Video game powerhouse Nintendo kicked off the first official day of E3 with an ample software lineup set to please both their casual and "core" fan base.

The Kyoto-based game company opened strong with the announcement of New Super Mario Bros. Wii; a classic style Mario game that allows up to 4 people to play simultaneously. The title is a follow-up to best seller New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS and is set to be released at the end of 2009.

Nintendo shifted focus to their casual audience with sequels to two of the platforms most successful titles, Wii Fit Plus and Wii Sports Resort.

Wii Fit Plus is an expansion title to its four-million plus selling predecessor and will be offered at retail with the Wii Balance Board peripheral or sold alone for players who already own the original.

Wii Sports Resort, sequel to the popular title packed in with every Wii sold includes new games such as fencing, Frisbee, ping-pong and jet-skiing, to name a few. Wii Sports Resort will be packaged with Wii Motion Plus; a small peripheral that attaches to the wii-mote to offer more natural motion detection.

Both Wii-branded titles will be available this year. Wii Sports Resort is dated for July 26th; Wii Fit Plus was given a Fall release window.

Nintendo carried on the conference with a look at their popular handheld brands Nintendo DS and the newly released Nintendo DSi. Keeping with their theme of offering games for both their casual and hardcore-gamer markets, a large variety of games were shown. Tween and women skewed titles like Style Savvy and Woman's Murder Club: Games of Passion were shown along side fanboy-only games such as Kingdom Hearts DS, Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

The newest addition to Nintendo's handheld family, The DSi had a small presence at the conference. Nintendo acknowledged the significance of user-created game content during the conference and announced three downloadable titles that are built around this latest gaming trend.

Flipnote Studio is a game that allows player to draw and animate their very own cartoons with the DSi stylus. WarioWare: DYI, the latest title in Nintendo's madcap mini-game fest puts players in charge of designing everything from the art, music and character animation. The last DSi downloadable title shown was Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again, a game that puts players in charge of designing various platforming and puzzles that can be share with others over the internet.

The conference took a bizarre turn when Nintendo President Satoru Iwata took the stage to unveil the Wii's latest hardware addition. The Wii Vitality Sensor is a device that attaches to the players index finger that apparently can measure vitals such as stress and heart rate. Iwata's vague announcement made no mention of specific games or a release date but iterated how the Vitality Sensor would help players "relax".

To close out the show Nintendo showed their commitment to their hardcore-gamer by showing an impressive lineup of fan favorites with two genuine surprises.

For the first time ever, a Nintendo console will receive a sequel to a 3D Mario game with Super Mario Galaxy 2. Historically, Mario fans have to wait years for a true sequel to Nintendo's flagship series. A holiday 2010 release date is being speculated, putting the the length of time between Super Mario Galaxy and it's sequel at only 3 years.

Nintendo showcased third party support for the "core" audience with Sega's The Conduit, a sci-fi first-person-shooter and Capcom's Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles. Both of these titles are rated M for mature, a rare find on the family friendly Wii.

President of Nintendo North America Reggie Fils-Aime closed the press conference with a shocking announcement. Team Ninja, developer of popular XBOX title Ninja Gaiden, are collaborating with Nintendo on a new title in the fan-favorite series Metroid. An action heavy trailer was shown for Metroid: Other M, which eluded to the game containing a mix of classic-style Metroid game play and first-person features similar to those found in recent Metroid Prime Series. No concrete date was given but a 2010 release was mentioned.

The industry-leading company may not have had the glitz and pacing of the Microsoft's E3 conference but had a strong show that included "Something for everyone".