This morning (PST) Nintendo laid out their plans for the Wii, and DS. The best thing about this press conference, was the feeling I had as a smile came across my face.
Finally there appears to be some innovation in this next generation of consoles!
Here are the high points:
Nintendo did not go into a lot of detail about the Wii console, only telling the audience that the Wii will be available in Q4 of 2006. Much of the Wii focus was on the controller. I have to say this looks cooler and cooler every time I see it used. Nintendo showed examples ranging form two Wii controllers being used as drumsticks to mock-sword fighting.
The most impressive demonstration was when Ubi-Soft showed off Red Steel, as in past screen shots we have seen that Red Steel is a FPS, but what made it cool (aside from aiming with you right hand) was the sword battle at the demos end. Blocking was controlled with the left hand, and striking with the right.
In relation to games the Wii could have a library of up to 27 titles available at launch, however nothing can be confirmed. One title that will be available at launch is The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess!
Other New games shown were Super Mario Galaxies, Metroid 3, Excite Truck, Pilot Wings, and Wario Ware. All the games look like they will be a blast top play with the new controller. Also reviled today is a small speaker located in the Wii controller. This was demonstrated in the Zelda demo. Imagine drawing your bow back and hearing it become taught. Then letting the arrow fly as the sound of it traveling from your hands to the TV.
The Wii will also have a 24hour network connection, Nintendo intends to use this for content downloads while you sleep, or patches, demos the potential is interesting.
The key thing here is Nintendo has me genuinely interested in the console from games, and control to functionality. Nintnedo has my attention.
The only downside is the graphics are not uber impressive. By no means do they look horrid, but if they are focusing on gameplay it may not matter in the end.
The DS got some love during the conference today as well, mainly in the way of new games. I’ll start with the one that will make Russ happy. The DS gets its own 3D Zelda Game, and its a sequel to the Wind Waker! Other titles mentioned were Star fox DS, and Final Fantasy III (rebuilt in 3d).
Nintendo sometimes is that “little guy” you always root for. What is interesting is this time around it appears they caught the Sony giant sleeping.

Update:
Fico found an interesting quote from the VP of marketing at Sega.
“Bet on the Wii will selling for less than $200, says Scott Steinberg, vice president of marketing for Sega (other-otc: SEGNF.PK - news - people ), one of the major game publishers for Nintendo consoles.”