200 Posts, 25 years, 2,010… years again

Well, friends, we’ve come to an interesting crossroad.  Not only is this the 200th post of your favorite internet blog, but this year marks the 25th anniversary of our beloved friend, Mario.  Plus, 2010 is over.  So, let’s throw them all together and have a 200th Post/25th Mario Anniversary/2010 Year in Review Spectaculabration!

Yes, 200 is a lot of posts.  And, I’ve created this enormous number of Nintendo-loving articles in just over 3 years.  That’s faster* than any other blog that has ever been or ever will be written.

This year is also exciting because it’s been 25 years since the release of the ever-important, ever-amazing game Super Mario Bros.  As you may know, in the early 80s, America was growing tired of the craptacular video game industry. Not unlike today, thousands of games were created, many without any kind of authorization, and many of those at exorbitant prices.  Yes, the industry was pert near dead at the time.

Then, from a little-known* country named Japan, a new video game system was released that combined stellar graphics, excellent sound, and a radical yet effective controller.  Of course, we’re talking about the Famicom (short for Family Computer, the Japanese equivalent of the NES).  And included with every Famicom and NES was the industry-changing, industry-saving game Super Mario Bros.

Sure, it was kinda weird.  The game starred an Italian plumber who ran around stomping on giant turtles and walking fungi. Then, he would eat mushrooms to somehow grow twice his regular size.  Oh, and don’t forget the flying fish that came shooting out of the ground somehow.  “What a bunch of hippie crap!” the old farts used to say**.  But despite the oddness, the game was an incredible success.  Some parents sold their children to the circus to buy more games**.  The video industry was saved!

This year, Nintendo marked the occasion by offering some special deals: a Mario-red Wii, a Mario-red DSi XL, and a Super Mario All-Stars game for the Wii.  As you can see, it’s a fitting homage to the mustachioed hero.  And of course, because I’m a medically* diagnosed OCNF (obsessive, compulsive, Nintendo fan), I had to have all three.  Hooray!

You may say to yourself, “Man, I am stupid sometimes Isn’t Mario All-Stars just a re-release of re-released Mario games for the SNES?  There’s no reason to buy it!”  If so, you’re a raging idiot.  The end.

Btw, this is my 200th post.  That’s like, an average of one post every ten years since the year 0.  So awesome.  Of course, you know that means I may not post again til 2020, just to keep the ratio the same.

Moving on, 2010 was a great year for gaming.  Between Super Mario Galaxy, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Metroid: Other M, and Donkey Kong Country Returns, Nintendo gamers have been given an cornucopia of platforming goodness.  And that’s just on Wii!  The DS saw great titles like Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again, Super Scribblenauts, and Professor Layton & the Unwound Future.  Several major Nintendo franchises saw new games this year, and they’ve all been amazing!

Don’t forget: 2011 will also be a great year for gaming, particularly because the 3DS will be released.  It appears that 3D gaming is here to stay, especially since the 3DS gives you the benefit of 3D without those terrible glasses!  Personally, I can’t hold in my excitement*** when I think about Paper Mario, Monkey Ball, and F-Zero is 3D.  Rest assured, I will own one.  Here’s hoping they release it in Virtual Boy Red on launch day! (Note: Nintendo has not yet announced the price, colors, or exact date of the 3DS launch.  They will be holding a press conference on January 19th.)

In short, 2010 was a great year: great games, great Mario, great blogging, and great Aunt Germelda.  As you venture on in to the new year, make sure you include some sweet-awesome video games to help dull the pain of stupid and allegedly-necessary evils like homework, mortgage payments, and brushing your teeth.  Remember, you’re better off losing your house from playing too many games than you are getting ebola and dying a terrible, painful death.

As a wise* man** once said, “I can’t handle all this excitement!***”

Happy New Year!

-benjamines

* Not even close
** Somewhat likely
*** Or my urine

Happy 25th, NES!

That’s right, 25 years ago today, the Nintendo Entertainment System transformed the world, saving the ailing video game industry in the process.  Starting on this day 25 years ago, children (and adults) were treated to Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Mega Man, Metroid, and countless other franchises that have since exploded in popularity.

There’s nothing really special about this post.  Just wanted to pay homage to a system that will forever go down as one of the most important pieces of history in the world.  Can you believe a third of households had an NES?  So awesome.

