If I were picking up his bags, I'd be happier.
When I arrived in Los Angeles, I was greeted with a baggage holder waiting for "Reggie Fils Aime." It was an interesting feeling being hit with E3-mania right off the plane; something told me this would turn out to be a great week.
I get to my hotel; lo and behold, it turns out to be the same hotel that Nintendo is using to house Miyamoto, Iwata, and Reggie himself. After seeing them casually twice in as many days, I was all excited for today to happen. The Nintendo press conference was sure to be a big hit.
After Microsoft's "let's be casual!" press conference on Monday, I expected a lot of things, and with Nintendo's promise a few months back about "big announcements for the hardcore gamer at E3," I was really ready for a big surprise.
Leading up to the conference, we got the Wii MotionPlus announcement; it fueled a bit of hope among those of us around me in line about what may be shown. I was surrounded by old friends Rick (kiziko), Ray, Ken, and Sean (AMN/Kombo)—we were all trying to figure out what exactly would be shown at that press conference. I joked, "It's only going to be Wii Sports 2." I really didn't want to be right.
What just happened here?
I just want to get this out first and foremost: Cammy is a horrible replacement or successor to Reggie as public figurehead. I'm not sure if she's the new "Perrin" or what, but she's too enthusiastic—and not in the good way. There is something extremely fake about her, and as much as Nintendo may be catering to the "casual" crowd these days, E3 is not the place to do it. I couldn't care less about how she broke her wrist snowboarding (If Stephen Colbert came out with Wrist Strong bracelets, I may have been happier), and I really didn't care that they brought out the gold medalist equivalent to Carrot Top.
But new execs aside, Nintendo's press conference was just an extreme disappointment. Iwata poked fun at a few things, and even hinted that the Mario/Zelda teams were hard at work at games with pretty graphics (oh, how the times have changed), but there was absolutely nothing to show for it.
He kept talking about change and how Nintendo needs to stay ahead of the game, but nothing they spoke about reflected that "change." When Reggie finally introduced the MotionPlus attachment, I expected some revolutionary game to come along to show off this new dongle.
But no, we got Cammy (who had a "big" clue!) back on stage to throw a frisbee for her digital pooch. Wii Sports Resort wasn't the right thing to show with this attachment. It doesn't seem to have the magic of the original Wii Sports, which I believe was due to its simplicity. I will say, however, that the SkiDoo sections were extremely reminiscent of Wave Race; I certainly hope there's more to that mode of the game than just going through buoys.
Then the press conference turned into E3 2003. Everyone remember that? The "Connectivity" press conference where all Nintendo touted was Pac-Man Vs.? This was very much a DS show, which would normally be okay, but their presentation was terribly flawed. The games that people would want to know about (GTA, anyone?) were shrugged off with a mere "oh, we have this too." I seem to remember Reggie commenting on how they were talking to Rockstar on getting some of their bigger franchises on Nintendo platforms, so where was the "I told you so?"
Wii Music was the "one more thing..." of this year, and they've completely ruined what I envisoned Wii Music to be. Gone are any points or scoring, you're just flailing your arms and seemingly performing fellatio on your Wii Remote. Where's the fun in looking like an idiot, if there's no goal to be achieved? I hope to be proven wrong tomorrow when I have my sessions with Nintendo, but after day one that's going to be a tough thing to do.
When it was over, I just couldn't believe that this was it—the press conference started late, and very much ended early.