Nintendos Big Three at E3 2010

Nintendo are lined up to unleash the hounds this year, with the official unveiling of the 3DS, Vitality Sensor and Zelda Wii. Join us for a glass of kool-aid as we get fanatically hyped about this years big announcements.

With this year’s E3 looking to be even bigger than last year’s, Nintendo are bringing in the cavalry with grand showings of the 3DS, Wii Vitality Sensor, and finally, an all new Zelda adventure on Wii.

The return to form of E3 in 2009 was heralded as a resounding success, as the event returned to it’s big showy roots. There were surprise announcements, epic meltdowns and maybe a few tears of disappointment. This year, Nintendo are looking to out-do themselves, as they finally show off the highly-anticipated 3DS, as well as finally show us some software making use of the curious new Vitality Sensor attachment. The other big news we are expecting is the official announcement of a made-for-Wii Legend of Zelda game – a title which Nintendo acknowledged would finally be unveiled at E3 2010.

Announced somewhat blandly in a very business-like press release, this year’s announcement of the 3DS wouldn’t have taken us quite as much by surprise were it not for the fact that the new handheld would be 3D-enabled. The DS has enjoyed a wonderful life to date, but many were expecting a new handheld from Nintendo to be announced for some time now, with rumours rife of development kits showing up in game studios across the globe. We only have two details on what to expect of the device: it will be 3D and feature backwards compatibility for all DS and DSi games.

The 3DS will be to the DS as the DS was to the Gameboy Advance – a generational leap in functionality and design. Unfortunately, there are more rumours than facts as to what we can expect from Nintendo’s next handheld. There are mumblings that the device will contain a Wii-like accelerometer, which when compared to the years-old iPhone, makes pretty good sense from a functionality viewpoint. Less certain are the controls themselves; we know touch controls are back, but will they be multi-touch capable? Nintendo’s signature d-pad may also be cast aside in favour of at least one analog control stick, especially if polygonal adventure games are to feature heavily on the system. Force feedback is another consideration, again a feature already used heavily by games on the iPhone.

Not all of these features are fanciful daydreams, and almost all of them are present in consumer electronics you can buy today. However, Nintendo will need to weigh the attractiveness of such hardware against a pretty key factor – battery life. The more bells and whistles thrown into the 3DS, the more juice they are going to drain. Remember, this is Nintendo, who will be looking to make their new handheld accessible enough for the average consumer in order to move units at retail, and they certainly aren’t above compromising on hardware muscle in order to do so.

Nintendo made a mistake last year when they unveiled the Vitality Sensor without any software to show what it could actually do. This year, we hope to forgive them for their error when we finally get to see how the peripheral will be used. Obvious applications for the device include integration with the over-saturated catalogue of health and fitness games on Wii, but we’d really like to see the device used in a much less straight-forward concept. Survival horror games in the ilk of Silent Hill, Resident Evil and Eternal Darkness certainly have the potential to be markedly improved as psychologically intensive experiences if married with the attachment, and we’d like to see a third-party developer step up to the plate and use the Vitality Sensor in such a creative way.

Then of course there is the title Nintendo registered last year – ‘Wii Relax’. That name alone is enough for us to conjure up an image of a very shallowly interactive experience with soothing pan flute music and moaning whales, perhaps as a pack-in piece of software for when the attachment is finally released. A far cry from destroying Ganon’s foul legions in the kingdom of Hyrule, the next casualtastic, mass-market product from Nintendo will target the same consumers who snatched up Wii Fit in droves. Who knows, perhaps ‘Wii Relax’ will be a deeper experience than we’re giving it credit for, but with so little information to go on, we’re expecting little more than an adult-focused tech demo.

Speculation aside, we’re not expecting too many surprises from Nintendo with this device, and we’re just not as excited about it as other foreseen announcements. Regardless, it will be interesting to see just how games will make use of the Vitality Sensor.

A brand new Zelda for Wii will finally be announced at E3. It will have a name, we will see gameplay and the earth itself will crack open, swallowing up all of civilisation into its magmatic bowels.

