In the second year of the newly revamped show, Nintendo released a few much-desired games, as well as a pair of incredible peripherals, and yet, there seemed to be something missing. Much of the show's excitement came from third parties (on my Nintendo Wii?), and some found Nintendo's announcements disappointing. Whatever your reaction, we're sure we can all agree on one thing: there was a ton of news and a flood of media. Luckily, you can revisit it all right here (even the week's most outrageous story, which wasn't even from E3).
We've listed a few of the show's highlights below, but for the full index of all our 2008 E3 coverage, hit the break. We still have a few items rolling in, and we'll be updating the index as that happens. Check back with us over the next few days by clicking the E3 sidebar graphic.
Nintendo's WiiSpeak demo was one of the freakiest things that happened during E3. Basically, Nintendo had an Animal Crossingdemo running in their conference room, with a WiiSpeak mic connected. In an undisclosed location somewhere else in the convention center, Charles Martinet was also playing City Folk, with a Mario-style avatar, and riffing in the Mario voice with whoever happened to wander by.
Mostly, this entailed yelling at other players for messing with his flowers, and complaining about the lack of bugs nearby. I tried to interact with Mr. Martinet, but the WiiSpeak couldn't pick up my normal speaking voice (which is admittedly mousy and whisper-quiet). As I was walking away, Mario starting smacking the other players with his axe.
All Animal Crossing games are wonderful, but that's not all they have in common: as it happens, each game in the series to date has featured an unwieldy, cumbersome user interface. Every tool and item can only be selected by opening a totally separate menu, you can't skip through any of the game's (oft-repeated) dialogue, and writing letters/entering text is a royal pain in the backside, thanks to the excruciatingly annoying on-screen keyboard.
This morning, JC's hands-on impressions of Animal Crossing: City Folk revealed that Nintendo had fixed the first problem, by allowing users to cycle through their inventory with the d-pad. And now the third issue has been resolved, for City Folk will let players hook a USB keyboard up to their Wiis -- superb news! Just give us the ability to skip instantly through Nook's natterings and Blathers' blather, and we'll be pleased as punch.
By now, you've read about the new city in Animal Crossing: City Folk. The itinerant characters like Gracie and Lyle now have their own shops in the new "City" area. Two new locations in the city, as I found in my hands-on session, combine to form a shortcut to hilarity.
A theater in town offers stand-up performances from Wild World's Dr. Shrunk, which (through his reactions more than his actual terrible jokes) teach your new avatar an emotion. You can then trigger these emotional responses with an icon on the onscreen keyboard or an icon located at the top of the gameplay screen. I got "sorrow," which causes the character to cry briefly. Heartbreaking!
The Nintendo rep then led me into the new beauty shop, where you can give yourself a makeover in the form of a Mii mask. I chose the Iwata mask for my avatar Sarah, which replaced her Crossing-style head with Iwata's. This odd sequence of events left me in a position to make a cartoon version of Nintendo's president, clad in a dress, weep. You can see a picture of said crying jag after the break.
One was casually dropped, a tossed bone, if you will, and the other had all the muted spectacle of Nintendo's E3 showing this year. They're both colorful and take anthropomorphism to new, weird levels. Neither one of them is Kid Icarus. It's Pikmin versus Animal Crossing, and we want to know where you stand. If, say, you had to choose.
Even though we haven't seen or heard anything about Pikmin other than Miyamoto's low key "oh, right, that one game, we're doing it," this is a fair question -- based on the past games in each franchise, which do you prefer?
Did yesterday's Nintendo keynote leave you wanting more? Well, pipe down already -- you're getting more. The company is holding a private conference, and our very own JC Fletcher is invited to the party. Since you can't be there, we'll be posting JC's highlights right here, live. We hope your F5 buttons and refresh fingers are ready, because the word on the street is that something big is going to be revealed. Of course, that could just be disgruntled fans' hopes evolving into a rumor, but we'd like to believe that's not the case. We'd hate to be disappointed by the big N two days in a row, after all.
If we hear something big (or not so big), don't worry, you'll be the first to know (well, uh, after us).
So, we've had tons of content up for you all yesterday, because that's how we roll and we'll be damned if The Man is going to stop us! For those of you hungry for more, know that we're going to continue the flood of content, but we've also got a huge photo dump from the Nintendo E3 keynote for you. Within, you'll find all of our pics from the luxurious seats found in row 12. Missed some of the bits about how well the DS is selling? We got it in images. Want to see Shaun White's hideous Mii? We got you covered. Check it all out in our gallery below.
