloating party. They seem to be focusing on how Nintendo has been altering the industry mostly, the creative stuff, Cookbook software for the DS, Nintendogs, etc. That's cool and all, but I mean, aren't we here to learn about new stuff mostly? Ah, "veteran gamers fear that Nintendo might have lost its passion for traditional videogames." Realistically, has Nintendo really focused on the hard-core gamer segment much ever? I mean, Mario games are all bright and shiny and primary-colored. I haven't seen a Gears of War or anything like that for the Wii yet... Nintendo's goal - "to destroy the psychological barrier that separates veteran players from new players."
9:48 - Another pic of the Wii Zapper. I swear, this thing looks like a sort of sex harness for your wiimote and nunchuck. Still, good to see Nintendo trying to attract FPS developers.
9:50 - Another video. This time a family with what appears to be 12,000 children.
9:53 - Brain Age 2, August 20th, in the US. Super Mario Galaxy, first worthy successor to Mario 64, says Reggie. I'm into that, but when? November 12th! Picross for the DS, a picture puzzle game. MySims for the DS and Wii, from EA. I wonder how much Will Wright had to do with those titles? Some other games in the pipe: Disney's High School Musical for the DS and Rayman: Raving Rabbids 2 for the Wii, a vision training game called Flash Focus for the DS. UbiSoft - MyWord Coach, fun with vocabulary. MyLife Coach as well, both for the DS.
9:59 - Bring out Miyamoto already! This is enough to make me want to shake a baby.
10:00 - WiiFit. THIS is the big new game. It comes with a little floor pad that you lean on. Welcome to the 80's again. I had a friend with the Power Pad back in the day for the NES, and it wasn't so hot... People are doing moves on one leg and pushups and stuff on it. Is this exciting? I can't tell.
10:02 - Alright, Miyamoto is coming out. He's talking about WiiFit. That guy in the white shirt is not a bad translator. They're showing off a girl doing a one-legged stretch. Man, if she fell that would be hilarious. The girl on-screen looks like the princess ghost girl from Ico. Some massive guy doing a step practice. Um, it looks like walking. THE REVOLUTION IS HERE...? A pretty good looking girl doing alternating stretches. The Wii Balance Board is the name of the device they were standing on. It basically measures your weight in each pad, keeps track of your shifting balance, etc. Allows you to use body motions for input, and it's wireless. I wonder if you could use this with the Wiimote and nunchuck at the same time? That would be kinda cool...
10:09 - Reggie came out and he's a giant compared to everybody else. Reggie's cracking some jokes. Oh Reggie, you so crazy. Interesting, WiiFit and the Balance Board can track you and your family over time, including stuff like Body Mass Index. Oh I get it, the actual game part is competing to lose weight. I can see Jack Thompson salivating right now. When will the first anorexia-related videogame death happen?
10:14 - Miyamoto versus Reggie in a game to head soccer balls. Reggie whupped him! And that's that. Miyamoto headed back out.
10:16 - Reggie: interactivity and Web 2.0 as the wave of the future - participatory entertainment. The conference is over.
So what did we get out of this overall? Mario Kart for the Wii, WiiFit, a sort of addendum to Wii Sports, and the release date for Super Mario Galaxy. Not quite as packed with new stuff as the Microsoft Press Conference perhaps, but with it's own share of interesting events. Oh, and a ton of random videos.
*Brian Schulman - Associate Editor, GameWad.com
