Nintendo Press Conference (discussion and live stream)

Alright the big event we've waited 2 years for is finally here. Nintendo will be unleashing the big guns and hopefully it'll deliver that revolution it promised with Wii. I do hope we'll all be saying "wow" and I do hope Reggie makes some comments on Sony's conference (in case he doesn't please click here). Don't forget we also have Zelda and the DS and any other surprises to look forward to.

So here's what's going to happen. 9:30 AM PST and 12:30 EST you can tune in for free to Gamespot's live feed which will undoubtedly be a little behind schedule but be ready to watch it then just in case it is on time.

http://www.gamespot.com/e3/e3live.html


Again just like last time, be warned that if you fag this thread up like the former Revolution threads then you will be banned from this thread and perhaps for a week or two from Mario's Warp Room or all of the gaming forums. I will stomp out any childish behavior just like I did in the PS3 Press Conference thread. So basically behave in this thread or else.

This is the Nintendo Press Conference thread for discussion of all things related and/or occurring in said conference. The main focus will of course be Wii but discussion of any surprises or DS or Zelda or anything else covered are fair game in here too. I may close this thread and open a purely Nintendo Wii (or just Wii - I forget if it's officially just called Wii) thread a day or so after the conference is over. It too will have the same rules as this one. Anything unrelated either has a thread already (DS and Zelda) or will be created if it doesn't fall into either and has enough concrete details.

Link to prior Revolution/Wii thread for time piecing.

Enjoy the Nintendo Press Conference and what not and please, play nice.



Jam it back in, in the dark.

Haha yay for testing signal and Nintendo logo smashed together accompanied by muzacks! ='D

I'm gonna go out and grab some quick lunch before this thing starts. Be back in a bit guyz.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

IT'S

STARTING

NOW

GUYS!! =D



This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I really wish they would have gotten pricing and release date info out of the way and I wish information on pricing and how the virtual console works was revealed and the lack of smash bros (which is fine if Sakurai needs more time b/c I'd rather have a masterpiece than a weak launch title) but other than that I was pretty much blown away. I like how the audience wasn't bored like the Sony conference. It was a fun conference and Nintendo came out of it looking really good unlike Sony and their dull gameplay/movies and massive wallet destroyer pricing announcement coupled with retarded dual console release. I hope we get a lot more information on specifics soon.

And holy shit, DS, why must you be so god damn awesome?! It's like I'm getting the snot beaten out of me with all the good punches they constantly pull with it. Yoshi's Island 2, Starfox DS, US version of Ouendan. DS alone is coming really freaking close to being the second golden age of gaming just on its own.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Kaleb.G

And speaking of HAL, what happened to the new Kirby game that was supposed to be coming out for GameCube?

I'd really like to know about this too because the game was looking really awesome.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by NovaX

Looks like it went to DS. LINK

That's great and all and I love traditional Kirby but I was really looking forward to the cube game. I hope it wasn't scrapped. I don't care if it's moved to Wii but the game looked great.

Lots of cube games coming out of nowhere. I was really hoping Kirby was still there.


Oh and I really wish they had done a six face button Sega Genesis setup so you could use C buttons correctly for N64 games. Believe it or not some N64 games did use those buttons as buttons and not just camera controls. Also that setup would make playing Genesis games a breeze. I hope it isn't final. Also how is that connected to the Wii? Is it an attachment still or does it connect to the cube ports?

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http://revolution.ign.com/articles/706/706158p1.html

It's all there in text. Hopefully someone will have the video up in high quality sometime. I want it.

FELIPE NO

Technophile:

1) They haven't announced a release date or a price but you can be sure it will be Fall 2006 and cheaper than Microsoft and Sony's offerings. Most speculate anywhere from $150 to $300. I'm hoping for that $200 sweet spot they always do.

2) I don't know if it's the last secret or not. There still might be a microphone and of course there are other attachments that might surface. And of course all the concrete details of the system interface and the virtual console's system and pricing. There's still a lot to know.

3) No Smash Bros yet. Sakurai was only informed of the game last E3 when it was first announced. He then had a private meeting with Iwata and then after agreeing to head up the game was given his own new studio so he probably just didn't have it ready. You'll see it eventually. You don't rush Sakurai. The man is a perfectionist. I don't expect it at launch and since the launch window is looking like the strongest console launch of any console ever I don't really care. I'd rather have a perfect Sakurai game that comes a couple months after launch like Melee than a rush job launch title.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Yeah, they do reveal a few tidbits or hints in Q&A sessions. And they've revealed things that weren't in the conference related to Wii already so I think they'll be a bit more open than at least E3 '05.

