Even when considering the absence of Brawl, Battalion Wars II, and Mario Kart Wii, you should click to get a tour of Nintendo's booth. UPDATED: Now with videos. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=14269 While Nintendo chose not to hold an actual press conference, they did invite members of the press for an extensive collective booth tour. Nothing groundbreaking was ever revealed, and no new games were shown. Instead, Nintendo faithfully relied on Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Fit, as well as a bunch of non-games for Nintendo DS to wow the crowd. Based on the general press reaction, they succeeded.
When all was still quiet, the Nintendo booth looked like this:
In German, Nintendo started off detailing their vision of bringing non-gamers and hardcore gamers together with gameplay experiences that cater to both groups. Yes, we’ve heard the story before. Among other titles, they mentioned Nintendogs, Brain Age, and Wii Sports as examples showing how successful their strategy is. Impressive sales graphs and demographical data supported their claims - Nintendo apparently holds a hardware market share of 65% in Germany, and more than half of all gamers are over the age of 40!
Nintendo also demoed Super Mario Galaxy live. Clearly the highlight of the presentation, the demo started with Mario running at the foot of a big hill. Mario was controlled all the way to the top, using triple jumps, wall jumps, back flips, and butt stumps, after which he turned into a bee – just like at E3. Still, the demo continued to impress with its sharp visuals, smooth framerate, and multitude of objects to interact with. Watch the demo here:
A video followed, showing footage from many titles already released in the States. Super Paper Mario, Pokémon Battle Revolution, English Training (for Germans), Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Forever Blue, and Flash Focus, a game that “trains" your eyes, were among them. Watch it here:
The Big Brain Academy demo, which came next, proved less entertaining. After teaching everyone about how to actually improve one’s memory (don’t ask!), the woman demoing the game found a journalist willing to join her in a two-player versus battle. He lost, though.
The Wii Fit demo didn’t come off as a surprise, considering the amount of floor space it occupied. However, a video appeared first:
Like at E3, the game was demoed in a competitive context. One player would play the hula hoop mini-game, while another waited for her turn and eventually tried to get the high-score. She failed, but, nonetheless, it was entertaining to watch.
At the end, people were allowed to walk around freely, eat as many healthy free apples as possible, and try out some of the games. Super Mario Galaxy proved particularly popular, but also titles like Wii Fit and Phantom Hourglass drew a crowd.
In the near future, look for more previews and impressions on Nintendo’s titles, including Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, which was playable at the Sega booth.
Topic: Nintendo's Booth at GC Detailed (Read 5762 times)
