Nintendo Wii Fanboy

The obvious choice aside, we can't think of many game designers who are better qualified than Masahiro Sakurai to discuss how to make fun videogames. Which is a good job, really, because the Smash Bros. and Kirby creator has been booked by DiGRA, Japan's Digital Games Research Association, to deliver a talk on what makes games enjoyable.

Don't go getting excited, though. Sakurai's speech, entitled 'Game-ness,' will be delivered at the Fukutake Hall Running Theatre at Tokyo University's Hongo campus, and to an audience of only 150 people. If by some chance you are located near to the venue, know that DiGRA members get in free, while student non-members pay ¥500 (roughly $5) and all other non-members ¥1000 (approx $10).

We wonder what games he'll use to convey his message? Bringing up Brawl or Kirby might seem a little conceited, but those are two of the titles we would use.

[Via Develop]

Now that the Tokyo Game Show has come to a close and you've been assaulted with numerous videos, we can all finally take a deep breath and carefully scrutinize all of this new data following the event. For Nintendo having no presence of their own at the show, the Wii was out in full-force. Before we get into what we liked and didn't like from the show, let's recap on what the show brought us, for both the DS and Wii:

• Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker in-game footage
• A new Bleach trailer
• A pretty sweet Elebits booth
• Kingdom Hearts creators unveil new DS game
• FFXII: Revenant Wings trailer and art
• Heroes of Mana animated trailer
• New Sonic and the Secret Rings trailer
• Best in Show: Elebits
• The TGS booth to rule them all
• New footage for Q? Entertainment's Gunpey
• It's a Wonderful World gets the preview treatment
• Lost in Blue 2 trailer
• More Final Fantasy remakes coming to the DS?

So how did Nintendo do? The DS certainly rocked the house! Even though the DS was literally bombarded with nothing but RPGs, it still had a great show. A slew of new content will keep the already incredible platform from going stale. Those with an insatiable appetite for turn-based battles and potions will get their fix with Square-Enix's incredible lineup of RPG games to come.

As for the Wii, it had a smaller presence through third-party publishers this year. Konami had the award-winning Elebits on-hand for eager attendees, as well as Sega tossing down the red carpet for their mascot with Sonic and the Secret Rings. Nintendo failing to make a unified presence themselves could've hurt their momentum going into launch, but we aren't worried. If we should be, then why?

For all of Joystiq's Tokyo Game Show 2006 coverage, click here.

[Update 1: Added in the interview with the Final Fantasy III developers.]

Unless you've been living alone in the desert for years, vowing to never speak, you probably know that TGS, or the Tokyo Game Show, is currently in full swing. A Japanese equivalent to the spectacle that is was the US' E3, TGS is one of the biggest events in the industry. Here companies do all they can to get show attendees interested in their titles, from booth babes to extravagant booths themselves.

Here we can see the booth for Elebits, one of our must-have launch titles. During this presentation on the game, Nintendo Inside snapped many a picture of the game being demoed as well as some of the surrounding promotional material. You can also find a new trailer for the game here.

Continue past the break for more pictures.

Taking a quick glance at the list of attendees for September's Tokyo Game Show will show that Nintendo, for the second year in a row, will not have a significant showing of playable games. This is odd, considering that we're supposed to hear word on release and price for the Wii in that same month, and also with the strong amazing incredible immaculate showing that Nintendo had at E3 this year, why would they want to stop more people from getting their hands on it, especially on their home turf? Of course, the list is only final as of July 5th, so there is still time for Nintendo to hop on board, but it isn't a likely scenario that will play out.

[Update: Clarified some of the post's wording. Iwata is likely to show up and give a speech -- there just won't be a giant Nintendo booth.]