Nintendo Keynote Presentation – E3 2011
Getting ready. Hoping for some seriously big stuff. After all the effort Sony put forth, last night, Nintendo had better step things up a notch or two. The DS looks a lot less shiny to me.
Stage footage just came on. Doing this live is an odd thing. I really expected greater punctuality. These guys are no more timely than I am in real life. LOL
Aaaand, we are go!
Wow. They opened with a live orchestra and choir, playing to footage of Zelda on the big screens. Oh! It’s a Zelda 25th Anniversary title.
Bringing on Shigaru Miyamoto, creator of Zelda. He’s discussing the importance and emphasis of music in the Zelda games. Using the orchestra to demonstrate musical elements of the game (opening locks, getting items, melody for the fairies fountain). Hahaha! He’s pantomiming Link along with this. They are to release a Zelda title for every Nintendo platform in production, today. Currently discussing Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, launching worldwide by day’s end. Next week, Legend of Zelda 3D for the 3DS. In September for DSi, coop Legend of the Four Swords as free download. Holiday 2011, Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Wii; will use Wii Motion Plus. Special gold colored Wii remote for the game available at launch. Also Ocarina of Time 3D will be on the demonstration floor. Will conduct a worldwide tour of Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary concerts! Also two soundtracks. Ocarina of Time soundtrack will be offered as a gift to early online registrations of Ocarina 3D. Bringing out the top brass behind the Zelda franchise over the years. Gave expression of gratitude and all bowed very deeply before exiting the stage.
Satoro Iwata on next. Discussing the effect of how the DS and Wii expanded the gaming customer base. Now discussing how game systems are defined. Identifying the separation between hardcore gaming and causal. Explains the new platform is intended to blend the two. Objective: to serve every player. Putting more Café info off for later in the show. Doubling back to the rest of this year, emphasizing 3D. Showing footage of new Mario Kart, Starfox and Kid Icarus titles! Also something that looks like Mario is a Ghostbuster; correction, it’s Luigi’s Mansion. All of these are to be 3DS titles.
Reggie Fils-Amie up now. Starfox 64 3D hits in September; has a social leaderboard added to it, among other things. Super Mario 3D; scratch built from the ground up, apparently. Kid Icarus: Uprising; fully 3D battle on the ground and airborne. Kid Icarus also will have live head-to-head fighting and live interactive game cards. Luigi’s Mansion 2; new game with 3D implementation and all new mansion maps. Now running montage of 3DS titles coming out… Two different Resident Evil titles. Pac-Man and Galaga Dimensions. Now shifting to discuss the new browser and eShop on the DS. Virtual Console: a new shop and app to buy and play old titles. Introducing for free 3D Classics Excite Bike. Pokemon to go 3D. Pokedex 3D! Only available on eShop. May be a free title.
Switching topic to the new console (Project Café). Official name: Wii U. Emphasizing word association (‘we’ and ‘you’). New controller is huge! 6.2″ touchscreen, dual cycloid thumbsticks, d-pad and 4 buttons on the face, 2 triggers, 2 shoulder buttons, 2 cameras, accelerometers and gyro. The controller has a lot of the functionality of a 6.2″ tablet PC! Too many functions to list in real time, here. Wii U to be fully backwards compatible. Ooooo, denied! The controller is not a portable device as well, though they acknowledge it has a lot of the necessary characteristics. Makes me wonder if it’ll happen later. The new system is capable of switching from running the game on the TV to the controller screen, allowing regular TV viewing at the same time. Will allow multiple visual outputs to different controllers based on what the player is doing (thinking of mission-specific stuff in a combat game).
New Smash Bros. title coming for 3DS and Wii U jointly.
Now showing demo footage of Wii U graphics. Definitely high-def… It effectively matches or trumps graphical capability of the PS3.
Interesting. No games for Wii U being demoed yet. Only showing prototypes and functionality demos on the floor. Darksiders 2, Tekken, Batman: Arkham City, unspecified EA Sports titles, Alien: Colonial Marines, Ghost: Recon Online, Dirt, Metro: Last Light, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge and others will launch with the console next year!
Bringing EA’s CEO to the stage. Announcing new partnership with Nintendo on the Wii U. Battlefield 3 will make extensive use of the new controller. No more specifics mentioned. But, they did not hesitate to say there were several EA titles coming to the Wii U with heavy use of the new controller’s abilities.
Reggie Fils-Amie came back out to thank everyone for attending and watching online. He notes more Nintendo information will be brought out on the convention floor as the week carries on. Attendees of the presentation will have a shot at getting a jump start on the 3DS titles on the way. Obviously some sort of giveaway.
NOTE: no dollar amount mentioned for the Wii U.
