While the majority of the announcements from the conference were in relation to the upcoming Nintendo 3DS (with posts incoming), Nintendo mentioned a few key things in regards to the company's current console.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata officially announced the Wii Remote Plus, a Wii Remote with Motion+ capabilities built into the controller. Bundled with FlingSmash, the new controller has no announced price thus far. Of course, 3RM already knew this was coming, thanks in part to updated packaging images for FlingSmash, last week.
In terms of software, more dates and announcements were made, but whether or not the games will be releasing in America is unknown.
First, Mario Sports Mix will be seeing a release in Japan this November. Mario Sports Mix is a collection of sports titles starring the Mario crew, including basketball, volleyball, hockey, and dodge ball. In America, the game is slated for early next year.
The highly-anticipated RPG The Last Story is now officially slated for a January 27th, 2011 release in Japan. The Last Story is the next title from Mistwalker, the development company led by Final Fantasy-creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. The focus on the game stems on a number of unique moves, such as "Gathering," an ability to draw attention from enemies in order for others to escape and cast magic spells. An American release is unsure, as the previous Nintendo Wii-published RPG, Xenoblade, has yet to be brought to the West.
Rhythm Tengoku, better known as Rhythm Heaven, will be heading to the Wii in 2011. For those unfamiliar with the series, Rhythm Heaven has players match specific musical pieces using button presses at significant points in time, with rhythm being the biggest guide. For example, the creatures attacking here are most likely moving to the beat of the song, and only at the exact moment of each beat will a slash prove useful. Developed by the WarioWare team alongside Intelligent Systems, hopefully this one makes it over here.
Perhaps the most surprising announcement was a remake for Fatal Frame 2 in collaborate with Tecmo Koei. Fatal Frame is a series in which the protagonists have to capture ghostly beings through their cameras, all while surrounded by the haunting world of Japanese horror. This is the second Fatal Frame title to be published by Nintendo; Fatal Frame 4 was released for the Wii earlier this generation but was not brought outside of Japan due to the game's buggy nature. Regardless, this title might very well stand a chance to be brought outside to the West, in the future.
