As promised here's my impression of the games Nintendo was kind enough to let me check out today. In this post I'll go over Geist and Pennant Chase Baseball for the GameCube.
Before I get into the previews I just want to thank the Nintendo van crew for driving through a blizzard to come out to my house. Now they are apparently snowed in.

Geist

The early build of Geist was very impressive. You go through this first-person adventure possessing creatures and people as a spirit.
The game starts with you having your soul ripped from your body by the Volks Corporation. They intend to brain wash you (or maybe that should be spirit wash you) and turn you into a spirit soldier, but a ghost comes to your aid.
While in spirit form the game features a very ethereal look to it, with things sort of shimmering and glowing and the world moving around you in a slow, very detached way. While in spirit form you have to drain the life from living things to maintain your existence. To possess an item you can just jump right in, but to possess a person you have to first scare it enough to make their mind susceptible. You can tell if they are primed for possession by checking out their auroras. It's all very cool.
Unfortunately I didn't get any hands-on time with this game, because it was such an early build.

Pennant Chase Baseball

I'm not a huge fan of baseball, but I took a few minutes with Nintendo's new game. Pennnant Chase adds some interesting elements to the mix, enough to make the game more accessible to the non-sports market.
The game includes three modes of pitching and batting, allowing you to crank up the difficulty of succeeding for greater pay-offs. For instance if you try to pitch at the hardest level, it cranks up the speed of your pitches, but makes the window that you need to hit with a button push very small.
The game also makes the pitches and hits you select invisible on screen, so all you see is the template for you choices and not your final selection. This is a great addition for multiplayer games.
Finally, Nintendo came up with a mode called Speed Play which cuts the time it takes to work through a single game from 45 minutes down to 10 to 15. This is done by splitting the screen in half and automating the outfield. All you do is control the pitching or the hitting. This way, you can make it through an entire year of games without having to waste your life doing it. Great ideas, all.

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