E3 2010: Nintendo press conference liveblog [Updated with trailers]

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–Okay, so this thing actually started on time unlike every other conference, so I missed some of it. Looks like they’re opening right up with The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It uses Wii Motion Plus. First a trailer, then a demo. The demo looks pretty unresponsive so far. Vertical slashes don’t seem to work. The Wii Mote acts as a sword, the nunchuk as a shield. The color palate for this game looks a tad brighter than Twilight Princess, but it maintains the “realistic” look. Miyamoto seems to be enjoying himself as he shoots spiders with a virtual sling-shot. Now he’s throwing bombs, which takes him a few tries before the game registers it. Now they’re saying, “Everything went really well in our rehearsals. You guys need to turn off your wireless devices.” Hmm…that’s not good. Link now has a beetle that he can send out to fly and pick up items. Now they’re showing a whip. It can reach out and grab items. Keeps enemies at bay to. Overall, it looks like a lot of fun. Let’s just hope the lag isn’t an issue with the game itself and was just a circumstance of the particular situation. The game is coming out next year.

–Reggie Fils-Aime comes back out to talk about sports. Says there will be an exclusive version of NBA Jam for the Wii before going into a trailer for Mario Sports Mix. This arcade sports title has Mario and the gang playing volley ball, hockey, basketball, and more. Comes out in 2011.

–Now Reggie is spinning numbers to make the Wii sound good. Fake family pictures accompany the speech. Segues into Wii Party. “13 party games, over 70 different mini-games, and all the Miis you want to invite.” It’s pretty much a party game using Miis. Looks alright as far as party games go.

–Trailer for Just Dance 2, whatever that is. It seems to feature dancing. Reggie is moving on again.

–Trailer for Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, coming this holiday season to the DS. Looks like something fans of JRPGs would love.

–Reggie gives way to a trailer for an exclusive remake of GoldenEye on the Wii. Updated graphics, 8 player online action, Pierce Bronsan replaced with Daniel Craig. Only 8 mp characters, but they’re the iconic ones such as Jaws, Oddjob, etc. Looks like fun, but it’s not an exact remake. Coming this holiday.

–Warren Specter is coming out to talk about Epic Mickey. I’m liking the pace of this show so far. Live demo of the game. Looks like it’ll feature a bunch of Disney characters. Cut-scenes have cool classic cartoon look. Gameplay visuals are cool too, but not as unique. Very dark. Specter basically asks if players want to solve problems by erasing obstacles or by drawing solutions. It’s up to the player. Player actions will affect the world and characters around you. Then Mickey jumps into a movie screen, which acts as a “travel world” taking him to his next destination. The travel world’s gameplay switches to a 2D side-scroller with the visual style of the old black and white cartoons. Looks really great. There are “quest zones,” “action zones,” and “travel zones” in the game. It looks pretty sweet from what I can see.

–Reggie returns to talk about Kirby. Trailer for Kirby’s Epic Yarn. Everything in the game seems to be made out of yarn. Interesting visual direction. Coming out this fall. Kirby will be able to use a whip-like piece of yarn to grab onto things for classic side-scrolling platforming. He can also turn into cars and UFOs and such. Looks fun, but didn’t look like Kirby. Didn’t see the little guy suck something up once.

–Now Reggie’s talking about Dragon Quest IX for the DS, arriving in the U.S. in just 26 days. “The game has 120 miniquests, more than 300 monsters and 900 items, and randomly generated treasure maps. But Fils-Aime said the game begs for multiplayer action…It is playable by up to three friends together, and it can add new miniquests and characters when in tag mode, pulling them from nearby DS users quietly.” – GameSpot

–Trailer for Metroid: Other M, arriving August 31st. Looks like a cross between Metroid Prime and Ninja Gaiden. Reggie promises it’s all about isolation and exploration. Story is more important too.

–Trailer for Donkey Kong Country Returns. Classic platforming action. Due out this holiday.

–Reggie is closing out with the 3DS. Harping on how much 3D glasses suck. A 3DS rises on a platform from the floor, dry ice permeating around it. Satoru Iwata comes out to talk about it in broken English. “A touch screen and a 3D screen don’t get along well,” he says. So only the bottom screen will be touch-sensitive, while the top will be 3D. Graphical improvements as well. “Slide pad” above the D-pad. It looks a lot like an analog stick, but flatter. There’s a slider control that allows players to select how much of the 3D effect they want. Gyro and motion sensors built in. Two camera lenses allow gamers to take pictures and view them in 3D. And now a reveal trailer for Kid Icarus: Uprising, which looks great. Iwata says we can only truly appreciate it after seeing it in 3D.

–That would have been a good note to end on, but Iwata is continuing, talking about how the 3DS automatically communicates with other DSes and updates leader boards, stages, quests, and so on regardless of what you’re doing. It automatically finds Wi-Fi access points as well.

–Miyamoto is working on a 3D Nintendogs that will include cats. Now Iwata lists off publishers who are supporting the 3DS. The last publisher he mentions is “Konami, with Metal Gear Solid.” “DJ Hero, Kingdom Hearts, Resident Evil, Batman, Assassin’s Creed, Professor Layton, Ridge Racer, and Metal Gear Solid will all get new installments on the 3DS.” – GameSpot.

–And now the conference closes out with a video of various famous developers giving their thoughts on the 3DS. Okay, it’s not actually over I guess. Reggie is back on stage to wrap things up. We get it, Reggie, you had an awesome conference. Go to e3.nintendo.com for “more news that isn’t available anywhere else.” Conference closes with a commercial of various Nintendo icons interacting with the 3DS before getting sucked in. Reggie gets lit on fire by Bowser, and when they cut back to stage he has the tarnished coat to go with it. It was actually sort of funny.

–Okay, it’s not over quite yet. A bunch of babes are coming out now with 3DSes. There’s a lot of them. They’re going to show the system to everybody in the theater, up close. Playbable game stations rise from the floor to allow attendees a chance to try out the new Zelda game after they’ve tried the 3DS out. Now it’s finally over. I’d have to say Nintendo knocked this one out of the park.

Author: Cody