Nintendo E3 2009 Conference Round-up

After Microsoft’s solid conference yesterday and Nintendo lackluster one from last year, they really need to pull something out of the bag today. In spite of some good announcements, I’ve been left disappointed and underwhelmed by the overall conference.

Opening with a couple of stats saying that NPD figures show video games are as big as home videos, as big as toys and bigger than blockbusters and films combined.

New Super Mario Bros Wii: Introducing up to 4 player drop-in/out co-op play to Mario. The Main campaign can be done single player or with up to three friends all playing on the same screen. Will launch Holiday 2009.

Wii Fit Plus: More Wii Fit stuff really, including 15 new balance games. It will be bundled with the balance board or sold as a stand-alone game. 

Reggie then comes on stage to talk at length about Wii Motion Plus, which we already know about. Then show off Wii Sports Resort which we already know about. 

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2010, EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis and Virtua Tennis 2009 will all use the Wii Motion Plus and are all avaliable within the next 3 weeks.

Red Steel 2: will be ONLY be playable with the Wii Motion Plus.

Final Fantasty: The Crystal Bearers coming to the DS along with Kingdom Hearts (release date is Sept 29th).

Mario and Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story: is a RPG coming to the DS this fall.

Golden Sun DS: coming in 2010.

As you can probably tell by now, Nintendo did a lot of talking about Nintendo, then showed a trailer of a game without really talking about it.

James Pattersons Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion: DS game set for release on Oct 13th. A game which reads and plays like a graphic novel.

COP: The Recruit: can be best explained as a GTA looking DS title where you play as a cop.

Style Savvy: will be a day 1 purchase for Chris. He claims it’s for his daughter but we’re not so sure. 

Mario Vs Donkey Kong: Mini’s March Again: will allow players to create and share level (LBP style) in a 2d puzzle/platformer. Exclusively to the DSi on June 8th. As well as Wario Ware allowing players to create micro-games.

Facebook: You will be able to auto-upload photos to Facebook from your DSi.

The already announced Zelda: Spirit Tracks was mentioned.

Wii Vitality Sensor: A game to send you to sleep.

Then finally something good, Super Mario Galaxy 2. Expect more of the joyous Galaxy magic, although no release date was given which may imply as to a long way away. It will be the first time however, that two full 3D Mario games will appear on a single console.  

The Conduit, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles and Dead Space: Extraction are all shown off.

The final announcement though was brilliant. Metroid: Other M. Mostly a CG trailer but was very exciting and a good choice to finish a rather poor conference with.