Nintendo Conference Fall 2007

On October 10th in Japan, Nintendo Company Ltd. president Satoru Iwata unveiled new products and initiatives for the world's best selling game systems, the Nintendo DS and Wii. Among the headlines are full online battling for Super Smash Brothers Brawl, disclosure of more than 100 new games under consideration for future download via the Wii, a new optional play mode for the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy that allows even brand new players to jump into the action, and research demonstrating the continued expansion of the video game market to incorporate new people who've never played before.

Iwata started off by explaining how Nintendo has managed to "expand the gaming population" in Japan and the West by introduction of the DS Lite and Wii and a new style of games, games for everyone.

He then moved on to talk about the Virutal Console and WiiWare, so far the Virtual Console system has had 7.8 Million game downloads.

WiiWare has been designed to allow games of any size to be realised, using the example that Tetris would never get released in todays £30+ market. Coming soon will be a "Pokemon Ranch" channel that allows Mii's to interact with Pokemon from Diamond and Pearl. There are also a handful of Puzzle games (inc. Dr Mario) from Nintendo themselves and other titles from Namco and Hudson... over 100 titles planned to be released on WiiWare.

Iwata explains that WiiWare is not just for mini games, it's also been designed for full title releases, the first of which will be a new Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles game from Square Enix. The WiiWare channel is set to launch around March 2008.

Mii Contest Channel, a Mii "create and share" channel where everyone gets to make Mii's based on a certain theme, launching in November.

Also launching in November, the "Nintendo Channel for All" which seems to be a market research tool, allowing gamers to rate their games and recommended them to others. This channel will also feature a "DS Station" style demo download system, allowing you to download DS demos from your Wii.

WiiFit becomes Nintendo's priority, the game will have an "installable" channel so you won't need to insert the disc every time you want a quick play. It will launch in Japan on Dec 1st, for 8800 YEN that's only about £35.

Mario Kart Wii will launch with the Wii Wheel, also has motorbikes and will be 16 player online.

He then showed a video of Smash Bros Brawl, the first with Sonic kicking some ass... however the game has now been delayed until Jan 24th in Japan and Feb 10th in US.

Finally, Iwata announced Capcom's Monster Hunter 3, a new sequel of the popular Japanese series.

Following Iwata, the master Miyamoto demo'd the WiiFit software.. but more on that another time