A Disappointing E3

On Tuesday morning, Nintendo began what was probably the worst E3 press conference in the history of the show. What began as a simple showing of their latest hardware quickly became an embarrassment for all parties involved. And the lack of any hardcore games at the show led to the realization that Nintendo is starting to care less and less about their hardcore fanbase.

The press conference started out relatively normal, although the introduction of Cammie Dunaway as Nintendo's new Marketing Director was anything but pleasant. Her nasal voice and odd skiing story were painful to listen to, and immediately turned viewers attention elsewhere.

The first game shown was a new snowboarding game that takes advantage of the Wii Balance Board, proving my theory that the Balance board is only good for WiiFit and ski games. Profesional snowboarder Sean White was there to show off the game, which uses his namesake. We watched in horror as his character plummeted helplessly down the slope, and as White tried desperately to show some control over his character. Then Cammie took a turn, showing just how bad the controls of the game really are.

And that set the tone of the entire conference. After bragging about how much money they have made, Nintendo revealed Animal Crossing: City Folk. While it was good to finally hear some news about this long awaited sequel, I can't help but feel a bit disappointed by how similar this game is to the other games in the series. Sure, the new City is a nice touch, but I for one would much rather see something ambitious on Nintendo's end.

We also got word of WiiSpeak, Nintendo's new online voice chat service. The microphone is said to be a "community microphone" that sits on top of the Sensor Bar, allowing multiple people in the same room to talk at once. As much as I have hoped to see voice chat on the Wii, Nintendo is far behind in online gaming and they still have a long way to go before they are anywhere close to Xbox Live or PSN.

And then there's the atrocity that is WiiMusic. Miyamoto calls WiiMusic "more than a video game" but I disagree. Pressing buttons on the Wii Remote and "pretending that you are playing an instrument" is the single worst concept of a game that I have ever heard. Why even bother with this game when you can simply hold a paper towel tube in front of your face and get the same experience? The demo of this game did nothing to change my mind, either. Their terrible interpretation of the Mario theme made me cringe, and M. Night Shyamalan's abysmal drum solo made me lose any interest I had left in the game.

Oh, and Cammie quickly mentioned a GTA for the DS. When Cammie spends a mere 10 seconds on the best revelation of their conference, you know that there is something wrong with the way things are planned out.

Overall it was a bad year for gamers at this E3, but Nintendo fans definitely have the least to look forward to. However, Animal Crossing will still be the same amount of fun as previous versions, and at the very least we still have The Conduit to keep out attention. In retrospect, I wish Cammie would have injured more than just her wrist on her ski vacation.