When the WiiSpeak peripheral was unveiled for Animal Crossing: City Folk, we were happy to finally get voice chat on our Wii. But, a curious slide at the conclusion of Nintendo's E3 keynote showed the device has a very peculiar brick-like adapter that the USB end's cable plugs into. Now, we're assuming this is just a power brick, but you know what your school teachers told you about assuming!
At least one thing is certain: the thing has enough cable to wrap around Nintendo HQ many times over.
With so many highlights from this year's Nintendo E3 keynote, we're finding our live chat wasn't enough to cover our thoughts and opinions on what was shown. So, below, you'll find some impressions akin to what we did last year. Enjoy.
Perhaps the least surprising choice Nintendo could have made for an E3 reveal was Animal Crossing: City Folk ... at least, until they got to the voice chat. That was a pretty huge coup that seemingly came out of nowhere. But don't let that distract you from the heart of the game: digging, decorating, and socializing. Check out some of that in this debut trailer.
This year's Nintendo conference at E3 felt much too short, but was packed with some really great announcements ... like Wii Speak! But in case you missed the show, or simply prefer an abridged version, here are the highlights. Read our live reactions here, or check out Joystiq's live blog if you're feeling adventurous.
Shaun White Snowboarding demonstration (with Shaun White!), and a lot of stuff we already knew about the Ubisoft title, such as release window and the fact that it uses the Balance Board. Unsurprisingly, no mention of the abhorrent graphics.
In Nintendo's expected announcement of Animal Crossing Wii, the company added something unexpected: players will be able to use a peripheral known as WiiSpeak to communicate (non-locally, of course) during the game.
The video demonstration briefly showed four players playing Animal Crossing on the Wii while "WiiSpeaking" to each other. We think it's about time that Nintendo got on the voice chat train, and we'll let you know more about the peripheral and how it works as details arise.
Katsuya Eguchi's happy face just popped up on the giant screens at Nintendo's E3 2008 press conference to tell us that -- quelle surprise! -- Animal Crossing will be heading to the Wii this year, along with WiFi connectivity and voice chat.
Animal Crossing: City Folk's WiFi capabilities will allow players to exchange letters and pictures, bid on (and sell) items at a special in-game auction site, and check out the status of other players at the Happy Room Academy. There's also an option to slap a mask of your Mii on your avatar, and a bigger city area to scope around. But it's the "community microphone" feature -- known as "WiiSpeak" -- that will really grab headlines.
[Update 1: First screens in our gallery below] [Update 2: Nintendo reckons we can expect this in the U.S. on November 16th! (thanks, Alvin)]
Posted Jul 9th 2008 10:15AM by Phil Larsen Filed under: News
Tom West of Official Nintendo Magazine went ahead and stated in his blog that "Animal Crossing Wii wil be unveiled at the conference." Referring to E3, of course. Top brass probably had an issue with this particular choice of words, and the blog entry now reads "everyone is hoping that Animal Crossing Wii will be there." Too late, hot plate! You can't outrun the internet, don't even try.
Adding even more fuel to the fire, GAF'ers discovered Nintendo Norway has listed Animal Crossing on its 2008 release list, meaning we see game --> wait a short period of time for game --> buy game. Not a bad sequence of events, don't you think?
Our rapid-fire E3 coverage will be starting very soon, so stick around for all the latest on Animal Crossing Wii and other games featuring utopian societies of anthropomorphic creatures.
Animal Crossing is coming. This is a fact. What formit will take when it does arrive is a deeper mystery. Somebody at the UK edition of the Official Nintendo Magazine knows the answer to this, damn them, and they aren't afraid to shout about it.
The above image (art from Animal Crossing: Wild World on the DS) appears on the "Coming Next Month" page in the latest issue of the mag, and was dutifully scanned and internetalized by a Go Nintendo reader for all of us to speculate about. "It's been a while," reads the accompanying caption, keeping us on tenterhooks. "It's time to revisit an old friend. How's your village doing these days?"
All of which is very exciting, but by the time the next edition of Official Nintendo Magazine appears (August 1st), we may have already heard more from E3. Either way, we'll know something about this game soon. Prepare your Golden Shovels, everybody!
A new Pikmin sprouts!
Animal Crossing: City Folk confirmed
The Conduit will use WiiSpeak
Wii Sports Resort announced
Mega Man 9 feels more like a 10
Wii Fanboy bats-on with Mario Super Sluggers
Animal Crossing to support keyboards, save fruit-picking time
Wii Fanboy hands-on with Wii Sports Resort
One was casually dropped, a tossed bone, if you will, and the other had all the muted spectacle of Nintendo's E3 showing this year. They're both colorful and take anthropomorphism to new, weird levels. Neither one of them is Kid Icarus. It's 
