I've been at a rather bizarre, but actually pretty brave, Nintendo event this afternoon. It was held at the Science Museum in London (Nintendo UK are splashing a million pounds worth of sponsorship into the place) and was basically a launch of the next wave of DS games, with particular emphasis on the Brain Training games that have gone down a cerebral storm in Japan. The other titles shown included Electoplankton and Pheonix Wright (out in March)
The bizarre part was a slightly stilted panel discussion about what entertainment means in these crazy, mixed up times. The panel included a BBC TV producer, who had clearly played few games, and the editor of Popbitch. The conclusions weren't clear - at least to me, anyway - but it seems that it's all about recreation now, or something, and consumers are now active and not passive. What this had to do with Nintendo wasn't immediately obvious, but it certainly made a pleasant change from watching the usual games launch video - i.e. alt-metal and the intro cut scene shown on a big screen.
I also had a chat with the head of Nintendo UK and asked him some of your questions from here. He didn't answer some of them - mainly the Revolution ones - but he did say how Nintendo plans to let the mainstream know about the charms of the DS and also confirmed that Sudoku will be appearing (as part of the Brain Training game). You may mock, but this inclusion will vastly increase the likelihood of Brain Training's success. I'll stick the interview up later too.
