Wii did pretty good again!! I just wanted to see some release dates and exact pricing!!! :):(
Nintendo trots out Wii in Leipzig
By
Justin Calvert, Executive Editor
DS English-language training game, Wii Sports demonstrations highlight the Mario factory's Games Convention presentation.
LEIPZIG, Germany--The first port of call for many reporters at the Leipzig Games Convention this morning was Nintendo's press conference, which took place in a small auditorium built into the company's booth. Obtaining admission was essentially based on survival of the fittest, since being preregistered for the event appeared to count for very little. GameSpot editors managed to make it inside, though, after a brief struggle.
The press conference was delivered by Dr. Bernd Fakesch, general manager of Nintendo Deutschland, who kicked off his talk by promising that what we were about to witness would be "Surprising! Amazing! Unexpected!" What followed, at least for the next 10 minutes or so, were lots of statistics showing just how many "non-gamers" Nintendo has managed to convert in recent months.
"We've attracted millions of new video games fans who never would have thought about picking up a controller," said Fakesch, before going on to describe traditional game controllers as "technical inhibitions" that many people are fearful of picking up for the first time.
The first game to get any attention during the presentation was a Brain Age-style offering titled "Learning English With Fun." (The game is already a big hit in Japan, where it was released in January under the title "Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Eigo Duke"; the German-language version is pictured.) The portion of the game that was demoed onstage tasked the player with listening to a short sentence in English and then using the touch screen to write it within a time limit.
After successfully repeating such memorable phrases as "I love music," "She can speak English," and "I like this blue dress," the player was told that his performance was "OK," which appeared to be the lowest grade available--the others being "gut" (German for "good") and "super." Next up were confirmations that both Actionloop (titled Magnetica in the US) and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney are headed to Germany, as well as the announcement that a new pink DS Lite will be released across Europe on October 27.
Dancers pretending to fence and swat flies using Wii controllers preceded the next portion of the presentation, which kicked off with a demonstration of Wii Sports: Tennis. The demo was supposed to show just how intuitive and easy to pick up the Wii's controller is. What followed was quite the opposite, as the cast of a grandmother, a young man, and a 7-year-old girl that Nintendo had assembled failed to complete a rally of more than two or three shots in as many games. Memorable quotes from the players that were translated into English included: "I don't know who I am," "I only played for the first time this morning," and "Did I win?" Fakesch hastily brought the demonstration to an end after a few minutes, stating, "That was almost as good as Wimbledon!"
The Mario Strikers Charged and Battalion Wars 2 announcements that followed were undoubtedly the highlight of the conference, and GameSpot will have more information on both games soon.
By
Justin Calvert, Executive Editor
Justin's youth was largely misspent playing Commodore 64 and Amiga games. He left the UK's Official PlayStation Magazine to join GameSpot in 2000, believes that he's one of the best Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe players in the world, and puts HP Sauce on everything.
110 comments
The fact that the players had a little trouble encourages me. It means that the game won't be just a simple "anybody can pick up a controller and win" kind of game. This means there will be a learning curve. : )
Good luck to Nintendo but i will defiantly not be buying a WII i bought a N64 when it was released in the Uk and a Gamecube when it was also released in the Uk and although some of the games were excellent The Legend of Zelda for instance the drip feeding of new releases waiting months for any new releases especially for the N64 and the way the Uk is neglected in generall has put me off completely.
Actionloop looks kinda promising and I hope Learning English with Fun will be better as Eigo Duke has been few months ago.
Just to undermine your theory here Pimacleod_basic, I'm not an "anti-nintendo" person and I have a Master Chief icon. Fanboism (i'm not sure i spelt that right) has never been my thing.
I only have one comment, after looking at majority of the comments made already.... I'm so VERY sure that everyone played Halo flawlessly the first time they picked it up. Hand Halo to Grandma/7-year-old...I'm sure they'll catch on to that one easier than Wii Sports. ....and if you don't catch the sarcasm there, then you must be one of the profiles that has a Master Chief icon. (nothing against MC, but notice how most anti-Nintendo people have a MC icon? strange coincidence.) EDIT -- I was going to put the phrase "N-H8ers" instead of "anti-Nintendo people", but GameStop censors the full word of 'h8ers'. I never thought that word would be censored.
