How Nintendo can win E3 2011

Alright, chuckles; before you chime in with a "they can't" and scuttle back off to calculating how many days it is before you hit your next Prestige rank, maybe you should remember the Wii is the biggest selling console this generation. If past performance is any indication, it's never wise to bet against Nintendo - unless you did with the Virtual Boy, which was more painful than being subject to a Soujla Boy music video on infinite loop. But enough about the past! This year Nintendo is heading to the future.
Nintendo's E3 2011 conference takes place on June 7 at 09:00 PDT/17:00 BST. VideoGamer.com will be covering the event live, but here's what we think they should be showing if they want to best their gaming rivals:

Project Cafe

Seeing as interest in the Wii seems to be waning, Nintendo needs to really make sure that Project Cafe isn't complete guff. We've heard enough rumours to fill almost an entire issue of Heat magazine, but if Nintendo is going to go ahead with another wacky control method it's going to have to keep confidence high amongst both core and casual gamers.
A casual audience will be interested in knowing the price - it needs to be low. That seems plausible, especially considering rumours suggest it'll pack about as much power as the 360 and PS3. It'll also be very important for Nintendo to demonstrate why buyers should consider an upgrade - why get rid of your Wii when it has a perfectly good version of Mario Kart, Wii Fit, and Wii Sports Resort.
The core audience, however, will be interested in first-party titles and decent third-party support. The latter is especially important - third-party support on the Wii was more shambolic than both Wii Music and Vitality Sensor combined. Most major publishers - such as EA and Activision - will want to see it easily possible to port their software libraries over without the controller ruining everything and the end result looking like it's been interpreted to the Wii by a particularly busted Atari 2600 that can't understand colour.
Both audiences, however, will need to see this machine's 'Wii Sports' moment. One of the major failings of the 3DS launch is that there's nothing out which properly sells you on the technology itself, which is the exact opposite of what happened the first time somebody picked up a Wii Remote and tried their hand at tennis or bowling.
Sure, latent cynicism for the Wii might cloud some peoples' judgement, but just imagine if Nintendo actually manage to pitch Project Cafe to both core and casual audiences and bag that lucrative, identity-defining money shot?

Software for the 3DS

You know what the 3DS needs? Games. Literally, anything that isn't a port or remake of something that came out utter yonks ago would be a complete triumph. And if Ubisoft would consolidate its efforts we might see one decent game as opposed to four thousand abysmal ports of Splinter Cell.
Even the new games aren't sparkling. Initial views of Kid Icarus is that it doesn't contain the usual quotient of Nintendo magic (about 64 per cent by my calculations), so what Nintendo really needs to do it get the Italian plumber himself to sort it all out.
We need, want, and desperately yearn for footage of a decent and original Mario game on the 3DS, one that stands triumphantly upon the podium of success and shouts "hey! This is how you really make games for the 3DS!" loud and proud to the entire world. Something to get those creative juices really flowing.
Make it happen, Nintendo. Do it because the gamers of the world need something to boost our confidence in the machine, because if you get it right you'll win back our hearts, and because I'm sure Sony is cooking up some very fancy tech demos for the NGP right now.

A basic understanding of the Internet

Seriously - it's 2011. At time of writing the 3DS still hasn't got the 3DS eShop, and that's absolutely appalling. But even if it did, would we really want it? Let's cast our mind back to the sorry state of affairs that was DSiWare, which was basically four million novelty clock and calculator applications, or WiiWare, which functioned like a shoddy pre-alpha build of Xbox LIVE Arcade.
Here's a difficult truth: right now Nintendo's online portfolio is so shockingly bad you probably wouldn't even wipe your bottom with a Nintendo Points card.
So, yeah, Nintendo needs to wake up and check Twitter or something. The internet happened, guys. If premiership footballers can't escape its vicious clutches, then a video games machine stands no chance.
One of the major selling points for Project Cafe is that it should have a strong, versatile, and confident online service that lets both games and gaming really shine. And no more ridiculous Friend Codes this time, okay Nintendo?
Just imagine what Nintendo could do if it managed to embrace both local and online play in a simple and hassle-free way, having people playing together in the same room while competing/co-operating with against other people on various sofas across the continent.

more mature response to mobile gaming

Right now Nintendo's response to Apple's App Store is for the company to stick both fingers in its ears and scream "LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" over and over again until it's passed out from exhaustion.
You can't simply get up on stage and say Nintendo's products are worth £40, that the iPhone App Store can't produce the kind of full-blown gaming experiences you'll get on the 3DS, and then release Steel Diver, probably the worst first-party title since Sony released Kung Fu Rider last year.
No, Nintendo needs to actually prove that its full-priced games are better than what the iPhone and iPad can do. The proof is in the pudding - and if Nintendo can actually show us why its games can do what the iDevices can only dream about, well, that's certainly a better result than simply pretending Apple isn't a major part of the competition.

That Nintendo magic

You know what I'm talking about - that sense of glee that only Nintendo can seem to provide. That tingly feeling you get when you look at games like Super Mario Galaxy, Kirby's Epic Yarn, or Zelda: Wind Waker.
You know what doesn't provide that slice of Nintendo magic? The Vitality Sensor.
What does? Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, Pokemon, and on and on and on and so forth.
Wondering how Nintendo's competition can compete? Check out How Sony can win E3 and How Microsoft can win E3.

By Martin Gaston via videogamer.com

Other stuff