While Nintendo didn’t have anything new to announce at the Penny Arcade Expo, this was the first opportunity for most people to try out the games that they featured at E3. The big games were all there – Animal Crossing, Wii Music, Wario Land - as well as a few choice third party titles. I got to spend a pretty big chunk of time with several of these upcoming games. Want the skinny on this Fall’s DS and Wii titles?

Read on for my impressions.

Animal Crossing: City Folk

Animal Crossing is, well, it’s Animal Crossing. Don’t expect your world to be rocked by the new sequel, it’s more of an evolution than a revolution. In fact, calling it an evolution may be stretching the definition of the term. City Folk is all about taking the DS hit and bringing it back to its big screen roots with a couple of extra Wii-centric tweaks.

You can move your on-screen persona using either the plain old analog stick or the Wiimote’s pointer. Pressing A or B will let you interact with the environment. To open any of the menus, just point and click on one of the icons on the bar that extends across the bottom of the screen. If you’ve ever played Animal Crossing, you know what to do. I have no complaints, the controls are comfortable and the Crossing formula is solid, if a tad bit stale. I did spot a couple of new features while running around the town. Like in the Japanese-only Animal Crossing DX, players have the ability to take photographs and save them to an SD card. I don’t know for sure if you can send them to friends through WiiConnect24, but it’s a pretty safe bet. Buying items from Tom Nook now gives you points, a consumer rewards system of sorts. You can exchange those points for presents at the PTM at Nook’s store. Additionally, a “DS Suitcase” option allows you to transfer your character and items from the DS prequel.

City Folk may not do much to advance the Animal Crossing franchise, but I know that I’ll play the hell out of it when it comes out later this year. Hopefully the features that we haven’t gotten to try out yet will do more to differentiate it from the handheld version.

Rhythm Heaven

Does the possibility of a minigame collection based on timing and musical cues from the makers of the original Wario Ware excite you? If it doesn’t, please check your pulse. You’re probably some sort of zombie. In an utterly ludicrous move, Nintendo passed on bringing this title to America the first time around. Now that a DS version has made it out in Japan, Nintendo is making up for their unfortunate mistake.

The minigames in the show floor demo centered around a flicking motion. In one game, you had to flick a rod through a hole in two squares as the shapes met on the assembly line. This happened when the musical notes in “do re me” hit “so”. To keep the game from getting boring, the music would speed up or slow down at certain intervals. The other minigames put you to work doing different tasks, but they all heavily held the gameplay with the music and add a layer of that weird Wario Ware style. It might not sound all that exciting as I describe it, but Rhythm Heaven is freaking awesome. If you don’t buy it, there just might be something wrong with you.

Shaun White Snowboarding

Let’s get one thing straight, I’m not a snowboarder. I’m a pretty big guy, and a clumsy one on top of that. So, as you might expect, my lack of real-life snowboarding skills carried over to Ubisoft’s upcoming balance board title. Despite my lack of coordination, I still had a great time stumbling down the slopes.

Shaun White is about as close as you can get to actual snowboarding in your living room, short of piling snow in there yourself. You stand sideways on the board and shift your weight to balance. Leaning forward or backward causes you to shift in that direction. Pressing A and B while near a ramp or bar will launch you into the air, where you can spin and perform tricks. Staying in control of your board and on the right track is an epic balancing act. It’s pretty intuitive, but still harder than I expected. While at the show, I tried both a downhill mode and a half-pipe mode, where you slide back and forth and try to perform as many elaborate tricks as you can before time runs out.

Shaun White Snowboarding is probably the most fun I’ve had playing a snowboarding game, entirely thanks to the control interface. Lapsed Wii Fit owners will have another reason to drag out the balance board.

Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

I’ve got to be blunt, Sega hasn’t just dropped the ball with the recent Sonic titles, they’ve wandered out of the ballpark. It’s ironic that the game that just might be the salvation of the maligned franchise is an RPG, one of the slowest genres out there. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood may have the look of a Sonic game, but it has the soul of a Bioware game.

