Please remind me why I bought a 3DS.
First and foremost from Nintendo's press conference, I would like to be reminded why I spent $250 on their new handheld. You'll recall it had a terrible launch lineup (Pilotwings is D-list material, good as it is). One assumes that, because of the rushed launch to market, the "big" games were left on the development room floor. Reggie needs to tell me what those games are. I need Mario, Mario Kart, Pokemon, maybe a new Smash Bros. Games we already know about, like Ocarina of Time 3D, Star Fox 64 3D, and Metal Gear Solid 3D don't really wow me because I've played those games...years ago. But in addition to delivering top-tier retail games, Nintendo needs to embrace the promise of online functionality. The 3DS needs to have a good, well-organized online structure, and Nintendo ITSELF needs to support 3DSWare with high-quality, first-party titles.
Let me rephrase that: Nintendo needs to get their A-teams on these downloadable platforms. They might not like it, but it needs to happen.
Reggie will talk about the success of the DS/Lite/i/XL over the lifetime of that system. Licensed games will still be coming out for it, so he'll be able to say that developers are still flocking to the system and it's by no means dead. We've already heard about the price drop for the Lite--doubtlessly the most popular model--but I think it's dead in the water now. They're not going to support the DS and 3DS. One will die, and it'll be the first one.
The Wii is similarly dead, but Reggie will, of course, trumpet its lifetime success as the most popular video game console across all generations of all time, blah blah blah. But we all know the system is on its last legs: Wii Play Plus will be the "party title," but the Big Game of Show will be...Zelda, of course.
We'll get a big long trailer, but no gameplay at the press conference. The trailer will show off the final game, including the final graphics, and I'm betting it will look surprisingly different compared to what we saw last year. It will utilize Wii Motion Plus (it might even be bundled with Wii Remote Plus) and it will have an actual, epic storyline. It would be interesting if the "land below the clouds" turned out to be a middle world, and there was a further "underworld" below that. Previous Zelda games have gone with a duel-world mechanic, why not go for a triple-changer? Zelda will get a firm release date and it'll be late this year. It will be the Wii's last hurrah.
But what about Dragon Quest X? Spoiler alert, kids: DQX will be moved on up to Project Cafe, implied as a launch title, but since Cafe won't get a firm launch date, it'll be a nice, ghostly moving target. As for Cafe, I don't really know what to tell you: I have some hopes and dreams, but I'm fairly certain that all of the "confirmed rumors," like a screen in the controller, are going to prove false. It will be something we don't expect, and I really doubt we'll see anything besides game teasers (not trailers). We might not even see the whole unit--Iwata may just whip out a working model of the console itself, say something like "this is the future!" and walk off the stage.
Andy will be saddened to learn that I doubt they'll even breath a word of Pikmin 3 on stage, and whatever Animal Crossing port they show off for the 3DS will make Nathan writhe with anger.
Also, BioShock Infinite. Not necessarily for a Nintendo system, but I just want it.