Thank you, NES, for changing all of our lives for the better.  May your offspring provide us with more hours of fun, more characters to love, and fewer insanely hard games that don’t work unless you blow on the cartridge.

-benjamines

(btw, there’s a rumor that the spectacular 25th anniversary DSi XL will indeed be coming to the US.  Here’s hoping the Mario Collection [Mario All-Stars for Wii, more or less] gets here, too!)

3DS is go!

I know it’s N64 week month, but there is some big news that you need to hear!

At Nintendo’s Press Conference that happened just now, they announced that the Nintendo 3DS will release on February 25th in Japan, for 25,000 yen (about $300).  It will launch in the US and Europe in March.  If I had to guess I’d say it’ll be $250 for the US.  Hopefully, anyways.

The launch colors (for Japan, anyway) are Aqua blue and Cosmo black.  I was hoping for Red, so I might have to exercise some serious self-control to wait for that one.  Although, they haven’t announced the colors for North America yet, so we’ll see.

When the system launches, they will have GameBoy and GBA games for Virtual Console!  Hooray!  They are also making many classic games in 3D, possibly even Link’s Awakening, the best Zelda game ever!!  So cool!

Here are some other cool features!  It will include a Mii Creation Studio to create and probably import Miis.  In fact, you can use the built-in camera to take a picture of your face, and the studio makes a Mii for you!  Holy crap, that’s amazing!  You can also download the Mii data (in the form of a QR code) to an SD card to post it on a website.  From there, other users can scan the image with their own 3DS to import your Mii.  Holy awesomeness!

The new and improved Tag Mode lets multiple games keep small pieces of data ready for when someone passes by.  For example, in Animal Crossing, you could send anonymous letters and gifts to people as they pass by you in real life.  This all happens while the system is in sleep mode.  Cool stuff!  All 3DS games will potentially have Tag Mode options.  Also, the system will automatically download data such as leaderboards, ghost data, and updates, all while in sleep mode.

There will be a variety of Augmented Reality games for the 3DS.  Basically, it uses the images from the cameras and adds objects to the screen that move as you do.  Also, you can take 3D pictures with the camera.  That is so awesome!

There are hints that the system has a built-in pedometer that tracks your steps.  That means I can stop carrying around my regular pedometer.  Its 0.1 ounces are SO HEAVY!!

The system will come packed in with a 2GB SD card.  That’s sweet!  Although, I’ll probably get a bigger one eventually.  Still cool, though!

Some of the games include Ocarina of Time, Starfox 64, Pilotwings Resort, and many others.  No words on release dates or prices on games yet.

So there you go!  Here’s hoping it’s no more than $250, and that it comes in Red at launch!  We love you, Nintendo!

-benjamines

Still?

That's right, folks!  N64 week has been extended to N64 two-week!  I didn't have enough time to play all the awesome games I wanted to last week (plus I was super lazy).

So... go play some more awesome N64 games, ya dinguses!

-benjamines

More 64!

I’m feeling lazy today (what’s new, right?), so here’s my post:

Smash Bros. for the N64 is freaking amazing.  Even now, it holds up as a fantastic title.  And, as it turns out, I’ve played it for approximately 250-300 hours.  That’s hot.  Btw, if you want to see the original commercial for the game, click here.

Excitebike 64 is also an amazing game, and one that is surprisingly not available on Virtual Console.  It’s disappointing, really, because that game is so insanely fun.  Plus, I beat the Hill Climb in 1:41.  Suck on that!

Anyways, stay tuned for hopefully a few more posts this week.  Then, I may or may not go back to posting sporadically.  And of course, by that I mean not at all.

-benjamines

Review: WaveRace 64

You might find it strange that it would take me this long to post a review for a game that has been out for some 10-15 years, in addition to it being one of the most popular for the N64.  Well, believe it or not, I didn’t own this game until a year or two ago, and I just got around to it.  So get off my back!!

Just kidding.  Anyways, I just finished the delightful WaveRace 64.  As you may have surmised, it’s a jet-ski racing game for the Nintendo 64.  It also sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide, so it was a pretty big hit.

