E3 ’09: Nintendo Press Conference Live Blog

Yesterday’s conferences for Microsoft, EA and Ubisoft were chock full of interesting revelations. How will Nintendo and Sony try to come back against Microsoft’s blockbuster announcements? Hit the jump to find out. (All times are EST)

12:05: Cammie Dunaway of Nintendo is on stage talking about how gaming has become everyone’s game.

12:07: Mario compilation on screen. New Mario coming?

12:09: New Super Mario Brothers Wii announced. Four player co-op being shown.

12:10: Seemless co-op integration of single player. Propellor suit shown; lets players jump higher and float down slowly. 4 player action looks kinda chaotic.

12:12: Player scores are tallied at end of round.

12:13: New Super Mario Wii will be available this Holiday season

12:14: Wii Fit Plus announced.

12:15: Six new strength and yoga activities. Looks to be tailored to the user. Will keep track about the calories burned.

12:16: New balance games.

12:17: Wii Fit Plus available Fall 2009 as a standalone and bundled with the balance board.

12:18: Reggie Fils-Aime now on stage. “The primary weapon for all of this is interface.” Looks like he’s talking about a new control scheme.

12:19: False alarm. Just talking about Wii Motion Plus.

12:22: Montage on how Wii Motion Plus will be great. Apparently it will make us into a katana wielding samurai. An archer, golfer and jetski rider are shown for Wii Sports Resport.

12:24: Bill Trinnen talking about Wii Sports Plus now. Shows skydiving at the beginning of Wii Sports Resort.

12:27: Watching Trinnen play archery in Wii Sports Resort. Have to take into account aim, wind and a moving target.

12:29: Trinnen is now playing a basketball 3 point contest with Reggie. Fils-Aime came out to talk some trash but he’s getting beaten.

12:30: Reggie came back from nowhere to win. Wii Sports Resort comes out July 26th.

12:32: “Last year in America, more third party games were sold for the Wii than any other platform.” No talk about how many were actually good.

12:33: New Final Fantasy for Wii. It’s an open-word adventure titled Final Fantasy: The Crystal Bearers.

12:34: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for DS. Graphics look amazing. Coming out Sept. 29.

12:35: Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is a DS RPG game thath as Mario and Luigi shrunk down and eaten by Bowser.

12:36: M&L:BIS coming out this Fall.

12:37: Golden Sun DS announced. Will arrive in 2010.

12:38: James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion announced as an interactive novel. Has interrogation, investigation and mystery solving.

12:40: COP: The Recruit by Ubisoft announced. Looks to have third person shooting and driving elements in a 3D open-world.

12:42: Style Savvy shown for tweens and 20-somethings. Looks like mostly fashion based mini-games. Players can make boutiques and shop in each other’s shops.

12:44: Montage about why people love the DSi.

12:45: DSi sales are at 1 million units sold since launch. Since DSi’s launch, the DS Lite has seen an increase of 400,000 units.

12:47: Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again. Available only as a download via DSiWare for DSi on June 8.

12:48: Wario Ware DIY. Showing micro-game creation side of the game.

12:49: You can share photos edited on your DSi on Facebook. Man, game companies love the book of faces.

12:50: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Track will be playable on the show floor. No video on the game?

12:50: Everyone’s Game montage showing all the different reasons why Nintendo hits a mass audience.

12:51: Cammie Dunaway announces Nintendo President Satoru Iwata.

12:52: Iwata talking about the audience growth movement. Saying the “maybe I’ll play people” are the ones to get.

12:53: There are currently 295 million people in Japan, U.S. and Europe who play. “For every two people now playing, there’s one more just waiting to jump into the game.”

12:56: “No one was born an expert gamer.” -Iwata-san.

12:58: Iwata-san announces Wii Vitality Sensor. Looks like something you put your finger into to measure your pulse. It connects to the Wii Remote through the nunchuk port.

12:59: “Maybe everyone in our stressful society can use this as a way to relax with a videogame.” -Iwata-san

1:01: Another Super Mario game announced for the Wii. Video shows Yoshi is involved now.

1:02: Looks like another Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii.

1:03: Yep. Super Mario Galaxy 2.

1:04: Reggie Fils-Aime back out on stage. “I read the blogs too.” Haha. Talking about titles with a little bit of a “harder edge.”

1:05: The Conduit is being shown.

1:06: Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles being shown now. It’s a Resident Evil 2/Code Veronica on-rails shooter. That’s cool and all but where are the new announcements?

1:07: Now for another non-announcement, Dead Space: Extraction.

1:09: Fils-Aime is announcing a new Team Ninja game.

1:10: Metroid: Other M. Team Ninja’s doing a Metroid game?! What the hell? Was that Samus’ voice?

1:11: Coming in 2010.

And that looks to be it for Nintendo. There looks to be a lot of interesting new titles coming. Be on the look out as we give each conference our grade.

~ by Andrew Martins on June 2, 2009.