There were two things that I thought might be getting under EA CEO John Riccitiello’s skin lately. So when I interviewed him in Los Angeles at EA’s E3 booth, I asked him about them. We’d already discussed some other topics, like EA’s Wii approach with “Boom Blox” and his view of licensed games (more on that in a later post).

I needed to make sure we hit the two, possibly aggravating, but important topics:

1. We may be living in a period of gaming history that has more successful platforms than any before it. For a company like EA that splits its attention across all viable gaming machines, is this a good thing or a problem?
2. Is the new EA, the company proud to back more original content than the old EA maybe ever did, getting stressed at the success of its more sequel-centric — and larger — rival publisher Activision?

Riccitiello gave a thorough answer to both and, for good measure, gave a quote about EA’s relationship to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo that made him sound like a character from “Metal Gear Solid 4.” (To wit: “They make the war. We make the bullets. We’ll sell to any of them. “)

Here’s our give and take for both questions: Read more…

Nintendo has been calling for third-party developers to re-tool their games to fit the Wii MotionPlus add-on.

Today, Ubisoft answered their call; but LucaArts won’t comment.

Last week, Nintendo executive vice president of sales and marketing Cammie Dunaway had told Gamelife that she hoped upcoming Wiimote-centric titles like “Samba De Amigo” and “Star Wars Clone Wars” would have “rapid second versions” in order to “take advantage of the Wii MotionPlus capabilities.”

MTV Multiplayer reached out to LucasArts who had no comment on whether they’d be adapting a second version of “Clone Wars,” which is slated for November, to use the MotionPlus add-on. We’ve also put in a request to Sega regarding “Samba De Amigo” and will update you as soon as we hear back.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft executive director Alain Corre revealed to gamesindustry.biz that the company will be making the controls for “Red Steel 2” adapt to the new MotionPlus add-on.

This announcement marks “Red Steel 2,” which has been in development for “many months,” as the first third-party title to use the MotionPlus add-on since the device was unveiled at E3 earlier this month.

Readers, which Wii games, if any, would you like to see re-vamped with the new MotionPlus controls?

[UPDATE 7/30: A Sega spokesperson told us by e-mail on Wednesday that it is too early to comment on how the company will integrate the Wii MotionPlus Controller.]

Related Posts:
Wii Developers Were Told About MotionPlus ‘A Little Earlier’ Than We Were
First E3 Surprise - Nintendo Unveils ‘Motion Plus’ Wii Add-On

Two months ago, I played a preview build of the Xbox 360’s “Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts” and was left scratching my head. It was the first “Banjo” game I had played since the two Nintendo 64 versions. I had skipped the Game Boy Advance edition. The 360 game left me and several other reporters who tried it a bit perplexed. It’s a platformer designed to be traversed with player-engineered vehicles driven by Banjo the bear and Kazooie the breegull.

The problem in May was that the vehicle-creation editor was confusing. The game didn’t play much like the old Banjo games and seemed an odd use of the franchise. I left my May session of the game highly skeptical that development studio Rare was producing a sequel worthy of its original efforts.

Then I played it at E3 and was impressed — not just because it’s the first Xbox 360 game that includes a Nintendo 64 in it — but because, well…
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How did Nintendo get a “Grand Theft Auto” slated for the DS? What’s the game going to be like? And what can Wii owners expect of “GTA” now that DS owners are getting one later this year?

That’s what I asked Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime in the following portion of the interview I conducted with him at E3…

Multiplayer: “Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.” How’d that come about? When did that conversation begin?

Reggie Fils-Aime, President, Nintendo of America: You know, we have had a long-term relationship with ["GTA" publisher] Take Two. We’ve had many conversations with the folks at Rockstar. This is a project they wanted to make. We’re thrilled to have it on the platform.

Multiplayer: 2D? 3D? What’s it going to be like?

Read more…

By this point in E3 week it begins to become very clear what rumors from last week actually came to fruition, and, alas, it’s all too clear that a new “Punch-Out!!” game is nowhere in Nintendo’s near future. It is because of this that we take a look back at, what is the crowning achievement in the series, “Super Punch-Out!!” in today’s retro ‘120 Seconds.’ Some may argue that “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” is the undisputed heavyweight of the franchise, but the SNES version holds the belt (at least in my mind) simply because it was just more fun, which can be seen as I take down Gabby Jay in the first two playable minutes of the game.