Dark Brotherhood is a pretty traditional Japanese-style RPG. You walk around each zone, fight enemies, and talk to NPCs. The zones are littered with rings, as you might expect from a Sonic game. Unlike the other Sonic games, those coins act as a currency. Battles are not random, you can avoid running into enemies if you’re running low on HP. During each round, you can choose to attack, defend, or use items. No surprised there. As you level up, you can learn special moves, like magic spells in other RPGs. These POW moves add a little more interactivity to the battles. When you use one, you must complete a series of actions ripped straight out of Elite Beat Agents. That may seem like a strange idea at first, but that layer of timing and precision fits the style of Sonic surprisingly well. Additionally, when you level up, you can specify which skills you want to increase, adding a bit of customization into the mix.

The story of Dark Brotherhood hasn’t been toned down because of the Sonic license. While I only got to experience the first zone, the writing was good enough to leave me intrigued. The Bioware representative assured me that the storyline takes on a darker tone as the game progresses, dealing heavily with the relationship of light and shadow. While he was light on details, He likened it to some of the moral choices in Mass Effect. That’s definitely enough to intrigue me. Sonic Chronicles is shaping up to be an incredible role-playing experience. The Dark Brotherhood may be a beacon of light for the Sonic franchise.

Wario Land: Shake It

Given Nintendo’s current position in the market and the utterly ridiculous profits that they are making off of “paradigm shifting” titles like Brain Training, it is somewhat amusing that the best game in their first party lineup is an old-fashioned 2D sidescroller. Wario Land is a return to form for Nintendo, a homage to their past. It’s about as simple as it gets. You hold the controller sideways and move using the d-pad moves. The 1 and 2 buttons serve as jump and slam, respectively. You can press down while in mid-air to smash foes. At other times, you can pick up and throw objects and enemies. In other words, it plays like a Nintendo platformer. The only integration of the Wii motion sensing is for a special shake attack, a devastating move that opens blocked passages and stuns enemies. A meter at the top of the screen lets you know when the attack is ready to use.

If you’ve played any of the older Wario Land titles, you won’t be disappointed. Shake It is a tight, solid platformer. The controls feel perfect, unlike the floatiness that dooms so many other platformers. The 2D artwork is stunning, especially in the cutscenes created by the anime studio, Production IG. There’s no question in my mind, Wario Land is the best title in Nintendo’s fall lineup. Sadly, it’ll also probably be the worst selling title in Nintendo’s fall lineup.

Wii Music

Wii Music has gotten a lot of heat over the past couple of months for its simplistic nature. After all, what’s the point of a music game where you can’t fail? What’s the point of a music game where you don’t even really play? I’ll be honest, I lost most of my interest in the title after its big E3 reveal, but I wasn’t entirely ready to just dismiss it. When given the chance, I eagerly gave it a try.

I only had time to play the drum mode of Wii Fit, but it was still something of an enlightening experience. You are presented with a drum set and a list of moves, and you play the drums. That’s all. They didn’t even give you a prerecorded song to play. It’s just a way to sit back, relax, and bang on some virtual drums. It is more detailed than what we’ve seen out of some of the other modes. You have a lot of control over the drums, and you can vary your playing style using the balance board and certain buttons. The D-Pad allows you to control which pad you hit.

I have to make one thing entirely clear, Wii Music is not a game. This isn’t like Brain Training. Brain Training is still a game. You have rules and you have a goal. The drum mode lacked both of those. It isn’t fair to compare Wii Music with games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band because it isn’t either of those, it’s more of a musical toy. Without a doubt, some people will love Wii Music. I can see the potential for people who just want a cheap virtual drum set. At the same time, it completely failed to hold my interest for more than a few minutes. I have to wonder if it will find the same success as the other Touch Generations titles, I’m not sure that a musical toy will satisfy even Nintendo’s “blue ocean” audience.