Nintendo Press Conference Report: Nintendo DS, Gameboy Micro and... Revolution Presen

Nintendo Press Conference has just ended in at LA E3. Big N kicked things off with the portable side of things, where he is still leader, but with the breath of Sony in its back...

Starting off with some Nintendo DS talk, the Kyoto based company re-adjusted its media communication strategy, by re-centering its third-pillar as more than a gaming device: it's a creation and interactivity tool "expanding the universe of gamers". Reginald Fils-Aime has been hyping Electroplankton along with a famous DJ, then conceptual Virtual Puppet Sim' Nintendogs -interestingly presented by a woman, couple of minutes after Reggie stated that the "online games" nowadays were mostly all macho- before he finally went into praising the free wireless online gaming capabilities of the latest Nintendo station, announcing Mario Kart DS to be Wi-Fi playable tomorrow live at E3. Nintendo also confirmed that getting online with NDS will be cost-free, no subscriptions, no installation fee, no nothing, except a Wi-Fi Hot Spot near you.

Then, Reggie took a small iPod-like thingy out of his jacket and showed to the crowd what's now to be called GameBoy MICRO. The name comes from the extremely reduced dimensions and weight (3 times lighter than iPod!). It plays GBA games and is not meant at replacing the SP, which will stay in production and available on store shelves worldwide. Design will be customizable with a complete array of faceplates to be introduced along the little gadget. It's coming this fall, expanding further the handheld line-up of Nintendo.

<img src="http://image.lik-sang.com/content/revolution/gameboy-micro.jpg">

If Nintendo started their presentation with the Nintendo DS and the Gameboy Micro rather than going straight to the point... it's probably because the audience wouldn't have paid enough attention otherwise. Cause the main course still had to be served: RE-VO-LU-TI-ON! That's right, the nextgen home entertainment system made it to the show, Iwata-san holding it in his right hand in front of a cheering crowd. Nintendo did not reveal the mysterious controller, but underlined again it would change gameplay (and the face of earth?) forever. Satoru Iwata did not spend too much time into tech specs, numbers and horsepower condiderations, still stating that the graphics would make you say "wow" and that IBM and ATI are making sure the system would be competitive. But he insisted that gaming is not only about the technology, Nintendo clearly going for an alternate strategy as competing console manufacturers, as it was already hinted at the Nintendo DS presentation last year. Satoru Iwata said that Miyamoto (father of Mario and Zelda) was already working on a complete new revolutionary software creation for the console, that this nextgen system would be Wi-Fi compatible and would have at least two key Wi-Fi compatible megahits at launch. He also stressed that Nintendo Revolution is supposed to be the most affordable nextgen platform to work with from a developer point of view, with major cuts in cost due to time saves and ease of use. Certainly, big N has not yet given up on third-party publishers support. They stated clearly that Revolution would probably be the best system on which to develop and give a try to new creative and innovative ideas. Finally, the Revolution will be an all-in-one box, allowing you to simply play all retro titles ever created on any Nintendo branded living room system. From Famicom to Super NES, N64 and GameCube! Most of the classics will be available for download, a media-rights content managing software being integrated in the system for this purpose.

The dessert was finally the new Zelda GameCube game, Twilight Princess, with new in-game video footage displayed on the giant screen, Super Mario Strikers (soccer!) and some more games to make it to GameCube within this year (more coverage on these while the show goes on).