Nintendo’s Media Summit Wrap-Up

Categories: DS, DSiWare, Featured Articles, Games, Nintendo, Wii, WiiWare | no responses

Nintendo held their Q1 2010 Media Summit this morning. It was chalk full of goodies that typically could fill an entire year for them. The kicker? Everything shown was only for the 1st half of 2010 (except for GhostWire). That’s right, everything you see will be released before the end of June. Anything beyond that point will be covered during Nintendo’s E3 press event. The Summit was held at the W Hotel in San Francisco & began promptly at 9am PST. They opened things up with the normal number graphs & charts, but cited they didn’t want to focus on that & quickly moved on to the games (Thank goodness! Glad publishers are learning that the numbers should stay in the press releases & let the games do the talking…).

First, let me say that all the preview coverage is embargoed until tonight, 9pm PST. So I don’t have any media like screens & trailers at this point [UPDATE: press releases are coming in as I type this up, so I may have some ready before I finish this]. Anyway, they start out with the DSi XL, the next iteration of Nintendo’s dominating handheld. Touted to have a screen that’s almost twice the size of the DSi (93% bigger to be exact), it will reach American shores on March 28th & carry a retail price of $189. The combination of the XL & this next bit of news may finally spur me into getting a DSi (yeah, I’m still using my DS lite). Next they announced 100 Classic Books. Basically, it’s a ‘game’ that’s an e-book reader. All the titles will be of the typical book-report type, i.e. Dracula, Journey to the Center of the Earth, etc… But still, I’m certainly interested in grabbing it.

Now it’s time for one of the biggies! I wish I could have been there to see it. Super Mario Galaxy 2 will launch on May 23rd, 2010. New things shown were a drill attack & Yoshi! Believe it or not, I have never played Super Mario Galaxy (well, beyond a few 5 minute sessions at a friend’s house). Needless to say, I need to finally get off my rear & go get it, especially now that we have a launch date for the sequel. There’s a neew trailer as well, which GameTrailers TV has posted (it’s down below for you to check out).

Sin & Punishment 2 will launch on June 7th, with online leaderboards. The whole leaderboard functionality may not sound like much to you Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 players, but keep in mind that the Wii struggles when it comes to online features like that. Also, the self-designing WarioWare: DIY will launch on March 28th. This one’s pretty nifty as it allows players to design their own mini-games from scratch & then upload it to the Wii. Other notable launches include Picross 3D (May 3rd, with DLC already on the drawing board), Max & the Magic Marker (March 8th), Cave Story (March 22nd) & Mega Man 10 (March 1st). Prince of Persia fans will also be happy to hear the UbiSoft’s upcoming The Forgotten Sands will include the SNES title as a bonus in the Wii version.

Now here’s a DSiWare game that has me interested! Nintendo announced Photo Dojo, a fighting game that utilizes the camera functionality of the DSi. Basically, you create your own fighter by taking pictures of yourself in up to 13 different poses. Then, your fighter is turned loose in a beat-em-up style fighting game. It even includes same-console multiplayer support, with the D-pad & left bumper being one side & the buttons & right bumper being the other. Cool!

Looking for some creepy scares in your next DSi title? Check out GhostWire, an augmented reality game set to launch this October. I’ll let the trailer speak for itself, but personally, I can’t wait to check it out!

Disney Interactive Studios announced their team up with Wideload Games to bring out Disney Guilty Party. Think Clue meets Mario Party. You & up to three others are sleuths in the Dickens Detective Agency, attempting to solve the crimes of the nefarious master criminal only known as Mr Valentine. With both competitive & cooperative gameplay, this for-all-ages title will keep the whole family busy exploring the environment. Utilizing the classic detective tools (a magnifying glass, a flashlight, a lock-pick, a fingerprint kit, etc…), you & your team will be able to piece the clues together to deduce the culprit. Once you have collected enough evidence, you can accuse your suspect to solve the case. Sounds like this will be one of the new titles added to the Family Game Night selection.

Monster Hunter fans will get Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii on April 20th, 2010. Featuring Wii Speak support, free online play & it will come packed in with the new Wii Classic Controller Pro. The demo should be hitting GameStop stores on March 8th. As a pre-order incentive, players will get a special edition Monster Hunter Tri card that’s worth 500 WP for them to spend how ever they like on the Nintendo Shop Channel.

And in typical fashion, Nintendo ends the show with the other big title expected to be there: Metroid: Other M. The game is playable & has a release date of……… wait for it…….. June 27th, 2010. Excited? You should be as this is one of the best first halves that I’ve seen Nintendo put together in awhile. Now let the 2nd half speculation begin! What do you thing the Big N has in store for E3? Obviously we should see something on the new Zelda, although I have my doubts it will launch before the end of the year. How about the long sought after Kid Icarus remake? Pikmin 3? Nintendo did say they would be talking about a new console soon & the DSi XL had already been announced. I would think it’ll be a bit too early for a DSi 2. So maybe Wii 2?….