Top 5 2008 E3 Moments

Ok, so the dust has settled and E3 is finally over. Alot of the video game community is in an uproar over Nintendo’s presence. There are Zelda fanboys/girls that are dressed up in Link costumes ready to throw a boomerang upside Miyamoto/Reggie Fils-Aime/Cammie Dunaway’s head (ok mainly Dunaway’s). Alas, I beg all of you to put Nintendo’s keynote behind you and open your eyes to some of the great moments that happened on the conference floor. Even with the lackluster presentation of Nintendo’s conference there were some great moments to be had, and today is WiiBlog.net’s Top 5 list of those moments.

5. OMG … Subliminal Under-The-Breath Announcements - I think I have Nintendo pegged when it comes to the strategy of E3 this year. They knew that the more dedicated gamers were going to be keeping an eye on their conference even after the keynote. So, instead of making some of the biggest announcements of the conference at their keynote they sprinkled them here and there on the conference floor. That way during their keynote they could make investors happy (remember this is a Media & “Business” summit), by announcing games that would appeal to a broader market. Then after the big show, they could still give gamers what they want through smaller venues.

The first big announcement was made during Nintendo’s Developer round table. Miyamoto turned journalists upside down on their heads when he uttered these three simple words (or four depending on what you consider a word), “we’re making Pikmin 3″. Then later on in an interview with IGN, Miyamoto strongly hinted that Nintendo was working on a new Punch-Out. During the interview Miyamoto talked about the Wii Remote MotionPlus accessory, and how it could be used for motion heavy games such as….’Punch-Out’.

4. Mega Man 9 Box Art - For most of you this isn’t considered a big moment. For retro-minded gamers like myself it was a delightful throwback to the past. With Photoshop these days it’s so easy to make box art that even a 1st-grader could make a decent cover. Back in the early days it took a real artistic mind to create a video game cover. There’s no better example than the early years of Mega Man, and the human-esque figure that would be on the covers. Capcom has evidently tapped into this retro awesomeness as they revealed some old school box art for their upcoming WiiWare game Mega Man 9.

Although it won’t be packaged on any kind of game cartridge, the picture is featured on some T-shirts. Capcom hasn’t said that they’ll be releasing said shirts, and for now are only available inside the company. I won’t give it long though before they give into the consumer demand, mostly from me.

I Still Have My Mega Man Lunch Box With The Mega Man 2 Box Art On It

3. The Conduit Gameplay Video And Feature Announcements - I mentioned The Conduit as one of the games that you should have been keeping an eye on during E3 this year. After seeing gameplay videos, and taking in different previews from people who actually got to go to E3… …. I’m definitely impressed so far. The gameplay videos show off what looks to be a very fluid and fast moving FPS. From numerous previews I’ve been reading, everyone has been beaming about the responsiveness of the controls, and how beautiful the game looks.

On top of the videos and previews, there was a couple of big feature announcements that everyone has been wanting to hear. The first is that The Conduit will have online multi-player, and will have up to 16 players at a time. The second feature was a pretty surprising announcement, as The Conduit will utilize the Wii Speak accessory. Considering ‘Wii Speak’ had just been announced during Nintendo’s keynote address, this was a pleasant surprise indeed.

2. Announcement of Wii Remote MotionPlus & Wii Speak - It was a pretty light conference from Nintendo in terms of first party game announcements. What Nintendo lacked in gaming news, they made up (somewhat) with what I consider to be pretty big accessory news.

The term ‘1:1′ has been in Wii owners’ vocabulary since the system was first launched about 1.5 years ago. We’ve had dreams of taking control of a character and moving our wii remote around like a sword and the character on screen mimicking the same movements. Some games have delivered a pretty close experience, but with Wii Remote MotionPlus we are hopefully going to get ‘there’. It would have been nice to see another game displayed showing off MotionPlus other than Wii Sports Resort, but I must say I’m still impressed. Of course everyone was wanting to check out a sword dueling game, and Wii Sports Resort did this (if only someone was showing it off other than Dunaway…*shudders*). The motions looked to pick up just as Reggie bragged that it would. Again with numerous previews boasting about how reponsive it is, MotionPlus was definitely one of the big announcements of the show.

The ‘Wii Speak’ announcement to me was one of the most underrated aspects of the entire E3 conference, not just Nintendo. As we were getting news about the Animal Crossing: City Folk game, Nintendo dropped an unsuspecting bombshell on us. The Wii would finally be getting a microphone, which numerous online fanatics had been wanting for sometime. Mario Kart: Wii would have been so much better if I could talk smack to people as I blue-shelled them. Not only is it a microphone, but it picks up voices throughout an entire room. Nintendo has a knack for doing things different than the competition, and Wii Speak is just another example of that. Also, with the announcement that The Conduit, and Animal Crossing: City Folk would be using Wii Speak, it looks to be starting off pretty strong.

1. MadWorld - Usually with my #1 spots I like to write a lengthy article, which I usually feel proud about. This time there’s not very many words to be said. All I’ll say is ‘Man Darts’, and let you watch this video (not for the feint of heart).

What were your favorite moments from Nintendo at E3 this year? Or, are you one of the people dressed up as Link that want to throw boomerangs at someone?