E3 2010: Thoughts from the Nintendo press conference

As with all Nintendo press conferences, the party doesn't start until Reggie's in the house. And strangely, in recent years, one of the first words he has to utter is "Nokia". After all, we are in the Nokia Theater.

Maybe the Finns should make up a viral video of him saying "Welcome to Nokia..." intercut with their latest phone -although, as no Americans actually knows what Nokia is, it might just end up driving sales at IKEA, it being the only Scandinavian company that seems to register here.

Reggie doesn't care about phones, of course. He's banging on about when technology and game design are balance, that experience is the only way to make sense of it all. And how Nintendo is raising the bar again.

To be honest, it's the sort of thing he says at every Nintendo press conference, closely followed by some sort of skit from Miyamoto, who this time pretends he's doing a video link up, only to burst through a screen onto the stage, when the demo of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword looks to be going wrong.

There's so much wi-fi interference in the room, however, that he can't get some of his demo to work. So much for the balance of technology.

Back to Zelda. Basically, it's still a game about a small boy with a catapult, this time using the Wii Motion Plus and nunchuck for more complex character actions, catapult, bow and arrow, sword and shield, and now including your own personal beetle - used to pick up items - and an Indiana Jones style whip.

"Our goal is to provide new experience for everyone," Reggie says as he introduces the likes of Wii Party, a remake of GoldenEye, and new Metroid.

Then Warren Spector steps up to explain how he's going to confuse American kids with his reimaginating of Mickey Mouse - Disney's Epic Mickey. It looks complex, and fairly noir, too.

The two most interesting looking Wii games are Kirby Epic Yarn - basically LittleBigPlanet in 2D fabric form - and Donkey Kong Country Returns. From longtime Metroid developer Retro Studios, it's a layered take on 2D platforming with 3D items, physics, and a smooth seguing across different levels, plus some neat looking silhouette shaded graphical elements.

In between we also get some DS nuggets. Small beer, really.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is a very Japanese-style RPG with pastel graphics and sprites - old fashioned looking - the graphics are blocky even in cut-scenes, because that's the style hardcore fans still love. It's just about all you can get away with on the DS. The game will be out in the holiday season in the US.

Also highlighted is Dragon Quest IX, which has sold 4.2 million copies in Japan. Reggie bangs the numbers: 120 mini-quests; over 300 monsters; over 900 items to customise and randomly generated content; link up with three players to quest together. One player has played over 140 game hours, "And she still thinks she's just getting started," Reggie booms. Dragon Quest IX is out July 11 in US.

So as the pacing of these events now dictates, the most important stuff is kept until the end. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata sails into view.

"We're not just raising the bar, we're extending it. Nintendo 3DS..." says Reggie. Still, the tag "Nothing between you and the experience" sounds like a condom advert to me.

The device - Nintendo 3DS - is shown. It's complex. There's a 3D depth slider on the side of the screen so you can vary the amount of 3D graphics, or switch it off if you're playing old games.

The 3D is only on the top screen as the touchscreen and 3D don't get on very well, because of fingermarks.

"We also have improved the graphics of the DS," says Iwata but there are no details about how, or mention of backwards compatibility issues. Maybe it's required to run the 3D graphics, but more likely because the original DS is now very old in terms of CPU capacity.

Additionally, the Nintendo 3DS has an analogue 'slider' pad, motion sensor and gyroscope, plus a new camera on the external case, with two lens so you can take 3D photos and view them on your 3DS.

On the showfloor, the 3DS will be showing 3D Hollywood movies, including Disney's Tangled, some from Warner Brothers, and Dreamworks's How to Train a Dragon.

"But gamers care about games."

A joint venture Project Sora was established to create a launch 3DS game.

"We felt such a project deserved to feature an existing character," says Iwata, introducing Kid Icarus Uprising.

Frankly, the character design looks very Square Enix. There a lot of flying elements, as you'd expect with such a title. Kid Icarus looks like a poor man's Link. On the plus side, the game includes what looks like a walking pear.

But what are 3D games really about.

"When 3D is added to games, there is a much better sense of depth, width and scale so it's easier to navigate," Iwata argues.

But the Nintendo 3DS isn't just about 3D. The console will search for wi-fi hotspots and other DSs in sleep mode and download new content when available. The man seated next to me snorts loudly.

"New stages, quests, ranking and ghost data will be downloaded automatically," says Iwata, although exactly how this will work isn't made clear, especially as he says this will happen even when you're outside the range of a wi-fi hotstop.

Back to 3DS launch titles.

Nintendo will have Nintendogs and Cats, plus there are characters from Mario, Donkey Kong, Pikmin, Zelda and Starfox shown.

Third-parties will provide the bulk, however, with 24 companies named including Activision (Guitar Hero), THQ (Saints Row), EA (Madden), Konami (Metal Gear Solid), Warners (Batman), Ubisoft (Assassin's Creed), Square Enix (Kingdom Hearts) and Capcom (Resident Evil)

"What's added is a new dimension," Reggie says. And then it's time to join the demo queue.