Nintendo Announces New Mario Bros, Mario Galaxy, Metroid 291
Nintendo's E3 press conference was an eventful one, with announcements for a new Super Mario Bros. Wii, a sequel to Super Mario Galaxy, and a new entry into the Metroid franchise by Team Ninja. The new Mario Bros. game will be available for the holiday season, and the other two are scheduled for 2010. Nintendo also confirmed an updated version of the Wii Fit, called the Wii Fit Plus (trailer), due out this fall. A full list of Nintendo's announcements is available, which includes more games and new features. Live blogs of the press conference, with commentary and pictures, are up at Engadget and 1Up.
Also Golden Sun DS (Score:5, Informative)
Golden Sun DS (not mentioned in TFS) is really what I'm most excited about. Golden Sun and its sequel for GBA were possibly my favorite RPG series for a long time. What a brilliant mixture of RPG gameplay with puzzle solving it was, with great graphics (for GBA) to boot! I've been waiting for a third for ages, as the second had a somewhat open ending.
Metroid: Other M Trailer (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I'll be delicate... (Score:4, Informative)
They point out in the article that it is basically the same graphics as the DS New Super Mario Bros, so yes, you're right, it looks like something from DS (intentionall). I'm sure it's no where near pushing the limits of the Wii hardware, considering what it has been shown to be capable of in games like Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Galaxy and MadWorld.
The hype is about the 4 person simultaneous multiplayer in a mario game, which is a completely new feature - maybe you should try reading the article instead of just looking at the pictures.
Re:Nintendo.... (Score:5, Informative)
Nonsense.
PlayStation vs. Nintendo 64:
What the hell? This is so wrong.
The Dreamcast had more video RAM than the PS2 and the GameCube, though its CPU wasn't as fast. That being said, never underestimate the effect of more video RAM on a game console.
The Xbox was much more powerful than the PS2, and the GameCube was more powerful than the PS2, its better shading effects giving it an edge.
PlayStation 2 vs. GameCube vs. Xbox:
Were you brainwashed by Sony, or something?
Before Nintendo will even sell you the devkit (Score:4, Informative)
Plus, the Wii is so much cheaper to develop for.
Once you have the devkit. But before Nintendo will even sell you the devkit, you must [warioworld.com] have a corporation or LLC with a leased office and a track record. That's a lot of overhead for a new business. Compare to Xbox Live Community Games: anyone with a PC, a C# book, and $794* can get started.
* Price of an Xbox 360 plus a 5-year subscription to XNA Creators Club.
Re:Nintendo.... (Score:3, Informative)
I can see calling Fzero Gamecube hard especially in higher levels, but not Metroid Prime. That game is ridiculously easy. The most difficult part is finding the missing pieces or hidden caverns, and that's just simple hide-and-seek like the original 2D games. The enemies are pushovers.
I guess modern gamers are just soft. (ducks a spitball) ;-)
BTW if you enjoyed Metroid Prime or any of the 3D Zeldas, go try "Ico" sometime. There's no shooting, but there's lots of puzzle-solving as you try to escape from a medieval-style castle. Great game.
Re:Nintendo.... (Score:3, Informative)
[Nintendo GameCube had] 24 MB main RAM and 3MB of video RAM
You forgot the extra 16 MB RAM on the audio chip. A lot of games used part of that as a disc cache. And given that the 24 MB 1T-SRAM chip is called the Wii's "VRAM", it might be more unified than you think. I seem to remember the VRAM was used for the frame buffer and the Z buffer, and that's it; textures came from 1T-SRAM.
Re:Cartridges are smaller than discs (Score:3, Informative)
compare that to about 5c for a blue ray disk...
and wake me up when you can ramp up sdhc production within days on demand...