By Michael Lafferty
GameZone.com
On the first day of E3, Nintendo held a press conference to give the media an idea of what was to come for the video-game giant. Of course, paramount to the information dispensed was news of the next iteration in Nintendo’s handheld console, the Nintendo 3DS.
The last event of the first day at the Los Angeles Convention Center was an informal roundtable with Nintendo developers, and the topic was – you guessed it – the Nintendo 3DS.
The event itself offered a bit more information than the rough cut of the morning’s event, keying in on a couple of the upcoming titles and answering a few questions that were more about the software than the hardware. But it was a time to kick back, relax a little and talk to key developers about their vision for the handheld.
And it began with legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto. His comments were often a playful interplay with the media, carrying a lighthearted and humorous tone and though he didn’t actually say all that much, or reveal any secrets, the overall atmosphere was much more comfortable in tone.
There was even a demo of one of the re-imagined games coming to the 3DS – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
“Three years when we first started to work on the 3DS I wanted to revisit the Ocarina of Time with the 3D effects,” Miyamoto said.
Miyamoto also recalled another game that was merely a demo back when the original DS was being shown on the floor at E3, a submarine game called Steel Diver.
“When we first showed that game six years ago it was a tech demo for the original DS,” Miyamoto said. “It was pretty far along on the DS but once we got those 3D effects in … it felt very good so we decided to switch over to that platform.”
“As soon as we started working on the 3DS I decided I wanted to have a Star Fox game,” he continued.
“Of course, if all we were to do was to take these games and port them over to the 3DS, all you would have is old games on a new platform.,” he said.
So instead of merely porting older games to the new platform, new titles are in development.
Hideki Konno, producer of Nintendogs, was also part of the discussion and talked about being promoted from a software producer to working on the 3DS itself. “I was one of the guys that was always complaining about all the problems I was running into with hardware. Now I have a better understanding of the job they did.”
The talk wove around to a new project that will release for the 3DS – Nintendogs + Cats.
“I hoped to keep this title safe for E3 and announce it here“ Konno said. “Unfortunately, Mr. Miyamoto announced he got a cat.”
Miyamoto interjected that “cats are kind of like girls, if they come and talk to you, it’s great, but if you go and try to talk to them, it doesn’t go so great.”
The last game on the agenda, a title for the Wii, which is powered by Wii MotionPlus technology, was The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Miyamoto said the series is particularly attractive because the core elements are fun. While the gameplay appeared quite complete, the panel said there is still development to do and they couldn’t promise that the game would be ready by the end of the year.
Miyamoto did confirm that a Pikman was being made for the Wii, but would not elaborate
