Super Quick Nintendo E3 Press Conference Recap

• Nintendo is releasing the zapper that you insert the wiimote and nunchuck in this year for $19.99.
• Super Mario Galaxy will be released on November 12th.
• Smash Bros. Brawl will be released on December 3rd.
• Mario Kart for the Wii comes out early next year with online multiplayer racing and battle modes. It comes packed with a racing wheel that you stick your wiimote in.
• The DS vision training game is coming to the US under the name Flash Focus.
• A new Wii channel called "Check Mii Out" was announced in which people can upload, compare, and vote for their favorite Miis.
  
• Wii Fit is played with a new peripheral called the Wii Balance Board, that measures your weight and your center of gravity. The game will calculate your BMI to measure your performance, and you can compare your stats with your friends and family. They showed aerobics and yoga style exercises, a stepping mini game that looked sort of inspired by DDR, and a soccer game where you use your balance to try to hit a soccer ball with your virtual head and avoid things like flying cleats.
  

Nintendo Announces WiiWare

Well, Nintendo finally made the announcement that everyone knew was coming eventually. Today they announced that original downloadable content will be available for sale on the Wii Shop channel, under the name WiiWare. Wii owners may already be familiar with the big WiiWare button in the shop menu.


Unfortunately, Nintendo stated in their announcement that the first WiiWare content wont be available until early 2008.

The concept of wii development being open to developers small and large thanks to the low cost and risk of electronic distribution is certainly promising. Lets hope that the late launch of this service means that Nintendo is really taking their time to do things right.