I played the Wii at E3. For most games, there is a small learning curve. There is virtually no piece of technology you can just "pick up and use" especially without any previous reference. Nintendo is doing something NEW. Motion sensing isnt new, but using one device in limitless ways for different applications is, so give yourself 5-10 mins on a new game. We cant add more buttons to a controller. We only have 10 fingers. The Wii controller only needs 4 at most. If you take your nose out of the a** of an xbox (i love my xbox360) for a few minutes you could realize NIntendo once again is innovating, not immitating. PS3 suddenly decided to make their controller motion sensitive...wonder why...
Flamingpostman is not very mature and yes, NoA should deinitely take care of all presentations. "That was almost as good as wimbledon" seems like a good press conference quote to succeed "it's ridge racer!" as most laughable. nonetheless, i'm still banking on the wii to do quite well.
Wow, they should really just let NoA take care of everything. Their European branch clearly can't do anything right.
funny, how the wii cast is pre-chosen, and yet they still stink. That must be embarrasing
hahaha i love nintendo but i laugh at their pathetic attempt to get a larger crowd. this is proof that they arent doing the best plan available.
That's what they showed? Wow, way to completely pull a Sony, Nintendo. You have fun with your fancy new controller.
I think it would've been better if they let NoA handle the conferences... this one wasn't a hit but the one at e3 sure was. Sorry NoE
Why don't they make some kind of game for the DS here in the U.S. where you can learn Japanese? That would be cool!
I could really care less how crappy nintendo, microsoft, and sony do on their presentations as of now. I got all that good stuff during E3. I just want hardcore info on the games and technology.
No reason to freak out guys... The germans haven't had a good tennis player since Boris Becker.
I don't usually care for educational games, but I always wanted to learn Japanese. And Mario Strikers Charged sounds Awesome.....
2nd to last paragraph- OOPS! I think they didn't give them enough infomation to play. And Practice.
After months and months of hyping this console to the extreme, I'm starting to lose a lot of faith in it. Instead of buying it at launch date, I'm now going to wait a week to a month to see how it actually plays. Nintendo keeps hiding these "secrets" and wont give any hard facts. What's the point of this? There is none. I'm really starting to think that the Wii wont live up to the hype, and this next-gen race will only be between PS3 and Xbox 360. Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge Nintendo fan and hope it does awesome, but I really have lost a lot of faith in it.
The GC didn't lack great titles. The GC lacked a big libary of games compared to the other 2 consoles in that generation, but it surely did NOT lack great titles.
I'm laughin at all the people saying how the wii sucks and how it will keep gamers in the dark. My Answers to these: 1. The Gamecube is the ONLY Nintendo console which has had a lack of great titles. 2. The Wii games list is looking great and there is more on the way 3. To all the people that aren't bothered to stand up to play games: you're lazy and most games don't even require you to stand up. Infact I can only name Wii Sports and WarioWare as required "stand up" games
Ahem fart. Any damn game would have the same problem if you didn't tell people which character was their's. From what people were saying the 7 year old did grasp how to play it. Funny how the E3 one in which you could tell which player was which it went off perfectly.
BulletProof007: "When we finally get our hands on our own Wii's all this will be forgotten." hahahaha.... OK... for everyone saying "the 7yr old and grandma are noobs, they shouldve atleast give them a day or two to get use to the wii". The point of that demonstation was that the 7yr old and grandma were'nt suppose to have previously played the system (wii). Nintendo's pitch to everyone is "anyone can pick up the wiimote and instantly start playing its just that easy". I guess they had to eats their own words, cuz that was a horrible confrence just absoultly a shame. haha nintendo fans
Dang, they've been pretty on with stuff up until this... l l l l l l l . . l / / . / / l / / / / l / / // / / Splooooooosh!
haha, yes, german business folk don't really come first to my mind as the slick presenter-types.. I can't imagine where Apple would be if it were headed by Gerhard Jobben or something..
i am not a japanophile (those people scare me, and are obsessed with anime and they want to become japanese) as you put it sinceps1, but i really want to learn the language. i hope they decide to do some kind of language training to the US, but i highly doubt that will happen. i'd be satisfied with a german or japanese trainy thing
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