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News 
E3 2005- Nintendo Press Conference
- Posted By Lander
Clinton, 05.17.2005
This morning's press conference was a success, but not the Revolution blow-out we were hoping for.
Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo's head of Kick-Ass and Name-Taking, informed us that Nintendo has just sold their 2 billionth game. I personally have contributed a lot to that total, so they could have had more plain bagels for us.
We got to see David Hollands, who is some music guru, play Electroplankton for a bit. I like this game more now than I did just reading about it. He drew and tapped on the touch screen to make music. I'd like to see a multiplayer mode where you go in and mess up someone else's piece.
Then they discussed their WiFi connection plans with GameSpy and IGN. Nintendo will offer users a choice between only playing with real-life friends or playing with strangers of equal skill. This way players won't be intimidated by a few nerds who do nothing but increase experience and then run around in near-god mode. All of the first party games will be completely free.
Then another ringer, Tina Wood from G4tv.com, introduced us to Nintendogs, the new name of Puppy Times, which was formerlly called Nintendogs. She played with her dog for a bit and used voice commands to get it to do tricks. Sometimes it would do them and sometimes it would just sit and stare at her (like a real dog).
Then the real dawg, Shigeru Miyamoto, came out and made his dog get a little frisky with her dog. Someone in the background kept saying "Giggity giggity." While Miyamoto's dog was, uh, mounting her dog, Miyamoto offered to show her "a few more tricks" back stage.
Then Reggie, not a dog, showed off the new GameBoy Micro, a repackaged GBA SP that's about the size of an ipod. He says it will play all the GBA games, but did not specify older GameBoy games. It will come out this fall and sell more than the PSP its first day.
A little while later Nintendo President Satoru Iwata showed off a black box he said was the Revolution. A nice logo seemed to indicate that Revolution will be the final name of the system, but they conceded that the box we were looking at was a prototype.
The Revolution will be backwards-compatible with all NES, SNES, N64, and GCN games through the magic of downloading and 512 MB of Flash memory. Players can also buy an optional addition to the NRev that lets it play DVD movies. Games announced for the NRev included Smash Bros., Metroid Prime 3, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, and future Mario and Zelda games.
He said that the Revolution will allow developer freedom in an age where budget is more important than ideas, and that it will expand the definition of videogames.
Some games we didn't previously know about included Tony Hawk DS, Mario and Luigi 2 DS, Super Mario Strikers (a soccer game), Mario Party 7 (which will use the microphone again), and Twilight Princess, a dating simulator with a rich princess who is quite demanding.
Actually, Twilight Princess is the new name for the Legend of Zelda for GameCube. A nice new trailer is probably available on the internet at one of those other sites you read.
We also got to see more of Pokemon XD, a full RPG for GameCube, Battlion Wars, the GameCube Advance Wars, Mario Loves Baseball, Mario Dance Dance Revolution, Viewtiful Joe DS (which looks perfect), and a bunch of other games I didn't happen to write down on this paper.
I should note that when the DS goes online, it is going to totally rock. I turned on Pictochat before the show and it was loaded with users and people asking to play Yoshi Touch and Go and other DS games.
So that's all from me, more from the show floor tomorrow. Back to you, Travis..
Why thank you Lander.
Let me just say that yes, Lander did use pictochat and while doing so, he scribbled some porno into the screen for everyone to see. He is such a dirty man. A dirty, dirty man.
Anyway, Lander covered all of the good stuff, leaving me to give some opinions. I know, I know, fanboy ranting ahead...
My personal favorite aspect of the show, {aside from the dog with the Mario hat humping poor little Mina) was the fact that they didn't mention the Revolution specs, All they did was show the case and give a few cryptic clues as to its functionality. Now, this upset everyone in the room greatly, and I heard much dissent as I left the hall. It tickled the living hell out of me though. Nothing in the world creates more interest in a product than mystery. Sure the X-Box 360 and PS3 are big and bad (yadda, yadda) but the question on everyone's mind is what the Revolution has under the hood. You can't buy that kind of publicity folks. Someday everyone is just going to have to acccept the fact that Nintendo does things their own way and learn to live with it.
Also I admired the choice to create another GBA version. The GBA Micro takes the heat off of the DS to remain ahead of the PSP. By reminding the world that the GBA has a trillion units sold, the handheld market will remain firmly in Nintendo's grasp.
All in all, not the best show they have ever put on, but certainly the most forward looking. I know I've said this a billion times before, but the future really is looking good for Nintendo fans.
Source: NGenres.com
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