At 9 am sharp this morning Reggie Fils-Aime took the stage in Nintendo’s E3 press conference and preceded to announce game after game aimed straight at the hearts of Nintendo’s longtime fans. He was merciless and quite frankly, he kicked my ass.

And then he took my name.

It’s what Reggie does best, though in recent years gamers felt left out due to Nintendo’s catering to the casual crowd.

Today there was no question who Nintendo wanted to please, it’s fans. Gone were the self-congratulatory sales slides, replaced by trailers for games like Kid Icarus: Uprising and Donkey Kong Country Returns.

What follows are my game by game impressions of Nintendo’s E3 press conference. You can also read my Twitter for more.

The show started off with Shigeru Miyamoto unveiling The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It’s another mature Link game for the Wii that uses the Wii MotionPlus for a sword and the nunchuk for your shield. The combat was different from Twilight Princess. While I was hoping for a return to the Wind Waker look, I was happy with what I saw. They showed a new weapon for Link, the whip, which I imagine will be implemented in clever ways with the Wiimote. It releases next year.

Next was Mario Sports Mix for Wii featuring basketball, volleyball, ice hockey and dodgeball. Why did it take this long for Nintendo to think this one up. Mario + Sports = more money than you can count. also coming next year.

Wii Party, another Mii minigame collection was shown and it’ll probably do great even though I’m not that interested. Holiday 2010 release.

They announced Just Dance 2, which again isn’t my bag, but will probably sell more copies than (insert your favorite game here). It will include 40+ songs and up to eight people can play. Holiday 2010 on the Wii.

A trailer for Golden Sun: Dark Sun for the DS was shown. I never played the other Golden Sun DS game so I don’t have much of an opinion.

Speaking of golden . . . Reggie announced a Wii version of GoldenEye 007! Apparently it’s a remake of the N64 GoldenEye game with Daniel Craig replacing Pierce Brosnan. It features multiplayer with 8 classic Bond characters and comes out this holiday.

Warren Specter showed Epic Mickey which looks absolutely awesome. Part of me still wants it on the 360 or PS3 in HD, but those feelings go away when I see it in action. The last good Mickey game was Castle of Illusion on the Sega Genesis when I was in high school. They showed a black & white 2D Steamboat Willie level that looked like a classic side-scroller. Brilliant. I can’t wait to play this.

Kirby is back in Kirby’s Epic Yarn for the Wii. Wow, he hasn’t had a game on a home console in seven years? I didn’t realize that. Epic Yarn has a unique artstyle that utilizes a yarn pulling mechanic with the wiimote. It’s really hard to explain with words but it looks like it works. Also out this holiday.

They touched on Dragon Quest IX for the DS which comes out July 11 in North America. I’m a little afraid to start the game after Reggie talked about a player logging 140 hours into it and is “just getting started”. Numbers like that frighten me these days. I will make time for it though.

Metroid: Other M was shown next. It looks like a traditional Metroid game in some ways, but totally different in others. I think it has the potential to be utterly fantastic or very disappointing. I don’t think there’s much middle ground. Metroid fans are a tough crowd and I remember the negativity Metroid: Prime got before anyone played it. Now it will be amusing to hear people complain that Other M isn’t like Metroid: Prime. You can’t please everybody. You can try it for yourself on August 31st.

Retro Studios have been working on Donkey Kong Country Returns. The gameplay looks just the the side-scrolling SNES Donkey Kong Country games from the 90′s. The best part is that it’s due out this year on the Wii. A great surprise.

Here’s what we were waiting for, Satoru Iwata revealed the Nintendo 3DS handheld system. From a distance it looks just like a DS but close up the differences are obvious. Nintendo was smart to include an adjustable depth slider for the 3D effect on the side. I wouldn’t have thought of that so I guess that’s why they make the big bucks. It takes 3D photos, has a 3.5 inch screen on top, and includes a gyroscope. Apparently it can also play 3D Hollywood movies like How To Train Your Dragon which is mind-boggling. By the way, the stills of people wearing 3D glasses during Reggie’s presentation were priceless. You can read about the full specs at Nintendo’s E3 site.

Jaws dropped when a trailer for Kid Icarus: Uprising was shown. It’s been rumored for so long that it’s almost surreal to actually see it. For the past five E3′s fans would predict the announcement of a Kid Icarus game and it never came true. This year, I didn’t hear anyone suggest it and lo and behold here it is. It doesn’t look anything like the last Kid Icarus game, but that was 24 years ago so how could it. It’s for the 3DS but graphically it looks like a Wii game. The 3DS must be much more powerful that the current DS.

Overall Thoughts

Nintendo had the best E3 showing they’ve had in years today. The unveiling of the 3DS was an undeniable success, people were talking about it all day and the line just to see it was over a mile long in. Add the flood of games announced for Nintendo fans and you’d be hard pressed to be disappointed.

I was skeptical of Nintendo’s chances going in, but they surprised me and reminded me why I play games. Because they make me happy.

Next up is Sony’s turn to shine.

You can read my impressions of the Microsoft E3 2010 Press Conference HERE.