E3 2007 News | IGN Talks Nintendo Wii at E3

By Adam Riley 16.07.2007 9

With this year's new format E3 now at a close, IGN's Wii-k in Review podcast feature clearly focuses on the highs and lows of the event, rather than unveiling new hints like normal. Below are some of the highlights from the show that featured just Matt Cassamasina and Mark Bozon [ thanks to ZealousD for the summary ]:

  • To start with, they both reckoned that Wii Fit was worthy of "Oprah";
  • They describe Metroid Prime 3 as "frickin' awesome," particularly liking the cockpit scene. They say the story is Halo-esque and the gameplay is very smooth, stating "Our videos are not going to do it justice." Bozon played Turok afterwards and said the controls felt archaic by comparison. Some journalists have made comments about how the Metroid design was watered down, but Matt says that such comments are stupid because it is a demo after all, and the MP3 demo was structured similarly to the MP1 and MP2 demos;
  • Super Mario Galaxy is their game of the show and Bozon was able to play two levels not available to the rest of the press (thanks to Miyamoto). The long-jump manoeuvre helps increase the game's speed. You can control the jump in mid-air with the analogue stick. A second player can use his cursor to freeze Mario in mid-air during a long-jump. If you long-jump off a small body, you might be able to do a full 360 around a planet. "Feels better than Mario 64". The Galaxy design means that the designers are not grounded in reality or have restrictions;
  • WiiFit talk. Many game-based elements are being added to increase the "fun" factor. Matt

    thought it was nice.

  • Bozon calls Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles a "mish-mash" that has "some ways to go" since the cursor is not smooth and shooting does not feel visceral. Bozon is comparing its development to Red Steel;
  • The NiGHTS sequel is currently clunky and framey, but Craig Harris is looking forward to it, even though Matt is not;
  • Carnival Games really does need to be $20 as it is far too simple;
  • Furu Furu Park is yet another mini-game collection that proves to be pretty shallow and should certainly be cheap;
  • The new Spyro game is a direct sequel to A New Beginning, whilst Crash of the Titans is two-player co-op. There is some IR work in Crash, whilst Crash's spinning is done by rapidly hitting the B trigger and spinning the analogue stick;
  • Fishing Master looks terrible visually. Yet there are some smart Wii control techniques implemented. Every time you cast, you catch a fish. "Kinda cool, but super basic". Cool for a kid's game or a rental;
  • Dewy's Adventure is "Sort of good, but not great. Has potential";
  • Trauma Centre: New Blood is looking really good. IGN is trying to get it in office within a month and trying to get exclusive coverage for it;
  • Nitro Bikes is developed by Left Field for Ubisoft, the same team that did Excitbike 64 for the N64, which Matt and Bozon loved. Sadly, though, Matt does not think most of the original team is still there;
  • Super Mario Galaxy is supposed to be as long and deep as Super Mario 64. The freeze manoeuvre seems to be a two-player only thing for now;
  • There may well be an exclusive event within a month's time devoted to Smash Bros. Brawl;
  • Nintendo has not abandoned its core audience. However, casual games seem to be an internal

    priority. The whole truth will be told in 2008;

  • Matt believes that Smash Bros. Brawl will be online, despite recent speculation to the contrary;
  • Nintendo failed to talk about the resurrected Nintendo franchise that Matt referred to last week. In response to this he says, "Even if it did get cancelled it would be taken up by another publisher. Oh, no it wouldn't. Sorry. That couldn't happen. Yeah. Well you can take whatever you want from that answer;"
  • As for the Factor 5 issue, in which there has been speculation about a Wii project, Matt implies something about the company's project not being disc-based and mentions up its back catalogue (presumably tying in with the ESRB listings for Turrican and Super Turrican on Wii recently). "Whatever we see from Factor 5 initially will just be a first step;"
  • The Wii Balance Board really does feel like a set of scales;
  • They believe there is no reason Smash Bros. Brawl should not be online since Jump Ultimate Stars is (Ed: but surely there is a major difference between DS and Wii online due to the amount going on on-screen?!);
  • The lack of Battalion Wars 2 makes both Matt and Bozon angry! Matt thinks Nintendo may show it at Leipzig (where it was originally unveiled);
  • There could be a hardcore-gamer-focused event from Nintendo in a month and a half or so;
  • Both of them like the game concepts shown with the Balance Board, such as the snowboarding game;
  • Akin to Super Mario Bros. 3, there will be lots of suits found in Super Mario Galaxy.
Stick around for further updates...

