Five Surprises At Nintendo’s Media Summit: Nintendo-Less WiiWare, Pot Shot At EA And

vashivihan · 04-15-2008, 09:56 PM

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You might have noticed a drop in my posting habits at MTV Multiplayer last week. I spent almost every day immersed in games at different events and conferences, including Nintendo’s Media Summit, where the media went hands-on with their spring lineup.

The Nintendo Media Summit was also an interesting showcase for third-parties and independent studios teaming with Nintendo on Wii and the upcoming WiiWare. There wasn’t much new at the event, but that didn’t make it any less interesting.

From my two days spent with Nintendo, here were my five key takeaways:

1. “Rock Band” on Wii proved extremely popular. Even though almost everyone there had played it before. It was always packed — even singers.

2. No first-party WiiWare titles on display. Nintendo chose to highlight games outside their inner circle, made no mention of their upcoming works.

3. “Lost Winds” was the media’s WiiWare favorite. There was no way to avoid a 20 minute plus wait for the “Kirby: Cursed Canvas”-like platformer.

4. The guys behind ‘World of Goo” aren’t fans of Electronic Arts. They managed to sneak in a clever dig at their former employers in a presentation, cleverly capitalizing “E” and “A” in a slide, when speaking about their worst memories of working in the industry so far. I don’t think Nintendo knew.

5. “Boom Blox” is way better than you think. It doesn’t come across well in screens, impressions or even in-person demos. You need to play it yourself.

Bonus: Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime was nowhere to be seen.

loling at EA linkage