Before a single Wii had been sold, gamers already knew what they had to look forward to. Even months prior to their first enthusiastic Wii remote waggle, in fact, people were drooling over games like Wii Sports, Red Steel and Twilight Princess.

Essentially, that feeling of assured anticipation has remained since. Facing the unknown is something Wii enthusiasts have yet to experience, really; major Wii games have come and gone, but there have always been confirmed new ones to look forward to.

Until now, that is. Sure, there have been some exciting rumors that refuse to go away, as well as a few minor game announcements. But for the most part, Nintendo’s plans for the industry’s blockbuster-filled autumn and winter months are a complete mystery.

It would be foolish to think Nintendo does not have some major announcements in store, and with E3 only two months away, it won’t be long before Nintendo fans have more premier titles to look forward to. Fortunately for Wii owners, the eight weeks leading to E3 should be quick and painless; 2008 has already been kind, and there are several awesome new Wii titles already sitting on store shelves.

So do yourself a favor; before E3 and the insanity that will ensue, give some of these great Wii games a shot before you start getting hyped for new ones like Kid Icarus Wii and forget about them.

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Consider this sort of a rebuttal to Jake’s post from earlier today. While I don’t believe that Nintendo will announce DS 2 or DS Lite++, I think we’ll see something new for the hottest handheld in the world. I think we’ll see Nintendo bust out a legalized version of the R4 or other such storage device. It’ll allow the DS to reap the same benefits the Wii has for downloading and storing games. The DS will get it’s own WiiWare-like titles as well as downloads of classic Game Boy and GBA games. It might even allow you to use a DS like an MP3 or video player.  This could help lend some truth to the original rumor without needing a whole new DS to accomplish it.

What do you think, will Nintendo try something like this?

[pic from gbatemp.net]

Over the past few weeks rumors have been circling of a “new” DS model to be shown at E3. It all began with a in-depth prediction by Hirokazu Hamamura of Enterbrain (Japanese Famitsu publisher) that Nintendo will be showing a revised model with “larger screens, “faster hardware”, and “onboard storage”. However, soon after the internet exploded over this “rumor”, Nintendo of Japan quickly shot it down with their normal default press answer

“We cannot comment on the specifics of what will be announced at E3, but at the very least there won’t be anything like what Mr. Hamamura suggested, so would like to clearly deny this. We’re having a hard time understanding what kind of evidence [Mr. Hamamura] had for saying this.”

This statement coming from a company who denied a rumor of the DS Lite, only to announce the model a week later. I’m still thinking along the lines of Mr. Hamamura. All the signs are present. Nintendo has virtually dropped first party game support for the platform, lack of true Wii-DS support, and it’s been 4 years since the DS was launched.

Nintendo will never drop support for “grandma’s” DS games (+65 million sales), so a dramatic revision that keeps the touch screen format is not out of the question at all.

Do you think we will see a “new” DS this E3?

[Bloomberg Japan]

The Nintendo lineup for the first half of 2008 is pretty well known. Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl… oh, and there’s that DS thing too, which continues to sell in spite of the fact that I don’t think there are any more people left to buy the thing. NPD numbers say I’m wrong, of course, but still… 500k in February? The month is videogame doldrums as far as I’m concerned.

But what of that mysterious period after June? That’s been an unknown to this point, and already the punditry is ramping up speculation that the second half of the year will bring about the infamous Nintendo Drought.

But wait. What’s this? Reggie is dropping hints like I drop Infendo readers in online Smash Bros. Brawl? So he is, and it appears as though E3 is where he’ll put the smack down this year. (more…)

Anyone lucky enough to be heading to E for All — and yes, I just said “lucky enough” — will get a chance to play Super Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros. Brawl.

Nintendo’s PR firm just pinged the Infendo mailbox with the good news… and there’s more:

Nintendo will be showing a huge lineup of cool games for both Wii and Nintendo DS, including the hugely anticipated Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The Oct. 18-22 event at the Los Angeles Convention Center will be the first opportunity for the public to get their hands on these games and take them for a test drive. In addition, Nintendo will host a daily Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament. Competitors get a free Wii-themed T-shirt, and a different T-shirt will be available each day of the show.

Hands-on play time. Tournaments. Free things. A Pokemon “gotta catch ‘em all” approach to conference swag. Sounds like a pretty good time to me. I take everything back and offer my apologies to the little consumer show that could.

Basically, all the signs and portents say that E for All — the consumer-focused conference meant to replace E3 — is going to be dead on arrival when it begins in mid-October.

There’s no Microsoft presence there, nor Sony, nor Activision, Capcom, NCSoft, Sega, Midway, etc. EA is rumored to be on the cusp of bowing out. The only company of note still committed to the conference is Nintendo. So there’s still a weak pulse — Monty Python would say it’s not dead yet — but I imagine even Nintendo will be rolling out Wi Sports demos and Mii creation stations. I hope they don’t though.

Put simply, I think an opportunity exists for them to do more. (more…)

Congratulations to E3 Caption Contest Winner, Vince!  He narrowly edged out Julian’s entry and won himself a copy of Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition.  His winning entry is above.  Thanks to everyone who entered and all of the voters!

Don’t forget: this poll ends today at 5PM Eastern!

There were a ton of great entries for our E3 Caption Contest, but they have been narrowed down to five! It’s up to Infendo Nation to pick the winner! [Links to the pictures are in the poll below.]