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Oprah? WTF I'm sure she'd put them on her show with great online multiplayer with easy connectivity between players. But really WTF OPRAH??? What the hell are they thinking? Get your heads out of your asses nintendo!

MP3 they say has incredible controls, thats always good, BUT they want to talk archaic well LACK OF ONLINE PLAY THAT is truly archaic. *sigh* Nintendo, like a genius retarded child, you've just gotta hold its hand while it drools all over it.

I hope its true what they say about Hardcore event.

"Nintendo failed to talk about the resurrected Nintendo franchise that Matt referred to last week. In response to this he says, "Even if it did get cancelled it would be taken up by another publisher. Oh, no it wouldn't. Sorry. That couldn't happen. Yeah. Well you can take whatever you want from that answer."

Still wondering myself Smilie?

"There could be a hardcore-gamer-focused event from Nintendo in a month and a half or so;"


Just as I thought Smilie


I think it was always safe to say there would be a load of new suits in Super Mario Galaxy. I would love to see a Frog Suit for the underwater levels we have seen a glimpses of, and also a Tanooki/Racoon Suit is a must. SuperMarioGalaxy will better than 64, that was the very intention of the developers from the start.

Skateboard and Snowboard games on that thing are going to be sweet, hope the next SSX has support for it. [add Hoverboards to that also!]

"Super Mario Galaxy is supposed to be as long and deep as Super Mario 64. The freeze manoeuvre seems to be a two-player only thing for now;"

I am very happy about that, on the previous demo I thought WTF are they doing allowing that much control, this rectifies that problem while also adding a great 2 player gameplay dynamic. It's great ive seen it in action.

Knew UC was going to look choppy, but Bozon I think is being a bit too critical at this early stage.

Matt always speaks critically about NiGHTS.

Nitro Bikes looks very promising.

[LS]


( Edited on 16.07.2007 13:02 by Linkyshinks )

Well Mario 64 wasn't too long... and that was when we still didn't know how to play 3D games yet.

It's hard, but I really want to trust IGN with a lot of this info. Points that really interested me

There may well be an exclusive event within a month's time devoted to Smash Bros. Brawl

Possible but not probable. There are a lot of unanswered questions about the game that could be resolved at something like this, it's probably not really necessary though. But it does seem to me like unless you're really following this game you don't here all that much about it at events and stuff. Online confirmation please.

Nintendo has not abandoned its core audience. However, casual games seem to be an internal priority. The whole truth will be told in 2008

Even though it's good news, why the hell would they wait for two yers after their console is released to tell owners and potential owners what is going on? I guess it's better than nothing though.

Matt believes that Smash Bros. Brawl will be online, despite recent speculation to the contrary

Matt has believed a lot of things that weren't true in the past. I'll wait for official confirmation first.

There could be a hardcore-gamer-focused event from Nintendo in a month and a half or so

There could be a lot of things happen. Maybe this will tie in with the Smash Bros event that also could happen. But seriously Nintendo, do it. Make me actually want a Wii.

A lot of it is speculation, which isn't good. Even worse is that it's coming from IGN. But I want this so much that I'm just pretending it's true and that for a brief period Cassamasina is Nostradamus.

I thought it was official smash was online, would be pretty silly if it wasn't especially considering less well known games are online (strikers, battalion wars).
They also have plenty of development time and online kits seem to be freely availiable even now.

XBL Gamertag: James2t3
Guest 16.07.2007#7

The universe has the potential to implode. In fact, it could implode in the next month and a half or so.

After hearing all this positive feedback of Corruption, I feel at eased that it will truly be a great game like it's predecessors.

I don't believe them. Why should I believe IGN? They always make up rumours. They're going to get my hopes up. I'll hate them for that.

It would be nice if there was a hardcore Nintendo event with Smash Bros in the next month or so, but it just doesn't sound likely. At all. Nintendo don't do events like that very often. I also want to believe Nintendo aren't abandoning the Hardcore audience, they keep saying they're not, but I can't help but think they are.

Basically, I don't know if I can take their word for it. At all, they're saying a "truth" will be told in 2008. Does that mean we won't get a huge bunch of games announce until then? So for people in US & Japan, that's basically only Mario Kart to look forward too.

& if Smash Bros was indeed online, then why weren't Nintendo bumming it like they do with all their online games?

I've had my hopes crushed by Nintendo in the past few months, I don't feel like believing rumours of hope Smilie

EDIT: & Yeah, saying Mario Galaxy is "As long as Mario 64" isn't really helping me out right now...

( Edited on 17.07.2007 10:53 by SuperLink )

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