E3 2011: Everything you need to know about the Nintendo Press Conference

• Then came a third-party showreel, featuring Resident Evil: Mercenaries, Mario %26amp; Sonic at the 2012 Olympic Games, Ace Combat 3D, Tetris, Cave Story 3D, Resident Evil Revelations, Driver Renegade, Pac-Man %26amp; Galaga Dimensions, Tekken 3D (that's a new one to us, I believe) andMetal Gear SolidSnake Eater 3D.
• Downloadable and retail software will get trailers and demos vis the eStore.
• Game Boy and Game Boy Color lead the charge. Classic console titles (some dating from pre-NES days, apparently) will also be offered on Virtual Console. Excite Bike is 27 years old? No way!
• Biggest news for 3DS download according to Reggie was apparently Pokemon's 3D Pokedex. Erm... it's not news to us, we've got it already from the UK eStore. Ah well, it's good. He spoke about the AR marker functionality and how you could share pictures via SD card and then PC with your friends. It won't be available instores - just the eStore. "It's our gift to you," said Reggie.

Above: E3 just wouldn't be the same without Reggie Fils-Aime

• "You might remember how the 'Wii' name started to make perfect sense as you started hearingit as 'Wii'," said Reggie. Hmmm... we were still laughing about it this year, to be honest.
• Welcome to the world of "Wii U".
• WTF?!!! was our collective response as we'd kind of gotten used to the idea of the new machine being called simply 'Nintendo'.
• New controller has a screen, looks like a squarish classic controller with a big black bar at the top. A trailer then rolled. Switch from the TV to the new controller. Very, very nice. It's touch screen and can act as a drawing tablet. You can play board games using the controller alone. Use the controller as a window into the game on the TV for aiming in sports games. Wowser. Lie it on the floor as your golf ball. Use it as a screen to track weight on the Wii Fit board. Slide to throw shurikens as a ninja. Make video calls?!! Amazing stuff.Share from the controller to the TV like Apple's AirPlay (my comparison, not theirs).

Above: Facetime? By any other name. This is Wii U doing video chat

• ZELDA LOOKS FRIKKIN' AMAZING IN HD
• The console will be available next year (2012).
• Iwata then added some explanation while we picked our jaws up off the floor.
• The controller will have rumble, four shoulder buttons, touch screen, microphone, speakers, accelerometers, gyroscope and inward-facing camera. Minds = blown.
• Iwata continued to explain what we'd just seen in the trailer... it was a lot to take in. A lot of amazing stuff.
• Miyamoto is the lead developer (of course) and a video ran showing his talk about the ethos behind the machine - apparently you can see it all at nintendo.com
• Iwata says he spoke to Kid Icarus' developer who suggested Smash Bros should be developed for 3DS and Wii U. He says Kid Icarus is the next game though, so he shouldn't say more about Smash Bros today.
• The crowd were shocked and full of applause.
• Reggie came back and gave us an early example of what the system can do. The video cannot be real-time... can it? A bird flying through Japanese countryside, which changes... this HAS to be 'target footage'. No game looks this good.

Above: If this little bird was being rendered in real-time by the machine, the games are going to look superb

• New Super Mario Bros Mii - that's not a typo. You can watch the action on either screen and play as your Mii alongside Mario.
• Using the Wii U as a shield... Chase Me (where you have a birds-eye view of players trying to catch you in a maze) and galactic fighters - these will all be prototypes (NOT actual games) for the new machine, playable on the showfloor.
• LEGO City Stories in partnership TT games will be published by Nintendo on Wii U. We're already starting to like the name, because it now sounds like 'We' not 'wee'. Game's coming to 3DS and Wii U.
• A video rolls showing devs gushing about the new machine. We are too - it's a deluge.
• Levine is involved.
• Darksiders 2 at launch? (gets a trailer after this video)
• BATMAN ARKHAM CITY!
• Ghost Recon Online! ... erm, well alright....
• DiRT!
• Aliens: Colonial Marines, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Online, Metro Last Light... if these are running on the new machine, they look rock solid. 'Tekken' lets you draw on Jin's face. Lolzorz. Oh, but it's like Forza's decal editing. Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. This is a great line-up. Nintendo is cruising into first place again before the rest are even at the startline. It's phenomenal.
• "It can satisfy all tastes" said Iwata. He's not wrong.

Above: Again, like Apple's iPad with AirPlay, Wii U can beam photos and videos back to the console to the TV

• CEO of EA, John Riccitiello came to the stage next. He's never been on an E3 stage before with Nintendo. He said the console provides "brilliant HD graphics". "Imagine playing football which takes all of that data, all of that play calling, off the TV screen". The Frostbite engine works on it (presumably the latest one). "Open online functionality".
• "Changing games from a thing that you buy to a place that you go". He said he can't wait to see EA games on this new system... and neither can we.
• Reggie came back out and explained how DS changed gaming. Then Wii changed gaming. Last year we saw how glasses-free 3D changes gaming... now what we've seen of Wii U is 'just the beginning'.
• Nintendo will be showing off the controller, but we still haven't seen the system itself.
• He thanked eveyone for attending and left, after saying 'let the exploration begin'.

And then it was all over, leaving us collectively gobsmacked. Were you?Let us know in the comments.

07 Jun, 2011