Besides going in depth about legendary
game designer Shigeru Miyamoto's approach to conceptualizing and
developing games, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata also made a few big
announcements.
While he announced a storage option and
a new downloadable service for the Wii, the system got very little
love on the software front.
The only game he really showed off was
a WiiWare title, Rock 'N' Roll Climber, which utilizes the Wii
Remote, Nunchuck, and Wii Balance Board to simulate rock climbing.
Although interesting in concept, what was shown of the product on
stage seemed a little shaky and looked pretty rudimentary.
Other than that, any other title simply
got a brief mention. Iwata touched on a few Final Fantasy offerings,
such as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord (a
follow up to last year's My Life as a King) and Final Fantasy IV: The
After Years. He also mentioned some of the titles on the Virtual
Console Arcade, but all of these were just that: mentions.
Bigger Wii-related announcements, such
as Wii Motion Plus or a new game in one of Nintendo's long-running
series, were nowhere to be found.
Meanwhile, the DS got more love, with a
video on Rhythm Heaven, demonstrations on some DSi Ware offerings,
such as WarioWare Snapped, and the reveal of a new Zelda title, The
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.
That last game
follows the same art style as Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, and
will most likely feature the same gameplay as the latter.
Not that the
keynote wasn't enjoyable or good – Iwata brought up some
interesting insights about game development, particularly when
talking about Miyamoto's approach – but I definitely would have
liked to see something more when it comes to Wii's software lineup,
especially considering that sales of the system have been
consistently declining in Japan.
The DS already has
an incredible lineup (these past two weeks alone saw excellent title
after excellent title) – it's the Wii that most hardcore gamers are
concerned about. While there are numerous promising games coming up,
it would've helped if Nintendo threw a little more weight behind its
little white money-making machine.