As the most successful video game company should, Nintendo’s outsold all of it’s competitors when it comes to hardware. Taking over (with Sega) after the great video game depression that the Atari 7800 tried to prevent, Nintendo has survived every hardware generation thereafter. With the launch of the Wii however, they’ve gotten a reputation of milking an untapped portion of the market: the so called “casual gaming” market. With all the party and 15 minute waggle games in the library, I’m only able to name a few titles like Okami, Zelda: The Twilight Princess and Resident Evil 4 that I honestly felt were games I could take seriously. Yes, serious gaming. A moron of the oxy variety. What’s even sadder though, is that those games were developed for the previous generation of consoles.

What did Nintendo have for someone like me at E3? Read on.


Metroid: Other M

Developed by Team Ninja of Dead or Alive series fame, this is an action/adventure platformer. What I didn’t like was the FPS styled versions of the Gamecube installments. While the gameplay worked, as far as shooting stuff anyway, Metroid is supposed to be played from a third person perspective. If you fell in love with Super Metroid on the SNES, you have to agree that having a pure first person version was alien. Well now we get what looks like the best of both worlds. Third person/first person platforming action!

Zelda: Skyward Sword

Not what I was expecting as a follow up to the Twilight Princess. It’s bright, it’s happy… it’s pastel and cel shaded. The gritty and dark art direction of TP was epic on a scale I never thought we’d see since The Ocarina of Time. Of course this is just a trailer and what lies ahead will probably be as epic, and If not, epic-er. Aside for this trailer, I’m going to try and keep my eyes and ears shut to any news regarding this title. I want to go into it as blindly as I can to hopefully come out pleasantly surprised and satisfied.

GoldenEye 007

This probably won’t make a lot of sense. A brief history lesson may be in order to explain why a game is being made with a title of a movie from 15 years ago. The original GoldenEye 007 for the N64 was what put console first person shooters on the proverbial gaming map. Until then, PCs were the only stop for any serious shooter fan. GoldenEye 007 for the N64 created the standard for multiplayer shooters on consoles. A standard of which many, as you’ll see in the trailer, still believe no one has yet to meet.

So it’s a remake with a few twists, they’re using Daniel Craig and a new story. Same locations but different objectives by the looks of it. The gameplay will now be making use of the Wiimote’s motion control but promises to keep true to the past GoldenEye 007 engine.

The Nintendo 3DS

Great. Another DS! Just when I thought I’d purchased my 2nd and final DS… they bring out a new one. I’ll spare you my skepticism. I will at least acknowledge this will sell by the millions and land Nintendo’s execs some nice Christmas bonuses.

Winnipeg Wireless has compiled a nice list of features that the 3DS is sporting:

• The Nintendo 3DS comes in black and blue, red and black, and pure black
• As promised, this is a glasses-free 3D device
• Two cameras on the outside of the device for 3D picture taking
• 3D depth slider on the side of the device
• Round numb analog stick called the “Slide Pad”
• Bottom screen is a touch panel
• Below the touch screen are Select, Home and Start buttons
• Underneath the A, B, X, Y buttons is the handheld’s power button
• Motion sensor and gyroscope
• Compatible with Nintendo DSi
• A camera facing the player above the portable’s 3D screen
• The ability to play 3D Hollywood movies, like Legends of the Guardians from Warner Brothers
• The 3DS launch game will be Kid Icarus: Uprising
• It is a powerful system, featuring improved graphics
• The 3DS periodically searches for WiFi spots and other 3DSs
• Easy online navigation
• No monthly fee for Nintendo’s 3DS online access
• Nintendo is developing 3D Nintendogs
• More than twenty companies have signed on to develop for the 3DS
• The top screen is 3.5 inches

That’d be it for my take on Nintendo’s exclusives. Up next, Sony!

Image The 3DS Originally uploaded by AccessWinnipeg

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