E3 Expo 2009 – Nintendo and Sony Share Their Wares

It’s been an exhausting day. I told you yesterday that I was only going to get about 4 hours sleep. I’d be surprised if I got that much. Not long after I was sitting in Club Nokia for the Nintendo Media Briefing. Now I’m a Nintendo-phile. I love my Nintendo. I live for Zelda and Mario games. I’ve been playing it since I was a kid (trust me, it was a long time ago). But this media briefing was the quietest out of all of them, with a dry, very corporate presentation style. Nintendo is FUN. This event wasn’t (nobody cares about sales stats… we really don’t… and neither do our readers). But it was informative and I’m excited for more than a few of the games listed below. Here are just a few of the more notable items…

• Super Mario Bros Wii will let you play as 4 characters at once, working together or against each other on the same side scrolling screen.
• Metroid the Other M, which looks to be both a third person and first person shooter/fighter, is coming in 2010.
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 is coming soon!
• The DSi will soon let you upload your embarrassingly distorted pictures to Facebook from the console.
• The Nintendo Vitality Sensor. Apparently it checks to see how the games are affecting you and will work with some games to help you stay relax or even sleep. I’m just saying… if your game puts people to sleep, you made a bad game.
• Golden Sun DS is coming soon!
• Wii Sports Resort will come with the Wii Motion Plus controller add-on by this holiday season.
• Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again will allow you to build and share your own custom levels.
• Wario Ware will allow you to create your own mini games and share them.

Then came the Sony media briefing at the Shrine Auditorium immediately after Nintendo finished at Nokia. We would have gotten there faster if we had driven, but the complimentary shuttle buses were more convenient. When we arrived, they even had food, water, specialty drinks, and even alcohol! I only had enough time to grab a few bacon wrapped sausages and some tasty little desserts before we were rushed inside to the glorious old auditorium. Sony gets the award for the biggest single screen (if you don’t add up the sizes of the multiple screens at the other events) and they made use of it. They repeatedly made it clear that only games on a PS3 could look this good on a screen this big. And everything they showed us did look good. It looked amazing! I’m not a Playstation gamer, but I wish I was sometimes. Many of these games are moving works of art and they showed them off as if they were, but with a bit more violence. If you get a chance to catch any of the E3 footage that Sony is making available on their website, do it. You’ll be stunned by what you see, whether you’re a gamer or not.
More than a few unexpected surprises were shared today, despite the prevalence of leaked rumors and secrets. Here’s just a few:

• No longer a secret at this point, the PSP GO is the next generation for their handheld devices, but the original, bigger PSP won’t be leaving the market anytime soon. They’re partnering with many new companies to provide a wide variety of video content as well as origina, exclusive games and more.
• I was actually impressed with their still-in-development demo of the new PS3 motion controller, which looked like a wand with a glowing tip, but was amazingly attuned to the action happening on screen. It’s biggest selling point was the subtlety of movement from the slightest of gestures, allowing precise interaction with the virtual environment on screen.
• They surprised everyone with the official announcement of Final Fantasy XIV, exclusively for the PS3.
• Final Fantasy VII is just one of many classics being made available through the Playstation Network.
• Rockstar Games, the creators of Grand Theft Auto, will soon have a new game called Agent. And while they didn’t show any footage, I imagine it will be similar in scope as the GTA series, except maybe you’re not a criminal this time around.
• They demoed Assassin’s Creed II for the awestruck audience.
• In the spirit of Big Little Planet, the PS3’s newest create/play/share game is called Mod Nation Racers, which allows you to create your own characters, cars, and even elaborate tracks in just minutes.
• The Last Guardian was breathtaking in my opinion. It’s a fantasy world with photorealistic detail and a story with characters that remind me of the Neverending Story (the trailer was light on story, heavy on atmosphere), but more realistic looking, if that makes sense.
• They finished things off with a mind-blowingly violent God of War III demo that had the crowd oohing, ahhing, and gasping at almost every action on screen.

Well, that’s all I have for tonight. No video tonight, because you can probably get much better quality videos straight from the creators on their sites right about now. Plus I don’t have the patience to sit through an upload at this point. I haven’t even published any of my pictures from the floor yet on Flickr. Today was all about finishing up the coverage of the media events. We’ll save the floor footage for tomorrow. Now I’m going to bed. It’s insanely late (don’t believe the time on this post) and we’re hitting the road at 8:30. I might get almost 6 hours sleep tonight. woohoo!!!