Nintendo Briefing: Summary
The Wii-maker's big reveals - new games, and 3DS too!
Social Games
Wii Party is another series of mini-games, aimed at families and social gatherings. It includes 13 party games (with some board-style games in there) and 70 mini-games, and will be released late this year.
Also announced was Just Dance 2, the follow-up to the Ubisoft sales success, which will feature over 40 tracks, including the Pussycat Dolls, and feature 8-player capability.
Core[ish] Games
Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was shown in video form, also arriving late 2010, while the big hit with the audience was a GoldenEye remake. The game, from Activision, will be a reworking of the N64 classic, with some original levels, but using Daniel Craig's likeness instead of Pierce Brosnan.
That was followed up by an on-stage appearance from another legend - Warren Spector - who introduced in full his company's new Epic Mickey title. It's a third-person action adventure, more than tipping its hat to Disney's rich history in animation, and feature's an original paint/thinner technique. You can see the E3 video trailer over on Eurogamer.
Kirby's Epic Yarn was another one of the show's reveals - a game for the Wii, which has a woolly theme in a 2D side-scrolling environment.
Meanwhile the US release date for Dragon Quest IX was announced as mid-July, while Metroid Other M is set for August 31 (although it won't reach Europe until later in the year).
Finally, a new Donkey-Kong side-scroller was also revealed - Donkey Kong Country Returns, for the Wii, will also be out towards the end of 2010.
Nintendo 3DS
This was the section of the briefing that everybody had been waiting for - the official unveiling of the 3DS handheld.
Fils-Aime was fairly aggressive at this point, taking a swipe at other 3D technology - promoted chiefly by Japanese rival firm Sony - that was both expensive for the consumer (in terms of hardware investment) and required glasses to use.
The 3DS will have a larger top screen - which is the 3D screen - while the lower screen will become the touch-sensitive one. It will have built-in WiFi, feature the ability to download content for offline browsing and a camera capable of snapping 3D images.
The full list of 3DS titles that were announced was later released, and is available now.