May 23, 2006
My first trip to E3 taught me a lot:- Los Angeles sucks- Scientologists are even creepier than I had imagined- Open bars are GREAT- Nintendo is backGranted, Nintendo never really "left," they just sat in the corner for the last generation and quietly watched the big boys. They had their shining moments Resident Evil 4, Smash Bros., Double Dash and Mario Sunshine, but for the most part, the Gamecube was a disappointment. This was tough for me to watch, considering the NES, SNES and N64 hosted a large majority of my favorite gaming memories. After my time with the Wii at E3, however, I'm completely convinced that the Nintendo Wii will be the best gaming system of the next generation.In terms of the current generation, I always preferred the PS2 over the Gamecube and Xbox. Because of this, I was very excited for the potential of the PS3. I started watching the Sony conference with a high hopes for the system that would hold the Metal Gear Solids, Devil May Crys and God of Wars of the next several years. As time dragged on, and I was subjected to powerpoint slide after powerpoint slide after bland speech, I began to get worried. Then they inexplicably showed a ton of footage from "Gran Turismo HD," which really didn't look all that better than GT4. Then came the $599 punch to the balls. We also got "we're not interested in gimmicks" followed by "Now here's our EyeToy card game!" We saw a game touted as "based on actual history, with battles that actually occurred," followed by "now here's this giant crab enemy!" while describing the same game. Let's not forget the WarHawk demonstration. It couldn't be more obvious that Sony saw a need to compete with the functionality of the Wii controller, but adding a few degrees of controller motion to a not-that-impressive WarHawk demo was not the best way to go about it. Even the Incognito developer seemed to have a lot of trouble controlling the aircraft and targeting enemies. Upon playing this demo on the show floor, I got a true sense of just how much the PS3 controller fails to measure up to the perfect Wii-mote.I was skeptical about how well Microsoft would fare at E3. After all, the attention was purely on Sony and Nintendo, and the 360 only had games to go off of. Thankfully, the ones I played showed some serious potential. Gears of War was an absolute blast to play and looked fantastic (perhaps the best-looking 360 title yet). Too Human seems to have a very intriguing story and battle system going for it. Dead Rising looked like some great zombie-splattering fun, and even smaller titles like Crackdown were a fun distraction. I'm more confident in the future of the 360 after E3, as they have a strong lineup for the next year, and the excellent Xbox Live service will become pretty much mandatory once Halo 3 is released.Sure, Sony sucked, and Microsoft looked pretty good, but the real story this year is undoubtedly the Wii. When the show floor doors opened each morning, it was a veritable stampede that ran straight through the Sony booth in a mad dash to get into the daunting Nintendo line. At any point during the day, you could walk up to a PS3 game and play a demo in the time it takes you to just walk down the length of the Wii line. You may be asking yourself:is all the buzz around Nintendo merely unfounded hype, or is it for real? After spending time with Mario Galaxy, Zelda, Metroid, Warioware, Wii Sports and Madden, I can assure you that it's 100% real. The controller is just as good as everyone hopes it will be, and the titles are similarly excellent. Keep in mind, you'll be able to buy a Wii, an extra controller, and both Zelda and Metroid for possibly hundreds less than the cost of the PS3 system.Looking at the Wii line made something else apparent other than the imminent success of the console. It also proved that the DS is hotter than ever. The large majority of those in line passed the time by spending some time with the portable. The DS has an absurdly strong library already available, and the new games coming out are continuing that trend. New Super Mario Bros., Starfox DS, Diddy Kong Racing, Zelda, Castlevania, Yoshi's Island 2 and Mario Hoops are all must-buy titles. I saw thousands of gamers at E3, and DS systems were at every turn. I didn't even see ONE attendee with a PSP on the show floor.I came away from the show feeling like a kid again. Playing a Nintendo system felt as fresh and fun with the Wii as it did 20 years ago with the NES. With all the hype around the controller, it's easy to forget that it features a Virtual Console that will host some of the greatest games of all time. The combination of a classic gaming library along with brand new revolutionary titles and gaming experiences is going to be something to be reckoned with. It truly seems like we're on the verge of the next step in gaming. Reggie said it best when he mentioned that the other companies are essentially releasing the same system with marginally better visuals. Nintendo is out to take risks, and I believe it's about to pay off in a huge way. See also: [Kevin's take][1] [Chris's take][2] [E3 overview][3] [1]: http://www.lawrence.com/blogs/gamer/2006/may/23/e3_kevin/ [2]: http://www.lawrence.com/blogs/gamer/2006/may/23/e3_chris/ [3]: http://www.lawrence.com/blogs/gamer/2006/may/11/e3press/
Comments
lawrence.com does not necessarily agree with comments posted below - responsibility lies with the relevant user alone. Read our full policy.
dennislu (anonymous) says...
I'd say Gamecube has been more successful than N64, though I prefer the original Smash Bros to Melee.
Did you try out the next-gen Nintendo controller? I'll bet you feel like a real man playing it. Especially when you're playing Man Law: The Game.
May 25, 2006 at 4:56 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Ryckert (Dan Ryckert) says...
Gamecube more successful than N64? I highly doubt it. In fact, I think I remember seeing a sales graph that showed that N64 dominated Cube sales.
And yes, the Wii is the main thing I played at E3. The controller is absolutely fantastic, and controls even better than I expected. It's actually much smaller than you'd imagine (insert "that's what she said" joke here....).
May 25, 2006 at 5:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Fragmental (Chris Baker) says...
Well, the N64 was definately more successful than the cube in terms of marketshare, where it garnered around 30% of the market, with Gamecube attaining less than 15%. In terms of the number of copies of games sold and profit made though, that I don't know, and I wouldn't be surprised if Gamecube did outsell N64 just because of the increase in the overall size of the video game market and the higher profit margins on the GC disks over the N64 carts. I'm sure that there are some numbers out there that can clear that up though.
And yes, the Wii Controller was awesome.
May 30, 2006 at 12:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )