E3 2009: Nintendo - My Thoughts

*Enter lame plastic steering wheel*

After the intro, Nintendo began its presentation with the announcement of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Get it? We had New Super Mario Bros. for the DS, now we have one for the Wii. This game will have 4-player co-op multi-player and propeller suits. Odd combination? Maybe, but we've come to expect that from Mario over the years.

The game play they showed seemed a lot like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, with the in/out of the camera as characters move toward/away from each other. No mention of online modes were announced, but Nintendo has always geared their games more toward the sofa experience than the online experience, so that's not really a biggie for me.

*Lame plastic steering wheel is shown off again in another segue clip*

Wii Fit Plus isn't a surprise, neither is a sequel to Wii Sports, called, not surprisingly, Wii Sports Resort. This title will take advantage of the new Wii Motion Plus, yet another peripheral Nintendo tacks on to make their system "better". At this point I was thinking, by time you add everything up - an extra controller, nun chuck, a couple Wii Motion Plus units - the thing seems to cost as much as a PS3. Oops, just mentioned a Sony console in a Nintendo post. My bad.

Now comes the part of the presentation that drew me in the most - they focused an entire ten minutes on RPGs for the Wii and DS - Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Mario & Luigi RPG: Bowser's Inside Story and Golden Sun DS. They all look amazing. My DS will be a busy little devil in the coming months.

After discussing a couple other titles for the DS, including the new IP COP: The Recruit, they focused on the DSi. New titles for that system (and that system only) are Flip Note Studio, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Wario Ware: DIY (Do It Yourself) and, surprisingly, a match-up with Facebook (along with Microsoft...darn, there I go again).

*More steering wheels...they will haunt my dreams*

Ok, now for the "WTF" moment. Wii Vitality Sensor? Seriously?

Enter Super Mario Galaxy 2 before we cut to the "hardcore" games, which are The Conduit, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Dead Space: Extraction. Ok, none of these really make my taco pop, so I didn't pay much attention...although they did bring out some of the best graphics I've ever seen on the Wii.

What I did pay attention to, however, was the new Metroid game, on which Nintendo is collaborating with...wait for it...Team Ninja! I paid rapt attention to this part of the conference, probably because Samus is hot. Wait, what? I would probably buy a Wii just for this game. 'Nuff said.

Besides a few standout moments, the Nintendo conference kind of bored me and I swear they hate the environment with as many plastic zappers and steering wheels they were throwing around in those little "commercials" between segments of the event. No where near as jaw dropping as Microsoft (and, in hindsight, not even close to as cool as Sony's event). This year once again, for me, Nintendo stands in last place for their E3 showing.