E3: My Take on Nintendo’s Press Conference

What is going on over in Redmond? I’ve been trying to figure it out all day but I can’t get my head around it. If you’d asked me two years ago when Nintendo first unveiled the Wii what I thought they’d be up to in 2008 I never would’ve guessed that they would add more motion control. I feel that the genius of the Wii is that it’s so simple. A remote and sometimes a nunchuk is enough for innovative control, so why do they keep adding peripherals?

So far we’ve got the Wii Remote, Nunchuk, Balance Board, and now two new add-ons, the MotionPlus packand the WiiSpeak microphone. The $30 microphone is a fine, but pricey addition, eschewing individual headsets and just picking up sound from the entire room. Hopefully it’s hi-tech enough to ignore button presses, creaking couches, ringing cellphones, and other non-verbal noise, but I’m not holding my breath.

What really bugs me is the MotionPlus pack. It’s like Nintendo saying “oh, sorry, here’s the really good motion control we should’ve had designed in time for the Wii’s launch… that’ll be thirty bucks please.” There’s also the aesthetic angle; between the bulky remote jacket and the MotionPlus the Wii Remote is getting more and more awkward. What originally was supposed to look like any old electronic remote control now looks like a squishy Nerf toy. Maybe I’ll simmer down once I see what effect it really has but it seems like even more of a gimmick than all those minigame collection titles we’re finally getting away from. Moving onto the Wii games.

While I’m excited to finally see Animal Crossing: City Folk I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. The game looks like a half-assed cross between the GameCube original and the DS’ Wild World with only tweaked gameplay and sparse few new features. Two games and six years later, it almost feels like a Madden football game. That is to say, the same old game with a few new tweaks. I really am looking forward to it, I just hope the expanded gameplay and Wi-Fi Connection can keep it feeling fresh.

Wii Music looks like it’ll be entertaining for as long as it takes to try each of the 50 instruments on each of the included songs. And with greatest hits like Mary Had a Little Lamb and possibly some Nintendo tunes that’ll probably never happen. I’m interested but this thing better not cost more than $20. Wii Sports Resort looks equally questionable and I still don’t understand how the MotionPlus pack does anything more than smooth out the Wii Remote’s movements. At least it has a spiritual Wave Race minigame that might satiate me for a bit.

For as wishy-washy as I am over most of the Wii’s casual-centric offerings, I’m totally excited about WarioLand Shake It! My hands may come to regret it after I shake the crap out of my thousandth money sack but the whole thing looks gloriously silly and in 2D to boot!

The DS is definitely my Nintendo console of choice. I’m still loving the steady stream of games after three years and Nintendo hasn’t wasted my money by releasing endless add-on accessories like they’re doing on the Wii. I was happy to see Rhythm Tengoku get a US listing as Rhythm Heaven, I just hope that unlike Band Brothers it actually makes it to store shelves. I never played the original Kirby Super Star so I’ve got a lot of game to look forward to. Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir looks like a decent ‘Find the Junk’ style of game.

I was initially stunned and suddenly disappointed about Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars but then I remembered that even the original, 2D top-down GTA was loads of fun. If Rockstar can make it online-enabled without friend codes (it’s gonna be Teen rated at least, what’s the risk in playing with people who might swear at you) then it could be just as huge a hit as its console counterparts. More Guitar Hero is cool but I have yet to pick up the original. Outside of Nintendo’s meager first-party titles there’s an even bigger list of DS games I’m looking forward to, but for this post I’m focused on the press conference.

Nintendo, I love you guys. You’ve provided many years of fine gaming and I really do like the Wii but this press conference was so middling and disconcerting that I just don’t know what to think. The casual stuff doesn’t seem as exciting as Wii Sports was a year ago and you’ve just gone off the deep end with peripherals. Thank god for the DS and more Wario antics.