I'm not sure what games will be launch titles but Super Mario Galaxy seems like it should be. Miyamoto and co. have to have been working on this for a long ass time. Hey, it's okay if it's not at launch but I expect the game to be out in the launch window or at the latest early '07.

I've heard there will be around 27 launch titles and a third of them will be from Nintendo if that gives you an idea of how great this is going to be.

And yeah, I do enjoy how the PS3 controller is just plain ol' Dual Shock 2 but wireless and for tilt control they axed rumble while the Wii controller has 3d space motion sensing, titling, rumble, and sound all while being wireless.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Please don't call it the Wiimulator, SOLDIER. It's got a name and it's Virtual Console. And no I don't think they're going to let you make your own levels and stuff like you've been hoping. I think they may retool some of the old games for online play or somehow add an additional play control using the Wii controller.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Qwarky

I'm sure Acer came up with the colors all by himself, and it's not like Nintendo ever provides their consoles in different colors.

There were 5 colors shown by Nintendo. I did all of them except white because grey and white looked the same when I was making the gifs and it interfered with the shine I was trying to achieve. Plus I doubt they'd do more than 4 colors anyway. I expect only black and white at launch. I'm banking on getting a black Wii (oh god...).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

There shouldn't be any complaints over the standard controller. It's based off the SNES controller which is still in my opinion the best stand controller and is what every controller after it was based on.

My only complaint is that they keep treating the N64's c buttons like they were just a camera stick. There were games that did infact use the c buttons as buttons and those games will suffere as a result from going from a digital button to an analog stick. There's that grey area, diagonal directions, that will screw up what made sense with a digital button.

Take Starfox 64. C button left and C button down did speed up and slow down and with down on the analog stick it would do a loop or u-turn. Those would be screwed up with an analog stick for c buttons. Now they could recode it so you use x and y for those functions but they absolutely need a solid N64 layout. Perhaps those tiny fingertip z buttons by the shoulder buttons could solve some of that but I still think it's an oddball solution. It would have been better if they just did a genesis six button setup. That would have covered the N64 c button issue. Oh and there is still the B and A button issue where the location of Y is where B was for the N64 and where the location of B is where A was for the N64. But I'm glad they took the SNES layout. Best case scenario, they just let us map out the buttons the way we want and have controller profiles.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Yggdrasil, if you had bothered to read the thread then yes you'd learn we are a tad dissappointed that Smash Bros wasn't shown.

Oh and I played around in photoshop a bit to create what I think is a better standard controller by adding two buttons. It now is perfect for N64 and Genesis games. I'm not sure what you'd call the two additional buttons, maybe 'w' or 'i'. 'z' and 'c' wouldn't make sense because of the SNES button layout. Anyway here it is:



I was speaking idiomatically.

Thanks guys. =)

I got bored and decided to e-mail Matt at IGN to see if he might have anything to say about it during his next mailbag. It's a bit of a doozy.

Quote:

I'm sure you get shops all the time but I can't help but feel that Nintendo missed the point of having to remap buttons for GameCube's version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask because of the lack of enough face buttons on the GameCube's controller to properly imitate the N64 controller's C buttons when I saw their Virtual Console controller today. If you recall those two games were remapped so that the Z button acted as C button down, Y as C button left, X as C button right, the C stick up as C button up with no actual face button, and an optional use of the C stick as the other C button directions as well.

This worked for those two games but now we're talking about making a controller that can or should support all of the N64 titles. And you know what; a second analog control stick does not cut it. There were titles that believe it or not used those N64 C buttons as buttons and not digital camera controls. For example, Zelda used those digital buttons for using three alternate weapons/items and Starfox 64 used them for boost, brake, making ROB shut up, and in addition to that were used in conjunction with the analog control stick pointing down to perform a loop or a u-turn. In both games C up was the only C button used to change the camera. So now I see this new controller for Virtual Console. It is impossible for Nintendo to get N64 games to work without remapping two of the C buttons to what I assume are two tiny Z buttons by the L and R shoulder buttons or by mapping them lazily to the second analog control stick. I don't really like either situation because if I want to play N64 games again I think the controls should also reflect their original setup. Jamming on a Zora fishbone guitar in Majora’s Mask was a much weaker experience on GameCube due to the C stick and remapped weapons compared to when I did it originally on the N64 where I could easily press multiple C buttons at the same time and very rapidly at that.

