N-Sider's intrepid Anthony JC has returned from Nintendo's media event in New York bearing gifts in the form of news tidbits. Look for his full in-depth recount of the event very soon. In the meantime, peruse the bullets for some cool details.
- News
- In Super Mario Galaxy, when you get a coin, you will hear it on the remote. The stars play a huge part in this game and are completely travel-related -- catapults, intergalactic vines and warp zones. The game contains lots of puzzles and platforming.
- Reggie was overheard mentioning first-party accessories including a Wiimote pouch to carry the Wiimote around, Wii game holders, and additional grip option accessories for the Wiimote.
- Wii Music, Wii Aerobics, Forever Blue, Necro Nesia, Super Paper Mario, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Donkey Kong Bongo Jet Blast, Fire Emblem, were all Nintendo titles that were no shows and no answers were entertained from reps.
- EA was a big no show. Only Madden NFL '07 was at the show.
- Trauma Center Second Opinion didn't feel very original. Outside new medical instruments and an upgrade in presentation and graphics, it really is just a port.
- Metroid Prime 3 Corruption graphics seem very much improved in the texture department (still not as good as Wii Sports, ironically). The voice acting and cinematic direction is very well done. Very epic.
- Ubisoft (many UBI designers were actually present) was very protective over Red Steel. They did not allow us to film. The game appeared to be very buggy and crashed several times. Not only did the game crash but the colors would act up and flash weird colors out of nowhere. Hopefully this will be ironed out by launch.
- Sega's Sonic and the Secret Rings controls like Excite Truck. It has similar racing game controls.
- No Virtual Console games on display at the event or mentioned outside of the official press release.
- The all-star trio of Sonic, Mario, and Zelda were all presented in the form of the exact demos from E3 2006.
- Excite Truck looks like it has a decent selection of vehicles although the demo only allowed for three of the lot to be picked. There is a huge palette of color customization to pick for your vehicle. The game has very fun exaggerated physics that seem like a blend of Burnout, Rallisport, and Excitebike 64. Exactly, awesome combination no. The soundtrack is very metal. Graphics are definitely a little bit better than Rallisport 2 on Xbox for comparison. Huge draw distance, fluid framerate, lots of interesting effects like bullet time thrown in the mix.
- Unfortunately with Zelda Wii, at this current moment, the sword swings are not mapped. You do a backhand to perform a sword swing but the game is not 1:1 following your swing. Hopefully this will be changed by release.
- Big Brain Academy is completely 2D but looks really pretty for a 2D game unlike certain rough segments of Wario Ware. The single player was not available, only the multiplayer. Ironic that while the Nintendo DS version supports over four players, the Wii version only supports two players. I feel this is rather odd for this multiplayer-oriented sequel. Possible Wi-Fi features, although nothing is confirmed.