Could Nintendo, a name we all know and love, have a press conference to live up to their name? Could they top what Microsoft offered up the day before? I’ll tell you what happened and you can determine for yourself.

The show starts with Reggie Fils-Aime(the president of Nintendo of America) welcoming the audience and telling everyone to take a look at something they have been waiting to see. A trailer starts to roll for The Legend of Zelda: Skyword Sword less than two minutes into the show. Probably the biggest game they could have started with, I am very pumped at this point as I am a huge Zelda fan. I feel the game has an Ocarina of Time look with a cartoon style cell shading, I think it looks pretty good. After the trailer they start showing off some gameplay. The sword is controlled with the wiimote and motion plus to give the game 1:1 sword movement. It seemed to work very well, although they did have some interference. This also happened at other events with other games that played just fine, and from what other journalists have said, the controls work flawlessly.

Next up they start talking about sports games that will be heading to the Wii such as Madden, Pro Evolution Soccer, MLB 2K, and NBA Jam (BOOM SHAKALAKA). They use this to roll into a trailer for Mario Sports Mix that includes sports like volleyball, ice hockey, dodgeball, and basketball. It looks to have the feel of Super Mario Strikers which was a sweet game. I think Mario Sports Mix could be very fun.

After this, they slide in some words about sales figures, how the Wii set records. Sometimes you need to reassure the stock holders. These comments roll into “bridge games” which are basically games that pull in non-gamers. They begin rolling a trailer for Wii Party which I thought was just Mario Party with Mii characters. It didn’t seem too impressive and I think Mario Party would sell better than this game so this seems to be a strange title for Nintendo. Another “bridge game” they talk about is Just Dance 2. Not so much in the same words, but the first title made buckets of money so they have a second one coming out. This also seemed bore to me, but I’m sure some people would be excited about this game. If any of those people saw the dance games working on Microsoft’s Kinect, they would probably kick their Wii. The Kinect dance games will just work better because dancing involves the whole body, not just hands.

Now moving onto the one of two DS games they talked about the whole show, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. I remember the GBA game being very good so this should be pretty cool. I looks a lot like the Final Fantasy games on the DS which isn’t bad, but I think the videos won’t do it justice because it is meant to be played on a smaller screen. The DS has some great RPGs and I think a comeback for this game is good.

This is the golden part of the show, literally. A trailer starts to roll that shows a bunch of people in a room and they are getting asked questions like, “Why was this game so good?” and “What made it a classic?”. Then the people in the trailer are told that after 13 years a new GoldenEye game is being made. The people precede to flip out and gameplay rolls. I thought this was a very cool way to show the raw emotion and power that the original GoldenEye has with people. I also remember hours and hours of playing. The game didn’t look too great graphically but it is on the Wii. The trailer did say the game has online and split-screen multiplayer which is pretty cool. I’m not really too sure how much of an impact this game will have now, but it might sell very well. I know the XBLA Perfect Dark remake was pretty well reviewed and this GoldenEye game isn’t completely new. I guarantee it will have everything the original had and this is what might make this worth it. This game is still a toss up for me, but I look forward to playing it this holiday so I can make a decision of my own.

Next they brought up people to present Epic Mickey. I have to say, it deserves the name of epic. This game is hard to explain; it is a platforming, action adventure game with consequences for your actions. The game takes place in a world with all the retired Disney characters and lost drawings. In the game, Mickey uses paint to draw or erase parts of the world. Drawing and erasing is very cool to watch on screen. You can erase houses but later in the game if you talk to that person, they may not be willing to help you because you removed their house. I have a feeling there is a lot still not known about this game and it will really be epic.

They keep rolling on the train of old franchises and characters with, Kirby: Epic Yarn. This has to be one of the coolest art styles I have ever seen, it looks amazing. It uses yarn, fabric, zippers and more as the graphics to the game. It is kind of along the same lines of Paper Mario. The gameplay is like classic side scrolling Kirby games with what looks to be 2 player co-op. This game looks to be very fun to play. Kirby: Epic Yarn will be out this fall.

The next two games are nothing new but that doesn’t mean they aren’t awesome. They talk about the release of Dragon Quest IX in less than a month and how someone at the Nintendo office has 120 hours logged on the game, crazy. The other game is Metroid: Other M coming August 31. They show a gameplay trailer of the game and it looks to be lots of fun and a different spin on the series. This game is done by the same people that made the Ninja Gaiden games. Both are games many should look forward too.

If you thought Nintendo has announced games for all their major franchises, you thought wrong. The team that made the Metroid Prime series is making Donkey Kong Country Returns. Classic DKC music starts playing and a trailer starts. The game looks to be a updated version of DKC with some crazy stuff happening in the background; it looks so awesome! You can’t ask for much more from Donkey Kong, the DKC games were so good. This will be a must buy when it comes out this holiday.

The show was coming to an end and Nintendo had one more major thing to talk about, the 3DS. They start off talking about how people look goofy wearing glasses and they cost a lot. This is why they didn’t want to go that route. They then roll a pointless trailer that didn’t show anything, but following the clip fog starts filling the corner of the stage and the 3DS slowly rises from a pedestal; a pretty cool entrance I have to say.

The device doesn’t look too much different on the outside other than two cameras for taking 3D photos. On the inside you have all the same DS stuff with an added analog stick and home button. The top screen is a 3.5 inch 3D screen. The bottom is still a standard touch screen with no 3D. They mention touch screens have issues with 3D. There is also a slider on the 3DS that can change how much 3D you actually see. This will be nice for the people who get headaches from 3D. They also talked about how the 3DS can play Hollywood movies on its screen, it is compatible with Nintendo DSi, has a Motion sensor and a gyro sensor too! That’s a lot of tech in a small device, impressive Nintendo.

If you announce a system you have to show off at least one game right? Well they did with Kid Icarus Uprising. Watching a video probably won’t do as much justice but you can see how amazing it will be in 3D. The 3DS has a more beefy processor and from the trailer of Kid Icarus it looks to be on par with the Gamecube, which for a handheld, is pretty good. The environments looked great in the trailer!

After the trailer they talked a little more about the 3DS. It is able to find wifi hotspots and other 3DS’s while in sleep mode so it can transfer info or whatever else developers decide to do. They proceed to talk about partners because what is going to make the system is the games. They show an image of 25 big name companies on board which is a great start. They then roll through most of the companies and just start showing game titles and franchises coming to the 3DS. These games include DJ Hero 3D, Kingdom Hearts 3D, Saints Row, Madden NFL, DOA 3D, Ninja Gaiden, Street Figher IV, Kingdom Hearts, Ridge Racer, Professor Layton and the Metal Gear Solid franchise.

Nintendo closed the show by saying the 3DS is something you have to see for yourself. After this comment probably close to 100 people walk about with 3DSs for the whole room of people to try right then and there. Awesome move Nintendo, if only I could have been there. They also raise in front of the stage some Wii systems loaded up with The Legend of Zelda: Skyword Sword.

The 3DS demos that the people at the show were playing were very impressive also and they happened to announce some new games. They had demos of Star Fox 64, Metal Gear Solid, classic NES and SNES games.

Overall I think Nintendo had an excellent show. They had live gameplay or a good trailer for all the games along with huge franchises they are going to be getting on their systems. Nintendo came out fighting with the other companies and I think they have a KO in this round. What do you think?