Nintendo E3 2010 – Recap Feature

Nintendo didn’t fanny about at its E3 2010 conference earlier this week. The company saved us the pleasantries of reminding onlookers just how much the Wii console has sold, or how successful New Super Mario Bros. Wii has been at the start of its presentation. Instead, it kicked-off with the game that everyone in that auditorium had come to see: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Shigeru Miyamoto demonstrated what MotionPlus functionality is bringing to the game and explained a control scheme which positions sword controls on the Wii Remote and shield on the Nunchuk, before going into some detail about Link’s new toys (i.e. the Beetle and Whip).
 
Then Nintendo of America’s President, Reggie Fils-Aime stepped-up to steer the mid-section of the conference. In-between the presentations of games that Nintendo fans were already well aware of (e.g. Dragon Quest IX), Fils-Aime managed to drop a number of significant game announcements for Wii. On the core side, there was an announcement for the long-suspected GoldenEye remake from Activision, the very literal return of Donkey Kong Country from Metroid: Prime developer, Retro Studios, and more from Warren Spector on Junction Point Studios and Disney Interactive’s Epic Mickey.
 
On the casual side, Nintendo unveiled Wii Party as expected, while Mario Sports Mix came out of left field as an entirely unexpected announcement. The long-in-development title, Kirby’s Epic Yarn was effectively re-announced for Wii at this year’s E3 as it was originally announced for Nintendo’s Gamecube five years ago but had since fallen into obscurity. Once Reggie had fleshed out details on these new titles among trailers for soon-to-be-released games such as Metroid: Other M, Satoru Iwata then took to the stage for the presentation that everyone had been waiting for: the 3DS.

Iwata-san was able to confirm hardware specs for the handheld as well as a large line-up of titles and support from third-party publishers. At the press conference itself, over ten game titles were confirmed for the 3DS, although this number then quickly rose to over 30 in the wake of numerous Nintendo press releases following the conference. Some of the most well known core franchises in videogames were among these including Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Street Fighter IV, Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed, and Ninja Gaiden. Nintendo’s first-party offerings, on the other hand, included an all-new PilotWings game, ports of Star Fox 64 and Ocarina of Time to the platform, the return of Kid Icarus, a new IP in Steel Diver, Nintendogs + cats from Miyamoto-san, and a fresh instalment in the Mario Kart series as well.
 
Nintendo closed up the event by offering brief hands on experiences of the 3DS for attendees at the event. An entourage of booth babes ferried handhelds around the auditorium that were attached to them with security cables. With that in mind, we’ve got to ask: what could be more appealing to gamers for a prospective E3 theft than a 3DS with a booth babe attached?

Some questions:

Where was Nintendo’s Vitality Sensor - has it been quietly canned?
Why was Pikmin 3 a no show, again?
Has Nintendo done enough to win back core gamers?

Some headlines:

You can find Nintendo's big announcements handily summarised below or take a look through our highlights on the accompanying pages.

Ocarina Of Time Among 31 Confirmed Games For 3DS
Nintendo 3DS Vital Statistics
Kojima’s E3 Tease Is Nintendo 3DS Game
Nintendo 3DS: E3 Details Blowout
Donkey Kong Country Returns!
Nintendo Officially Announces Wii Party
Nintendo Unveils Mario Sports Mix
GoldenEye Remake Confirmed For Wii
The Legend Of Zelda Wii On Show, Available In 2011
E3 Zelda: Skyward Sword Details