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For those of you who missed the conference, we’ll cover all of the biggest highlights for today’s show.

One of the biggest highlights of the conference was the announcement of “Animal Crossing: City Folk”, where Nintendo is going to make full use of the Wii internet service from visiting towns to sending mail. Most notably, a new accessory called “Wiispeak” will be utilized in Animal Crossing, allowing players to voice chat with each other. This time the game allows for multiple friends to enter your town, which will add a lot more replay value. The game also features a brand new city that you can visit where all the shops are located plus much more. Other than that it looks like the same Animal Crossing we all know, but there should be more new details to come. The game is set for a release in American by the end of 2008.

Another highlight was the next installment of Wii Sports called “Wii Sports: Resort”. It features many different “summer” games and will utilize the MotionPlus add-on for pin point motion sensing. Three of the games were featured today including frisbee, waveracing, and swordfighting as demonstrated by the “Regginator”.

Nintendo ended the show by showing off another installment to the Wii series called “Wii Music”. This game features a variety of different instruments that allow players that can’t play instruments in real life to get the experience with ease. Of course this was all demonstrated through Miyamoto playing the saxophone with the Wii remote. Wii Music will have many different modes including a multiplayer band mode. Unlike Rock band, this game will not use extra accessory instruments, just the nun chuck and wiimote (Wii balance board can be used as an option for the bass drum pedals if the player chooses).

The conference is over, but Nintendo is revealing many other new games in the show rooms as we speak. This will all be summed up later on. The conference was not as full of many new and quality games as most had hoped, so hopefully something will at least be unveiled for the core fans by the end of this week. Reggie did sneak a couple hints in the conference of franchise games in development, but no news yet on what those were.

Below is what Nintendo has said so far, and they will be releasing more information on Tuesday. This new accessory will probably prove most useful in games involving sword combat or certain sports. Nintendo should have had this be part of the original remote, but either way this is still good news because it’s better late then never.

“Nintendo’s upcoming Wii™ MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote™ controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo’s commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing.”

This is day five of the predictions! Each game will be given a percentage based off of much information so an educated prediction can be made (Although nothing is ever fully predictable with Nintendo).  For any of the more probable predictions, keep in mind that if they are not announced at E3, they will most likely be announced at another gaming conference soon after. We’ll make sure to cover the chances of all the major franchises like Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, Animal Crossing and so on…..and maybe even certain games like Kid Icarus will be covered. Feel free to leave comments stating your own predictions as well!

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The Animal Crossing Series: Wii- 95%  DS- 1%

Most people have been anticipating the unveiling of Animal Crossing Wii at E3, and there are certainly many reasons for this high anticipation. Similar to Kirby, Animal Crossing has quietly been announced for a 2008 Japan release cited in Nintendo’s recent financial results statement. The official Nintendo magazine for the UK has also recently hinted the game in its E3 2008 section saying, “It’s been a while! It’s time to revisit an old friend. How’s your village doing these days?”. Note that not all magazines are to trust, but it’s an interesting hint at the game either way. There’s been lots of game development talk and it sounds like the game has enough gameplay ready to show off by now. I’d give the game 100%, but there is always that small chance that it will show at a later conference this year. The real question about this game is where Nintendo is planning on taking the game in respect to online play, and hopefully all of those questions will be answered very soon.

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The List of Predictions to Date

Starfox Series: Wii- 65% DS- 5%

Kirby Series: Wii- 80% DS- 99%

Zelda Series: Wii- 40%  DS- 1%

Pikmin Series: Wii- 5%  DS- 1%

Animal Crossing Series: Wii- 95%  DS- 1%

Seems like just another quiet day for the online store. Here are the descriptions from Nintendo of the one Wiiware and one virtual console game. It might be a good day to save your money for something else, although Spogs could turn out okay.

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WII-KLY UPDATE: ONE WIIWARE GAME AND ONE VIRTUAL CONSOLE GAME ADDED TO WII SHOP CHANNEL

July 7, 2008 - This week’s additions to the Wii™ Shop Channel are bigger, stronger and faster. It’s all about excess with these electrifying titles. A new WiiWare™ offering puts you behind the wheel of a high-octane racer with no regard for speed limits. A classic Virtual Console™ game transforms you into a larger-than-life beast with a massive appetite for mayhem. Whichever you choose, there will be no skimping on the action.

Nintendo adds new and classic games to the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time every Monday. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:

WiiWare

SPOGS Racing™ (D2C Games™, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone-Mild Cartoon Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): Coming at you full throttle isSPOGS Racing, an all-new racer from D2C Games featuring classic arcade racing, pick-up-and-play controls, all-new racing vehicles and Crash N’ Grab™ instant upgrades. Jump in, gear up and modify your ride on the fly as you compete head-to-head for a totally outrageous arcade racing experience on your Wii console. Whether you’re a casual gamer or hardcore racer, SPOGS Racing features fun for all and is a must-have download for your WiiWare digital game library.

Virtual Console

KING OF THE MONSTERS (NEOGEO, 1-2 players, Rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and Older-Fantasy Violence, 900 Wii Points): Released by SNK in 1991, KING OF THE MONSTERS is an action/fighting game that features city-destroying battles between huge monsters. Choose one of six monsters and travel around Japan, stopping to fight in various famous cities with the aim of becoming the ultimate winner. In addition to punches, kicks and other regular moves, each character has the ability to use more devastating maneuvers, like throwing flames and shooting laser beams, to defeat opponents. Wrestling elements are also incorporated, as you must completely exhaust your opponent and get a three-count to pin him and be victorious. Along with the player-versus-computer game, multiplayer options allow you and a friend to enjoy one-on-one matches and two-on-two tag-team matches against the computer. Take on the challenge and claim the title of King of the Monsters.

Today’s puzzle game is Picross DS, and it’s one of the most top-notch puzzle games to grace the DS. Picross is no “DS original” in the least, mostly because the nonograms (paint by number puzzles) that you have to solve have been around for years. This is not even the first time Nintendo has tried making nonogram games either. They made a game called “Mario’s Picross” for the Game Boy a while back, but it failed so miserably that they never released another Picross game outside of Japan until now. Picross DS just happens to be the best way you could possibly solve nonograms. You get the option of using the stylus or buttons, but the stylus option works so perfectly that the button option is barely needed, unlike many other DS games. Also, Picross is probably the most addicting puzzle game on the DS. While not everybody picks up Meteos everyday years after owning it, many might be still be picking up Picross years to come. It has a massive amount of puzzles, each with their own little animation for a reward. If you ever run out of puzzles you can download countless more. If you downloaded all of them, you can then edit your own puzzles, and if you get boards of all that you can always check out the very well made online mode which could honestly last you forever. There are also additional bonus minigames that help add to the fun and also a wide selection of catchy music and fun puzzle themes. If you own a rumble pack for your DS then know that Picross can use the rumble pack, which is one of the most satisfying rumble experiences you could get on the DS (especially when you use the bubble wrap theme). If there was anything bad to say about the game, it would be how you have to zoom in on the larger puzzles, but it’s something that is easy to get used to. You could solve a nonogram anywhere or even make your own with pencil and paper, but the Picross adds so much the the experience that it’s worth the 15-20 dollars. If you ever want to just try what the core game play would be like then go to a place like puzzle-nonograms.com and keep in mind that Picross is that plus 100% more.