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News 
E3 04 News
- Posted By Lander
Clinton, 05.12.2004
After not being able to update yesterday due to a technical difficulty, I'm finally able to convey to you just how much I love Nintendo.
The press conference started with Reggie Fils-Aime, the new Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing (the job I believe was previously held by Howard Lincoln, Peter Main, and the briefly employed Peter MacDougal). Reggie, or as I call him, Mr. Reggie, introduced Nintendo's new ad campaign, "We make games that make games worth playing." It's a little wordy, I know, but just be glad they didn't let John Kerry say it.
They showed video previews of several games, including Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, which features a dark world/bizarro Samus, Resident Evil 4, which features blood and death, and the new StarFox, which features vastly improved graphics over last year's demo.
After Mr. Reggie, they brought out George Harrison, who was still a little nervous talking in front of a huge crowd. He discussed the back-end of GameCube's life and how Nintendo handles making new sales to late-adopters. He also discussed Nintendo's incredible resurgence in sales over the same time a year ago, and took a knock at people who claim the PSP can catch the GBA in sales. He asked if indeed the PS2 could catch the GBA, and displayed some graphs since the handheld came out showing how much GBA has outsold the top console..
Mr. Reggie was dragged back out and he showed some GBA footage, including The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, where Link uses a magical hat to shrink himself and save a micro-society.
Then, after teasing us for months, Nintendo finally showed off the Nintendo DS (not its final name). The system features two screens, the bottom one with touch-sensitivities, a built-in microphone, wireless multiplayer games for up to 16 people within 100 feet, and is Wi-Fi compatible for online, or rather, no-line play around the globe.
Of course, this doesn't really mean much to anyone except Nintendo's competitors, said Nintendo. These are the kind of features and stats people will use to compare the DS to Sony's PSP. Mr. Reggie explained it with a brain analogy. Your left brain sees the DS and wonders about how many bits it can move, how far it can connect wirelessly. Your right brain sees the DS and just wants to have fun. This is when they showed footage of Super Mario 64x4, and Metroid Prime: Hunters. Mario has the same graphics of Mario 64 (actually better character models) and is a demo that lets four players run around the Mario 64 castle and fight over stars. Metroid has graphics that obviously have to be under its GameCube sister, but are so close that on the small screen you don't notice a difference. The Metroid demo is a four-player death match, where you tap the screen where you want to shoot, and drag on the screen where you want to turn.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata brought out a DS and mostly reiterated what had already been said. He did briefly comment on the next generation of consoles, and said Nintendo would be there when it's time. He said he could give us some specs right now, but it's pointless without the games. Then he introduced the show-stealing moment, a new Zelda trailer with realistic graphics. We see Link in a variety of places, I'm sure you've already downloaded the movie and watched it many times. Right as it ended Shigeru Miyamoto appeared in a cloud of smoke with Link's sword and shield. He said a few words about Zelda evolving over the years, and that was the end of the press conference. My only hope is that this new Zelda doesn't take the place of the Wind Waker 2- why not have two Zeldas?
Nintendo made no mention of the GameCube peripheral that is supposed to add new functionality.
Source: Nintendo
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