Voting ends on Friday at 5PM Eastern time!

As kind of a post-E3 wrap-up, here are the confirmed release dates for Nintendo’s first party IP, July-December (courtesy of Wired):

07/30/07 Mario Strikers Charged Wii
07/30/07 Picross DS DS
08/20/07 Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day DS
08/27/07 Metroid Prime 3 Corruption Wii
09/10/07 DK Jungle Climber DS
09/24/07 Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol DS
10/01/07 The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass DS
10/08/07 Donkey Kong Barrel Blast Wii
10/15/07 Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day DS
10/29/07 Battalion Wars 2 Wii
10/29/07 Endless Ocean Wii
11/05/07 Fire Emblem Wii
11/12/07 Super Mario Galaxy Wii
11/19/07 Mario Party DS DS
11/26/07 Nintendo Magic (name not final) DS
12/03/07 Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii
12/03/07 Professor Layton and the Curious Village DS

Was Battalion Wars 2 even mentioned at E3?! I smell a GameCube port with shoe-horned, semi-broken online play, which would be a shame. OK, so that’s not entirely accurate. But still, why no love at E3 — the game is scheduled for October!

And what’s with Professor Layton? Everyone and their Nintendog is talking about it. Am I missing something?

In celebration of a great showing by Nintendo at E3, Infendo is having a Caption Contest! Using any of the photos supplied by the Nintendo and the Associated Press (link below), submit a caption or edit a photo and email it to tips@infendo.com with the subject “E3 Caption Contest” by Monday, July 23rd, at 5PM Eastern. The best entry will be chosen by the esteemed Infendo Judging Council and the winner will receive a copy of Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition! Enter as many times as you like. Infendo staff members are not eligible … boo!

Use one of the photos in this zip file and get to work!

Typo or gross negligence? Next Generation’s top 20 games of E3 list doesn’t mention Metroid Prime 3. Nor does the site list the title in the honorable mentions.

Now I’m as guilty a Nintendo fanman as the next guy, but this is ludicrous. Even the hardcore gaming blogs, like Destructoid, gushed like a schoolgirl over the look and feel of Metroid Prime. I have yet to read any negatives about the title other than Chris Kohler’s observation that some of the in-game buttons are a bit confusing. I thought I saw the respective “fanboy” blogs over at Joystiq praising the title too, but I could have been hallucinating after my late night binge on Ralston’s 15-year-old Nintendo cereal that I keep in my cupboard.

Several great titles do make the list however, including Mario Galaxy (I would have been comfortable subbing this out for Metroid), Rock Band, Mass Effect and LittleBigPlanet (the fact that this uber-interactive game isn’t on a console like the Wii is a sin against man).

Why a game that might redefine the control scheme for one of the more popular genres out there today is not on the list is a mystery to me. I’d love to hear the editors over there explain why.

It has been a great week at E3, with tons of awesome games coming out and competition rising. Watching it from the safety of my couch, I was thoroughly satisfied with each of the press conferences. Microsoft is coming out with some impressive games, Sony showed us a redesign of the PSP, and Nintendo has finally given us announcements of release dates with some superior titles coming out. But Nintendo has left me with some questions and thoughts.
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Rumas over at 4cr has done the hard work this morning, assembling more than a dozen links to Nintendo E3 content–including videos, interviews, screenshots and a slew of hands-on impressions of Mario and Metroid (the first paragraph in the Metroid one is interesting, to say the least…).

You can find 4cr’s linkage here and here, and you can wash the drool off of your mouth after that.

Then if you like, come on back here to Infendo and let’s get a vibe going. Mario and Metroid seem to be the one-two punch Nintendo needs right now to get its more traditional customer base back in lockstep, but maybe you don’t think so. The keynote was no ground breaker, that’s for sure (aside from WiiFit), but the hands-on time we’re seeing from all these media outlets is much more important, I think. G4 had some interesting shots of a few brand new 3rd party games last night that I had never seen before too. A bouncing blob that needs to paint a completely black and white world with splashes of color? Wha wha wha?

Anyway what say you? How has this rollercoaster of an E3 left you feeling this morning?

Here’s a quick list of the new stuff we learned from Nintendo today:

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Will be released in the Americas on December 3rd.

Super Mario Galaxy - Out on November 12th 2007.

Wii Zapper - Will be sold later this year for $19.99 and will include a game. Combines Wii Remote and Nunchuck together. Medal Of Honor for Wii will be built to take advantage of the Wii Zapper.

Mario Kart for Wii - Available Q1 2008. Features online play with “a lot” of other players. Includes a plastic steering “Wii Wheel”.

Check Mii Out Channel - A sort of Mii popularity contest channel. Will feature lookalike Mii contests.

Brain Age 2 - Out on August 20th.

Flash Focus: Vision Training in Minutes a Day - Out October 15th. Known as Medicara in Japan.Wii Fit - Out first half of 2008. Includes wireless Balance Board to measure BMI, balance, etc. Used for aerobics, yoga, and more.

Update:  the conference is done.  Lots of great tidbits and new stuff to digest.  Let us know what you thought in our comments section!

Blake is moving into position in Santa Monica as we speak. I’ll be attempting a liveblog of the event as it unfolds. Stay tuned! The keynote is scheduled to begin at 12PM Eastern, 9AM Pacific.

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