E3 Wii: Musings

Nintendo’s showing at this years mediocre E3 was easily the most talked
up at the show for obvious reasons. The Wii was available behind an
impressive and daunting 3 hour line. After getting past the security
fans were greeted to a turntable display of the systems and
Nintendo-rep players as they looped endlessly in front of their
respective TVs. We were treated to the sight of the oft hailed but
rarely seen Koji Kondo, the man behind Mario and Zelda’s now household
music. The 8-bit maestro was dressed head to toe in a leopard print
ensemble and conducting a virtual orchestra using the Wii remote while
other developers delivered cross court bombs in Wii Tennis and still
another led Samus Aran through her paces with the Nunchuk addition.
Further into their sanctum, 70 individual stations were available to
show-goers and all were packed.

The
system is impressive and very natural feeling. Most of the demos we
played were tech demos designed specifically to show up the various
system applications. A recreation of Duck Hunt had players aiming and
firing reminiscent of the original Zapper (incidently, an add-on
modification is planned to turn the remote into a gun). Another demo
had players steadily twisting and maneuvering a chalk outline character
through a dynamic obstacle course to collect coins and beat their
opponent to the end. Tennis, baseball and even ping pong were on hand
from first party development, but most of the crowd hovered around
titles like ExciteTruck, Madden07, WarioWare Smooth Moves and Zelda:
Twilight Princess. Sadly, the crowds were stifling and Nintendo
considered some people more important than others. My 3 hour wait was
spurned because a ‘VIP’ had been waiting 5 minutes and I had to give up
my control before my demo ended.

That ridiculousness aside, we
also got a look at the Virtual Console. Yet another attachment that
combines the SNES and N64 controllers allows gamers to take a trip back
in time for an impressive retro-emulation. The original Super Mario
Bros. played beautifuly, as did Super Mario World.

Still no
prices have been announced, but rumors are persistant that they base
system will sell for less than either Microsoft’s or Sony’s next gen
systems. The message is clear: Nintendo isn’t competing with the other
big two. They are offering a unique game platform with unique games and
they’ve built up enough intrigue in the industry to quite possibly take
back a part of their former game glory. I say, welcome back Nintendo.