While efforts were made for Super Smash Bros. Brawl to use Wii’s unique controller (wiimote), it will likely use a standard GameCube controller and not the Wii Remote or analogue attachment, this is where the controller shells will be important for games that wont use the wiimote capabilities.
Shigeru Miyamoto and Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai felt the remote was making the control scheme too complex, as Smash Bros. emphasizes simple gameplay.

It will use Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, but we are not sure how at this time.

source: E3

More About: Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wii, wiimote, controller shells, games, Masahiro Sakurai, Nintendo, Wi-Fi

Reuters:

 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. sided with rival Nintendo Co. Ltd. <7974.OS> on Wednesday in the fight to unseat video game leader Sony Corp.<6758.T>, saying many consumers will choose to buy both of their machines for the price of one PlayStation 3.

The bad blood between Sony and Microsoft in the fight for dominance in the nearly $30 billion video game industry has escalated over the last few days, with both sides trading barbs at the E3 Expo, the video game industry’s annual trade show.

Microsoft entered the next-generation game console market first with its Xbox 360 last November.

Sony aims to extend its market leadership with its upcoming PS3, while Nintendo plans to offer a new game machine called Wii in the fourth quarter.

“Tell me why you would buy a $600 PS3?” Peter Moore, a Microsoft vice president, said in an interview. “People are going to buy two (machines.) They’re going to buy an Xbox and they’re going to buy a Wii … for the price of one PS3.”

Microsoft predicted on Tuesday it will have 10 million Xbox 360 consoles in the market before Sony launches the PS3. The high-end Xbox 360 sells for $399, but it does not include a built-in high-definition DVD video player that comes with Sony’s PS3.

Sony plans to sell a premium PS3 model for $599 when it debuts in North America on November 17, and Nintendo has not yet disclosed pricing for Wii.

Wii comes equipped with motion sensitive controllers to allow users to mimic the motion of wielding a sword or swinging a tennis racket.

Moore then turned pitchman for Nintendo’s Wii, the latest offering from the Japanese company that once dominated the video game industry.

“People will always gravitate toward a competitively priced product — like what I believe Wii will be — with innovative new designs and great intellectual property like Mario, Zelda and Metroid,” Moore told Reuters.

Sony currently dominates the worldwide video game market with a 66 percent share, while Microsoft and Nintendo each hold 17 percent, according to Strategy Analytics.

“We have 100 percent market share of the next-generation, and their job is to take that from us,” said Moore.

“When I think on everything that we’ve got going right now that is real versus what Sony promises to do six, seven months from now, obviously we feel very good about where we stand.”

LOST IN TRANSLATION

Despite Microsoft’s head start with the Xbox 360, the software giant still faces an uphill climb in Sony and Nintendo’s home turf.

Microsoft received a tepid response to its Xbox 360 debut in Japan and demand fell short of expectations during last year’s holiday season when it sold about 100,000 machines.

The company introduced a competitively priced console in Japan, but some of its game titles did not appeal to Japanese gamers. Moore expects upcoming role-playing games like “Lost Odyssey” and “Blue Dragon” from the creator of the popular “Final Fantasy” series to do well in Japan.

“Quite frankly,” said Moore, “if we’re sitting here a year from now and things continue to fall flat, then we might say ‘we don’t know what to do anymore.”‘

More About: Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii

Today Japanese developer Grasshopper revealed it is developing an original game called Heroes for Nintendo Wii.

The project was mentioned during the game designer panel at the expo and is currently in the works in collaboration with Marvelous Entertainment and Spike.

The title was originally planned to be shown at E3 itself, however was removed from th event for unknown reasons.

Readers familiar with Grasshopper will know that the company is best known for its moody GameCube title Killer 7.sourced: IGN

More About: Grasshopper, Heroes, Nintendo Wii, game designer, Marvelous Entertainment, Spike, E3, GameCube

Miyamoto unveiled the game everybody wondered about after Nintendo’s pre-E3 conference, Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii.

It turns out last year Miyamoto spoke to the Masahiro Sakurai about creating another Smash Bros game. A new team was put together just for this game.

There are two parts to this announcement that should please Smash Bros fans. The first is that Sakurai insisted on this game not using the Wii controller, so the GameCube controller is yet again what players will use to battle each other with Nintendo characters.

Single player mode will have some changes, though Sakurai didn’t mention them. And there will be an online multiplayer mode.

But I guess I can’t just say “Nintendo characters” now. Nintendo has announced a new character from a third party developer. First, these are the new Nintendo game characters: Pit (from Kid Icarus), Samus in the Zero suit, Metaknight, and Wario. And Konami has graciously offered up its own character: Snake (from Metal Gear Solid for you hermit folks).

More About: Miyamoto, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wii, Nintendo

At the E3 conference Nintendo announces that the nintendo’s wii controller ( Wiimote ) will come in 3 different colors: White, Black and Blue

More About: Nintendo, wii controller, Wiimote

The creative director of Ubisoft Montreal had harsh words for Sony during an E3 workshop focusing on next-generation game design.Clint Hocking, the creative director behind titles such as Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory explained how he was disappointed by Sony’s attempts to copy technologies from the other consoles.

After referring to Sony’s mimicking of Xbox Live, and then duplicating components of Nintendo’s motion sensitive controller, Hocking paused in frustration.

“How much more ‘me too’ can [Sony] be?,” he asked.

Earlier in the discussion Hocking attacked the industry’s strategy to up the ante in visuals significantly with each console.

It’s a “fundamental problem of approach” to continue to push for stronger graphics, he said.

He argued such an approach puts game developers in situations where they have to be factory workers. Assemble art texture here, model texture shades here. Repeat.

Further, Hocking claimed the adoption rate of high-definition televisions is so low, that the approach wastes resources on art that many customers won’t even appreciate.

At the conclusion of the workshop, Hocking applauded Wii’s new controller interface. If it can meet the technical accuracy promised by Nintendo, it can open up the creative minds of game designers, he said.

While graphics may add emotion, Wii’s new controller interface is more likely to bring emotion directly to the player.

More About: Xbox Live, Nintendo, Wii

This are the First Screenshots released for the upcoming game Trauma Center: Second Opinion for the Nintendo wii console

Trauma Center: Second Opinion screetnshot #1

Trauma Center: Second Opinion screetnshot #2

Trauma Center: Second Opinion screetnshot #3