Nintendo shows off new Wii U hardware, ‘NintendoLand’ and more at E3

In the last of the big press conferences at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, Nintendo provided some new insight into what gamers can look forward to with the upcoming Wii U console.

While today did mark Nintendo's official keynote, they began their presentation Sunday night with a special "pre-E3" address from Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, who released more details about the Wii U and showcasing some of its abilities. The June 5 keynote didn't touch on the hardware as much, focusing instead on the games coming up for the new system.

Shigeru Miyamoto, the game designer behind many of Nintendo's most popular games, was on hand to unveil the new Pikmin game — complete with Pikmin added to the audience using augmented reality. Ten years after the release of the first Pikmin game, Pikmin 3 uses the higher-definition graphics of the Wii U to refine the look of the environments and showcase the more nuanced movements of the Pikmin themselves. As this is the first Pikmin game since Pikmin 2 for the GameCube, players will be able to take advantage of the precision of the WiiMote Plus, pointing at the screen and telling the Pikmin exactly where he or she would like them to go.

The Wii U gamepad, unsurprisingly, figured prominently throughout Nintendo's presentation. In Pikmin 3, the player can use the gamepad as a map, but that was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to innovative ways to incorporate the peripheral into games. Two third party titles, ZombiU and Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition made the gamepad a much more integral part of the gameplay experience. You can read more about third-party titles for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS on our blog here.

Since the Wii Fit was first announced five years ago, Nintendo has made fitness games a priority in all of their E3 presentations. 2012 was no different, as Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime showed footage of the new Wii Fit U, which incorporates not just the gamepad, but a pedometer (what they call a "fit metre") that can be synced with the gamepad to include fitness activities done outside of the game.

But the game most emphasized by Nintendo during their presentation was NintendoLand, a theme park comprised of games inspired by other Nintendo properties. Twelve mini-games will be available in all, in a mix of single and multi-player. Five playable titles will be available on the show floor at E3: Donkey Kong's Crash Course and Takamaru's Ninja Castle for single player, and Luigi's Ghost Mansion, Animal Crossing Sweet Day and Link's Battle Quest for multiplayer. Each game highlights what Nintendo calls "asymmetrical gaming," when one person is playing in a different, complimentary way to the other players. The demo shown during Nintendo's presentation showed four players running through a maze in Luigi's Mansion using Wiimote controllers, while a fifth player used the WiiU gamepad to control a ghost trying to catch the players.

Nintendo further split their presentation by announcing a separate webcast that will take place on June 6 to cover all the information on upcoming Nintendo 3DS titles, which were largely omitted from the keynote. Even with minimal time, Nintendo managed to confirm three upcoming games: Paper Mario: Sticker Stars (Holiday 2012), Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (Holiday 2012) and New Super Mario Bros. 2 (August 19). More titles, including an extensive third-party lineup, will be described in detail during the webcast.

More information about the games, game videos and interviews with game creators are available on Nintendo's E3 hub page, e3.nintendo.com, through Nintendo's Facebook pages and on Twitter.

(Screengrab from NintendoLand, shown in press conference on e3.nintendo.com)

For all the latest gaming news this week, check out our E3 2012 page.