Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 17, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata presented a colorful range of new titles and game ideas. Fans of the revolutionary Wii home console can look forward to a wide variety of motion-controlled games, including Wii Sports Resort, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Wii Music, and Mario Super Sluggers.
Wii Sports Resort
Anyone who enjoyed the bestseller Wii Sports will be thrilled by Wii Sports Resort. It is the first title to use the bundled Wii MotionPlus accessory. Plugged into the Wii Remote, it ensures that players’ arm movements are transmitted more accurately than ever. Wii Sports Resort invites up to four players to a tropical island where they can enjoy activities that are both entertaining and physically active, from playing Frisbee with a cute dog on the beach and exciting fencing contests to fast-paced jet-ski races.
Animal Crossing: City Folk
A virtual world of unlimited possibilities opens up to Wii fans in the simulation Animal Crossing: City Folk. As in the previous titles, they can immerse themselves in a second, virtual life full of animal friends. As the seasons change, new discoveries and experiences always await them, whether they go fishing, collect shells, build snowmen, decorate their homes for Christmas, or enjoy themselves in the new urban setting. They can share all of this with up to three other players and, via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, with friends around the world. For the first time, the separately available WiiSpeak microphone allows conversations to be transmitted directly online.
Wii Music
Whether strumming or drumming, Wii Music lets up to four friends launch into a wild jam session and create their own compositions. They can choose from around 60 different instruments that are easy to play. Even complete beginners can readily produce pleasing sounds by playing their instruments to a song’s beat or improvising as they wish. They can play faster or slower, skip a beat, and add new notes. The controllers become air guitars or drumsticks, while the Wii Balance Board serves as the pedal for the bass drum. With the Wii Remote as a baton, players can even conduct an entire orchestra. Naturally, Wii musicians can also record and save their own compositions and send them to friends via WiiConnect24.
Mario Super Sluggers
Mario Super Sluggers from NAMCO BANDAI brings a home run into the living room in the most literal sense. Using the Wii Remote as a bat, up to four players can hit their balls across the virtual field at the same time. They can take on the roles of more than 40 of the most popular Nintendo characters and enjoy various game modes: a training mode and two competitive modes, a variation featuring amusing mini-games, and a single-player mode. In the latter, players discover the Baseball Kingdom, where they must overcome numerous challenges and defeat Bowser, the meanest baseball villain in town.
Beyond Nintendo’s own new Wii releases, numerous new titles from licensees will once again expand the Wii’s game library. Wii fans can expect plenty more moving gameplay experiences and new discoveries in the months ahead.
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