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Nintendo showed off both its strengths and weaknesses as a game company last week in San Francisco as it debuted its lineup for fall 2008 and games for next year.

Over two days, I saw games that I liked, including the wonderfully creative “Wii Music,” and games that I hated, like Activision Blizzard’s “Call of Duty: World at War” for the Wii. And then there were weird games, like “Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party,” which required me to steer with my butt. Here are my first impressions, based on spending a small amount of time with these games hands-on.

Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s top game designer, showed off a version of Wii Music for the first time in the spring of 2006, conducting a faux orchestra using only hand gestures. The actual game debuts on Oct. 20, and will likely reestablish Nintendo as the king of innovation.

Like “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band,” Wii Music basically lets you pretend you’re an air guitarist — with a little more diversity. You can strum a virtual violin by holding the Wii Nunchuk (an attachment to the Wii remote) up in the air as if you were cradling the neck of a violin. When you move your other hand (holding the regular remote) back and forth, the character on the screen mimics your movements and violin sounds emanate from the TV. You can do the same for drums, guitars, saxophones — a total of 60 instruments. The movements you make produce the expected sounds.

Wii Music is one of those games that doesn’t really keep score, so there’s no way to lose. That’s a big contrast to Guitar Hero, where you can “fail out” of a song if you don’t hit the right notes to match the playback of a song. The idea behind Nintendo’s game is to get everyone involved in music, from the youngest to the oldest, from the musically-inclined to those who have never picked up an instrument before.

I’m in that second camp. Never played an instrument in my life — at least not seriously. But I had no trouble jamming with the Nunchuk in my left hand, the Wii remote in my right, and the Wii Balance Board under my feet. I started with the snare drums and just started banging away. I tapped with my feet to play the bass drum and the hi-hat cymbal. It didn’t sound good, but I had fun just cutting loose and making a lot of noise at the same time. Read the rest of this entry »

There are so many posts going up about who loved or hated E3 that the discussion over the show format is overshadowing coverage of the video games previewed in Los Angeles last week. The elegies for E3 are flowing throughout the Internet.

Industry agent Keith Boesky said people told him that the empty hallways were “post apocalyptic.” A telling moment for me: Tom Russo, former G4TV programming head, waved at me from a few hundred yards away, in the empty corridor, and yelled, “Dean, can you see me in the crowd?” John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, told the San Francisco Chronicle that “I hate E3 like this,” while Laurent De Toc, a Ubisoft executive, piled on, saying the show was more like a convention for pipe-fitters.

Even Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan, interrupted his discussion of game industry stocks for his own mini-tirade. He wrote, “The show was small in scope, and the spectacle of E3 is dead. The Los Angeles Convention Center concourse was as quiet as a college library during summer, with little to attract media attention.  The main game display area was similar in size to a school cafeteria (as compared to filling the entire convention center), and the ‘fireworks effect’ of past shows was reserved for the evening parties.”

Everybody has an opinion on how to fix it. To recap, E3 drew more than 80,000 attendees in 2006, but big companies complained the costs were skyrocketing and the May show was causing them to pull engineers off their games just to spruce up their E3 demos. To show that it was industry’s best friend, Sony staged huge parties with thousands of guests on a hilltop near Dodger Stadium. The Entertainment Software Association, which sponsors the show, shifted the 2007 show to Santa Monica and carved back attendance to 5,000, mostly journalists. This year, the show stayed at 5,000 but was held in the cavernous Los Angeles Convention Center.

“The irony is that we have a cultural revolution, with more people enjoying interactive entertainment than at any other time in our history; the video game industry has never been better,” said Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. “And you would think that we are going out of business here. We’ve lost the opportunity to stand up on our soap boxes and shout, look at me. The one thing the traditional E3 did was light the place up like a roman candle lit at both ends and focus the world’s media attention on us.” Read the rest of this entry »

LOS ANGELES—With the influx of fresh new gamers, thanks in large part to the popularity of mass-market game machines, the DS and the Wii, more game companies than ever are jumping on the girl gamer bandwagon. Practically every booth at this year’s E3 Media and Business Summit this year had something to offer for female gamers of various demographics.

The breadth of games ranged from Nintendo DS titles like Namco Bandai’s “National Geographic Panda” and Legacy Interactive’s “Zoo Vet Endangered Animals” to Wii titles like Electronic Arts’ “Littlest Pet Shop” (pictured above, also available on Nintendo DS) and “Boogie: Superstar.”

“We discovered with the original ‘Boogie’ that tween girls really loved the game, so we decided to focus on girls 10 to 14 years of age with this sequel,” said Charles-William Bibaud, associate producer for the game. “We worked with a local tween author and a choreographer to make sure this game has everything a tween wants, including lots of customization and the ability to use real dance moves with the Wii.”

Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, said at Nintendo’s E3 press event that 48 percent of Nintendo DS owners are now female gamers. And that number is huge given the fact that Nintendo has sold over 70 million Nintendo DS portables worldwide (as of the end of March). Factor in that the company forecasts a global installed base of 100 million Nintendo DS units by the end of March 2009, and there is clearly a new market for game publishers and developers to target. Read the rest of this entry »

The big video games of the E3 Media and Business Summit have been blasted across magazine covers and websites for the past few months, but the show still offers a large selection of lesser-known games that are worth a look—even if they lack the marketing muscle of the blockbusters. The following list contains solid sleepers, some of which have received positive buzz and press coverage, but none of which made Dean Takahashi’s “most anticipated” games of E3 list.

LEGO Batman, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment  (publisher), TT Games (game developer)

TT Games reached its pinnacle with LucasArts’ LEGO Star Wars II a few years back, or so we thought. After playing its new LEGO Batman game, all the minor complaints about the recent LEGO Indiana Jones game were forgotten. With a huge cast of superheroes and villains, this dark-but-still-cute game isn’t just for kids. It’s the Batman game that fans have always waited for. LEGO Batman is a deep experience with 18 hero levels and 18 villain levels. As Batman and Robin, the cooperative (two players working together) objective is to stop a jewel heist. As Catwoman and one of her cohorts, the goal is to steal those diamonds. There are also free-roaming vehicles like the Batmobile to mix up the action.

Tom Clancy’s Endwar, Ubisoft, Shanghai Studio

A lot of focus has been placed on Ensemble Studio’s Halo Wars to introduce the real-time strategy (RTS) genre to gamers, but what’s easier than barking commands to your troops with your voice? EndWar has the polish of a game that’s been given time to be perfected. I was shown this title exclusively behind-closed-doors last year in Santa Monica and it’s come a long way. From early on the voice commands actually worked. The entire game can be played without a controller. And that’s not just a gimmick, it actually works as a fun gaming experience. Once word-of-mouth on this one spreads, a whole new audience will be introduced to the RTS, where players move simultaneoulsly.

Ultimate Band, Disney Interactive Studios, Fall Line Studio

While both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour are guaranteed fall blockbusters, I think there are plenty of homes that might not have the money to invest in all of those peripherals (costing anywhere from $99 to $169). Disney’s Ultimate Band allows four players to simulate the experience of playing the drums or guitar without needing special controllers. The licensed pop songs should appeal to tweens and Disney’s made sure the E10+ game is family friendly. It’s also a game that encourages kids to get off the couch and get into the music.

Dead Space, Electronic Arts, Redwood Shores Studio

In space, no one can hear you scream. That’s the tag line from the original Alien, and although Sega and Gearbox Software are working on Aliens: Colonial Marines, I can’t help but think about that original horror film when playing Dead Space. There’s something especially scary about being alone in space on a giant ship filled with aliens. It’s a premise that even Hollywood doesn’t attempt very often, and rarely gets right. I think EA had me at “strategic dismemberment,” but the gameplay is inventive, especially when traversing those zero gravity rooms. And the assortment of creatures that populate the ship’s dark hallways are more than formidable.

Left4Dead, Electronic Arts, Valve Software

Speaking of horror, Left4Dead takes thrills to the other side of the genre — the big Hollywood summer popcorn movie. With four-player co-op, this game’s pace is frenetic and fun. The fact that playing together impacts the game’s world and the story dynamically is great, not that you’ll have much time to notice that. There’s so much thrown at players that living another minute is about all they’ll have time to concentrate on. With its blend of excellent visuals and addictive multiplayer gaming, Left4Dead should follow in the footsteps of last year’s The Orange Box.

Infamous, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sucker Punch

With Sierra’s Prototype now “on hold,” Sucker Punch will offer gamers the chance to become a superhero or a villain. Morality will play a role in this graphic novel-inspired epic, which is a far cry from the developer’s Sly Fox family fare. The central character, Cole, is trapped within a quarantined Empire City, which seems to have more problems than Gotham City on a bad day. Cole’s superpowers will manifest as the story progresses, and based on the choices he makes on his quest, he will become famous or infamous. What Sucker Punch showed of this 2009 was impressive, including one of many supervillains that populate the world.

Borderlands, 2K Games, Gearbox Software

Gearbox Software knows a thing or two about guns. And Borderlands serves up more weapons than even Scarface could handle. Through its proprietary technology, Gearbox offers gamers over 500,000 guns to choose from. Each weapon comes with special features, like acid or electricity, to finish off enemies with some pizzazz. Aside from the guns, this open world Pandora (the planet’s name) offers four-player cooperative gameplay and expansive environments to explore. It’s exactly the type of playground gamers should flock to for long hours of entertainment.

