Nintendo Unveils New Games at Spring Media Summit

SAN FRANCISCO--Nintendo of America showed off a number of big games for its best-selling Wii and Nintendo DS systems at its Spring Media Summit, held at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco, the new home to Nintendo marketing and public relations (formerly located in Redmond, Washington). Among the highlights of the presentations were the new Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit, Boom Blox and Mario Super Sluggers games.

Nintendo only gave a sneak peak of Mario's Wii baseball game, showing off the unique piching and batting interface that dives much deeper than the free Wii Sports Baseball pack-in game. Although there are a lot of baseball games out for Wii, including MLB 2K8, The Bigs, and MLB Power Pros, Mario's unique take on the sport--like the recent soccer game Mario Strikers Charged--stands on its own and should be a cross-over, or "bridge" as Nintendo likes to say, hit with the diverse range of Wii gamers.

Steven Spielberg's first collaboration with Electronic Arts has nothing to do with movies or cinematic storytelling. It's the simple but addictive Boom Blox, a Wii game that offers endless gameplay through 400 built levels of play--half of which can be played by up to four players. But that's just the tip of the interactivity. A "Create" mode allows any one of these levels to be rebuilt and shared online via Wii 24/7. Gamers can also create levels from scratch, setting up characters, blocks, and bombs only to knock them down with various objects from baseballs to bowling balls.

Mario Kart has been a blockbuster on every Nintendo system to date, so his Wii debut April 27--the same week as GTA IV on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360--should be another huge hit for Nintendo. (Super Smash Bros. Brawl broke all records with its U.S. Wii debut a few months ago.) Mario and the gang are back with a new Wii steering wheel device that wraps around the Remote controller for a more authentic driving experience.

Always looking to push the limits of gaming and entertainment, the game/peripheral that's likely to have the largest positive impact on Wii owners is Wii Fit. Shipping next month, Wii Fit is a balance board with four sensors for feet, which can measure the position and movement of your body. Sans shoes, the gamer stands on this device to interact with a variety of pack-in games and activities. Additional games will ship that support this board as a controller. Wii Fit is all about health. Packed into the game is a personal Yoga instructor with real-time feedback on how you'r performing the different moves. There are also more fun activities like skiing and hulahoops. All of the activities focus on either strengthening body parts (and you can specify what you want to work on) or exercising. Even your posture will improve over time with this game. And you'll lose weight. Play every day and the game will track your body mass index and encourage you to achieve your weight loss goal. Up to four family members can track their BMI for up to a year on this cool game.

Nintendo still can't keep Wiis on store shelves, and these killer apps won't help the situation any. There are plenty of people out there who've played Wii Sports to death and are looking for something new. After Super Smash Bros., this line-up is full of must-have titles that anyone will enjoy--gamers or casual players.