Alongside the big Mario announcements, Nintendo had another major player lined up for the rest of this year and the beginning of next. Non-Mario conference highlights for 2009 included Wario Ware DIY, Wii Sports Resort (more on that tomorrow) and Wii Fit Plus. But next year looks even better.

Though Cammie Dunaway deserves a bit of a slap for glossing over Spirit Tracks on DS like it was old news (okay, it was – but there was a trailer they could’ve shown to keep wild fanboys happy), adventure lovers were given a long-awaited treat. Golden Sun is making its way to DS.

Taking a glamorous-looking step into the third dimension, GS DS will focus on the descendants of past characters with gameplay that will “push the boundaries of intuitive touchscreen controls” while maintaining series staples including the Djinni and elemental summons.

Golden Sun was one of the first RPGs that I comfortably got into – that wasn’t Pokémon, anyway. The story was beautifully told with a host of compelling characters and some very clever game mechanics. It’s also one of the few games where I will complement it graphically, as the battle animations outshone Pokémon in 2002, and still do today.

The sequel, Lost Age, got a little bit overcomplicated for me with some needlessly dragging elements (not to mention the furiously complex link system that made the Zelda Oracles games seem simple), and I have yet to finish it. Needless to say, however, talk of a sequel has got me scribbling Lost Age into the top three games I must finish this coming summer.

For those who like their games (and trailers) packed with a bit more action, boy did Nintendo have a treat lined up. As Reggie lined up the third party hardcore lineup for the coming months (Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, The Conduit and Dead Space) he posed the big question “What about Nintendo? Could a new, edgier game also be coming from us?”

The answer was a resounding hells yeah as an action-packed whizz bang trailer for a brand new Metroid title brought fans to their feet. A collaboration between Nintendo and Team Ninja (of Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive fame) looks set to marry 2-D, third-person and first-person perspectives into the one game with a story that pieces together elements of Samus’ past. It looks very impressive, and Team Ninja are known for their challenging games so this could very well be THE title which fans of genuinely hardcore Nintendo franchises are calling for.

You wouldn’t think that three (including Galaxy here) games could have quite such an effect on a near-jaded fan, but there’s great promise here. Galaxy 2 will expand on one of the Wii’s best titles, Golden Sun will be making its way to DS and lifting the spirits of RPG fans everywhere and Metroid: Other M could well be the balance that old school Metroid fans and the Prime lovers are looking for.

And you just know Nintendo will have more up their sleeves for E3 next year. In fact, the smart money could actually go on new Zelda next year, after Shigeru Miyamoto’s roundtable conference after the E3 show which revealed new art and some sketchy new details. Pikmin 3’s absence this year might be sad, but fingers are crossed for an appearance later down the line (maybe October or November?). The next 12 months are going to be very, very good times.