E3 ‘09: Nintendo announces major new games

Nintendo’s E3 2008 Media Briefing was a notoriously lame affair, so all eyes were on The N to redeem itself in 2009. Did they succeed? You’ll have to decide for yourself.

Nintendo’s hour-long event emphasized new proprietary titles, which let’s face it, is the company’s biggest ace in the whole. Among the proprietary titles shown were not one but two new Super Mario Bros. games: the side-scrolling New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which features 4-player co-op. Check out the demo:

And 3D sequel Super Mario Galaxy 2:

There was also Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, an RPG for the DS. Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again is a downloadable title for Wii that will be available this coming Monday, and it allows you to design and share your own levels.

Wii Sports Resort, coming July 21st and bundled with the new Wii Motion Plus controller add-on. (More about this one in a sec.)

Wii Fit Plus, the sequel to the mega-popular Balance Board fitness trainer, which offers more customization options to your workout routine, and a number of new and different exercises. It’s coming this Fall:

Nintendo’s final announcement of the event (typically the biggest and best is saved for last at these things) was Metroid: Other M, an “edgy” take on the Metroid universe coming to Wii in 2010.

On the DS side of things, it was announced that photos taken with the DSi’s camera will soon be uploadable directly to Facebook profiles. There’s a simple movie maker, Flip Note Studio, coming to the DS. But one of the most interesting announcements was James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club, an interactive novel coming October 13th:

Tween girls have Style Savvy to look forward to, while racing fans can expect COP: The Recruit to rock their DS:

Golden Sun DS seemed to be a source of much excitement, as well, though no footage was shown.

There was a big focus on the new Wii Motion Plus controller add-on that provides greater precision for controlling your games, and several games were shown that are being made to take advantage of the Motion Plus. Wii Sports Resort begins with a start-up level where you skydive onto the island where the “Resort” of the title is situated. Skydiving is an activity that helps you acclimate to the sensitivity of the Wii Motion Plus. Other minigames include Archery and Free-Throw Basketball.

The biggest news might have been the latest peripheral to follow in the Balance Board’s footsteps: the Wii Vitality Sensor. Essentially it’s one of those little biometric sensors that you slip your finger inside of, like those things at the pharmacy that can check your cholesterol level. The Vitality Sensor is being envisioned for a whole new arena of casual gaming; much like the Balance Board was created to enhance one’s fitness, the Vitality Sensor is intended as a means of helping you learn to relax, presumably through accompanying software. No price or release date was given for this one, so it’s still a long ways off.

Unfortunately, Nintendo’s Media Briefing suffered from too-much-sales-talk-itis, where valuable time we could be looking at new games and hardware was instead eaten up by uncharismatic talking heads reciting boring sales figures. Newsflash, Nintendo: if anyone in this audience cares about those numbers, they’ll read about it in the press release! We’re at E3 to see what’s new, not to hear your annual sales report!

All in all, Nintendo’s presentation not as boring as last year, and it had some definite bright points, particularly with the new games announced. But my impression was that there just wasn’t much wow factor to almost anything we saw; the entire presentation lacked excitement. Every person on stage was just wooden and lifeless.

Is a little style and pizzaz just too much to ask for, from Nintendo?

All photos and video by Robin Parrish.