For a second straight year, Nintendo made hardware a central part of their E3 press briefing. The company announced that the Wii will get a Zapper controller for $20. It looks sort of like a Tommy gun and will make playing new shooters like Medal of Honor, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and Ghost Squad easier. In the online multi-player mode on Wii, the new Medal of Honor will handle up to 32 players.
The other big announcement is the “foot controller”, known by Nintendo as the Balance Board. It was unexpected, to say the least, and could very well replace Wii Sports as the pre-eminent casual game to play on the Wii. The Balance Board is a white board about the size of an average scale. The controller will use a person’s weight and how you balance your weight on the pad as input for full body movement on-screen. A game known as Wii Fit will accompany the new controller with a total of 40 mini-games, including aerobics, yoga, soccer, a DDR clone and more.