Mirror’s Edge, Electronic Arts, DICE

Having proven themselves with the Battlefield franchise, a team at EA-owned DICE has set out to do something no developer has done before. Mirror’s Edge is a first-person action game that revolves around running, jumping and climbing – not gunplay. It’s like the opposite of EA’s old Black game. Sure, there are guns in Mirror’s Edge, but the entire game can be played without ever picking one up. Players control Faith through rooftops and under ground to deliver messages in a future world controlled by a police force. It’s looks and plays unlike any other game I’ve seen.

Dark Void, Capcom, Airtight Games

Ed Fries, former head of Microsoft Game Studios, is back in gaming and his team is working on a game that offers some pretty cool new gameplay options. Fans of Crimson Skies will find plenty of in-air action in Dark Void, but it revolves around a jet-pack. The action takes place in an alternate universe, where a ordinary cargo pilot is thrust into an interplanetary war. One of the things that stood out in this game – aside from the in-air cover system – is the ability for Will to fly to a saucer, avoid its turret, and then open the capsule to expose the alien. While the ship’s zooming through the air, Will fights the alien, throws him off, and then jumps into the cockpit to use this new weapon. If Airtight can deliver this type of control and innovation throughout the experience, I’m in.

Fat Princess, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Darkstar

Sony has released some innovative game on its PlayStation Network, including PixelJunk Monsters, but Fat Princess literally takes the cake. It’s a cute and cuddly-looking game (think Animal Crossing) that turns into a bloodbath. Multiplayer gameplay allows teams of eight to 32 adorable characters to do for Nintendo-style characters what “South Park” has done for rudimentary animation. The demo inside Sony’s Gamers’ Lounge featured a twist on the Capture the Flag mode. The game starts with each side’s princess in the enemy base. To win, the enemy must carry the princess out and back to their base. As much fun as it is to slice through the other team with swords and fire flaming arrows at them, it’s often a better strategy to feed the enemy princess cakes and treats so she’s too heavy to carry back to safety. This game’s as fresh as it is bloody. And it’s amazingly addictive fun.

Cross-media content is the wave of the future, and John Antal shows what’s possible when you think beyond just one medium. He is a retired colonel who spent 30 years in the U.S. Army. He is also the chief of staff and military and historical director at Gearbox Software, the maker of the “Brothers in Arms” video games being published by UbiSoft. The latest edition is “Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway,” which Antal turned into both a historical novel and history book all at the same time he was helping create the game. I caught up with him while he was smoking a cigar at the recent UbiSoft video game showcase in San Francisco. The game and books debut in August.

JA: VB: Tell me about your work on the Brothers in Arms video game.
JA: [Gearbox Software has] been working on “Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway,” since 2005. I started earliest because I do the research. I go to the battlefield. Talk to the veterans. To create the game, we’ve really done our homework. I talked to probably 200 veterans and have thousands of great interviews from some of the other historians I’ve worked with. Our goal is to bring dramatic, interactive historical fiction to our audience. Everything in the game is real: the battles, the ground, the weapons.

VB: You served in the military yourself. What’s your background?
JA: Thirty years in the U.S. Army. Graduated from the U.S. Military Academy (West Point). Airborne Ranger. Served in combat units as a tank officer for 26 years. Served all over the world. Commanded from platoon to regiment. In my last job, I was the G3 (operations officer) of the III Armored Corps and so had about 65,000 guys I was responsible for. I’ve been in South Korea on the DMZ when we had tough times there. Been to Bosnia, Kuwait, and places like that. I did not fight in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I retired in 2003. But it looks like I may go to Afghanistan to give out games to the troops in September. That’s going to be fun. I still do a lot of interaction with the U.S. Army.

VB: What’s the core plot of Brothers in Arms?
JA: It’s a ten-day period during the life of a squad in World War II. When you fight in Brothers in Arms, you learn what that squad does. You don’t jump around and see all of World War II in one game. This is just Operation Market Garden. It’s Sept. 17, 1944 to Sept. 27, 1944.

VB: That battle was very dynamic, with paratroopers, tank combat, and lots of action. It seems like an ideal setting for a game.
JA: Yes. We started the first game with the 101st Airborne. Patton and his tanks were conquering so much ground that every paratrooper mission got canceled. It looked like the war would be over soon. But there was the big barrier on the Rhine. The allies tried to take it in a weak area in Holland. That was bad territory. It was flat, marshy, and the bridges interdict movement. If you have the bridges, you can drive. This operation launches airborne troops to seize the bridges. During this fight, all of the bridges are supposed to be taken the first day. But when someone is shooting at you, it takes a long time. Our story is about this squad. We wrote a novel, a history book and a game all about this episode. Read the rest of this entry »