Plus there is that grey area that exists in using an analog stick for the C buttons. Suppose I do diagonally down and left. Does it register as C button left or C button down? This is crucial for a game like Starfox 64 because between those two I'm going to either get a boost or I'm going to get a brake. The original C buttons would never have this issue because being digital that grey area is nonexistent. I'm also sure there were fighting games on N64 that used a six button arcade setup. There's no way that is going to fly using the second analog stick for C buttons.

This controller is perfect for NES and SNES games. I don't want that changed but in order to recreate N64 control correctly I think adding two more face buttons for a Sega Genesis face button layout would make playing N64 games on the Virtual Console controller how they were meant to be played. Oh that's right! I mentioned something about a shop in my first sentence so here's my quickly put together photoshop of this setup.


http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4...rwithsixfa.jpg


I left the two buttons' faces blank because I'm not sure what they should be called. Perhaps 'w' and 'i' buttons would work. I believe the SNES button layout should be left alone since it is my belief that out of the three Nintendo consoles available on the Virtual Console the SNES will be the most popular which I also believe explains Nintendo's choice of putting the directional pad in the primary location instead of giving it the backseat location in favor of the analog control stick like they did for GameCube's controller. I'm pretty sure the location of the left analog control stick was also to make it easier for lazy multiplatform ports. It is my hope that third parties use it for that as little as possible.

Anyway, I think this setup allows the controller to cover all of Virtual Console more accurately to each supported console’s original controller setup. What do you think, Matt? I know this is a bit of an early reaction since Nintendo hasn’t gone over all the details of this controller as of the current date, May 10th, and heck they might actually have revealed that it somehow does play N64 games the way I described wonderfully by the time you read and/or by lucky chance respond to this very long e-mail. Thanks for your time and keep up the great work.

- AcerBandit -

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Look at the character in the plane. It looks like the same character used for all those simple sports games. I'm sure this is one of those small simple games as well. Looks nice but I doubt it's a full fledged Pilot Wings game.

How ya doing, buddy?

Well it's not the same since it's more arcadish but he might be interested in Excite Truck.

Oh god I don't know why but that name always cracks me up. ='D
Truck is just a funny word to me for some odd reason.

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SOLDIER, probably because it's been over a year since RE4 has been out and that would be a very stupid idea considering everyone has already played it when it came out on cube if they were smart or on PS2 a year later if they wanted more Ada missions, costumes, and PS2 graphics. But whatever I think they'll be making a completely new RE game. It just probably won't be RE5.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Solid Snake? That confuses me but whatever. I'm guessing it'll use the traditional controller that is used for the virtual console.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

It seems the version on display at E3 has only one small should button instead of two that were shown in the press picture. It is still being decided if it will be packed in like the nunchuck attachment. You can tell that the big button on top is to be pressed to release something that is clipped onto the bottom of the controller. Most likely that'll be the wii controller it's already connected into that'll clip on for extra wii controller functions. That'll be sweet.

I'm dissappointed with seeing one of the small shoulder buttons being removed. They can't do N64 games right if they don't at least have those two extra shoulder buttons on reserve. The second analog control stick as N64 C buttons is a retarded idea and anyone who supports that idea is an idiot. Plus, the Sega games need six face buttons. This isn't hard, Nintendo. This really isn't. Just have six face buttons like the Genesis.

Oh and they better as hell pack this thing with the system and every controller bundle set. Developers might actually come up with creative ideas that might need it and the strapped wii controller in the future. Nintendo, would be alienating developers if every Wii user didn't have one of these for every Wii controller they buy.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Hmmm this is odd.



It seems they also have a version of the virtual console controller that appears to be wired from the top and has the two small shoulder buttons. I'm confused.

I think it would be better if it were packed in at least with the console so people can use the Virtual Console right away if they wanted. I think a developer is going to have to think very hard if they want to do a straight boring port. Nintendo consumers are very judgemental and don't like sloppy seconds. Ports didn't do very well when developers gave us crappy multiplatform port jobs so I think that they've learned from GameCube that that strategy won't worky. I still want it packed in with the Wii controller.

Double Post:
Also...



It seems like they're going to be going with the DSlite colors.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Quote:

Hands-On: We get some playtime with the twenty years of gaming, thanks to the Virtual Console.

One of the most highly anticipated releases for the Nintendo Wii when it launches later this year is not, after all, a single game, but thousands. Nintendo’s Virtual Console system, along with its download service, will allow gamers to enjoy some of the great history of the industry, from every Nintendo console as well as the Sega Genesis and Turbografx-16. Nintendo had a tech demo off the system on-hand today at its E3 pavilion. The current system is still a prototype, and only a simple menu and four games were shown, with no particular price point announced and a final interface for the Virtual Console still in the works.

