If you're new here and you like what you see, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed, and browse around for more fun stuff. Thanks for visiting!

So, it’s almost that time again. Nintendo, oldest of the big 3, is going to take the stage soon and show us what it’s got for this year’s E3. But what exactly does the big N have in store for us? Some of the big rumors this year are:

• An external hard drive attachment for the Wii
• A new DS redesign, or the announcement of the possibility of such
• Metroid Dread, the first new side-scrolling Metroid game since Fusion
• A new Zelda game
• Information on Animal Crossing Wii
• More information on Pokémon Platinum, the upcoming continuation to Diamond and Pearl

Which of these are true, and which ones are just wishful thinking? Find out after the jump.

9:00: Looks like the stage is empty so far. The screen is showing different images, stuff like Iwata and others from the company, and random images of people playing Wii and DS.

9:05: A video starts up of people playing Wii and DS. Your typical Nintendo fare, just random shots of people playing their systems. It looks like they’re trying to play up the whole casual aspect of the systems: Lots of shots of older and younger people playing.

9:07: The video stops and on walks Cammie Denoway, who is apparently the head of sales for Nintendo. She talks about how much fun she’s having working for them and how Reggie isn’t here today. Now she’s talking about impressing her son and snowboarding, and how she fell on her face and busted her wrist.

9:10: Shaun White shows up behind some partition on a Balance Board to premier Shaun White Snowboarding, the first game to use the peripheral as a controller since Wii Fit came out. Looks pretty fun! Sounds like it’s designed around the Balance Board. Lean forward and you go faster, lean back and you slow down. Rotate and it spins, etc.

9:12: Cammie’s up on a board now, and she’s doing pretty good for a first-timer. Kinda funny to watch, even though she’s not screwing up. It’s coming out by the end of the year.

9:13: Iwata comes on out, finally. He’s talking about how the market has changed and such. Now he’s on about how no one expected Nintendo’s growth and how they’re sending “bathroom scales” (An image of Wii Fit pops up on the screen).

9:16: He’s talking about what exactly has changed in this “paradigm shift”, as he keeps putting it. Things like how their titles can sell longer than other titles. He uses Nintendogs, Brain Age, MKDS, and New Super Mario Bros. as examples. He also says how common sense is that graphics don’t matter. However, he understands that more and more people want better graphics.

9:18: Now he’s talking about the userbase (more old ladies playing DS). He says that an “intuitive control system” can bring people to the market that never played games before.

9:19: Numbers time. Apparently, Europeans are buying 20,000 DS units a week. US players are buying somewhere around 30,000 Wiis every month outside of the holiday months.

9:23: Katsuya Eguchi. creator of Animal Crossing, is up on the screen now, talking about being a game designer. He says that he wanted to make a game where players could communicate in different ways, even when they aren’t both playing at the same time.

9:24: The new Animal Crossing game, Animal Crossing: City Folk, is up on screen now. Looks like your usual AC offering. Digging, texture creating, holidays, things like that. Now the City is up on the screen, a brand new place containing an auction house, a Happy Room academy, where you can find out what other players are up to. There’s a new fashion store, Gracie’s, and Harriet has a salon, where you can change your hair or make your face look like a Mii.

9:26: You can send letters to friends, other towns, Wii messge boards, and even cellphones. But that’s not all. There’s a new microphone attachment for the Wii, called WiiSpeak, that sits on the TV. Apparently, it allows you to speak to whole other groups in other rooms, while playing games like AC:TF. They’re showing the multiplayer functionality. Looks like you can be in the same town at the same time, up to 4 people as far as I can tell.

9:27: Reggie finally strolls out. He talks about how they are pleased with AC:TF and Wiispeak. In May, they hit 10 million Wiis, and passed 20 million DSes. Over 5 billion dollars revenue. More numbers. And they’re still not satisfied.

9:30: “Marketplace perspective”. Looks like DS is kicking everything’s ass right now in sales, with the PSP up next, followed by the Wii, the 360, and the PS3. He expects that they’ll hit 100 million DSes moved by the end of ‘08. A lofty goal.

9:31: He’s talking about how Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2 hit 600,000 in just a few weeks. DS software is up 29% since last year. He thinks that the DS is now selling more than the Wii, at least for June. He’s talking about how the girl gamer ads, featuring celebrities like Ashley Tisdale, boosted DS sales even higher.

9:34: Third party games now. 19 different third party games have broken the 400,000 mark. He’s talking about development options and such right now. Only 3 new games are getting previewed for Wii today.

9:36: Star Wars: The Clone Wars is up now. It looks like it keeps the great animation from the miniseries it’s based on. It also looks like this is the lightsaber game everyone’s been looking for in the Wii ever since it released 2 years ago. Truly looks like fun, I personally can’t wait for this one. Releasing this holiday season.