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With the big press conferences at E3 over, Stephen does a quick wrap up for MTV News of what each company had to show. After a quick run though of the highlights from Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony, Mr. Totilo offers a little bit of insight into who’s “winning” E3, and asks the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto about “Wii Music.”

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If you’re following our Flickr Photostream you can see who Stephen and Patrick were trading notes with before Nintendo’s press conference - none other than Big N aficionado GoNintendo’s RawMeatCowboy.

Keep checking our Photostream for more photos from the press conferences as well as constant updates all day from E3.

Just minutes after the end of Nintendo’s press conference, Stephen had a chance to speak with lead designer Shigeru Miyamoto. We’ll have more from Miyamoto next week, but the answer to our last question just had to be shared.

We asked if Miyamoto could talk about Nintendo president Satoru Iwata’s promise that Nintendo’s internal “Mario” and “Zelda” teams are hard at work at new projects. When will we hear more about then?

“What I can say is that typically games like that take anywhere from two to three years to finish those up,” said Miyamoto. “We do have the teams together and the teams are all working. The other thing that I can say is that in the past we haven’t really had much opportunity to release two Mario titles or two Zelda titles on a single hardware system. Our plan is to try to do that with Wii. With that in mind, the teams are working hard at this point.”

Exciting! Sounds like we have more “Mario” and “Zelda” to look forward to in the future (as if there was any doubt). And with that, we’re off to the Sony press conference!

Of all the first party publishers, Nintendo is holding their cards closest to their chest in regards to what they have planned for next week’s E3. Their secrecy has lead to a lot of rumors and conjectures across the internet of what they are planning on showing.

Their secrecy, mixed with a bit of potential, has lead to today’s retro ‘120 Seconds.’ I have a hope that my one prediction of what Nintendo may be unveiling will be dead on - the follow up to one of the most successful DS games to date. Hopefully, by this time next week the only thing that Nintendo fanboys will be able to talk about is “New Super Mario Bros. 2.”

In hopes that “NSMB2″ is one of the big announcements of next week, we are taking a look back at the first two minutes of Mario’s first two portable adventures “Super Mario Land,” and “Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins.” Enjoy these classics courtesy of my Super Gameboy (and please excuse the colors).

“Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins” is after the jump.

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Nintendo’s 2008 E3 briefing kicks off one week from today. Today we’re looking back at their E3 event from last year to see what they promised and what came true.

Almost no one could have predicted “Wii Fit.”

It’s been almost a year since Nintendo stepped onto the stage of their E3 2007 press conference and threw the industry a curveball with their new take on gaming.

Let’s run down some of the major announcements at last year’s conference:

* “Wii Fit” revealed and demoed
* “Super Smash Bros. Brawl,” “Super Mario Galaxy” release dates
* Wii Zapper announced
* “Mario Kart Wii” and wheel peripheral shown

More importantly, Nintendo did the opposite of their wildly popular E3 2006 presentation and mostly ignored hardcore gamers. With “Wii Fit” being Nintendo’s big reveal, it was clear their sights were set somewhere new.

So, what’s happened in the year since then?

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On the eve of America’s 232 birthday, there’s no better of a way to celebrate than to enjoy the first ‘120 Seconds‘ of a game starring the man that stands for everything that is great about this country, Captain America. “Captain America and The Avengers” was released for the NES in 1992, and was, unfortunately, nothing like the arcade game of the same name. Watch the video and see how Cap collects gems to unlock the exit to the level as he uses his trusty shield to take out the enemies in the level.

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With rumors of the SNES classic “Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars” coming to the Virtual Console here in the States we couldn’t help but include it in our Retro Thursday’s ‘120 Seconds.’ In the first two playable minutes of the game Mario is off to save the Princess, once again, from the diabolical hands of Bowser, and for the first time, enters into turn based combat with the Koopa Troopas (called “Terrapins” here for some reason).

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