E3 06: Super Mario Galaxy leads first wave of Wii games

LOS ANGELES--There was a lot of excitement for Nintendo's pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo press conference today, and the company did not disappoint. Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo's EVP of sales and marketing walked the enthusiastic audience through the company's next-gen plans, as well as its upcoming GameCube and Nintendo DS games.

First-party titles--especially Nintendo's classic franchises--claimed the lion's share of the spotlight. Nintendo fans will be particularly excited about Super Mario Galaxy (working title), which is a Mario platformer for the Wii, and the revelation that Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess will be a Wii launch title. In fact, Twilight Princess will get two launches: a GameCube version will hit shelves on the same day as the Wii version.

Also in development now are other follow-ups to classic series, including Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Fire Emblem, WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Nintendo is working on a number of all-new titles, announced for the first time today:

-Disaster: Day of Crisis is an action game where the player tries to recapture a hijacked nuclear weapon against a backdrop of natural catastrophes, including floods, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes.

-Excite Truck is an arcade racer that features trucks getting big air in the vein of the NES classic Excitebike.

-Project H.A.M.M.E.R. is an action adventure game in which the player will use both the nunchaku controller and the Wii remote to control a cyborg armed with an immense hammer.

-Wii Sports is a sports game that incorporates golf, tennis, and baseball. According to Iwata's comments during the Nintendo press conference, the game is designed to allow new gamers to compete on an even footing with experienced gamers.

All told, Nintendo says that when the E3 show floor opens here tomorrow, 27 Wii games will be playable. That includes both first-party and third-party titles, and Nintendo has released an extensive list of third-party Wii titles now in development. See below for an alphabetical list of publishers and their games.

Activision
-Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
-Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
-Call of Duty 3

AQ Interactive
-Boxing Action (currently untitled)

Atari
-Dragon Ball Z Budokai: Tenkaichi 2

Atlus
-Trauma Center: Second Opinion

Banpresto
-Family Action Game (currently untitled)

Buena Vista Games
-Disney's Chicken Little: Ace in Action
-Disney's Meet the Robinsons

Capcom
-Resident Evil game

D3Publisher
-SIMPLE series
-Original Action Game (currently untitled)

Eidos
-Title TBD

Electronic Arts
-Madden NFL '07
-Medal of Honor Airborne

Epoch
-Title TBD

From Software
-Action game (currently untitled)

Genki
-Title TBD

Hudson Soft
-Bomberman Land
-Flight Game (currently untitled)

Jaleco
-Title TBD

Koei
-Sengoku Action

Konami Digital Entertainment
-Elebits
-Soccer Game (currently untitled)

Majesco
-Bust-A-Move Revolution

Marvelous Interactive
-Bokujo Monogatari ("Ranch Story")
-Heroes
-Kawa no Nushitsuri
-Original simulation game (currently untitled)

Mastiff
-Mr. D. Goes to Town (working title)

Midway Games
-The Ant Bully
-Happy Feet

Milestone
-New Vertical Scrolling Shooting Game
-New Action Game

MTO
-Character Action Game (currently untitled)
-SAN-X All-Star Revolution

Namco Bandai Games
-Final Furlong
-Mobile Suit Gundam
-SD Gundam G Breaker
-Digimon
-One Piece Unlimited Adventure
-New Action Game (currently untitled)
-New RPG (currently untitled)
-Tamagotchi
-Title TBD

Natsume (developed by Marvelous)
-Harvest Moon

Sega
-Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
-Sonic Wild Fire

SNK
-Metal Slug Anthology

Spike
-Necro-Nesia
-Jawa

Square Enix
-Codename: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Crystal Bearers
-Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors

Taito
-Turn IT Around!!
-Let's go by train!
-Cooking Mama--Cooking with International Friends

Tecmo
-Super Swing Golf PANGYA

The Game Factory
-Title TBD

THQ
-Avatar: the Last Airbender
-SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
-Disney/Pixar Cars

Tomy
-Action Game (currently untitled)
-Battle Action (currently untitled)

Ubisoft
-Open Season
-Rayman Raving Rabbids
-Red Steel

Vivendi Universal Games
-Title TBD

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
-Title TBD

When E3 kicks off tomorrow, we'll bring you more info on these games and hands-on reports for those that are playable on the show floor.