Reporting from E3 in Santa Monica….

Lots of new games coming out for the Nintendo Wii and DS. But for gadget freaks, the new toys were a highlight: The Wii Zapper, the Wii Wheel and the Wii Balance Board.

The Wii Wheel is coming out with the new version of MarioKart for Wii, which has a release date of first quarter 2008:

And then there’s the Wii Zapper, a $19.99 gadget that lets you piece together the Wii-mote and the nunchaku controller. It’ll be available for upcoming Wii games including Medal of Honor, DragonQuest and Smackdown vs. Raw.

But, imho, the most unique gadget was the balance board, which will supplement the new Wii Fit games. While hard-core gamers may shrug over Wii Fit, I thought it definitely appeals to the neo-gamer — seniors, women, all ages. As Reggie Fils-Amie, Nintendo of America’s President, pointed out during the morning press conference, one-out-of-three Nintendo systems are purchased by women as compared to one-out-of-five in the video game industry.

The new balance board looks like a thin, white bathroom scale, held up by Shigeru Miyamoto in the photo above. (That’s the Shigeru Miyamoto, the Japanese game designer who created Mario, Donkey Kong and The Legend of Zelda). Miyamoto, now Nintendo’s senior managing director, said this was the game he was interested in introducing. The board senses balance and movement so when you sway back and forth, you could be shaking your hips to hold up a hula hoop. Or move your head to bop a soccer ball aimed at you. For all the yoga fans out there, balance is key and there’s a game just for yoga lovers.

And it can take your BMI to see how fat you are. Looks like Reggie is overweight.

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