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Nintendo's really pulled out the stops for their press conference this morning, announcing new entries to some of their flagship franchises and dissecting the layout for the Nintendo 3DS. I still don't get as excited about Nintendo products as I used to, but I walked away from the auditorium looking forward to what Nintendo has to offer in the future.


The show started by premiering The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword with a demonstration by Shigeru Miyamoto. There were some fishy technical difficulties (which I will get to in a second) that hampered the performance quite a bit, but conceptually it was pretty cool. Well, cool for a motion sensor controlled Zelda game.  Basically, the Wiimote is the sword and the nunchuk is the shield, and Link will follow your movements. But I am skeptical about how this is going to turn out. The 'technical difficulties' on stage looked like shitty engineering. All of the other games demonstrated went off without a hitch, and Miyamoto just looked like he couldn't control anything. Hopefully the developers will make the best of this next year to make it fluid before its release in 2011. And make it prettier, too, damn it. The sad little mushroom infested park that Link was running around in didn't have much life to it.

Next, Nintendo showed off three upcoming party titles: Mario Sports Mix, Wii Party, and Just Dance 2. Mario Sports Mix looked like a good, over-the-top party game, while Wii Party looked fairly underwhelming. And Just Dance 2...well I guess if you liked the first one you'll be into this, but I haven't ever ventured into that arena.

The show took a break from Wii releases to focus on a big upcoming game for the DS: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, which will have fans salivating, but the show jumped that ship to focus on a new GoldenEye Wii game. The first-person shooters on the Wii have  been by-and-large pretty awful, but this one looks like it has some promise. Plus, James Bond is played by the ever beautiful and incredibly muscular Daniel Craig, so it already has my vote.

It should be noted that there were no original titles released by Nintendo this year, except one, Disney Epic Mickey. The game is set in a dark and dreary land that seems to serve as a refugee camp for forgotten Disney characters. It is based on completing quests for the characters. There is pretty interesting feature included in the gameplay, too. Mickey is given a spray can of paint and paint thinner that he can use to either destroy or build all that surrounds him, including the non-player characters. In the demo, it looked pretty cool.

Other than that, the Nintendo team is focusing on bringing back the games that make Nintendo what it is today. The show then went through a quick list of franchise revamps. The first, and most intriguing game at the show, was Kirby's Epic Yarn. The whole landscape looks knit together, and Kirby interacts with it as he side-scrolls through the levels. Reminds me of Super Paper Mario, especially with the vibrant creativity that pervades the set pieces on screen.

The show concluded with a huge presentation of the Nintendo 3DS. The handheld system now boasts complete 3D technology without the need for glasses. There is also a feature called the 'depth slider' which allows the gamer to have control over the level of 3Dness in the frame. You can even remove it fully, and the graphics will look just as good as ever. Even more impressive, the 3DS comes with a camera on the outside that can take pictures in 3D. This one is going to be a huge hit. And there is a new Kid Icarus game to accompany.

Nintendo hasn't been close to the level of the other guys in recent memory, but I wouldn't be surprised if they widened the gap in sales even more in this next year. And hopefully, for once, these games with potential will flower to be worth the money.