In any case, the game is a simple, yet fun racing game.  You pick a vehicle (the character stays with each vehicle, so you don’t pick both), and then you race it.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Well, there’s more to it than that.  Scattered around the track are buoys labeled L or R, which means you have to pass by the Left or Right side of them.  Every time you do this correctly, your power meter goes up one notch.  Once it’s full, it stays full until you pass on the wrong side of a buoy.

The game has 10 tracks, including one practice track, which may seem a little short, especially when you compare it to other N64 racing games (Mariokart [16 tracks] and F-Zero [24 tracks plus the randomly generated X cup]).  I now understand why one of the creators of Wii Sports Resort said that the wave runner portion of that game would be deeper than WaveRace 64.  But don’t let that get you down.  It’s a really fun game with plenty to do.  The locales range from your standard beach side harbor to a swamp to, yes, the arctic.  Yeah, buddy!

We all know that one of the issues with many N64 games is that they don’t look very good by today’s standards.  But WaveRace still looks quite nice.  The water effects are surprisingly good for the system, and I never experienced any graphical slowdown.  As for sound, there is an announcer that isn’t too terribly annoying (which is important to me, although you can turn it off anyway), and the music is quite good.

All in all, it’s a fun little game.  Sure, it may not keep you playing for weeks and weeks, but it’s quite good, especially with multiplayer.

Pros:

• Fairly easy to learn
• Looks good for an N64 game
• It’s fun!

Cons:

• Too short

This game has earned a blatantly biased:

Nintendo 64 Week!

I hereby declare this week… N64 week!  So get out those three-handle controllers and have some retro fun!  As for me, I’ll be playing some Excitebike, Smash Bros, and Kirby.  Stay tuned for reviews and some other stupid crap!

By the way, there were no N64 games released on Virtual Console today, so Mondownloaday has been cancelled!  Like you ever read the article anyways…

-benjamines

Prontesser Lernton and the Bumground Suture

Wait, what?

Behold!  In case you haven’t had the pleasure yet, enjoy the trailer for the upcoming Professor Layton game: The Unwound Future!



Pretty sweet, eh? I think so! The game will be released on September 12th!  Go get on that crap!

3DS Pricing and Availability

Well, Nintendo released its Quarterly Earnings Report today, and while their sales are down overall from the same time last year (just like everyone else's), they also said they will announce the price and release date of the 3DS on September 29th.

Meatwad Plame!

So, if there's one series that is known for being super cool, but also super hard, it's Metroid.

Since the NES days, there have been several Metroid games.  The first one was probably the hardest, since there was no map, no hints, and no way to finish it without being verifiably patient.  And of course by that, I mean insane.

Thankfully, Nintendo eased up a little for future titles.  Metroid 2 for Game Boy was a similar type of sci-fi action adventure, with the benefit of a little less pain-in-the-butt.

But the series really hit its stride on Metroid 3, also known as Super Metroid.  It's a beautiful, exciting, and just plain fun game.  There are plenty of great weapons, scary enemies, and gigantic bosses.  To this day, I believe it stands out as one of the best of the series.

In any case, the reason I'm writing this post is to remind you all about the newest Metroid, Other M, due August 31st.  It takes place between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion (GBA).  From what little we know so far, it fleshes out the story of Samus and her origins.  Plus, it looks amazing.  The game is played by holding the Wii remote sideways, but if you want to look around, you simply point the remote at the screen and the game switches to first-person view.  Looks cool to me!

Ok, so I'm bored now, so I'ma go play a game or something.  Buh-bye!

Btw, Amazon (and to a lesser extent, Walmart) is offering a $20 gift card if you preorder the game.  There's no way to know how long this deal will last, so I would suggest buying it right now!  Plus, then you don't have to leave your house to buy the game!  The darn thing comes to you!  Holy crap, that awesome!

Up in da Club!

Attention, Nintendo lovers!  Wednesday is the last day to register your games and systems on Club Nintendo!  Remember, if you get 300 points, you get the Gold Prize, and if you get 600 or more, you can pick one of two Platinum Prizes.  There is no word yet on what the prizes will be, but they will likely be awesome!  Last year, platinum members had a choice between a real life Mario hat and a special downloadable version of Punch-Out where you can fight Doc Louis.  So get those games registerered!

More?!?!

Talking to some video game journalists, Nintendo said that some of the tech demos on the 3DS (including Mega Man 2, Yoshi's Island, Punch-Out, Castlevania and others) could all potentially be remade for the system in 3D. That's a lot of great games!