That said, the menu system currently in place is simple and sleek. Showing a picture of the console the game is from in the background, each game entry features its title and a short description. Once gamers select that game, the system shows a screen describing the basic control layout for the title and then jumps immediately into play. Load times were nominal, averaging just a couple seconds. Gamers can quickly and easily leave a current game and return to the menu system by simply pressing the Wii remote’s “Home” button. It is important to point out that doing this will end your game in the same way turning off the emulated systems did; in other words, gamers should not expect the action to freeze in the background infinitely as they search for other games and should be sure to save their progress in games before exiting.

On display today were four titles, Super Mario Bros. for the NES, Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64, Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis and Bonk’s Adventure for the Turbografx-16. Super Mario Bros. was exceptionally clear on the system, which has upconverted these classic titles to 480P video. Sonic the Hedgehog played at a framerate possibly higher than the original Genesis offered; for example, when losing a significant amount of rings, the Wii did not drop its framerate like the Genesis often did. Super Mario 64 looked just fine on the system, once again showing an appreciable difference in picture clarity from the upconvert to 480P.

However, the hardware and software is only half of the story. The new games are controlled via the Wii’s “Classic Controller” peripheral. The peripheral- the Classic actually is connected to the standard Wii remote via the same extension socket that the nunchuck uses- is similar in shape to the Super Nintendo’s controller and features a button layout reminiscent of Sony’s DualShock design. I found the button setup to be friendly and familiar for the most part, with only two potential issues. First, the joysticks are a little too close for someone with relatively large thumbs. I found myself often bashing my knuckles together when using both at the same time. This will be a major issue, because the second joystick replaces the Nintendo 64’s C-buttons, thereby promising a lot of dual-joystick action with games from that platform. Secondly, the Z button has been moved to the same shoulder side as the R-button, similar to the layout of the Gamecube’s controller. This doesn’t matter with NES/SNES/Gensis/Turbografx titles, but may pose an issue with Nintendo 64 titles. While I adapted quickly to the new scheme for Mario 64, games like Ocarina of Time and Goldeneye would be best served with a remapped control scheme, as the Z-button is inconvenient for titles like those that use it often.

Overall, the Virtual Console system results in impressive versatility from the beginning of the gaming industry on to the present. The games all benefit from the extra progressive scan support, and also seem to actually see some minor improvements in areas where the original hardware was not powerful enough to sustain the software. This should remain on every gamer’s list of reasons to own a Wii, as its potential is seemingly unlimited.

potato bins

I was speaking idiomatically.

SOLDIER, if you knew anything about Retro Studios you would know why the first Metroid Prime was delayed time and time again. They were in an internal company crisis for the longest time before Miyamoto came in and bitch slapped the lot of them into the fine company they are today. And if you're referring to the delay for Hunters you are wrong again since that was made by NST. Metroid Prime 3 has been slated for launch and I expect it there with Twilight Princess and a whole bunch of games.

Also, I imagine Super Mario Galaxy will be in the launch window somewhere between late 2006 and early 2007. The game looks to have way too much polish to not be very deep in development.


And Qwarky, my sentiments exactly. I'm tired of the total dual shock reference as well. It's an SNES pad with two analog control sticks placed in dual shock layout.

devilmaycry, you won't be seeing a lot of Wii titles supporting the cube controllers. A lot of the functions that the Wii controller and analog attachment provide won't be able to be recreated on a cube controller.

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Originally Posted by Tritoch

Have they announced any Wii games that could be played with the Cube controller too, aside from Smash Bros. Brawl? I personally like that decision, since the control scheme in Melee was excellent for combat and didn't really need any fine-tuning anyway. I can't see it being a very good decision for many other games though, since it would only cause complaints of Nintendo releasing "old generation" stuff on the Wii.

No, and I think SSBB will be the exception to the rule. I wouldn't expect it outside this game.

Think about it. How much longer after Wii is released will retailers still be selling new GameCube software, hardware, and accessories. Cube controllers would have to be easily available for consumers everywhere for people to get for that option to be used. I just don't see that happening. And no, for official support counting on resale stores like EB and Gamestop for old controllers does not count.

FELIPE NO

Yes, they are. It's possible that they'd still sell controllers for that but for how long. But I expect that support is for people who own a cube, have games and controllers already, and want to play them on the system.

How ya doing, buddy?

Yeah, but from that video you learn that there are still more secrets to the hardware that haven't been revealed which is great. I enjoyed the video. It was fun. =)

Jam it back in, in the dark.