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Written by Barry Scott Will
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Wednesday, 16 July 2008 09:55 |
Before we get into my running comments, this summation of all three major company's press events brought to you by Penny Arcade (warning: contains strong language):
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/7/16/
Pretty darn accurate. And, now, running commentary on Nindy's "big show"...
- Nintendo immediately goes after the family market with a montage of people of all ages (and especially kids) and then Cammie Dunaway (EVPoSaM NoA) talking about spending time with her son. Isn't that sweet.
- Shaun White Snowboarding looks seriously cool. I got to gets me a Balance Board. OTOH, Shaun ain't exactly a scintillating presenter.
- "Would everyone welcome me in joining Nintendo's Global President..."? Was this woman drunk?
- Satoru Iwata's "Bathroom scales" joke is a good one. At least Nintendo knows what drug they're pushing.
- Iwata is pushing Nintendo's long-lasting titles ("evergreen software"); but, is this a good thing for developers, who are always trying to get players to buy the latest and greatest? Is this even a good thing for Nintendo? Is stagnation in their future?
- Iwata is hyping the diversity of Nintendo's demographic, which is its strongest point.
- Iwata is starting to drone. Enough with the psycho-babble, get on with the game intros! Finally, after almost ten minutes, Iwata is off stage and we get back to the good stuff.
- Animal Crossing: City Folk in 2008! Woot! This game looks seriously cool for those of us who love Animal Crossing; but, I don't think it's going to win any converts to the series.
- WiiSpeak: Nintendo finally discovers VoIP. Welcome to Xbox Live, folks.
- Reggie's on! He's not as good as Steve Jobs; but, he's better than any of the other speakers at E3.
- Sales numbers for Wii & DS. Impressive. OK, the numbers are impressive; but, there's been too many of them. Enough already...
- Red flag on the third party sales figures--lots of those are ports of games that sold better on 360 and/or PS3. And, overall, Nintendo can't boast any huge hits. 400,000 units is a lot, but doesn't come close to the 7-figure sales of games on 360 and PS3.
- Shut up, already, Reggie.
- Lightsaber duels in Star Wars: The Clone Wars look very cool.
- Rayman Raving Rabbids 3 uses Balance Board. But do we really need another RRR? I have, and love, RRR 1 & 2 and will probably buy RR3; but, really, this isn't a "big" game...
- Historial shooter. yawn
- Cammie's back. Oh no...
- Man, there is just too much talk and not enough action in this conference. Quit yammering, already!
- Guitar Hero on the DS just doesn't work for me. If you can't really shred a guitar, what's the point?
- I'm not excited by Spore, on DS or not.
- Err...where's the applause? Brief previews of no-guitar Guitar Hero and the $10 Spore Creature Creator selling for (we assume) $30+ on DS isn't generating much interest...
- Wow! Another Pokémon game! Do they never end?
- Big applause for GTA on DS; I'm not interested.
- Reggie is pushing turning the DS into a smartphone without the phone. Why? Is Nintendo really afraid iApps are going to seriously impact their handheld monopoly? Why fight in an arena where Apple, LG, Blackberry and others are already killing each other? Stick to making games, Nintendo.
- Trust me, no one wants to read recipes on the DS screens.
- Reggie introduces Wii MotionPLus. Waits for applause. There is none.
- Wii Sports Resort looks pretty cool. New version of Wave Race (lite). Sword duels look even better than the lightsaber duels from Clone Wars. Of course, I have no idea what sword fighting has to do with a Summer vacation at a resort.
- Uhh...shouldn't they have a better drummer to intro Wii Music? Anyway, it's about time they actually get Wii Music out, since it was part of the early, pre-launch Wii showcases.
- All right, the duet sounds good.
- Wii Music is not a rythm-matching game, just a game that lets you play music even if you don't know the instruments. Sounds like a fun, family entertainment program, but not really a game. 50+ instruments. No extra controllers needed (except a Balance Board to play a full drum kit). Good for families with smaller children that don't want to invest $200 in Rock Band/GH and have their kids listen to some of the lyrics in those songs.
- The drummer is a professional, which goes to show Wii Music is not a true sim. The pro has only practiced one day and isn't very good.
- Wii Music has lessons. Lessons for what? It's not like you're playing the real instrument. Music theory, maybe?
- A single player can record the separate "tracks" and put together a "music video". Now, that's cool.
- OoooooooooKaaaaaaaaaay...the band sounds...awful. But, I suppose, that's the way most of us will sound.
- Shut up, already, Reggie.
Where's a storage option for the Wii and all the VC and WiiWare titles you want people to download? Where's a truly BIG game? They spent 1/4 of the conference on Wii Music, which, as neat as it is, isn't a system-seller. In fact, there were no system-sellers in evidence. I guess, they're selling enough, they don't want to up the demand. Or something. This conference was even less impressive than Microsoft. Too much jabbering about their sales and their philosophical views of gaming, not a peep of anything that will really push the Wii to the "next level".
Maybe they're waiting for next year... |
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