Nintendo Pre-E3 Presentation

With E3 about to open its doors and press conferences set to start Monday morning, many people are wondering exactly what will be revealed to the world in the next few days. Well, Nintendo Global President Satoru Iwata released a Pre-E3 video Sunday informing the public of a few of the Wii U’s features.

Iwata wanted to stress some of the goals behind the Wii U, and chief among those goals is the desire to connect people and make them feel like they aren’t alone, even if they are the only person in the room. His speech talked about a myriad of features that allowed gamers to communicated to each other, both in real time and not. Not only did Nintendo show features like video chatting and being able to post comments about, or even in, a game, but with these fully integrated communication options, players can stop their game, talk to other players and then pick back up without any real interruption.

In the overly-dramatized scenario that we got to see, a gamer that is all alone in his living room has some trouble getting past a boss in a generic zombie game. He stops his game, posts his question to that game’s chat room, or forum, or wall or whatever you want to call it, and then scans the comments for tips and suggestions. Our gamer friend finds a possible solution, but when he tries it out, it doesn’t work. So what does he do? He puts his Wii U Gamepad in front of his TV so that the screen (and more importantly the camera) is facing him, and calls the player with the solution he tries out. The two talk things over a bit and with some more advice, he is able to progress.

Other features shown at the presentation included people posting comments that come up during the game, or in the example given, after the character died, and eventually be able to view people’s posts and comments on everything from a Nintendo 3DS, PC or any web-enabled mobile device.

Iwata also gave a tour of the control layout for the Wii U Gamepad and even pointed out some of the changes since the prototype was unveiled last year. Besides a slightly more ergonomic design, the two Circle Pads were replaced with Nunchuck styled analogue sticks and a few more interesting buttons were shown off. One such feature is an area on the left side of the gamepad just below the D-pad that is an NFC reader/writer. For those not up on their techno-buzzwords, this is essentially the same technology that makes the Skylanders toys get imported into the game. Others might be familiar with it if they have to swipe a card over an area in order to get into a building, or even use one of those credit card machines that you just put your card near instead of swiping it.

The Gamepad also features the ability to become a universal remote and even lets you take what is displayed on the Gamepad and put it on the big screen. Given the fact that the Wii U Gamepad has a built in web browser, this could be a handy feature for anyone wanting to show the whole family something they found online.

Of course, one of the big questions out there is, how does the Wii U and its Gamepad change actual gameplay. We got to see a few uses in the presentation. One had the player putting the Gamepad face up on the floor where a golf ball was prominently displayed. With a Wii-mote in hand (the system supports the Wii-mote, Nunchuck and Wii Balance Board as well as a new Pro controller that looks like an Xbox 360 controller), the player was able to line up her shot, swing at the ball and watch it go sailing onto her TV and down the golf course.

Another sport, baseball, showed the pitcher lining up his shot by holding the Gamepad up in front of the TV. For the rest of the players, his Mii looked like it was just getting ready for the throw, for the pitcher though, he saw a targeting reticle that appeared to give him quite a bit of precision in his pitch. We saw a similar situation when a fly ball was hit and the person with the Gamepad was using it to zero in on the ball and keep it centered in order to nail the catch.

The Wii U offers a few more surprises as well. For one, the Miis are back stronger than ever. Instead of a typical menu when you first bring up the console, you will see all of your options scattered about the screen, and around them will be the Miis of people you know, and even ones you don’t. Basically, this is a way to show you what your friends are playing and doing on their own Wii U system. With the Gamepad in your hand, you can communicate to these other players with a chat room setup that will allow you to either type out or handwrite your messages, as well as add facial expressions to your posts to help convey the mood you are in when you post your comment.

While this Pre-E3 event had a lot to show, one message was clear. The Wii U is designed to help bring people together even if they aren’t in the same room or playing at the same time. At first glance, it looks like they took everything about the social networks that keep people communicating and found a way to put them into their new console. Where the Wii was designed to appeal to consumers that aren’t the typical gamer, the Wii U seems to be designed to take that wider audience and keep them playing and communicating even if no one is in the room with them.

As for questions about the actual software coming out for the Wii U, or how its graphical and processing power might stack up to the current generation of consoles, all that will be discussed later. Iwata didn’t promise that it would be revealed during this show, but he did say that information was coming soon. We'll have more for you as E3 2012 progresses.