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Due to the potential that a wifi signal would "interfere with the game demos" there's no way to liveblog from Nintendo's Club Nokia-set Media Briefing, but as before, I'm just going to do it anyway.

9:02 am - Just sat down, as I thought this was starting at 9:30. It's actually starting right now. My bad.

9:04 am - Here's Cammie Dunaway! She's very businesslike, instantly firing into a speil about market share and consumers and stuff. It's the same stuff that Nintendo have been banging on for years about - "maybe you've seen a WOMAN playing a Nintendo DS!" is something she literally just said - so it's pretty boring to listen to again.

9:07 am - "Now Mario in 3D was great, but we admit that we haven't quite worked out how to move him into the fourth dimension, but four is a clue for Mario's next adventure."

They're starting with Mario, so maybe they learned the lesson of last year's E3 press conference?

9:08 am - New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I would say yay, but I hated New Super Mario Bros. on the DS. It was like a poorly made fan game.

Anyway, New Super Mario Bros. Wii is similar to the original, but with four players. It looks completely blah.

9:12 am - The title is to launch Holiday 2009, says Cammie, before moving on to discuss Wii Fit.

9:14 am - Oh hey, Wii Fit Plus. We all knew this was coming. Six new strength and Yoga activities, but the "key" is how you "mix and match individual elements".

Also fifteen new balance games, including a pretty neat looking Mario-style one. The title is going to launch with the Balance Board and in a stand-alone version too. I can't work out if it replaces the original Wii Fit software, or if it's an addition.

9:17 am - HEEEEEEEEEEERE'S REGGIE

9:20 am - He's just talking about Wii MotionPlus and then showing as a very bombastic trailer for it. But everyone here is already familiar with it and what it does so...

9:21 am - Also, you know, Project Natal, cough cough

9:25 am - We're going through a very detailed presentation about Wii Sports Resort. The game looks so neat and everything, but I kind of feel that I should stop "liveblogging" until they reveal something new.

9:30 am - No, actually, I'll take some time to note that the "banter" between Reggie and Bill Trinen on screen is stilted as hell. But I actually enjoyed watching them take part in a Wii Sports Resort three-point shooting contest. It looked fun!

9:33 am - Final Fantasy The Crystal Bearers. Is this a new announcement? I don't know, it's so hard to tell the difference between these Final Fantasy games. Oh, and a Kingdom Hearts game - Kingdom Hearts 358/2 -but we definitely knew about that one.

What I'm enjoying though is that there's a guy somewhere in this crowd that keeps wanting to clap after each announcement. There's one audible clap after everything, but no one is following him, so he stops.

9:35 am - The new Mario and Luigi is going to be called Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story. The Mario and Luigi games are good, so, yeah, I'm excited. It's coming out Fall 2009.

9:37 am - Golden Sun DS. One guy just yelled "YES", which is the most excited anyone has been all this time. Good for him, no one else seems to care.

9:38 am - Cammie is back. I miss Reggie already. She's introducing James Patterson's Women's Murder Club Games of Passion. Yes, really.

OH MY GOD I COULD PLAY THE PART OF DR. CLAIRE WASHBURN MY LIFE IS COMPLETE

But hey, she's announcing a new Ubisoft game for DS, C.O.P. The Recruit. Sort of a DS GTA, except more like GTA III than Chinatown Wars, if you know what I mean.

9:41 am - Style Savvy, a girl's dress up game. You know, I thought it was weird that they moved their media briefing from the Kodak Theatre to the (much, much smaller) Club Nokia, and the atmosphere in this room absolutely sucks. I feel like I'm in a room full of people who are bored stupid. I almost miss the fanboys from the the Kodak Theatre freaking out over anything. Here we just have this one guy who wants to clap.

9:44 am - Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again, with a level editor. I quite liked the original Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, but the DS sequel was completely different and lame. This is clearly more like the sequel.

9:45 am - Made in Ore is being localized as Wario Ware D.I.Y. I guess these kind of annoucements, "hey, here's that game that's been out in Japan for a while, here's what we're going to call it in the West" is the best we can hope for, then?

9:48 am - Soon you'll be able to upload images to Facebook from your Nintendo DSi. OMG MEGATON

9:51 am - Satoru Iwata has come out. I want Nintendo to stop banging on about audience expansion SO MUCH

9:52 am - NO MORE LIFESTYLE PHOTOGRAPHS EITHER GOD

9:58 am - He's just announced the "Wii Vitality Sensor". Oh dear.

It's basically a pulse checker. It is so Japanese. It's apparently going to be used with games or something to make us feel relaxed and "even fall asleep."

I can't wait to fall asleep in front of my Wii!

10:00 am - Cammie is back. So far this presentation is actually worse than last year's. Quite incredible. But now she's announcing a new 3D Mario game for Wii.

Hilariously, the applause for this is sparse. You'll be able to ride Yoshi, which got a wee bit of applause too. The game is, yes, Super Mario Galaxy 2, and astonishingly it just looks like more of the same. I really liked Super Mario Galaxy, but do I really want to play 120 stars more of it? To be honest, I'm not sure, but I'm just being a curmugeon.

10:03 am - Reggie's back again. "I'll be honest, I read the blogs too."

10:04 am - Three examples of exclusive third party titles for Wii that are for core gamers. The first one is The Conduit, which isn't really that exciting, is it?

Next, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. Why am I even typing this out? If you care about these games, you already know all about them.

Finally, Dead Space: Extraction. Polite applause for that one.

10:08 am - Announcing a Team Ninja game, eh?

Okay, legitimately a real announcement. Metroid: Other M. A Team Ninja Metroid game. How intriguing, particularly as it seems like it's going to have a ton of plot. The gameplay footage is unclear, though. Is it an FPS, a 2.5D platformer, a third-person title? A mixture of them all?

Well, that was it, though. Terrible energy in this room, even though people seemed most jazzed for Metroid: Other M.

Message Edited by MathewKumar on 06-02-2009 01:42 PM

Message Edited by JS on 07-26-2009 01:28 PM