The Nintendo rep was quick to point out that these games would probably be more than remakes if they made it to retail.  Maybe another great new Punch-Out game is headed to 3DS?  More retro Mega Man? Yoshi?  The suspense is killing me!!

Speaking of Mega Man, this is even more proof that I definitely got the Mega Man block on my bingo card.  So there!

3DS Specs

And I don’t mean glasses!

This past week, Nintendo revealed the wondrous new system, the Nintendo 3DS.  It lets you play games in 3D without glasses, plus it includes some significant upgrades in terms of graphics.

Nintendo has not yet said what the price, date, or even final design of the system will be.  But if the three colors on their website are any indication, we should have some decent choices (they also had metallic orange and purple on the show floor, but these may not be available at launch).  As you can see, Nintendo is showing black, teal and red 3DSs.  The outer shell is a lot like the first run of DS Lites that had a clear plastic shell on top of the painted plastic.  The kept the system’s color from rubbing off, plus (for me, anyways), it looked cool and was really comfortable.  It looks as if the shiny shell may be making a return.  You can also see that the buttons are the softer, quiter type, rather than the DSi’s thinner, clicky buttons.

As for the screen itself, it uses a new type of screen that lets each eye see a different image, not unlike how holographic images (the kind with the rough plastic coating) let you see 3D-esque images.  It’s also larger than the bottom screen, which lets you see more of the great 3D awesomeness.

You’ll notice that the left side is home to the new Slide Pad, which is basically a joystick, just much shorter.  It’s significantly larger (and appears much more comfortable) than the PSPs microscopic “analog nub.”  This should make moving around in 3D spaces much, much easier.  And speaking of 3D space, Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, etc) said that the 3D screen makes it much easier to navigate a character in 3D space, since you can see where everything is as if it were in real life.  Cool!

You might be able to notice the small slider on the right side of the top screen.  This lets you reduce or even turn off the 3D effect.  It is likely that some people will experience some discomfort with the 3D graphics, so Nintendo smartly has given us the option to turn it off.  But not me.  I’ll make it as 3D as humanly possible!!

Another feature that I like is that the headphone jack in right in the middle.  My giant hands make it difficult to use a DS with the headphones in, so this looks awesome.  As for the volume, I can’t see the slider or buttons from these pictures.  I prefer buttons, because it’s easier to find the “sweet spot”, but I hope there are more “notches” between clicks than the DSi has.  The more, the merrier!

On the bottom there, you can see the two dots on the outside of the top screen.  Those are the two cameras.  Why two cameras?  So you can take pictures in 3D!  That’s right, you can take pictures of whatever you want and see them in glorious 3D!  I can’t wait!

As for battery life, Nintendo hasn’t announced the final battery life, because they are still refining it.  They have said that it’s not quite up to the DSi’s life yet.  If that’s where it ends up, it’ll be up to 14 hours, depending on the screen brightness and whether or not the wireless is on.
And speaking of wireless, it has been said that the 3DS will have a switch on the system itself to turn the wireless on and off, which will make it much easier to conserve battery life.  The system will also support WPA/WPA2 encryption, so you can keep your home wireless network more secure and still play online 3DS games.

The system also has a motion sensor and a gyroscope, which will obviously allow games to incorporate some level or motion control.  Also, according to Nintendo's site, it has a "charging cradle" terminal in addition to the AC adapter plug.  Will the 3DS have some kind of cool charging dealie?  Who knows!

Between all these different things, it’s clear the 3DS is an amazing machine.  It will probably break all kinds of sales records in hardware and software.  Once the price and date are known, I shall post it here!  I hope it’s soon!

Can’t go wrong with Donkey Kong!

One of the highlights of Nintendo’s E3 press conference (among many) was the familiar jungle playing in the background as it built up to the announcement of a brand-new Donkey Kong Country for Wii.

The game appears to have to the same classic side-scrolling gameplay as its ancestors, along some fantastic new artistic directions.  It will also have a 2-player co-op mode with Diddy Kong.  It’s being developed by Retro Studios, the amazing studio behind the Metroid Prime series.

But rather than tell you how it looks, just check it out yourself.  The game comes out sometime this holiday season.

