Pre-E3 06: Nintendo press conference report

At the Nintendo press conference, Nintendo showcased a huge number of new Wii games. We've broken them out and given short descriptions so you'll be as up to speed as anyone who actually got the chance to go.

Super Mario Galaxy
A new Wii adventure for the legendary plumber (below). The gameplay showed Mario flying through space and performing all new attacks, and even walking upside down on the underside of the level. He also hit a boss' bullets back at him - and the clear idea was that you do it by batting the Wii controller. While details were few, we were promised that the Wii controller has allowed for entirely new ways to control Mario. The game bears a strong resemblance, however, to previous Mario games in the Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine mold.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Again, details are few. The adventure looks visually nearly identical to the GameCube Metroid Prime games, though we were again promised seamless control using the Wii controller. Though a lot of footage was shown, nothing truly surprising was revealed. Some sort of red beam did come from Samus' left hand, so that's a change... and we may have caught a glimpse of Ridley, an enemy who has given Samus trouble countless times.

Wii Sports
A sports game featuring simple tennis, golf and baseball games. The graphics are extremely basic, but the games are controlled entirely with the Wii's remote. Later, a game of tennis was played on stage, and revealed that the rules are even more simplified - it was a three point match.

Unknown flight game
Perhaps the same flight game revealed a few weeks ago, under development by Hudson, this title-free demo showed an old-fashioned red biplane being flown through blue skies, presumably controlled entirely with the Wii controller.

Red Steel
This first-person shooter from Ubisoft was shown in great detail. The main character is in a war with the yakuza in Japan, and the demo depicted a shootout at a Japanese pachinko parlor. The game also features swordfighting - you'll parry with your short blade in your left hand (using the motion-sensitive nunchuck attachment) and slash with the Wii controller in your right hand. It all looked pretty seamless.

Disaster: Day of Crisis
This game features a gritty, realistic look. It seems to revolve around natural disasters, like tsunamis. Nothing about its gameplay was revealed.