E3, the annual video game trade show, wrapped up yesterday, and there was some semi-big news on the Nintendo front. This year didn’t see anything that was absolutely jaw-dropping from the Big N, but there were still some interesting developments for Nintendo fans.

The most exciting announcement for most fans is probably the Wii MotionPlus accessory. This small device will plug into the bottom of the Wiimote, and it will make for totally accurate “1:1″ representations of your motion. In other words, before the Wiimote could (obviously) sense motion, but with this new dongle, every little movement, twist, and turn you make with the Wiimote will be recognized. The bad news is that it isn’t backwards compatible, meaning it won’t give you improved response to games that weren’t designed for it. But the accessory will come bundled with Wii Sports Resort, a sequel to the pack-in game Wii Sports. The new game will feature at least ten new mini-games that will show off the MotionPlus’ capabilities and be based around a beach theme. Three of those mini-games have been announced so far: a game where you throw a frisbee to a dog (pictured above), a jet-ski racing game, and a sword dueling game. I’ve never been to a sun drenched resort that featured sword fighting, but whatever. It’s a safe bet that this game will sell approximately a gazillion copies.

Nintendo will also finally get into voice chat with the new WiiSpeak microphone. The mic is designed to sit by your TV and work for a whole room. I personally think that is a much better idea than the headset microphones that the other consoles use. Not only do those headsets give off an incredibly geeky vibe, they are for one individual player at a time, whereas making a mic for the entire living room fits in perfectly with the whole “family-friendly” vibe that Nintendo is championing. WiiSpeak will be primarily used with a new Animal Crossing game. I’ve never gotten into that series, so I’m hoping more for an announcement that WiiSpeak will be backwards compatible, meaning that we can use it for online Mario Kart Wii races.

Then there’s Wii Music, the game that will allow players to use their Wiimotes and Nunchucks to virtually play over 50 different types of instruments, solo or with friends.  Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo guru, has said that Wii Music is more of a toy than a game, and impressions from the conference have been mixed so far.  The fact that you can use the Wii Balance Board to play drums is a pretty cool feature, though.

There were no specific mentions of future Mario or Zelda games, but Miyamoto has said that both teams are hard at work on new games, and that he wants to see both franchises return for another game on the Wii, which is excellent news.  The last time Zelda saw two games on one console was back in the N64 days, and it hasn’t happened for Super Mario since the SNES.  There were also hints at a follow-up to New Super Mario Bros. game for the DS, though nothing was confirmed.  And early impressions of Wario Land: Shake It!, a classic 2-D side scrolling game, have been pretty positive, which should help tide over anyone looking for a fix on their beloved Nintendo mascots.