Nintendo's E3 Kick-Off Party

Let me start this review by saying, I don't play console games. Well, I don't play them well - so, I generally don't play them. I played Pac-Man and Centipede when a child; had an Atari 2600 but I don't remember a single game for it; had a Colecovision - I OWNED Dig Dug and Smurfs; later, I got a an original Sega with Sonic but I don't think I ever bought another game for it. Odd.

However, I live with three boys - ages 4, 6 and 40. So, in my home there is a Nintendo , and old Gameboy Color, a PS1 and a PS2. About as far as I get is Bust-A-Move 2, but the boys and my 68 year old mother-in-law can play for days. She's the best of the four. All that being said, I'm not completely ignorant of consoles, they've just never been my focus.

When I received my invite to Nintendo's E3 kick-off I said what the heck. Games cross multiple platforms now and I haven't seen anything ON a Nintendo since my kid rented the original MarioCart. Things have changed a bit.

The luncheon was held at the Grand Ballroom of the Kodak Theatre (think Oscars) so it wasn't a small crowd. And it was standing room only. George Harrison came up first to let us know where Nintendo stood in the big battle of the consoles. They'd been caught off guard and hadn't performed as well as they'd hoped last year, but with Gamecube they had a winner. This year they'd increased their sales units of Gamecube to 1.3 million world wide. That'a few....

And they held 3 of the top for selling games - Zelda, Pokemon and Pokemon. **sighs as her 4-year old has recently discovered Pokemon** They know they have the market on "fun" games - nothing beats Mario, Donkey Kong, Pokemon, etc. But to continue to be competetive, they need more. And they were there to show it to us.

An interesting new piece of hardware that was going to play into the presentation was the Gameboy Player. This would allow you to conntect for GBA's or GC's to your television screen. Yeah! More socializtion for the kiddies. Even the BIG kiddies.

The President of Nintendo next arrived to let us know exactly what their plans were to remain competitive. First, they cannot get caught again by the better graphics of their competition. Second, they wanted to make more engaging and challenging games but find a way to not make them take longer. And third, they had to decide where to draw the line in their games (no Vice City for Nintendo).

To do this, they have increased the size of their Kyoto development team; opened a second office in Tokyo and started working with 3rd Parties. It's this 3rd Party outreach that really makes them shine. Their hardware with the software from the likes of Lucaasarts, Konami, Capcom - itmakes for some beautitful games.

Rebel Strike: Rogue Squadron 3 made me feel like I was one again watching the original Star Wars movies. There's nothing like being Luke and vaulting to the top of an Imperial Walker to cut its cabling.

Or the Nintendo exclusive with Capcom for Resident Evil 4. Now, I can say I did play the original Resident Evil and it was well....gory. This was scarey. Flat out, heart-pumping scarey. And the graphics were amazing. I could see the moisture in the hair of the hero as he ran and began to sweat. If you like to be scared, this will do it.

A Gamecube-only title we were witness to is something known as Geist. Think John Carptenter's The Thing. You're an alien, you invade a body, then another, then another.....ugh.

Now for some of the fun stuff. Will Wright, the creator of The Sims was on hand to let us know what his new project with Nintendo is and this is where their new "connectivity" concept really comes into play. Wait, I didn't explain connectivity?

With conectivity you can (with the right equipment) connect any combination of GBA, Gamecube, GBA SP together into one working system. So, you're no longer limited to what you can store on your one machine.

Now back to the Sims. The Sims will be produced for BOTH GBA and GC. Then, say you want to take your character from your GC and go to a friends house and play. Well, you simply conntect the two, move the character and walk on over and reconnect. Oh, and don't think you'll be playing the "same" game. When the two combine, you get levels you don't have in a single system.

Or your Pokemon. Suppose you've found so many you need to delete some to keep playing. Well, not anymore. Just move them to another system - oh, and play them there.

Next we saw and example of exactly what could truly happen in a 4 player game hooked up to a television (really wishes she had her camera for this one). Four players were playing Zelda - 4 Swords. There was a central screen to watch (the TV) and 4 mini GBA screens. They all 4 ran around raping a pillaging (well as much as you can in Zelda) but then one of them entered a house. And on HIS mini-screen you saw him in the house while the other three were outside. There was no end to it. One in a dungeon, 2 in the house, one outside - until they met up again. VERY nice.

There was so much more shown and so much more I could tell you (if I wasn't starving) but I think I'll end this on Pac-Man. That's right - Pac-Man. Nintendo and Capcom have come together to remake Pac-Man, but its not your mother's (meaning my) Pac-Man. With Connectivity, one of you gets to be Pac-Man, the other 3 the ghosts. Oh, until you die. Then the ghost that killed you gets to be Pac-Man.

I just may have to reconsider playing console games again. I'll still be bad at them...but to play them WITH my kids, THAT will be fun.