Yes, if there’s one thing that gets Nintendo fans all hot and sticky with excitement, it’s the promise of a new Zelda game on a mainstream console. The game will require MotionPlus – a positive sign that combat will be heavily focussed on swordplay. Development of the game was rumoured to have started as early as 2005 – before the release of Twilight Princess – but production did not ramp up until 2008. Famed Zelda mastermind Eiji Aonuma is involved in the project but is not the head director for the game.

The first solid information came at E3 last year. Shigeru Miyamoto showed a piece of concept art at a developer’s roundtable, and after the image was leaked online, Nintendo decided to release it officially. The image is characterised by Link wielding a shield but weaponless, with a distinctly fairy-like female in the foreground that shares traits with the Master Sword. Combine the ominous foreboding of Link gazing wantonly at the figure with the news that MotionPlus would be a requirement, and you have a recipe for an interesting relationship between the saviour of Hyrule and his weapon of choice.

We know that combat will be front and centre, but how will the rest of the game play? If the musings of the development team are anything to go by, we can likely expect that large chunks of the established Zelda formula could be cast aside in favour of a less complicated experience. Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks on the DS did away with the conventional map-compass-boss key approach to dungeon design and were none the worse for it. Could we expect that other aspects taken for granted in a Zelda game could also be changed or removed entirely from Zelda Wii? It’s doubtful that the game will be heavily reworked to appeal to casual audiences, but there will be some surprises in store and we may see a quantum leap for the series that hasn’t been seen since the switch from 2D to 3D.

Speaking of the Zelda team’s goals for the next adventure, Shigeru Miyamoto touted the broad possibilities they were hoping to bring to the player. "Every person’s own individual experiences with the game should be unique and be their own sort of ’My Zelda’ experience, and I think that’s super important, and we have to look at that when we’re creating dungeons and how we can make that come true. So we’re spending a lot of time concentrating our efforts in that area. But it’s not going to become individual: ’Hi, I’m this Zelda’ or ’I’m this Link!’ The experience will be unique but within the world that we’ve defined."

But easily the best news about the next Zelda, is that it is coming this year. Last year, Nintendo unveiled New Super Mario Bros. Wii at E3 and the game was out a few months later, a fantastic marketing move and one that keeps the more rabbid fans from going off the deep end. Gamers may have been aware of the existence of a made-for-Wii Zelda game for years, but this time around, Nintendo will have a finite window to unveil the game, release a torrent of media and build up a frenzied level of hype before the game releases. The new approach to shorter marketing cycles is a move in the right direction and we just don’t think we could wait another Twilight Princess-like wait between the unveiling and release.

And here’s a final thought for you – before next week is over, we will all know the name of the next Zelda game!

Isn’t it just splendid to be able to go into an E3 with some level of certainty about what to expect?! From Nintendo, we have a solid indication of three very different game-changing products and even though we don’t have the full picture on any of them, we’re delighted to at least have a heads-up of what to look forward to.

Significantly, each of the three impending announcements discussed above will cater to remarkably broad range audiences. For the 3DS, we have a product that is likely to transcend the conventional child-focussed nature of handhelds into a device that will cater to the gaming faithful as well as appeal to older tech-gadget enthusiasts. We all know that Zelda on Wii has its sales assured with the audience of hardcore adventure fans already locked in, but we wouldn’t be surprised if we see the game rouse up interest in softer audiences. Remember those ads for Spirit Tracks? The image of a middle-aged women commanding Link around from the comforts of her trendy modern couch isn’t too far-fetched a possibility. With Zelda Wii, we could see the same metamorphosis observed in the Mario franchise with the New Super Mario games.

With so many different audiences covered, Nintendo’s upcoming press conference will be nothing short of a carpet-bombing of the senses, and that’s just the stuff we know about! With two hours to play around with, we hope the 3DS, Vitality Sensor, and Zelda Wii get the exhibition they deserve and we expect the conference to be a defiant response to the gala presentations from Activison and Microsoft that will precede the three official days of E3. And of course, Vooks.net will be in attendance.

Josh Moulds will be our LA correspondent for E3 this year. To keep up with Josh’s exploits in Los Angeles, you can follow his twitter feed at twitter.com/josh_moulds. Follow all the Vooks updates on our Twitter account.