9:37: New Rayman: Raving Rabbids title, subtitled TV Party. Looks like more of the same, but better. Includes a skysurfing game and a cow-riding game that use the balance board. Fall 2008.

9:38: New Call of Duty title. Of course, looks like more of the same: Still looks like WW2, a few new guns, like the Flametrower. Co-op mode looks promising, kind of Time Crisis-esque. “Coming soon”.

9:39: Cammie is back up on stage. Apparently, in ‘05, Female gamers made up 30% of the DS market. Now, it’s almost equal between males and females. Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades is announced, as is Spore on the DS.

9:40: The new GH:On Tour title is up now. They’re talking about “Song sharing”, which allows you to play any song on any GH:OT version, regardless of which version they have.

9:42: Spore Creatures is up now. Looks about the same. They’re talking about the ability to share your creatures, and your creatures can play with other creatures. Sounds kinda cool.

9:43: New Pokémon game on November 10th! Too bad it’s the next Ranger game.

9:44: GTA game on the DS this winter! Subtitled GTA: Chinatown Wars. New characters, new engine, same gameplay.

9:45: She’s talking about innovation with the DS itself. Stuff like how it could give you information about an airport, areas near you, etc. It’s being tested, she says.

9:46: DSes at Safeco Field can be used to watch highlights, do trivia, check box scores, and ordering food. Sounds kind of cool.

Holy crap, the DS cooking teacher is coming to America in the winter.

9:47: Reggie’s back. He’s talking about the new attachment for the Wiimote, the MotionPlus. It increases the sensitivity of the Wiimote, even to the point of where a simple wrist shift can translate to a movement. Wii Sports: Resort is up on the screen now, and they’re previewing 3 games from it. Comes with a MotionPlus and a new Wiimote jacket with each purchase.

9:48: Cammie and some other guy are up on the stage demoing the MotionPlus using the new games. The first one is called Disc Doggie. She’s just barely moving her wrist, and her Mii is mirroring her almost perfectly.

The game looks a lot like the disc minigame in Nintendogs. She sucks at it, naturally.

9:50: Reggie’s being, well, Reggie. He’s showing off a jetski minigame a’la Wave Race. Looks like you hold the Wiimote and Nunchuck sideways. Looks like a blast. Reggie’s not all that bad at it.

9:51: Sword Dueling?! Cool! Of course, you hold the Wiimote like a sword. He’s showing off how good the controlsa re here, they look nice and sensitive without being too sensitive. Reggie and Cammie are going at it, looks too fun. Reggie wins, calls himself the “Reginator”. They decide to rematch, and Cammie wins.

9:52: Reggie’s talking about developers using the MotionPlus in their games.

9:55: The screen goes black, some cool background music. Fog comes up from the stage, your usual big-announcement stuff. There’s someone up there playing on a drumset on the screen with a Wiimote, a Nunchuck, and a balance board. Looks like he’s having fun. He’s not bad, either. Looks like you use the controller as sticks, and the balance board to hit the bass drum and hi-hat.

9:56: Miyamoto is up now, looks like his Mii is playing a saxaphone while the other guy is still playing drums. Behind him is a new logo: Wii Music!

9:57: Now there’s some guys up playing xylophone and a standing bass. The music cuts and Miyamoto starts talking about the game. It’s been in development ever since they started working on the other Wii “ “ games, like Wii Sports.

9:59: Wii Music is, supposedly, just a jam game, kinda like Jam Sessions for the DS. No scoring, no rhythm, just playing the instruments. Apparently, the Wii autoplays the song as you perform the movements and hit the buttons. For instance, Miyamoto was just holding the remote and pressing the buttons in timing, as if he was playing the instrument himself.

10:01: Over 50 instruments, each with different movements. Things like violin, piano, drums, etc. There’s even a taiko drum! Miyamoto’s really getting into this.

10:02: The drum guy’s name is, apparently, Ravi Drums. The game has a separate mode for drums, which includes a tutorial for drumming. Apparently, Ravi just started practicing yesterday, which is impressive since he was pretty good.

10:03: Hey look, there’s even a composing mode where you can be the composer, hand bell choirs, and such. It records videos of your performance. Players can even record individual parts and put together a music video.

10:04: Ravi, Miyamoto, Denise Kagler, and 2 other guys come up on stage to play a song for everyone. Amazingly, no cowbell jokes when Miyamoto picks the cowbell.

10:05: Naturally, they’re playing the Mario theme. And they’re not too horrible. (Not good, but…)

10:07: Everyone bows and leaves the stage. Reggie and Cammie come back out and start talking about everything they’ve announced today.

10:08: Conclusion. Reggie is dissing people who were calling the Wii and the DS a fad, and that everything has changed these days. Innovation, etc.

10:10: Show closes, techno starts playing, and they leave the stage.

Writer’s Note: Sorry if I lagged a bit posting this. My internet decided to crap out on me today, and I ended up being about 20 minutes behind.