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Editorials   E3 2003 - Nintendo press conference
- By Neal Gittens [Senior Editor]

As is the norm, Nintendo kicked off their E3 festivities with their annual pre-E3 press briefing. The usual topics were discussed, beginning with the financial and business aspects of things, and leading into the fun stuff: the products. There were, as always, a few surprises, and some mysterious no-shows, but as a whole, Nintendo appears to be in a comfortable position.

After the obligatory business statements on market share, sales, etc... George Harrison (known to the public as the "sweet" Nintendo exec) passed the torch to Mr. Iwata, who began to show off some of the upcoming highlights. First, there was a video trailer for Mario Kart: Double Dash. After an uproarious round of applause, the video began and showed some gameplay, which needless to say, is impressive. At the beginning of the race, the rear character is actually out pushing the kart, and in the race, if the kart gets tossed around or flipped, the backseat character will be hanging on for dear life. Very cool touches.

After Mario Kart, there were a few other video clips, including Pikmin 2, Wario World, and F-Zero GX. Each looked impressive in its own right, and got good rounds of cheers from the assembled crowd. After these videos, and some more financial type comments from Iwata-san, he passed the mic, Beastie Boys style, to the man himself: Miyamoto.

Shiggy came out to thunderous applause. After the crowd calmed, he brought out "a few friends" to show off some upcoming projects. First, he brought out Sims creator Will Wright, to talk about a previously unannounced version of the Sims for Gamecube and GBA. These versions (sold separately, of course) will operate independently of one another, but also will have major play with connectivity. Transfer your Sims back and forth between the GBA and Cube, move them permanntly from one version to another, or use the GBA as a travel kit to take your Sims to a friend's town, you name it, the Sims will seemingly be able to do it. This was one of the biggest surprises for me at the show, since there seemed to be no indication of this title prior to the conference.

After Wright left the stage, Miyamoto called on another buddy, to grant him permission to continue making another game: Pac Man for the Gamecube. The creator of Pac Man stepped out, and the two proceeded to banter back and forth through the resident translator, until they agreed to play some of the new game for the rights to continue development of the game. At this point, Will Wright and George Harrison were brought back out to play the role of the other two ghosts, with Miyomoto, against Pac Man's creator, who was controlling his baby. Having read the description of the game, I wasn't expecting much, so I was pleasantly surprised by how the game played. The GBA is used by the Pac Man player, and the other three play on the Cube as the ghosts, who can only see the small section of the maze that they are currently in. They must work together to catch Pac Man, or he will gain points. If a ghost catches Pac Man, they gain points, and then that player pays as Pac Man in the next round, so the control of the GBA passes around from one round to the next. It was very cool in execution, and could be a very fun party game. So, Miyamoto successfully retained the rights to create the game, and all was right with the world.

Next, he called out Hideo Kojima, and a little later a slimmed down Denis Dyack, to show off the new installment of Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. After a lengthy, impressive looking video, they discussed the game, and their mutual admiration among the three of them. After which, Kojima hit Miyamoto with a steel folding chair, WWE style, jumped off the stage with Dyack, and laughed maniacally while running off into the darkened back corridors of the ballroom. (Perhaps not all of this is completely accurate.)

That was about it in terms of the gameplay showing, and Iwata and Harrison finished with a few softball, pre-arranged questions, bringing the briefing to a close. All in all, a good showing for Nintendo.

There were a few surprising occurrences from the conference. First, there was no mention of Mario Golf, which was more than a little surprising to me, given that the game releases in roughly two months. Second, they didn't mention Mario Party 5, which is due to hit this holiday. Oddly omitted as well. Third, they announced that Fire Emblem, a game I have lusted for a US release for, will come to the States this holiday as well. Same goes for the inevitably addictive Nintendo Puzzle Collection, though no time frame was given for it.

They also showed a Cube version of Legend of Zelda: Four Swords. It had similar gameplay to the Four Swords Gameboy Advance game, but with a few new twists. The GBA is used as a controller, and the worlds are different from the GBA incarnation. There are houses, caves, and buildings to go into, and while the main action takes place on the TV, when a character enters an enclosed space, their action moves to their GBA. It's very cool, and may be a very addictive multiplayer experience, though it would hopefully not come at the full price of a Gamecube game.

In all, the conference was very promising, and Iwata reiterated that Nintendo will not go softly into the night. There are a ton of games to look forward to, and we will bring you much, much more on them in the coming days here at NGenres.