The battle lines have been drawn, and at E3 2006 everybody showed off their guns. Microsoft had the 360, Sony had the PS3 & PSP, and Nintendo had the Wii and DS. PS3 and the 360 were your standard next generation console, bigger, better, and stronger. While the Wii and DS took a different path. The DS being a dual screen handheld with the bottom screen being a touch screen and the Wii, not just being merely stronger than the GameCube, the controller is like no other. The controller, the “Wiimote”, is motion sensitive, so with a swing of the arm you could hit a tennis ball on the screen, or aim a gun in a shooter. We know what the controller can do and what the DS can do. The question is, what games do they have? At E3, Nintendo showed off what they could do and what games they have. The DS had a strong showing with games like Yoshi’s Island 2, Star Fox, Castlevania, Chibi Robo, and many more. But at this E3, the big story was the Wii.
For the first time ever Nintendo showed off their Wii games to the general public. Nintendo had games like, Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption; the usual Nintendo suspects. Mario Galaxy Being the best looking Mario game I’ve ever seen. Metroid Prime Corruption uses the new controller for what may be the ultimate console first person shooter. The Demo of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption gives a taste of the upcoming game, with puzzles and shooting galore. There was even a large boss fight at the end, that takes place as you fall down a huge pit fending off a huge dragon. MP: Corruption should be out around launch, which is expected to be sometime in November. Zelda Twilight Princess another launch title for the Wii will also have a GameCube version. The Wii version of Zelda: Twilight Princess will be controlled with the “Wiimote”. You’ll be able to use the controller to aim arrows, or thrust the shield in an enemy with a simple thrust of the controller. There were some new never before seen games too, like Project H.A.M.M.E.R, a game where you swing the “Wiimote” around to swing a giant hammer and kick butt. Wii had a strong showing all together, but it was missing something. It was missing a game that would wow and floor the crowd. It was missing Super Smash Brothers. Super Smash Brothers is a game series taking all the Nintendo characters and pitting them against each other in all out fight. Sadly it was a no show at the Nintendo E3 conference. Seeing an all new Mario, Metroid, and Zelda just wasn’t enough this time. It was a major let down not seeing Smash Brothers in action at E3
Nintendo did have an ace up its sleeve. Nintendo secretly unveiled a new Wii game the first night of E3. Just when we thought Nintendo didn’t have a big surprise, they show us Smash Brothers Brawl. An all new Smash Brothers game for the Wii. Nintendo had their fans sweating, when they didn’t show it at the conference. So it was a much bigger surprise when they finally unveiled it. But that wasn’t all; they had a few secrets in the game itself. Smash Brothers Brawl will include, Pit from Kid Icarus, Wario, Zero suit Samus, Meta Knight, and one more character that’s so huge that I have to start another sentence for this. Snake from Metal Gear Solid, will be in Super Smash Brothers Brawl! That was perhaps one of the biggest announcements of E3.
Between the Smash Brothers news, great launch titles such as Zelda and Metroid, the Wii is looking very good about now. The new controller will draw in new and old fans. Nintendo came in to this as the underdog, and Sony was expected to dominate, but it doesn’t look like they did this time. Nintendo’s E3 lines were estimated to be a 3 or 4 hour wait, while Sony’s were estimated to be around a half an hour. Now with Sony’s absurd price of $500 to $600 dollars for the Playstation 3, things are starting to look up for Nintendo. This Console war may be a toss up this time around, considering you could probably buy a Wii and an Xbox 360 for the price of the ever so popular Playstation 3.
