LOS ANGELES — To keep hard-core gamers happy, Nintendo is banking on classic franchises spun in new ways.
The house that Mario built made several announcements related to its classic character Tuesday at the Electronic Entertainment Expo here. This year, Nintendo will release New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a four-player version of the legendary action game. Later, the company will release a sequel to the critically acclaimed Super Mario Galaxy.
But easily the most surprising announcement of the show was that Team Ninja, the group within game publisher Tecmo that created Ninja Gaiden for Xbox 360, will take the reins of Nintendo's sci-fi franchise Metroid, crafting a story-centric game that explores the history of its main character, Samus Aran.
Live blog coverage of Nintendo's E3 press briefing is below.
8:29: They're filling up Club Nokia as we speak. It's a really weird venue — there's floor seating on the bottom where the camera crew/photographers are going to be, but we're up in a mezzanine-type level slightly raised above the stage. They're showing Nintendo trivia on the big screens to keep us occupied. Somebody from Nintendo just took my picture with a DSi. Why? Why do I get the feeling it's going to end up on the big screen, too?
8:33: Preconference musings. I wonder if Nintendo will say anything about Microsoft's camera. Last year, Nintendo was clearly anticipating that Microsoft would launch a motion controller to compete with Wii, and now they've finally done it — curious if there will be any response.
8:36: Haha, so apparently NeoGAF ran some Photoshop analysis on the photos of Nintendo's curtain-covered E3 booth, and found an old-school Super Mario Bros. logo. I'd say that confirms Nikkei's report. (Unless it's New Super Mario Bros. 2 for DS or something.)
8:39: The trivia's repeating now. What Nintendo franchise has sold the most games combined worldwide? Answer: Mario. Damn straight.
8:40: So yeah, I'm running on about four hours of sleep. Microsoft threw a Beatles Rock Band party on the rooftop of The Standard hotel last night, with predictable results. Singing vocal harmonies is a really great addition, even though it can be hard. "I Feel Fine": not difficult. "Day Tripper": quite difficult.
8:54: If that old-school Super Mario Bros. logo was really for a Wii game, would that signal a New Super Mario Bros.-style return to old-school gameplay? Certainly that would be a smart idea if Nintendo is trying to have a similar casual-focused Wii Mario game, something that sells millions of copies in Japan alone. Nintendo has really got to re-energize that market, and a properly designed Mario game has as much a chance as anything. I just hope Nintendo isn't rushing it to shelves because of the extra pressure.
8:58: "Princess Peach" wasn't in Super Mario Bros. 2, mister trivia question on the big screen. I won't stand for this revisionist history.
9:00: And the trivia disappears from the screens. That's a good sign. Let's get ready to rumble.
9:03: Opening sizzle videos kick in. Mercifully brief. Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo's EVP of sales and marketing, takes the stage. She greets the people "watching online." Hi, you guys!
9:06: Today, says Dunaway, Nintendo will bring us two kinds of surprises: The big kind, and the kind that's hidden — "where you thought there weren't any (surprises) left." She's kicking off with a recap of Mario's greatest hits. Looks like we're seeing this new game first.
9:08: New Super Mario Bros. Wii. It's a four-player game, something that Dunaway says Shigeru Miyamoto has been thinking about for 15 years. They're all going to play together. Mario, Luigi, Blue Toad and Yellow Toad. It's a side-scrolling, four-player Mario game that looks like the Nintendo DS version but with Wii graphics. Looks like a lot of fun — kind of like how Zelda Four Swords is both cooperative and competitive. You can start in single-player mode and switch to multiplayer whenever you want.
9:12: At the end of the level, all your coins, points, etc., are tallied up and you get ranked by performance. Dunaway: This can be played on the show floor and will launch worldwide this holiday season.
9:14: Wii Fit time. Dunaway talks up the success of the game, introduces Wii Fit Plus. New version helps you find a specific workout routine that's right for you, she says. There's a "locker room" that "lets you be your own personal trainer." You can combine exercises, do 30 or 40 minutes of exercise at once without all the interludes. Sounds like they've changed a lot of the things people have complained about. Fifteen new balance games. Juggling, skateboarding and a fitness/math game — "Brain Age from your backside."
9:17: Fall 2009 for Wii Fit Plus, both in standalone and bundled with balance board packages. No price announcement.
9:18: Reggie Fils-Aime takes stage.
