Well, there was no new
Mach Rider. 
What was there? Tons of quick updates on all of Nintendo's Q4 and 2012 titles and the biggest third-party titles, as well as information on an upcoming 3DS system update that will include 3D video capture, new SpotPass features, more access to 3D game trailers, and an improved eShop. As far as new game announcements go, the most interesting was a new "classic-style JRPG" from Square Enix, complete with a bizarre word salad title:
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy. I wouldn't be surprised if it was made by the
Final Fantasy: 4 Heroes of Light team and was the source of the 4HoL 2 rumors. It features character designs by Akihiko Yoshida.
EDIT: It's absolutely
gorgeous. Check out the trailer
here. And yeah, it's absolutely the spiritual successor to
Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light. It's now its own series, so it makes sense that they changed the name, even if what they changed it to...doesn't.
Other new game announcements include a new
Culdcept — fuck
yes — and, from Nintendo, a new
Fire Emblem. Woo!
EDIT: Oh, and a new
Mario Tennis. How did I forget that? All for the 3DS, of course.
A new pink 3DS was also announced. (The US was at "3DS color parity" with Japan for one glorious weekend, but of course it had to end.) Iwata noted that the Wii and DS appealed to men and women roughly equally, but the 3DS hasn't; the new color could be seen as part of a larger initiative to reach more gamers, which also includes Level-5's
Girl's RPG: Cinderelife, among others. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we saw the pink 3DS in America as one of NoA's two requisite Black Friday bundles, likely with
nintendogs + cats.
As expected, a lot of attention was given to
Monster Hunter Tri G. It will be released on December 10, a Saturday, which is...interesting. In Japan most games are released on Thursdays; only hardware and
Dragon Quest games get released on weekends. I wouldn't be surprised
at all if Nintendo found out that the PS Vita was being released on December 10 and planned for
Monster Hunter Tri G to be released on the same day. I guess we'll find out in about 48 hours, as Sony will almost certainly announce the Japanese PS Vita release date at TGS.
But the "megaton" (betrayalton?) announcement of the show was that
Monster Hunter 4 is a 3DS title. Not just
Portable 4th, not just
Four G, the
actual next Monster Hunter will be a handheld game for the first time. This is absolutely huge news, on par with the announcement that
Dragon Quest IX was a DS title, and it's a huge vote of confidence in the 3DS from Capcom.
So, again, if making that wonky-looking controller add-on was what it took for Nintendo to get
Monster Hunter Tri G this year
and Monster Hunter 4 next year, then as a 3DS owner I am absolutely 100% glad that they did it.
Monster Hunter is a
huge series in Japan — the series is arguably
the reason the tide turned from the DS to the PSP in Japan — and Nintendo has it locked up for the foreseeable future. The only thing Sony could have fired back with at the (already huge) announcement of a 3DS-exclusive
Monster Hunter Tri G was an announcement of
Monster Hunter 4 exclusively for the Vita, and now that's not happening. The PS Vita will have the third re-release of
Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, and that's it, at least for the foreseeable future.
So, yes. The 3DS is clearly picking up steam with developers, and as an owner I've never felt more confident in the future of the platform. Though I never really doubted it, like some. (Seriously people, $169 hardware
and a new
Super Mario and a new
Mario Kart all in one holiday? I'm not betting against
that.)