E3 2004: Nintendo Conference: Full Report

Nintendo seemed like a reformed company today, as Nintendo DS, a grown-up Zelda, and next-generation chatter thrilled the Hollywood conference. Full report.

Nintendo returned to the Hollywood and Highland Complex this year for its annual Pre-E3 Briefing, an event that will be remembered this year as the official launch of Nintendo's seriously exciting new portable gaming system, Nintendo DS, along with the debut of the Zelda that all Nintendo fans have really craved all this time.

Executive VP of sales and marketing, Reginald Fils-Aime

"Nintendo makes games that are worth playing", was the message of the video sequence that kicked off Nintendo's conference today. The shortest of the three firstparty conferences, and perhaps the most atmospheric thanks to the ocean of Nintendo fans permitted entry into the trade only briefing every single year, the conference was mercifully compact but did not fail to deliver on details that we have all been waiting a long time for.

The new Zelda was the big surprise of the event.
Click here for our first impressions.

After the initial video sequence, Nintendo cut to the chase. Executive VP of sales and marketing, Reginald Fils-Aime, entered the stage and stated: "My name is Regie. I'm about kickin' ass, I'm about taking names, and we're about making games." A highly impressive trailer for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes ensued. It reveals mouth-watering four player split screen play, gorgeous Samus cut-scenes, and best, a release date of November.

George Harrison was less than convincing, but by the end of the conference, that didn't really matter.

"We like games with big stars and big explosions," he continued, before a fantastic Star Fox 2 trailer kicked in. "The Star Fox Team - Back With A Vengeance" announces the trailer, while showing some seriously intense shooting action in all kinds of varied styles and environments - yet another four player split screen mode, and again, a release date this November.

"And we like games so scary, they keep you up at night". No prizes were offered for guessing that Resident Evil 4 followed, looking utterly remarkable and frankly, the immediate 'game of the event' from a visual standpoint. New scenes, characters and sequences featured in the updated Resident Evil 4 trailer, which will be included in our imminent video coverage blowout.

"It's a new day for me, and a new day for Nintendo. So let's get a couple of things straight right off the bat. Part of my job is to make you, the game experts, to have fun. At the same time, I understand if you're totally hip, Nintendo isn't your only choice for gaming... there are gamers out there who aren't as knowledgeable as you, who aren't as old as you, who don't have your tastes... It's Nintendo's job to make sure that we satisfy all the gamers, and to make sure that we do it better than out competition."

Reg went on to talk down the competition, complaining that Sony just wants you to do everything using their hardware and their memory sticks, while Microsoft "doesn't care what you do, as long as you do it on their operating system." Whereas Nintendo, if course, is "all about the games."

So it's all going well so far. Enter George Harrison, SVP of Marketing and Corporate Communications. Our George doesn't have the easiest job in the world right now, but what followed was a series of statements and statistics that were frankly a little hard to believe. First he claimed that Nintendo - and only Nintendo - is growing the market, according to Nintendo's own research of course. He illustrated with a graph that, should you remove Nintendo from the equation, the growth of the market is 'negative'. "Without Nintendo, there would be no growth," he claimed. Whatever you need us to believe for us to see new games, buddy.

More believable, if not obvious, were the latest competitive software attach ratios being claimed, and the assertion that Nintendo's value proposition to consumers increases sales.

George started to discuss the software line-up that will continue to provide Nintendo customers with fun experiences. Metroid Prime 2, Resident Evil 4 and Star Fox were positioned as the hardcore titles, while games like Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, Paper Mario 2 and Advance Wars Under Fire all have "huge mass-market appeal".

The Game Boy franchise was next on George's schedule, initially with some Pokémon chatter revolving around the fact that Fire Red and Leaf Green sold 2.5 million copies in less than 15 weeks. He discussed the new GBA Video packs and revealed that there have been over two million orders already, while the "Classic NES" GBA Series continues to tantalise.

George immediately sought to counter the imminent PSP attack before it even started: "There is no doubt in our minds that PSP will have some initial appeal for exactly the demographic of this audience here. But by the time it rolls out next Spring, 25 million Americans will have already bought the Game Boy Advance. If you're asking whether or not PSP can catch GBA, maybe we should first ask whether PS2 can catch GBA!" His numbers showed that PS2 had apparently sold 20.5 million, compared to GBA's 21 million.

