The moment of truth. All the E3 updates, as they happen. Click over for the live feed.
8:51- Why am I nervous? The show is only minutes away.
9:00- The show is officially late. Probably should be expected, right?
9:02- And… that’s it! Looks like Nintendo is calling it a day early. So much for news today…
9:04- Just kidding, still waiting to start. Techno and light shows seem to be rubbing the crowd the wrong way.
9:06- Finally! The show has started. With a montage of the happiest people on earth. Who all own DS’s apparently.
9:08- Cammie Dunaway takes the stage (not Reggie) and chats about her son and snowborading. Smiling is good by the way.
9:10- Shaun White is demoing his snowboarding game and it went pretty smoothly, he must have practiced. The game is looked really crisp. Now it looks like it’s Cammie’s turn.
9:14- Shaun is out after a quick half pipe demo. The game will be out by the end of the year. Satoru Iwata takes the stage. Word.
9:17- Iwata talks about how the public opinion of Nintendo has shifted in just a few years. He mentioned that the Mario and Zelda teams are hard at work. Why must you be so cryptic!
9:20- Just some sales numbers, brings up the point that Nintendo is seeing success outside of the holiday season like never before. Next up on the agenda, Iwata would like to break the lines between gamers and non-gamers even more. *Pats Guitar Hero on the back*
9:22- He is wrapping up. Briefly mentions user created content, and exits as Animal Crossing rolls onto the screen!
9:24- It looks a lot like the older versions, a little cleaner and in widescreen. There is a city you can go visit outside your hometown, auctions, an academy for keeping tabs on other players, go to the fashion designer’s actual store instead of waiting for her to coming to you town. When it comes to communication, you can send letters and pictures to pretty much anywhere. Also there will be a microphone that is designed for a room of players to use at once. Not a headset, but a room-set if you will. Shows groups of friends running around and fishing together.
9:28- Animal Crossing: City Folk. Coming later this year.
9:29- Reggie now takes the stage to talk numbers. He’s pleased, but not satisfied. Start taking names Reggie.
9:36- Three new games are being shown. First, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. More of the same that has been seen before. Next up is the new Rayman title. Last but not least, Call of Duty.
9:41- Cammie is back, and talks about the success of the DS with females. As of right now, the ratio is 48% to 52% female to male. Crazy stuff. Spore on the DS as well as Guitar Hero are being highlighted on screen. The next Pokemon Rangers in coming in November. Cammie thinks it’s a big deal. I don’t. Also Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars will be landing on the DS this holiday. That, I do care about.
9:44- They are also looking into using a DS to get information at airports, mentions how the Mariners use the protable to check scores or order food, and even brings up using the it in the kitchen. Reggie is back.
9:47- He is ”revealing” Wii MotionPlus. In order to show it off, he’s going to demo Wii Sports: Resort. With all of these games sold, it will come with a Wii MotionPlus unit, as well as an extended sleeve.
9:50- The motion recognition looks flawless. They are throwing frisbees to a dog, and it works really well. However, that’s what everyone thought about the baseball demo back in the day. Reggie is taking a jet ski for a run now, less impressive than the doggie demo. To finish off the presentation, the two are sword fight ala American Gladiators Joust event, only with wooden swords. It works pretty well, allowing players to swing at any angle and block with their sword. I don’t know how that fits in a Resort, but let’s ignore that.
9:54- One more game for this holiday. Reggie promises to make everyone smile, and the screen rolls on to a drum demo from the anticipated Wii Music reveal. Shigeru finally takes the stage playing a duet with a virtual saxophone.
10:00- To play you simply move as you would playing the actual instument, and the game will automatically play the correct note for that time in the song. More or less, if you hit the rhythm it will play as expected, but you would be able to mix it up a little if you change that rhythm. May be a little too basic for my taste, but could be really fun with a group.
10:07- A group of musicians are playing together to make a classic Mario song come to life. Pretty cool in action, and much easier than trying to get people into Rock Band (if you have ever thought it was too hard). Now it’s just Reggie and Cammie on stage. I’ll miss you Shigeru…
10:10- It looks like show is over, the crowd is starting to file out.
10:12- The crew will soon be back into the connected world, they’ll have video and coverage as soon as possible.
Pingback: The Tanooki » The Tanooki’s Daily Recap - July 15, 2008