E3 2011 is only a few hours away from opening its doors at the LA Convention Center. But before that happens, Nintendo is holding its pre-E3 press conferene at the LA Live concert arena next door. This is the big one where Nintendo will finally reveal the first official concrete details of its next generation game console. Are the rumors true? We will be covering the event via the live blog so keep checking the news posts for updates.
The press conference begins with a a full live orchestra playing and a trailer showing off various older Zelda. The Legend of Zelda celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The next game in the series, as previously announced, is Skyward Sword for the Wii. Starting today Link"s Awakening will be available for download on the Nintendo eShop. Next weekend, The Legend of Zelda 3D will be released for the Nintendo 3DS. The Legend of Zelda Four Swords will be released for DS Ware.
A gold colored Wii controller will be released when Skyward Sword is released for the Wii.
A concert series playing music from the Zelda games will be held in various regions around the world this fall. Two music CDs will be released including one based on the concerts. More Zelda events will also be held.
The president of Nintendo is on stage. He talks about how gamers have changed in what they play and how they play. Nintendo"s new platform, he claims, will have a "deeper" and "wider" game experience.
However, the company is holding off on details of the console until later in the press conference. First up, Mario Kart and StarFox videos are shown along with Super Mario Bros. and Kid Icarus. Luigi"s Mansion is also shown.
Nintendo of America"s head Reggie File-Aime is on the stage talking about Nintendo 3DS. All of the videos showcase upcoming 3DS games. They start with Mario Kart. It looks, well, like Mario Kart should. The video shows the kart racers driving under water and customizing their vehicles. Its due out in holiday 2011.
Next is StarFox for the 3DS which will support turning the console for moving the ships. 3DS" cameras will show players on screen in multiplayer. It"s due out in September.
Super Mario 3D is next. It"s looking like it will be a fun 3D platformer title. It"s due out before the end of 2011.
Kid Icarus is up at bat. The long awaited return of the series is an action-pack arcade title. There will also be support for 3v3 multiplayer. Kid Icarus Uprising is due out later in 2011.
Finally its Luigi"s Mansion 2"s debut. The sequel to the game that launched the GameCiube franchise has Luigi sucking up ghosts again. No release date was announced.
Now comes the third party 3DS games. Two Resident Evil games, Tekken 3D, Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D and more are shown. Donwloadable games are coming including classic Game Boy and other titles, remastered in 3D. Also Pokeman in 3D is coming. You can put a Pokeman images and superimpose them into real world images.
He is now talking about the new Nintendo console. The console is called.. WiiU.
The controller does indeed come with a touch screen where players can play separate games along with drawing on a stylus.
You can set the controller up to make it look like a golf tee and use the regular Wii controller to swing and hit it.
We see two way video chat. We see images from the controller being "pushed" into the TV with a touch of a finger.
The screen is 6.2 inches. It has two circle on top of either side along with four buttons on the right and a control pad on the left. It has four shoulder buttons, two on each side. It has a front facing camera. The images on the touch screen are generated by using the WiiU console.
Smash Bros has been announced for 3DS and WiiU. They will work together in some way but no other details were announced.
They will be showing off interactive demos of the WiiU next week. One showed off a bird. flying around. Another uses the WiiU cointroller as a shield for attacks that come at yioul.
The Lego City Stories will be an open world game exclusive to 3DS and WiiU.
Various developers and publishers talk about how cool the WiiU is to work with.
Darksiders II, Batman Arkham City, Aliens Colonial Marines and more have been announced for WiiU.
EA CEO is on stage talking about how happy they are with the WiiU.
The press conference is about to end. Nintendo is talking about four platforms. DS, 3DS, Wii and WiiU.
It"s over; the controller was shown but not the WiiU console itself. It will be interesting to see how that will be played off by Nintendo.
E3 2011 is just 90 minutes or so from opening its doors. We will be inside the LA Convention Center soon.
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