More?!

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking when Nintendo revealed their list of titles in production for the 3DS.  A quick look at the list revealed that Pilotwings would be making a return for the first time since the N64 days.  Exciting!

And… that’s all we know for know, aside from the two screen shots below.  You can see that the game takes place on Wuhu Island, the same setting for Wii Sports Resort.  Oh, and it’s called Pilotwings Resort.  What a strange coincidence!

Speaking of Wii Sports, it looks as if you will be able to use your own Miis in 3DS games (like you can in a rare few DS games).  It makes me wonder if the 3DS will have a Mii Channel like the Wii does.  Only time will tell!

String Theory

One of my favorite highlights from Nintendo’s E3 conference on Tuesday was the trailer for Kirby’s first console game in about 10 years: Kirby’s epic yarn.  It’s a brand-new Kirby adventure with a special twist: everything is made of yarn or fabric.  It’s like an eccentric mix of Kirby and Paper Mario.

As you can see in the trailer, the standard Kirby is gimmick is a little different.  Rather than suck in enemies and take their powers, Kirby whips them with yarn and uses powers that way.  But rather than explain it, check out the trailer below and see just how awesome it looks.  It comes out for Wii this fall!

FINALLY!!!!

As many games as Nintendo announced this week, one of the most surprising and most exciting in a new Paper Mario.  For those who don’t know, Paper Mario is a Mario offshoot RPG series where everyone is made of paper.  This makes for some very interesting puzzles, requiring the player to turn into a paper airplane and fly around or roll up and move around in small spaces.  It’s a brilliant series that has been extremely fun every time.

We literally have zero details on how the game will work, but if the previous games are indication, it should be simply fantastic.  Can’t wait!

E3 2010 Wrap-up, Day 4

Well, today was pretty much the last day of E3.  There was little new information, but I was able to procure a small bit of information.  Capcom was showing off a few upcoming games at the show, including Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  And who is one of the stars of the Capcom side?  Mega Man, of course!  Good enough for me!

So, it turns out I didn't do too bad on my bingo card.  If the blocks were in a different order, I might have had an extra line or two, but that's alright.  All things considered, I did alright.

Well, thanks for checking out the site these last couple of days and for enjoying E3.  It was a fantastic show!  Stay tuned during the next few days for more detailed information about the fantastic and new upcoming games!

Gnu

In case you didn't notice, the blog has a nice, new coat of paint!  I figured I should make it look cool since everyone in the world reads it every day.


In short, I love Nintendo.  Hoo-hah!

-benjamines

Mariokart 3D!!

I typically carry 9 DS games with me (1 in the DS and 8 in a little case I have).  One of them is always Mariokart, since it’s one of those game that’s fun almost any time.  It would take a great game to unseat Mariokart from its perpetual place in my pocket, and that game is… the sequel.

As would naturally be expected, Nintendo is readying another fantastic entry in its iconic kart racer.  We don’t know any specifics yet, but we can likely expect a buncha new tracks, and a buncha old tracks.  Also, there are rumors that Mariokart 3D (not its official title… yet) will have a built-in track editor, letting you create any track you can imagine (to a degree, of course).  Sounds like this could be one of the games that spends the next 5 years in my pocket!

Animal Crossing: Tall Tikes

That’s my suggestion for the name of the new Animal Crossing game for the 3DS, because, as you can see, the humans are quite a bit taller than in previous entries.  It looks as if perhaps there are more changes to this game than any of the others.

Speaking of changes, I hope they remove the “feature” from the Wii version where you make trails wherever you walk, because the grass or snow never regenerated.  Also, we need some more new music!  After all, that’s one of the best parts of the game.

There are rumors that this will be one of the launch titles for the 3DS.  If so, I know I’ll have plenty to do.  Can’t wait!

Ocarina in Due Time

Well, it’s more or less official: Nintendo has released a few screenshots of a (probably) upcoming remake of the classic N64 Adventure The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.  As you can see, we have little more than some shots of Hyrule field, but man, do  they look great.

All in all, it looks to be pretty fun.  As long as that stupid fairy doesn’t say “HEY, LISTEN!” every 2 seconds, I’ll more than likely pick it up.  I suspect it’ll come out sometime next year.

