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May 9th, 2006: a day to remember. Nintendo’s annual Pre-E3 Press Conference
ended only a few hours ago and with came some of the most monumental
announcements and events in the company’s history. From the
legendary Shigeru Miyamoto dancing around like a loon on stage, to a
new instalment in the Excite series, to the dual-format
release of The
Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, nothing Nintendo had
prepared for us was executed less than exemplary.
The presentation began with Miyamoto entering the stage
dressed as a conductor, clutching a Wii Controller. As a series of
digitised characters appeared on-screen behind him, Miyamoto began
conducting The Legend Of Zelda theme with the Controller, and
the audience simply went crazy. As he continues, images of ExciteTruck
and Red Steel appearing on-screen, and Miyamoto begins to
dance like a loon; clearly, the most charismatic personality in the
videogames industry to date.
Reggie Fils-Aime takes the stage, “If all you want is
Next-Generation, you're in the wrong place”. “Unveiling next
leap in gaming, no longer confined to just the few - it's about
everyone.” A log-on screen appears on the large monitors with the
tagline “Playing = Believing”. The original Wii video which was
used to unveil the final title then plays, followed by a series of
“lifestyle” videos featuring people playing drumming games,
tennis games and golf games – all with relatively simple graphical
presentations.
As roars come from the crowd, the first of the big-guns is
unveiled: Super Mario Galaxy. Images of Mario flying through
space are co-joined with images of subtle movements of the
Controller. Looking like a very polished version of Super Mario
Sunshine, the title is followed by the long-awaited next entry
in the PilotWings series and the simply astounding Metroid
Prime 3: Corruption. The video then snaps to The Legend Of
Zelda: Twilight Princess and declares that two versions of the
title will launch simultaneously; one for Wii, and another for the
GameCube – and 2006 is promised as a vague release date.
As the video montage ends, Reggie takes the stage once more
to begin discussing the future of the NintendoDS. Delivering the
news that over one hundred new NintendoDS titles are scheduled to
launch this year, a few new titles appeared in the forms of Chibi-Robo:
Park Patrol, Elite Beat Agents (a Westernised version of Osu!
Tatakae! Ouendan!), DK:
King Of SwingDS, Diddy
Kong Racing, Hotel Dusk: Room 215, Pokemon
Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team, Yoshi’s Island 2,
new Wario and Kirby adventures and, featuring
flight-path co-ordination Touch Screen control, StarFox DS. A
host of Third-Party titles were also unveiled, with Red Steel taking
centre-stage on the Wii alongside the likes of DragonBall Z:
Budokai Tenkaichi II, RayMan 4, Sonic Wild Fire, Dragon
Quest: The Masked Queen And The Tower Of Mirrors, Final
Furlong and Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal
Bearers and Final Fantasy III and Tony Hawk’s
Downhill Jam on the NintendoDS.
As if this wasn’t enough, there was yet more to come. New
IP from Nintendo including Project H.A.M.M.E.R. and Disaster:
Day Of Crisis and a discussion about the Wii’s Wi-Fi service.
An Opera Browser will be included with the system out-of-the-box
and, with the systems minimal power usage (compared to that of a
miniature light bulb) the system will connect to the internet
twenty-four hours a day; allowing for push functions from developers
even while the owner isn’t with their system. Animal Crossing
was used as the example, with the title allowing for users to visit 
your town even in your absence, and notifying you on your return.
Networking software is included with the Development Kits, removing
the need for developers to write even a single line of code in order
to create an online-play environment and keeping production costs
down.
Finally, Wii Sports is unveiled; a package containing
golf, tennis and baseball games to be available at launch, and
Reggie, Miyamoto, Satoru Iwata and the winner of Nintendo and
AOL’s gaming contest run around the stage playing doubles – a
sight for the industry to revel in. It’s confirmed that the Wii
Controller will feature Force Feedback, and a speaker for more depth within gameplay –
the idea of drawing the string on your Bow in The Legend Of
Zelda: Twilight Princess is used as the prime example. Twenty-seven
games will be playable for the Wii at the show, and many more in
video format. Contesting SONY’s grand Press Releases, neither
dates nor price was confirmed, but when a videogames manufacturing
has a showing this prolific, it’s understandable that they may
come to the conclusion that this information is superfluous to the
standpoint of innovation and, more importantly, fun.
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