Nintendo has turned to James Bond and Mickey Mouse to help keep videogame players enchanted with the Wii as rival consoles debut motion-sensing controls.
“Bond is back,” Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said during a press conference on the opening day of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles.
Activision is reviving a long dormant franchise with GoldenEye 007 videogame for Wii consoles based on the film by the same name.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Players will get the chance to “use the lethal, gritty style of Daniel Craig’s James Bond to outwit, outmaneuver and overtake an arms syndicate that threatens the world,” Activision said.
The game will also feature classic Bond movie characters, according to Fils-Aime.
A Disney Epic Mickey title will send the famous cartoon mouse on adventures in a virtual “Wasteland” of forgotten characters and places drawn from the iconic entertainment studio’s past.
Mickey will have the power to erase characters or restore them to glory, with his actions influencing the course of the game, said Warren Spector of Junction Point Studio, which is crafting the software.
“Mickey hasn’t been the videogame hero he was meant to be,” he said. “That’s about to change.”
Popular Nintendo characters returning in new Wii games include Zelda, Donkey Kong and Kirby. The company’s Mario character stars in his own sports game.
“E3 is the land of big screen, touch screen, button control, motion control and no control at all,” Fils-Aime said. “Technology is only a tool. The thing that matters is the experience.”
Wii launched in 2006 with innovative motion-sensing controls and became a must-have videogame console credited with expanding the market far beyond “hardcore gamers” devoted to shooter titles.
Sony is also at E3 demonstrating Move, which allows motion-control of games on PlayStation 3 consoles.
Sony’s Move motion-sensing controllers for PlayStation 3 will hit the US market in September ahead of Microsoft’s rival Kinect devices, as the firms prepare to battle for gamers’ affections.
“We think the PlayStation Move is the device that will bridge the gap between core and casual gamers,” Sony vice president Peter Dille said during a press conference on the E3’s opening day.
Move will hit the market in time for the year-end holiday shopping season and aims to tap into an enthusiasm for motion-sensing controls that made Nintendo Wii consoles marketplace superstars.
The Move controllers, which are reminiscent of small black flashlights topped with brightly colored orbs, allow gamers to control PS3 play with swings, jabs and other natural movements instead of the toggle-and-button commands that have been trademarks of play on PS3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360.
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