E3 08: Nintendo roundup

Whether it was the wide-smiled docile tones of Cammie Dunaway, the emphatic wide-chinned confidence of Reggie Fils-Aime or the imperial confidence of Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s confident strides across the E3 stage were a total un-surprise considering

the manner in which it is bossing today’s games industry

.

A quick recap on just how successful Nintendo has been of late is now common fare for a Nintendo conference, with president Iwata proclaiming: A true paradigm shift has taken place in global game market. No one could have imagined the market could have evolved fast enough to allow us to sell million of bathroom scales.” Indeed.

Rivals Sony and Microsoft can keep insisting that they aren’t competing with Nintendo – perhaps if they both stopped lashing out (yes, you too) or trying to copy the company (as touching as it is) we might believe them. Mind you, you can’t blame them – who wouldn’t want a piece of the Wii pie? And Nintendo doesn’t mind – it just gives it something else to talk about besides its ridiculous profits. After all, it’s not like they want to talk about the R4.

Software wise, it may have been a total non-surprise, but Animal Crossing: City Folk looks fantastic and certainly answers the ongoing call for online voice chat on Nintendo’s network.

Also not surprising was the announcement of Wii Sports Resort, though its inclusion of the unexpected WiiMotion Plus slipped under the rumour radars. And it was great to at last see Wii Music take shape two years after Miyamoto’s stunning E3 performance.

Opinion remains divided concerning whether or not new Mario and Zelda games were or were not announced – though at least the latter seems set in stone. And who saw the DS version of Grand Theft Auto coming? Were it not for the fact that there’s better fanboy fodder out there it would most likely be the talk of the show.

Truth is, though, that Nintendo probably had less to say than its competitors. But then, life’s cosy at the top, right?