9:19: Time to hear about Wii MotionPlus. Fils-Aime goes over the history of Nintendo's controller innovations, then introduces a video about Wii MotionPlus' capabilities.
9:22: Video is about Wii Sports Resort: New games include archery, basketball, rowing.
9:24: Also, skydiving. This mini-game is used as an introduction to the game — the first thing you do is skydive, and it introduces you to how the MotionPlus works.
9:26: Archery demo. Looks fun. Works about how you'd expect, with the Wiimote and nunchuk serving as a virtual bow.
9:29: FIls-Aime rejoins Bill Trinen onstage to do a demo of the basketball free-throw contest mode. They're getting into it.
9:32: Fils-Aime talking up third-party Wii sales, says they sold more third-party games on Wii last year than any other. In keeping with that, it's time to hear about third-party games: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers trailer video.
9:34: Trailer for Kingdom Hearts on DS. And now, let's look at Mario and Luigi RPG 3 on Nintendo DS. Lots of RPGs this morning. It's called Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story in the US.
9:37: Available this fall. Oh, and one more thing: A legendary RPG franchise is coming back. It's Golden Sun DS. "Yes," says somebody next to me. New 3-D graphics, looks pretty good. Exit Reggie, enter Cammie to talk about DS.
9:39: James Patterson's Women's Murder Club for DS, from THQ — a mystery game for women. With DSi enhancements.
9:40: Fans of "gritty, open-world" gaming will like Ubisoft's COP: The Recruit for DS, she says. Video of this — looks like Grand Theft Auto 4 but for DS, with over-the shoulder third-person shooting, car driving, etc. It's an open-world game.
9:42: Style Savvy is the new U.S. name for Nintendo's Girls Mode, its fashion game for DS that's done really well in Japan.
9:43: Videos with "random" people on the street talking about how amazing the DSi is, using corporate-approved language.
9:45: Dunaway talks about Moving Memo, called Flip Note Studio here in America, will be available this summer for DSiWare. Also, Mario vs. Donkey Kong for DS is coming, and you'll be able to design your own levels. Upload your creations to your friends. Playable on the show floor, available as a DSiWare download June 8.
9:47: Wario Ware: DYI. It's Made in Ore confirmed for America.
9:49: Trade your DSi pictures by uploading them to Facebook, this summer.
9:50: Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, playable at the show floor.
9:51: Satoru Iwata, global president of Nintendo, takes the stage. There are some, he says, who think that the "audience expansion" movement is starting to fade. I'm pretty sure he's going to present some charts and graphs that say that's not true. Let's see.
9:53: Nintendo's unprecedented challenge, Iwata says, is to satisfy a wider-than-ever range of gamers. They don't just want to "lower the bar," he says, because Nintendo also wants to satisfy "highly skilled" gamers.
9:56: Iwata says that seemingly "casual" games like Super Mario Bros. Wii and Wii Sports Resort will surprise hard-core gamers with their depth. But "this kind of solution alone may not be entirely convincing," he says. What's next for casual gamers? Another "entirely different way of thinking about games" in the vein of Brain Age and Wii Fit.
9:58: The Wii Vitality Sensor — a new add-on for Wii. It fits on your finger and takes your pulse. This can measure your body's reaction — "Intends to have you see the information relating to the inner world of your body," says Iwata. "Achieve greater relaxation. Everyone under pressure in our stressful society could use this as a way to relax," he sayd, and it "could even make it easier to fall asleep."
10:00: Dunaway's back, and she's saying there's even more Mario to talk about. "A second full 3-D Mario title is going to appear on a single Nintendo console." Wow, it's Mario Galaxy 2. With yoshi-riding.
10:03: Man, I love the Mario Galaxy theme music. The game looks ... well, like Super Mario Galaxy. But with a "2" on the end. No release date, just a teaser trailer.... Doesn't sound like we'll be playing it this week.
10:05: Fils-Aime is back out to talk about third-party games for hard-core gamers. The Conduit video — that game's out in three weeks. Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles video. Finally, Dead Space: Extraction video. Old news, but illustrating that there are hard-core games on the way.
10:10: Um: wow. Team Ninja is making a third-person Metroid game, "Metroid: Other M," that's story-based — there are all of these cinematic scenes exploring the story of Samus Aran. Did not expect that one. Coming in 2010. "Take you deeper into Samus' story and further into the Metroid universe."
10:12: That's the show! See you at Sony.
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