Eddy Fettig

Ah, another summer, another E3, another opportunity for the masses to whine and complain about...a press conference...As if it's the circus or something. How come we don't start assigning grades to press releases or trailers? It's ridiculous in my opinion. The games are what matters, not when or how they're announced. Advertising is far more important than E3 press conferences are in the grand scheme of things: let's start grading commercials, shall we?

That rant aside, let's get down to business: my opinion may not be inherently as valuable to you as others because I don't ever get actively disappointed by press conferences. I get excited by games, however, and Nintendo offered up some reasons for me to be excited about the next year to come. People are getting their hands on games like Spirit Tracks, set to release this fall -- I'm sure many are writing it off, but I really enjoyed Phantom Hourglass. Sin and Punishment 2 is flying under the radar, sadly, but it looks like a very hardcore title that dedicated gamers will enjoy. Nintendo also reminded us of some fairly good-looking 3rd party games heading our way, like Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, which is shaping up to be quite a treat.

But the real talk of the town are the bigger announcements, right? Like the Vitality Sensor, of course. Joking aside, I think that accessory will only show potential with actual software to go with it. I can see it being a great tool in horror games. Wii Motion+, on the other hand, looks a lot more mainstream and decidedly sleek. I can't wait to get my hands on it, and Wii Sports Resort actually looks like a game I am specifically looking forward to enjoying. True one-to-one motion would have been nice on day one, but Nintendo just couldn't manage it on their budget in time -- hopefully, Motion+ will catch on the the true potential of motion-sensing control on Wii will be realized.

Then comes the big game announcements. First of all: Mario Galaxy 2. I'm kind of surprised at what negative feedback I've seen. Hello, people: Nintendo is giving us more of an amazing thing, and look to be doing it in a timely manner. What on earth is the issue? They're trying to deliver another polished Mario experience and we're COMPLAINING? Super Mario Galaxy is one of my favorite video games of all time, so a sequel is bound to be an ace in the hole if it's made by the same dev team -- maybe even better.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii has gotten even more apathetic and even downright nasty feedback, too. Again: what's the problem? I can understand the complaints about the graphics, perhaps, but the game looks very promising, overall. I'm imagining a Four Swords experience, Mario-style, which means even more fun because Mario has more action-oriented gameplay and is thus even more chaotic for 4 players. I even have a group of players set up for when the game releases (we'll see if they can actually be wrangled up by then). I didn't even consider online play at all until people starting (naturally) getting upset about the lack thereof. I can see why that would be troubling to some, but to me, online play would defeat the whole point of this game. Everything I have read from hands-on playtime indicates that, with 4 people, the game is absurdly fun, and that's what Mario ought to be about.

The last announcement to discuss, and the only genuine shocker, was Metroid: Other M. Sure, it's a new Metroid. It even looks more story and action focused. Both are surprises to me. But the shock factor is that it's being developed in tandem with Team Ninja. I frankly feel like this was a gutsy move on Nintendo's part and illustrates that while they are still expanding the audience, they are willing to do some new things to appease to the hardcore. Of course, this insatiable audience will forever let loose a flurry of "mehs" at even the highest of quality games that Nintendo churns out, so I guess it's pointless to bother arguing reason to such minds.

Overall, I'll say I was a lot happier with Nintendo's conference this year than I was the past two -- but honestly, I wasn't all that specifically disappointed with the past two showings, either, because my expectations of E3 are kept low. It's just a bunch of conferences, after all. I think hands-on time with games is more important. At this point, there are so many venues for making announcements that E3 is no longer the be-all end-all that gamers unfortunately still try to treat it like.