Although I wasn't in Los Angeles to attend the Nintendo Press Conference today, I was able to watch it on an LCD screen at the Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Center in NYC. Nintendo wants to "challenge conventional thinking" by offering a new handheld remote controller that gives you freehand control in a simple and intuitive style. Their main focus is to break the barrier between those who play video games and those who do not, and bring them together.

Nintendo presented various clips from its upcoming games for both the Wii and the DS Lite, and showed us how to use the Wii Remote. The Wii Remote includes a built-in speaker and two motion sensors so you feel as if you are part of the game. We could hear the sound of a tennis racket hitting a ball and a sword used to slash an enemy.

Among the new games to be offered for the Wii (which is expected for Q4 2006) are Metroid 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Excite Truck, Project Hammer, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, Red Steel, Madden 07, Rayman, and perhaps the most anticipated: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. If you are attending the E3 show, you'll have the chance to play one of the 27 games on the show floor.

What really excited me were the Wii Sports titles, which will include tennis, baseball, and golf. I remember playing the tennis game on my old-school Nintendo GameBoy and would always get frustrated when I'd miss the ball (even though it looked like I hit it!). You can see the Nintendo execs and the winner of the Wii contest at the right trying to play.

Wii will also feature a built-in Virtual Console and backward compatibility with GameCube, letting you access Nintendo games from the NES, Super NES, and Nintendo 64. Alright!

In related news, Nintendo DS Lite will launch June 11th at a price of $129.99. Expect more than 100 games to be released, including New Super Mario Bros, DK: King of Swing, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team, Star Fox, Kirby, and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.