In a financial briefing in Japan today, Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata announced and presented the la addition to the “Wii” games family, WiiParty. With the announcement of a Nintendo published Party game, the chances of seeing Mario Party 9 at E3 this year have decreased and some even believe that Nintendo has dropped the franchise in favor of a more genreal party game. While this is only specualtion, the game is highly likely to appear at E3 and make use of the Vitality Censor or another accessory, very similar to the way Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort made use of a particular accessory or peripheral. Satoru Iwata did make mention of Mario Party 8, releasing new sale numbers:
“Nintendo has not launched a marquee party game since Mario Party 8, launched in summer 2007. However, since Wii is usually being played by several people at once and the global sales of Mario Party have reached 7.6 million units, a party title has great potential.”
Here are some screens from IGN of what appears to be a board like map, a minigame, and a menu :