All this GBA talk was obviously leading up to the big Nintendo DS revelations. First, a sequence was played of game retail owners who'd been paid to say that their customers keep asking for Nintendo DS. But then Reg came back on stage, pulled a DS out of his jacket and revealed it for the first time - at least, to those who hadn't already seen it first thing this morning in the authority for gaming information, USA Today. High-ranking representatives from all the major publishers then spoke about their genuine excitement about making content for DS.

Nintendo refused to talk specs with DS because they don't matter. "Go down a new road to places you've never seen before - not just a little faster down the same road you use every day."

We need details. Each screen can display both 2D and 3D graphics, opening up a whole world of possibilities for developers. A brief demonstration of a game known as Super Mario 64X4 followed, showing the traditional N64 style view on the top screen, and a top-down map style view on the bottom screen. Then a brand new Metroid game for Nintendo DS was revealed, similarly offering the map / 3D combo. Excitingly, it was announced that both the Mario demo and Metroid DS will be playable at the show tomorrow, to the delight of the Nintendo fans present at the conference.

But the new list of innovations doesn't end there. Touch-screen functionality was confirmed, with one possible use for the function being the ability to "shoot just by tapping the screen" in Metroid DS, a curious new way to play if ever there was one.

In addition, the truly intriguing hardware boasts voice recognition, with Reg suggesting you will be able to play some titles simply by using your voice - thanks to the built in microphone. Wireless capability allows up to 16 people to play and communicate together in a local area, up to 100ft apart, forming what Reg calls an "electric playgrounds".

Best of all, Reg announced: "What if your friend is more than a few feet away? Say, a few time zones away? No problem!" The Wi-Fi capability, said Reg, is "beyond online - it's no line!" And to top it all off, the unit is backwards compatible with all GBA games, an instant back catalogue of thousands of titles. Not so cocky now, are you Mr Sony?

The touch screen could make accessing items, moving characters or navigating menus as easy as a tap or drag on the screen. Voice recognition could let players simply tell the game what they want it to do. Chat software will let users transmit text messages, handwriting and even drawings to one another. And wireless functions could link players in the same room - or across the country.

It got better - the Nintendo DS is "targeted" to come to the market "with a new name and an affordable price" this year in Japan and North America, and - happy days - next year in Europe and PAL territories.

Reg welcomed Satoru Iwata on stage. Mr Iwata was visibly more confident and relaxed this year. He gave the impression of a man in control of his game, compared to a man who appeared ever so slightly perplexed by the scale of the mountain in front of him at last year's conference.

Iwata said how proud the company is of all its past innovations. "But", he said, "I think we are most proud of this" - holding a Nintendo DS unit in the air. "Nintendo DS is different," he enthused.

Iwata moved on to what we call N5. "Different also defines our approach to our next home system. It won't simply be new or include new technologies. Better technology is good, but not enough... today's consoles already offer fairly realistic expressions so simply beefing up the graphics will not let most of us see a difference. So what should a new machine do? Much more. An unprecedented gameplay experience. Something no other machine has delivered before."

"The definition for a new machine must be different. I want you to know that Nintendo is working on our next system and that system will create a gaming revolution."

"I could give you our technical specs - I believe you'd like that - but I won't, for a simple reason: they really don't matter." One American whooped at this point with impeccable timing and rapturous applause followed. "The time when horsepower alone made all the difference is over." Go Iwata!

Finally, Reg returned to stage to say, "before you leave I'd like you to step inside one more world for Nintendo GameCube." The trailer for a new, grown-up Zelda title followed. It's not Wind Waker 2 - it's a brand new Zelda title that all the fans, ourselves included, actually want. The spectacular trailer shows off an adult Link in possibly the most gorgeous and epic environments yet seen on the platform. And as it finished, a close up of Link cross faded into a live picture of Miyamoto, who had just appeared on stage, holding Link's sword and shield. He kept things pretty short and sweet: "In order to grow, Link must not stand still, and neither can I!" We'll be bringing you a whole lot more on The Legend of Zelda over the next few days and months.

All things considered, this was a spectacular display from Nintendo. A handful of fudgey numbers from George Harrison quickly paled into insignificance when the confident Kyoto giant began discussing the innovations of Nintendo DS, teasing with its software line-up, and when Mr Iwata began teasing about the 'unimaginable' next console with gripping conviction. This is a different Nintendo to the openly "defeated empire" that was on show last year. And the future for gaming just got a little bit more exciting.

Ah yes - and it doesn't take a genius to work out that the real holy grail for Nintendo fans - Mario 128 - has to be an N5 launch title now. We expect to see the new console -now dubbed Revolution - and the game this time next year.

Adam Doree
Director, Kikizo.com