E3 2009 Predictions: Nintendo

The cool thing these days seems to be to make a prediction for what we’re going to see at E3.  Well, who am I to disagree?  Part one, we’re going to talk about what we’ll see from everyone’s favorite “game” company, Nintendo.

–          Nintendo took almost-unanimous “worst of the show” honors back at E3 2008, and wasn’t far off at the TGS.  This was because Nintendo set out to please their current target market (that is, people who think Wii Play is good) rather than people who actually pay attention to E3 (that is, gamers).  Expect them to make a token effort to rectify this, by announcing…

–          A new Legend of Zelda.  Maybe for the Wii, maybe for the DS.  Maybe one of each.

–          We will probably see at least one game with a brand new peripheral.  We’ve seen the Balance Board, the MotionPlus, and we’ll probably see something else. 

–          Remember a few years back when Nintendo was saying “no, no, don’t pay any attention to that online play thing, that’s stupid.  Hooking your GBA up to your Gamecube is where it’s at, homez!”?  Well, we’ll probably see something similar with the Wii MotionPlus being used to supplement actual technical innovations and enjoyable games.  With Red Steel 2 following its predecessor’s footsteps by having a catastrophic leak of information right before E3, it has been revealed that Wii Sports Resort is not going to be the only game of note using the much-hyped peripheral.  It is somewhat safe to infer, then, that we will see at least a title or two more being shown off, simply for its MotionPlus functionality.

–          Expect Nintendo to insist that they do, in fact, have third party support for the console.  Red Steel 2 may or may not have been “the one.”  I’m sure that they would have liked for the game to have been a headliner, but that ship has sailed.  Either way, expect a single third party title to get hyped up and down all day.

–          I’m definitely feeling like we’ll see a new Mario title revealed.  It might be a sequel to a Mario sports game like Mario Strikers, maybe a new one like Mario Hockey or Mario Football, or they could throw a curveball and actually put some effort into a new platforming adventure like Mario Galaxy.

–          A sequel to Wii Play, Wii Fit or Wii Music will be announced, I bet.

–          Nintendo is going to make a big deal out of the assortment of Resident Evil titles available for the Wii (being the modestly enhanced ports of Resident Evil 0 and the Gamecube remake of RE1 and the sequel to Umbrella Chronicles, Darkside Chronicles).  They will neglect to mention that they are not at all like Resident Evil 4. 

–          I’m definitely feeling like we’ll get one big DS game announced.  It might be the aforementioned Zelda game, or it might be another potential A-Lister like a New New Super Mario Bros.  Then again, they might just make a big deal out of Dragon Quest IX coming out and Pokemon Gold and Silver getting remade.

So there you have it.  Coming soon is Sony.