Nintendo E3 ‘07: Live-blogging the Live Feeds

You didn’t think we would stop with Microsoft, did you? We’ll be continuing our “Live-blogging the Live Feeds” feature throughout the rest of the day, starting at 12:00 EST with Nintendo’s press briefing, and again at 2:30 EST with Sony’s conference. Whether you’re at work, taking a sick day, or whatever, we’ll be here updating as much as possible about whatever we can find — so get your fingers prepped with CTRL + R!

11:45 EST: Well, if the console war is decided by music: Microsoft wins. Some kind of Christina Aguilera rip-off (maybe it’s her?) preceded by what sounded like country music and a violin.

11:55 EST: “Ladies and Gentlemen: the show will begin in approximately five minutes.”

11:57 EST: The nauseating music continues. A mix of genres and poor performances proves poorly for our stomachs.

11:58 EST: Turn off your cell phones, it’s show-time in two minutes.

12:03 EST: It’s started. A montage of all the news outlets covering the Wii is playing, including the WiiJ! Summing it up: It’s random people talking up Nintendo, along with random viral videos like laughing babies.

12:04 EST: “My name is Reggie, and I am happy.” “We see today as a celebration.” He talks about how gaming is finally starting to be accepted as a mainstream form of entertainment.

Growth is up 42% in the first half of this year, more so elsewhere in the world - Japan’s yearly growth is up 114%.

12:07 EST:“This year exactly 69% of game industry growth comes directly from the sales of Nintendo products.” Portable systems take up half of all game sales.Talking about potential, reaching older consumers.

12:10 EST: 1/3 of all systems are bought by women.1/8 men over 50, more than 10% of females are playing regularly — too many ratios being thrown around! Summing it up: the Wii is kicking all kinds of ass!

12:15 EST: Reggie addresses fad issue. Brings up DS, which has sold 40 million units, best selling game console ever. “Wii is poised to become the #1 worldwide in this generation, very soon.” “Nintendo is not a fad. Nintendo is the future.”

12:16 EST: 140 more DS games, 100 more Wii games by the end of the year. How many are Virtual Console?

12:17 EST: More viral videos and “OMG NINTENDO RAWKS” kinds of articles and newscasts are shown off in a montage.

12:18 EST: Wii Zapper introduced, houses both Wii-mote and nunchuck. Will “revolutionize” first-person-shooters. States that this week, we (us? Or those present?) will be able to try it out in Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. Forget whack-a-mole “Zap a Zombie.”

Medal of Honor, Resident Evil Umbrealla Chronicles, Ghost Squad all support it.Zapper available this year for $19.99.

12:22 EST: WWE: Smackdown vs. Raw will be on Wii/DS. Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for DS, Dragon Quest early next year, and Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games mentioned.

“Turning fight into an absolute brawl” - Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Will launch in US on December 3rd. “Best Smash Bros. ever, by far.”

12:25 EST: Profiles shows off for Wii fansite editors. They like Nintendo! — “Classic Nintendo goes above mainstream consumer” footage.

12:26 EST: Two treehouse members take the stage, start to demo the Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass for the Nintendo DS. Nothing new here: touch controls explained, everybody loves it in Japan.

12:30 EST: Metroid Prime 3 Corruption demo shown. Claims to have best FPS control ever, talks a lot about switching visors. “Lock-on free aiming” — Lock on with the Z button, and you can still look around in a free manner, looks to help solve previous control issues seen at last year’s E3.

12:32 EST: Reggie claims to already have taken WiFi seriously — yeah, right. Followed byANOTHER SHILL of Nintendo commercials. 5.5 million DS owners have played on the Nintendo WiFi Connection, over 230 million gameplay sessions hosted.

12:34 EST: Virtual Console reaches 5.6 million game downloads, 112 classic games released.

Finally talks about WiiWare, and introduces a new channel: “Check Mii out.” You can upload and download Miis from around the world. Contest will entail creating the best Mii celebrity.

12:37 EST: Mario Strikers, Madden 08, and FIFA 08 will all have online play. Dragon Quest Monsters for DS will support Nintendo WiFi.

Wii gets exclusive wireless Les Paul for GH3, will be online with a battle of the bands type gameplay element.

Mario Kart Wii announced! Online play and in Q1 2008. Battle mode! “More racers means more fun… How many more? Stay tuned.” Custom Wii Wheel makes it’s debut alongside Mario Kart Wii, bundled together.

12:42 EST: Another montage of news stories…enough! We’re dubbing it “Appealing to All Ages shill.”

12:44 EST: …And our live feed goes out…Awesome!

12:46 EST: We’re back! Satoru Iwata has taken the stage. Talking about Nintendo of yore, “exciting time.”

Nintendo wants to “Destroy the psychological barrier between veteran players and novice players.”

12:50 EST: Iwata continues talking about “Playing together.” “In a few minutes Mr. Miyamoto will be out here” — fanboys underpants meet consistency of a Twinkie’s innards.

12:51 EST: More random people saying how much they love the Wii. They are talking about Super Mario Galaxy and Brain Age 2 just after playing them — seems totally fake.

12:53 EST: Reggie takes the stage again. Announces that Brain Age 2 will be out August 20, 2007.

Super Mario Galaxy “is the first worthy successor of Super Mario 64.” Dated for this year — November 12th!

12:55 EST: High School Musical, My Sims, and Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 all mentioned, nothing new.

12:57 EST: Starts talking about self-improvement games: Flash Focus (exercises your eyes), My Word Coach (?) (your Mom will kick your ass), all stemmed from Wii sports.

Another commercial filled with news stories and viral videos, this time dealing with the Wii’s fitness aspects.

1:00 EST: WiiFit announced and shown off. Looks like it comes with some kind of pressure-sensing mat that you lean on and do push-ups and all kinds of jazzercising. Virtual Hula Hooping, and a dancing minigame that looks similar to DDR.

1:03 EST: Shigeru Miyamoto gets on stage to introduce WiiFit to the rest of the world. “Wii needs to be relevant to everyone in the household.”

Three fitness trainers demo some of the activities: one-legged stretch, step aerobic — screen displays where you step on the mat and you follow that pattern with your feet, and the sideways twist is shown off — think trunk twists. The sideways twist takes balance into consideration.

Aerobics, muscle, yoga, and balance activities all playable.

The mat is called the Wii Balance Board. It measures your weight and balance. The board is wireless and allows you to use it in other games, offering up potential full body gameplay integration.

1:09 EST: Miyamoto demonstrates the body checking abilities on Reggie — checks how his center of gravity has shifted….and feed cuts out again.

1:12 EST: We’re back, and joined by “just remember, muscle is better than fat.”

Miyamoto and Reggie face off in soccer hitting competition. You lean left or right on the board and try not to get hit in the face by soccer balls. Reggie totally owns Miyamoto!

1:15 EST: Reggie says it’s a “remarkable time for a remarkable industry.” “This is Nintendo’s moment to lead.” Talks about games finally starting to be accepted as a medium.

1:17 EST: Wraps it up with yet another montage, and that’s it! Thanks for tuning in, folks. If all goes according to plan, we should be back for Sony’s conference at 2:30 EST