E3 2010 Wrap-up, Day 3

Well, today at E3 there wasn't much more news, but it was still a good day, because the 3DS is still real and not a dream (although, I did dream about playing it, and it was awesome!).

As far as news, there are rumors that Nintendo is remaking the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the 3DS.  As for now, it's merely a tech demo, but there are murmurings of its existence as a full game.  I guess we'll see.

As for the Vitality Sensor, Nintendo said that they won't be showing it at this show, because it seemed to detract from all the other great news.  But they did talk about it a little, so that's good enough for my bingo.

Speaking of bingo, it looks likely that I won't be marking any more blocks, but then again, there's no way to know for sure, since last year, some announcements came on the last day (which is tomorrow, I believe).  So we'll see.  Personally, I'm hoping for Mega Man and a new Excite game.

In any case, it's been a great show!  Stay tuned tomorrow in case there is something new!

E3 2010 Wrap-up, Day 2

Today was witness to one of the best E3 Press Conferences ever!  Nintendo dropped the 3DS bomb on us, gave us 17 metric butte-tons of new games, and then, after the show, released a list of even more games to be released within the next year or two.  It was amazing!

Sony's press conference was dumb and boring.  It consisted of Sony telling everyone else how awesome they are (despite sales numbers that indicate the contrary), and montage videos.  Lame.

In short, Nintendo has ruled E3 this year, no question.  It's a great day to be a Nintendo gamer.  (Technically, it's always a great day to be a Nintendo gamer, but you catch my drift.)

As far as Bingo goes, I'm really close on several lines.  In fact, I have three lines that only need one more block to be completed.  And although the major press conferences are over, there are still media briefings through Thursday.  So we'll see.  Heck, maybe they'll hold one of those secret meetings like last year! (Forsooth!)

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the New Mario Platformer or Pikmin blocks, there were subtle hints on the show floor and in tech demos about those games.  Nothing specific.  But it still counts.  Dangit.

So have a look.  And when you're done looking, join me in dreaming about finally getting to own a Virtual Boy-red 3DS (hopefully later this year!).

Nintendo Wins!

That's all I have to say.  Nintendo Wins!  Today at E3, they unveiled a huge lineup of awesome games for this year and next, including:

Paper Mario

Donkey Kong Country

Mario Sports Mix
Zelda: Skyward Sword
Animal Crossing
Professor Layton
Goldeneye
Kirby
Kid Icarus (serious!)
Metroid
Starfox
Street Fighter
Pilotwings
Nintendogs

And that's not even close to the full list.  Many of these are for the new 3DS, which is, simply, freakin' amazing.  They didn't announce a release date or price yet, but I'm sure that will come in the next few weeks or months.  In any case, Nintendo has simply reassured me how awesome they are with all of their great new hardware and software.

For more info on the 3DS, including screenshots of some of the aforementioned games, go here.

Nintendo Press Conference Live Stream!

I'm not sure if this will work, but in case you can't see the Nintendo Press Conference elsewhere, here you go.  Remember, it starts at 10am!

Video clips at Ustream

E3 2010 Wrap-up, Day 1

Well, I must say that today was filled with First Person Shooters, boring press conferences, and blatant rip-offs.

At Microsoft's presser, they talked about the motion-sensing Kinect, but they never mentioned how they're basically ripping off the Wii.  To prove that, they showed off their totally original Wii Kinect Sports and Wii Kinect Fitness games.

At EA's press conference, they showed people killing each other, and then they presented their totally original Vitality Sensor Heart Monitor.

At Ubisoft's conference, they showed more people killing each other, and then revealed their own completely original Vitality Sensor Heart Monitor.

In short, everyone is copying the Wii (aside from FPSs, of course).  I guess I'm not surprised, considering the top-six selling games of all time were released by Nintendo in the past five years.

Speaking of FPSs, there's a rumor that Goldeneye (yes, that Goldeneye) is being re-released exclusively for Wii, complete with updated graphics and what not.  Man, I love when the Wii gets exclusives.

As for the bingo, you can see below that I did get one square so far.  Not much of an achievement, though.  Since it was the free space.  And stuff.

But fear not!  Tomorrow morning (at 10am MST, don't forget!) is Nintendo's show, where they will likely show off the fabled 3DS and the original Vitality Sensor, along with several awesome games, I'm sure.  Be there or be stupid!