WII ZAPPER!

THERE'S A FUCKING WII ZAPPER!

Will be used by Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad, and Medal of Honor.

And a "secret" game that will be packed in with the Wii is underway. THIS WILL COST $19.99!

EDIT: Soul Calibur Legends and Smackdown/Raw... Meh...

Ninja Gaiden on the DS isn't new enough to make me freak out.

EDIT: This Mario/Sonic Olympic Games title makes me very hopeful.

EDIT: Super Smash Brothers Brawl on December 3rd!!!

EDIT: Pardon me while I spazz out.

They're showing a few interviews with website editors now, so I can elaborate. The Wii Zapper is basically a plastic housing. The nunchuck sits in the back as the "handle" and the remote sits parallel, forming the barrel. You can use this to shoot like a gun.

EDIT: Now they're showing phantom hourglass. I got a chance to play this, um, "somehow" and it's pretty great. You can draw a tightrope and walk across it, which is what they're showing now.

EDIT: Now they're showing Metroid Prime 3. It looks really, really smooth. On the fly vistor-switching with the "-" button. Lock on free-aiming, too. So you can lock on with "Z" to strafe, but you can also aim anywhere else on screen you want.

EDIT: Now they're bragging about DS wifi and Nintendo's wii service, which kind of skirts the fact that there's no "real" online wii multiplayer yet.

EDIT: They've sold 5.6 million VC downloads. Holy crap.

EDIT: New Channel! "CHECK MII OUT". Where you can put up Miis and have them voted on by everyone. You can take home ones you like the best. Sweet! Plus, Nintendo is going to offer contests and prizes.

EDIT: Nintendo is using "Pokemon Battle" as their online experience. Bleh. And now they're pointing out that "Mario Strikers Charged" will be next. And now both Madden '08 and FIFA '08 will be fully online.

EDIT: Dragon Quest Monsters Joker for DS will feature online battling. Guitar Hero III will have online battling.

EDIT: MARIO KART FOR WII! ONLINE! "First Quarter 2008"!!!!!!

EDIT: They're building a Nintendo branded custom "Wii-Wheel" for Mario Kart... packaged with the game.

Another movie is playing. So I can elaborate again.

Mario Kart looks like it has some freaking ridiculous jumps and drops in it. The short clip they showed had Wario nosediving off a huge ass clip and aparently catching some air. It looked pretty badass. So, so far you've got Metroid Prime 3, Mario Kart, and the December 3rd release of Smash Brothers. It feels like they're building to something else, though.

EDIT: Iwata is up on stage now to talk about expanding the gaming audience. "I played my first video game thirty years ago. In those days, there weren't many gamers." He's talking about a paradigm shift taking place in his own home. Apparently using the DS cooking software out in Japan is teaching him to cook dinner for his family.

EDIT: Iwata is still talking about new gamers. He's funny, I'll give him that, but I really want to hear some more announcements. And now he's commenting on the Wii Zapper again. "We continue to challenge ourselves to find new themes for video games."

EDIT: "In a few minutes, Mister Miyamoto will be out here with a new title". ?!?!?!?!!

EDIT: Now they're showing a promo video for "Super Mario Galaxy".

EDIT: Now Reggie's discussing "Brain Age 2". Meh... Available in the US on August 20th.

SUPER MARIO GALAXY ON NOVEMBER 12th!!!!!!!!

EDIT: MySims and High School Musical and Raving Rabbids 2. Well.. I guess it can't all be megatons.

EDIT: They're releasing a "visual training game". It's going to be called "Flash Focus". UbiSoft is releasing "MyWord Coach". They're really pushing the "self-improvement software". Others: "MyLife Coach".

EDIT: Now they're showing a WiiSports movie. I wonder if they're going to follow that up with anything...

EDIT: "Wii Fit". Looks like it uses some sort of balance pad attachment to let you do an aerobic workout.

EDIT: It also has a soccer-ball minigame and a dance game, among others. The pad registers how you're standing to determine if you're doing the correct movement.

EDIT: Miyamoto is on stage to talk about it. He asks the crowd "Have you all been getting a sweat on lately?". Because the Wii is in the living room, it has to be relevant to everybody.

EDIT: He has three fitness trainers on the pad, demoing the activities. Haha. The calibration is off and Miyamoto seems a bit embarrassed. The first demo didn't go so well, but the second one works fine. It's a step aerobic game. The last one has a lady showing a sideways twist. You twist your body and the game checks your balance to make sure you're doing it properly. Again, the calibration is a bit off, but not as bad as the first one.

EDIT: The board is called the "wii balance board". It measures your weight and the shift of your balance. It's wireless. Nintendo wants to use it in regular games, too. "One more important thing". They're doing a body check on Reggie.

EDIT: You can graph your progress over time. Hopefully this'll become a big thing with families wanting to compete with each other.

EDIT: Miyamoto's challenging Reggie to a soccer-ball hitting competition using the board. First one to 20 points wins. Reggie crushed Miyamoto. The game looks stupidly fun.

EDIT: It's over. So yeah, December 3 for Smash Brothers, November 12th for Mario, August for Metroid Prime 3. Wii Zapper with a mystery game (maybe Duck Hunt?). Mario Kart Online. WiiFit. And a ton of third party support.

I'd bet money that secret game is "Duck Hunt".

So, yeah, the reviews for all three conferences have been fairly mixed. Microsoft came off looking worst this year (no shocking game announcements, just an ugly new 360 color...). Nintendo basically solidified some anticipated release dates and made a further push into the casual gaming world. And Sony, surprisingly, did their best to turn the tide of public opinion. The PSP redesign is almost too minor, but "Home" is looking better and the price drop will likely help them.

I think this is the cumulative result of a) E3 being scaled back this year, b) developers being caught off guard by Nintendo's success (they're still getting the Wii titles together and shifting their focus a bit from, say, the PS3), and c) the industry sort of eating itself alive with high production costs, which drives down the willingness of development houses to grant exclusivity, thus meaning that everyone is showing the same exact thing. Sony had its first party stuff like Killzone to fall back on, MS had Halo (a point they made again... and again... and again... and a-fucking-gain...), and Nintendo had its usual roster, but yeah.

Things I'm ultimately waiting for.

1) SSB on December 3rd.
2) The promise of a possible "Duck Hu nt"
3) The PSP redesign, believe it or not.
4) Not buying "Halo 3"
5) Phantom Hourglass